Hexingtide's "Iconic Protagonists" - Its Five Pregen Characters are Now Available

As a part of Hexingtide’s current playtest iteration, #4, I’m releasing the five “Iconic Protagonists.” These pregen characters should help new players and GMs with both the game’s mechanics and as examples of the game’s intended tone and motifs.

Download the five pregen characters on Hexingtide’s Itch page here:
https://willphillips.itch.io/hexingtide/devlog/1329643/hexingtides-iconic-protagonists-its-five-pregen-characters-are-now-available

While this is a comparatively minimalist game, simplicity does not mean a lack of variety. Your choices with the point-buy character creation will have an impact on gameplay, and for some, the open-ended “aspect” style of character creation can be daunting. For players who prefer the clarity of a pre-set list over the paralysis of a blank page, these pregens serve as a blueprint, illustrating how to translate a high-concept monster motif into a filled-out character sheet.

Beyond the numbers, these “Iconic Protagonists” also act as narrative anchors. They should communicate the intended tone of the game as examples along with the list of reference works in the introduction.

Note: Future versions of the five Iconic Protagonists – and this document – will include an additional full page of roleplaying content for each Protagonist as well as both level 1 and level 3 character sheets.

Meet the Circle

These five level 1 Protagonists demonstrate diverse mechanical builds, showcasing various playstyles and Inhumanity Die sizes across the game’s Coteries: Artifice, Nature, Sorcery, Undeath, and Dogma.

Each is built upon a familiar monstrous or folklore motif, which should offer players a comfortable starting point to begin to explore the Minimalist Monstrous Roleplaying of Hexingtide.

While the game is setting-agnostic, these Iconic Protagonists inhabit the Ghoul Hills, a fictional petty German principality in the 1820s. It is a backwater steeped in disturbing mysteries and strange folklore – evoking the era of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the Brothers Grimm, Edgar Allen Poe, and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Legion, the Demoniac (d6 Inhumanity, Dogma Coterie): A young woman wrestling with a multitude of devils. Mechanically, she’s a surprisingly tough tank built to absorb the troubles that tempt her.
Fenric, the Werewolf (d8 Inhumanity, Nature Coterie): An apprentice millwright possessing an enchanted wolfskin. He is the most straightforward character – perfect for players who want to dive into the roleplay immediately.
Solomon, the Magic Mirror (d10 Inhumanity, Sorcery Coterie): A soul bound to silvered glass. Solomon offers a high-risk, high-reward playstyle with the ability to reset Portents and share Pacts with his allies.
Hemlocke, the Vampire (d10 Inhumanity, Undead Coterie): A desiccated aristocrat in porcelain masks. She is the Circle’s “glass cannon” – hitting harder than anyone else but possessing a dangerous brittleness.
Babbage, the Clockwork Scarecrow (d12 Inhumanity, Artifice Coterie): A mechanical innocent searching for a soul. With the largest Inhumanity die, Babbage offers massive power balanced by durable mechanics.

Why Pregens?

Hexingtide is a game of Minimalist Monstrous Roleplaying. Because it is an original system – not a hack or a clone of existing SRDs – I wanted to provide diverse mechanical builds to show off different concepts and playstyles across the game’s central mechanics of Inhumanity Die sizes and myth-and-folklore-inspired Coteries. By using familiar monster motifs, I hope to give you a comfortable frame of reference while you navigate this brand new ruleset.

We need your eyes on these! Hexingtide is in active playtesting. Download the Protagonists, tell your own story with them, and tell me what breaks.