Ben Harnwell 
In the Crafting Worlds Series, we interview game designers to peek behind the curtain and discover how they create the wonderful worlds we get to experience and play in. In this edition, we chatted with Justin Halliday, the designer behind Hero Forge Games. His portfolio includes Hero Kids, Onyx Sky, Forge Engine, and Heroes Against Darkness.
Justin writes, creates the rulesets, and self-publishes his games. He says he does everything except the artwork—well, you can’t do it all, can you?
In this article, we explore Justin’s most recent addition to the Hero Kids range, Brecken Vale Gazetteer. We delve into the origins of Hero Kids and how the world has grown, despite his admitted lack of marketing and promotion.
Why did you create the Hero Kids RPG?
I wanted to play an RPG with my children, this was 10 or 11 years ago, and they were pretty young. I designed Hero Kids for children aged from around 5 up to 10, after which they could transition to the heavier more complex games like Dungeons and Dragons.
I had a simple goal – create something that was easy to pick up the rules and play but had the depth to create relatable stories for kids to play.
You have recently updated the Hero Kids books, what keeps you going?
The players. People keep buying the books and that means I feel obligated to keep making the game better.
I have written a range of adventures as well as the Monster Compendium, which was a great way to capture all the various monsters and enemies from the various adventures and campaigns.
I have also created a new setting with Hero Kids Space Expansion, moving into Sci Fi.
Most recently I have pulled together some of the threads I’ve created in the adventures and within the hooks in the Monster Compendium and created the Brecken Vale Gazetteer.
I’ll come back to the Gazetteer, but I want to explore what you said about being obligated to write more, what does that mean?
The beauty of Hero Kids is that it’s an entry to RPGs, a pathway to other more complex games. The beauty of that means that my audience, families with kids aged from 5 to 10, are always coming through.
Parents are looking for ways to introduce their kids to roleplaying games, and while there are alternatives, they seem to love buying Hero Kids. Even though I am not good at marketing and really haven’t put much effort into marketing for a very long time.
While people are spending money on my game, I want to improve it and provide new material.
For instance, we recently updated everything with full colour, anyone who has bought a PDF in the past gets the new version, as well as any new buyers. As I add new content, old customers get that new content for free.
I think I have created a rod for my old back with the success of Hero Kids. I can’t just stop. I think it’s important to support those that have bought the game and create new material for new players.
Which, I guess, is a good segue into the Gazetteer, what is it exactly?
It’s pulls together a lot of content that I have created in the adventures and the Monster Compendium. Hero Kids has grown since I first wrote it.
The adventures took place in the small town, the first adventure was a very trope-filled battle with giant rats in the cellar. It was very confined.
I have since expanded the world to only the rest of the Brecken Vale but beyond – I needed a new book to capture the expanding world and put some of the adventures I had written into a place in that world.
Along with new maps and places it includes new characters, cultures, lineages and factions. I’ve prepared new encounters, campaigns and adventure hooks for DMs to create their own stories.
You are world building out of the pieces you seeded in your other works.
Yes! I had to make it all fit and the best way was in the form of the Gazetteer, I’d pretend I had it all planned by really it just worked out.
I can see that! Does this mean you have a template for building more of the world? Telling more stories through the adventures?
I have so many more adventures to write. I said before I made a rod for my own back, well I have set up many more adventures both in other adventures, additional parts or chapters, as well as the hooks not only in the Gazetteer but in the Monster Compendium and other material.
I have a lot of work to do!
Adding to that you do most of the work yourself, the writing I mean.
Yes, I do all the writing and get artists to do the artwork and things I am no good at!
It’s great to have a reliable artist who knows the style and world and can create what I put down in words into art. It’s even better now we have made all the books full colour.
You have talked to me before about your lack of marketing of Hero Kids. What do you mean by that?
It is amazing that despite me really never doing much marketing or promotion of Hero Kids it has become so popular. I don’t travel overseas, I don’t like to fly, so I don’t do the usual conventions and shows. I’ve not even taken a stand at PAX in Melbourne.
The one thing I can think of, aside from the continuous growth of players as children come of age for this, is the players that do play, spread the word. They are the champions of the game and get new players, whether that’s kids or parents, or older siblings.
For instance, Hero Kids is now in 11 languages. That’s not me, I can’t write in another language, that’s players who have taken the time to translate the game. I work with them and provide all the material they need, and in return they get a percentage of the sales.
Without them I would never have the resources or skill to translate the game and materials.
To put it simply, the game exists and continues to exist because of the players.
Thanks so much Justin, all the best with the next round of games to come out.
You can buy Hero Kids and all of the Hero Forge Games library at DriveThru RPG.
Please consider supporting the author through his “Buy me a Coffee” page, where you can also listen to an interview with Justin from 2019.
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