LIONHEART is the rebirth of an RPG called The Tower that I was developing nearly a decade and a half ago from this writing, in 2002, when I was only 16 years old. I have learned an unbelievably huge amount about every aspect of game design since then. Prompted equally by my acquisition of the High Fantasy Resource Packs from Pioneer Valley Games and by the Halloween 2014 Revive The Dead Event here on RMN, I have decided to revisit that world, that story, and those characters fourteen years after they were abandoned, to finish, knowing what I know now, that which was left unfinished back then.

Lionheart is a story-driven dark fantasy RPG set in the World of Chimer. As a plainly stated a priori disclosure, it is notably inspired by, in no particular order: Dungeons & Dragons (the tabletop game), The Elder Scrolls, Vagrant Story, and the Souls series of games (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, et al). If you find elements of, similarities to or references to these properties in the game itself and its associated world-building (and you won't have to look terribly hard to find them), those are almost certainly included as an intentional homage.

Brief Plot Synopsis

"Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do?"

For over a thousand years, the Church of Iocus has been the dominant cultural and political power in the Kingdom of Tetral, which in turn is the largest, most populous, and most powerful nation in the known world. Church and State in Tetral are united in the persecution of sorcerers and arcanists. The pursuit of arcane magick is proscribed by the Church's doctrines as evil and blasphemous. Practitioners of the 'Black Arts' are harshly punished by the Church's Inquisitors and Templars.

In the mind of one Church Seer, Morigoth the White, purging the Black Arts from the homeland is not enough. Plans for a new Crusade are forming. A Crusade the likes of which the world has never seen, which will send the might of the Church's Templars far to the north, to purify and cleanse with fire a most sinful kingdom.

A Crusade into the blighted wastelands of the nightmare kingdom of Nod-Gamorra. A land stalked by vampires, wights and worse. The land of a mage-lord--The Necromancer Lord Thanatos--who trafficks with demons. A benighted land where Necromancy is a way of "life". The stage is set for a decisive battle between "Good" and "Evil" to begin. Or so it would seem...

Initially, the player will take control of Sir Garinol DuCourt, the Paladin chosen to lead this glorious crusade into the heart of darkness. As the game progresses, however, different characters will become playable, allowing the unfolding battle to be seen from new and different perspectives.

NOTE
The Current Build (Version 0.01, 10/30/2014) was put together under extreme "MAXIMUM RUSH" conditions. It probably has all kinds of bugs. I stayed up until 5AM trying to stamp out the worst of them, i.e. the fatal ones, and I *think* I got all of those. But don't be surprised if you run into weird glitches, pass-ability errors, and whatnot. There just was not time to do the level of quality control I wanted on this build without going totally insane.