Chimera Hearts

Who are we?

Chimera Hearts is a volunteer network of tabletop roleplaying designers, artists, journalists, organizers, and hobbyists who work together towards a series of common goals, all related to the health & longevity of TTRPGs as a medium, a hobby, and an industry.

Why Chimera Hearts?

When first conceived, this project was about slaying a hydra: there were many heads to deal with, all attached to a truly daunting problem. As we refined our approach and the problems, we pivoted to a new monster. The chimera fits the many headed image that the hydra did, while also tying in the amalgamation of different perspectives and approaches that this project will need to be successful.

The second part of the name comes from the term “fantasy heartbreaker”. This is a term for fantasy tabletop role-playing games that attempt to fix the problems inherent in certain well-known fantasy games and end up with a slew of their own issues instead; not least a lack of ability to compete with the market behemoths. It’s something of a reminder of both the hubris of the undertaking and the pitfalls to avoid in our projects.

Combining the two, we landed on Chimera Hearts!

What are our goals?

We want to help the hobby and industry of tabletop roleplaying flourish beyond the bounds of D&D. There are a few areas we want to focus on:

Cognitive Frontload

It takes more effort to find and learn a new game than many are willing to invest. How do we make it easier to get into indie games, or learn them?

Insular Communities

TTRPG communities tend towards cliques gathered around a particular game or platform, and real-world communities are often isolated from online ones. How do we make a more interconnected and open community that’s easy to join?

Mainstream-Indie Divide

The TTRPG audience is largely split between two disconnected extremes: dedicated D&D enthusiasts, and dedicated indie game enthusiasts, with little in-between, and a lot more points of entry for the former group. How can we encourage casual engagement with indie RPGs?

Supply & Demand

There are so many TTRPGs released that it is difficult to find the games that will most appeal to a particular person. How can we make it easier for players to find the games they will most want to play, and how can we make it easier for designers to get their games in front of the right people?

These categories are broad, and will inevitably have overlap! We encourage those working towards goals within a particular category to consider the impact their project might have on other categories, and work together with others when there's overlap!

What can I do?

Join in!

Chimera Hearts aims to push for positive change throughout the TTRPG community, and to that end we've created a Discord server to serve as a jumping in point to find and develop projects to work towards our goals. We've also created a Bluesky account you can follow for updates and news of other projects that match our ethos.

You don't need to join the Discord server to be a part of the project, just spread the word! There are many who have been working towards parallel goals for longer than the initiative has existed! If you're working on something that's related to our aims, let us know on Bluesky with the #chimerahearts tag or by tagging @chimerahearts.com.