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Introduction

Over Hills, Under Trees is a rules-light narrative-driven TTRPG designed for fantasy settings based on Blades in the Dark.

The Playtest​

Over Hills, Under Trees is currently in development and you can help shape the final result by participating in the feedback survey linked below.

For Blades in the Dark players​

If you're already familiar with Blades in the Dark, this section summarizes the major differences between Blades and Over Hills, Under Trees.

Most of the core system remains unchanged. Those rules have been reproduced here with some thematic renaming. Instead of being scoundrels you are adventurers, instead of a crew you are in a party, instead of going on a score you go on a quest, and so on. Over Hills, Under Trees provides its own set of character and party playbooks to help you bring your fantasy concepts to life.

Some aspects of Blades remain the same mechanically, but have been recontextualized and tweaked to better fit the setting:

  • Instead of heat, at the end of each quest you gain notoriety, which reflects how much of an annoyance you're becoming to your rivals and enemies.
  • When you fill up your notoriety, you gain a nemesis instead of a wanted level. Nemeses are actual tangible threats that can only be resolved with a direct confrontation.
  • Artifacts replace claims on the party sheet, though they provide similar party-wide benefits and are generally acquired as rewards from a quest. Renown replaces turf, though it serves the same function.

A few aspects have been modified to allow for a more heroic fantasy tone:

  • Recovery is not based on a progress clock, instead harm is healed directly based on the result of the roll.
  • When indulging your vice you recover stress based on the result instead of the number rolled. It's also not possible to overindulge.

Additionally, certain new mechanics have been introduced:

  • Provisions allow characters to indulge their vice and recover by serving as a replacement for their purveyor or a healer, which can be useful when on the road. Provisions can be purchased for coin or can be gathered.
  • Items can be either consumable or permanent. Consumable items have a limited number of uses and must be resupplied, while permanent items don't.
  • Some playbook special abilities are marked as spells. They function like normal special abilities, except that they can be inscribed onto spell scrolls, which are consumable items usable by any character.
  • Experience special abilities represent a character's background and provide a mechanical benefit. Each character starts off with one (in addition to a playbook ability) and may take more as they advance.

Finally, rules for entanglements and faction war have been removed, and cohorts have been simplified down to just experts.