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# Foreword

Welcome, dear reader. I hope you will enjoy the book you have just opened, and that it will give you many hours of exiting gaming.

It has been my design goal to make a world where every country, every place is so inspiring that I could write a book about just that place. However, I won't write those books. I leave those stories for you and your players to create.

Now, I'm just an observer, telling this world as I see it. Another observer could see something else. One or the other, or both, maybe neither could be the truth. You decide what is true.

This is your world now. Use it as is, change it, remake it, make it the way you want it. You have the power.

## Disclaimer

Heroica does use inspiration from real history, real nations and real ethnic groups. Sometimes this inspiration is factual, sometimes it's based on untrue stereotypes, but it is only included because it made for interesting roleplaying fuel, and it in no way reflects back on anything in the real world, nor is it a statement about the real world.

Likewise, there are almost no pure "bad guy races" or "evil races", and the few that exist are entirely mythological. In general, the goodness or badness of people is based on their actions, not their ethnicity. Their victims, however, may be selected based on ethnicity.

Heroica is a rough world. Everywhere, someone is a victim, and everyone is a victim somewhere. It does contain a lot which is considered bad by any civilized standard. Slavery, prejudice, oppression, violence as entertainment and so on. This is to create a world with conflicts, where there are challenges to overcome and bad stuff to fight against. Utopia is not a place of excitement and adventure. Once again, this does not reflect back on the real world. If women can't be knights in some place, or shamans can't be men in another place, or non-humans will be seen as things which are only fit to fight in the arena, or poor villages are seen as a place to raid for slaves, it's not because it's the way it should be. It is because that's the way it currently is, and it creates problems which the players need to solve, issues which the players may need to fix.

So, it's a rough, unfair and cruel world. You can make it better. Are you up to the challenge? Will you be the hero?

## Dark Themes

Dark themes and mature subjects may not be for everyone. You choose how to handle them, but have a plan for it, and communicate that plan to your players. Talk with your players about what they can expect, and make it clear that if they feel uncomfortable, they should say so. Respect your players.

## Design Goals

Heroica is not the typical "monster bashing dungeon run" world. The enemies you will face are people, not monsters. It's social systems, not dungeons. Intrigue, charm, subterfuge and cleverness will be as important as your ability to swing a sword.

## A Note on Wording

The word "people" here is used to denote any intelligent race, not just humans, or even humanoids. If you can talk to them, they are people.

## A Note on AI

The writing of Heroica was assisted by AI, with the AI and the author alternating in roles as editor and writer, working with the AI as a creative partner and someone to bounce ideas off, and cross-pollinate ideas with.

Likewise, the images are generated by AI. The author has no talent whatsoever for that craft, so the alternative would have been no images, as paying an artist isn't an option for a free product.

Without AI, this would have been a weaker product, if it would have been made at all. This is the simple truth, AI is an enabling tool, which, when used well, is extremely helpful.

When you read, let the result talk, without being influenced by who wrote it.

## Inspiration

No garden grows without seeds, and that goes for the creative garden as well. I'd like to thank some people who has, without knowing it, given me some of those seeds, which I have then cross pollinated, mutated and turned into something else. But, without those seeds to start with, this garden would be barren.

In no particular order:

- Johan Rising
- Dan Simmons
- Iain M Banks
- John Norman
- Stephen R Donaldson
- Joseph Conrad
- Clive Barker
- David Cronenberg
- Terry Pratchett
- Connie Willis
- Ursula K Leguin
- Roger Zelazny
- Karel Čapek
- Sir Richard F Burton
- Pat Mills
- T E Lawrence
- Frank Herbert
- Neal Stephenson
- Storm Constantine
- Pierre Christin & Jean-Claude Mézières
- Akira Kurosawa
- Gene Wolfe
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Kurt Weill
- Joseph Heller

It's easy to build high when you stand on the shoulders of giants.

## Bonus content

On some pages, there will be links to bonus content. The main types of bonus content are:

- Author's notes. These are my ramblings on why I did things the way I did, and where I was inspired.
- AI. Here are AI prompts for some of the recurring characters. This means you can use the characters in your own images and stories, or even make Otto the Dwarf porn, if that is your cup of tea. When you prompt the AI image generator (I used Sora), describe your scene using the names, then add the character descriptions below. Sometimes, it will take many tries to get it right, but it works.
- Cut content. Stuff that is good, but was not included because there was too much good stuff. Flavor stories where I already hade several, stuff like that.

You can get enjoyment of this game world without ever even looking at the bonus content, but you might also find something useful. It's optional.

## Practical Things

Headers can be clicked to be collapsed (hidden) or expanded (shown). At the top of each page are also links to expand or collapse all headers. There are hotkeys assigned to the expand all (x) and collapse all (c).

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