This is the two hundred twentieth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred twentieth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is drafting us into a superhero team to combat evil. It’s Glitter Hearts, by Greg L (AKA Greg Leatherman), and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A magical transforming heroes RPG.

This is a concise and highly accurate tagline.

Glitter Hearts is a tabletop role-playing game, which means the usual caveat applies: I lack the time to organize actual play groups every time one of these comes up in Scratching That Itch, so I have simply read through the book and offer my thoughts on it here. In this case, the book is a gorgeous 135-page PDF replete with fancy formatting and full-color illustrations, made possible through Kickstarter funding. It describes a game that casts players as superheroes, heavily inspired by magical girl (or magical boy) shows such as Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, Cute High Earth Defense Club, and Glitter Force. Player characters have both an everyday identity and a super-powered Magical Archetype, into which they transform when the need arises. Both of these are important during play, since the rules emphasize teamwork and relationships between players and non-player characters, as well as solving problems without violence when possible. The first two moves described in the book are “We Can Do this Together!” and “Touch Their Heart”.

Ah yes, the moves. Glitter Hearts is a Powered by the Apocalypse game, a system that has underpinned (or inspired) several other games in this series so far. That’s because it’s highly adaptable, and suitable for games focused on narrative. Its concept of “moves”, as the actions players take, can be anything: fighting, sure, but also convincing someone, or looking around, or dealing with self-doubt. Anything that poses some degree of challenge can be resolved by assigning it to an appropriate move and resolving the dice roll, including various bonuses based on a character’s aptitudes and their current situation. Best of all, the results actively help steer the story: roll well, and a success may come with an additional boon, which may not be what players expected. Or perhaps the move was a partial success, achieving the player’s goal but with some unintended consequence that can send the story in a new direction. Even outright failure is narratively interesting, requiring some terrible consequence that can define a character’s story arc. Plus, it grants experience points for the player’s trouble. Failure is how one learns, after all.

In Glitter Hearts, the moves serve the lighthearted and optimistic tone of the shows that inspire it. This is perhaps best exemplified by the “Touch Their Heart” move. This isn’t simply about convincing someone to do something; that falls under the “Convince Someone” move. No, touching someone’s heart is different. It’s about changing their core beliefs and how they see the world. It’s for those climactic moments when the heroes tell the villain that they’re wrong, that humanity deserves to live, that there is hope after all. Maybe their attempt fails, and the “CLASH!” move (which governs fights) comes into play. But maybe it succeeds! Maybe, after a whole lot of investigations, and dealing with the villain’s minions, the heroes are able to convince the villain to end their nefarious plans. Or maybe it’s a partial success, revealing a twist that changes everything.

Other moves in Glitter Hearts are similarly suited to these kinds of magical girl stories, emphasizing teamwork, protecting others, and remaining vigilant in the face of danger or uncertainty. But Greg Leatherman offers far more than just a set of moves to guide players. There are principles to follow for effective play, and a whopping 32-page section about serving as GM for the game. There are numerous examples of moves, characters, and events peppered throughout the book to help explain key concepts, some of which tell a story of their own about an evil lunch lady and her mind-controlling stew. And there’s an in-depth guide for creating characters. Both everyday identities and magical personas have set archetypes of pick from, each with some special moves that players can select. Then there are characters’ magical connections, which can be elemental (e.g. fire, air), or emotional (e.g. anger, hope), once again offering a selection of special moves to choose from. Last, but not least, is the character’s transformation. What form do they take when they change from their everyday persona into their magical one? How does the transformation happen? Every transformation comes with some sort of drawback, so transformations are always dramatic moments in the game.

All of this gives players a rich space in which to imagine the world for their game and what might happen within it. They could recreate a favorite show if they wished, or something similar. Or they can make something entirely new. All of the options in the book serve to inspire creativity, while the limitations and tradeoffs in the rules ensure that players will always face interesting challenges and tricky situations. There are even explicit guides for adapting the game into a different type of superhero team, like one that uses vehicles rather than magical transformations. And of course, each hero’s vehicle can combine into a super-robot, so everyone can live out their Voltron fantasies. This isn’t a throwaway section of the book, either: it’s a full 14 pages describing new sets of archetypes for different robotic vehicles and their combined form.

Actually playing in these worlds sounds like great fun. There’s a set of basic moves that every character can do, although chances of success will depend on a character’s stats, which are in turn determined by their everyday identity archetype. And then there are each character’s special moves, both mundane and magical, which let them approach situations in different ways. Characters can improve their stats or even learn new moves if they’ve accrued enough experience points (from failed rolls), but these must be framed as character growth based on what actually happened in the story. Indeed, everything serves the story, even battles. For every action that players take, the world reacts. Attack an enemy, and it (or another enemy) will fight back. Investigate a scene, and you might find some useful information, but the GM will ensure that something else happens as well. Maybe a door starts to open, leaving players with mere moments to hide lest they be discovered. There’s always something to keep driving the story forward.

I particularly like the way Glitter Hearts encourages teamwork between players. It’s not just the dedicated move for assisting with actions, but the system for relationships between characters, which comes into play for various moves and their results. Relationships can be cooperative or competitive, and pleasingly neither is depicted as intrinsically good or bad. In cooperative relationships, characters support and help each other, but characters with competitive relationships push each other to do better. These relationships give different outcomes in different situations, and facilitate role-play of group dynamics within the team. And of course, any relationship can be broken when things to badly, and must be repaired when the characters have some time to relax and recover.

Overall, Glitter Hearts is bursting with flavor and theme, and I appreciate the inclusive character artwork throughout the book. It also sounds really easy to get into, and if the itch.io comments are anything to go by, it is: they’re full of excited players offering praise, or asking for the occasional rule clarification. Many comments come from players who are trying their hand as GM for the first time; I’m certain they appreciate the dedicated section in the book for this, which offers a ton of advice and resources. This one is an easy recommendation for anyone interested in teams of transforming superheroes. If you missed it in the bundle, Glitter Hearts is sold for a minimum price of $15, and anyone can download the set of basic moves and a character sheet for free if they want a taste of what the full game offers.

That’s 220 down, and only 1521 to go!