Heroes of Faerûn

A D&D Adventuring Card Game

2-4 players | 60-90 minutes | Ages 14+ | PvP now, Co-op campaign in development

Prototype adventurer cards — each double-sided card can be played as a party member or a solo tactic

The Pitch

Heroes of Faerûn takes the hand-optimisation tension of poker and combines it with a Forgotten Realms dungeon crawl. Players build adventuring parties from double-sided character cards spanning the core D&D classes (and Artificer), then use hand-based card play to complete quests, earn treasure, recruit iconic Faerûnian allies, and level up to take on tougher quests (i.e. harder hand types) and greater treasure!

It's the strategic satisfaction of building the perfect poker hand, wrapped in the fantasy of running your own party across the Sword Coast.

The Hook

Every card does double duty: it's a member of your party and a tactic you can play on its own for an immediate class-specific effect, such as a Fighter's Action Surge, a Rogue's Evasion, or a Wizard's Portent. The tension between building a strong hand and spending a card now for its ability is a core player decision every turn. Plus, players can hold multiple quests at once and resolve one hand across several of them, rewarding clever, synergy-hunting play with greater treasures.

An example of a ‘full house’.

How It Plays

Each turn, players do the following:

Cooldown: Cool down campfire, items, and allies (accumulated by completing previous quests).

Take two actions: Choose two different actions from taking a Quest and rolling resistance dice (which block certain values from being played against the quest); drawing from the Tavern (face-up, orientation matters); drawing from the Inn (face-down, doesn't auto-refill); playing a Tactic; or resting.

Play a hand: of up to 5 cards (limited by campfire position and allies in play), resolved against all active quest(s), checking for synergies.

Resolve: Gain XP toward levelling up, discard the hand, place allies/items on cooldown, and check goal completion.

Completed quests reward simple, challenging, or treacherous goal tiers by unlocking new allies and magic items. Resistance dice add a layer of risk to push through, and class-specific tactics (13 of them, one per class) let sharp players bend the odds. For example, a Ranger can ignore a resistance die, a Wizard can dig through the quest deck for the perfect match, and a Druid can reshape a card's suit before a hand is played.

The prototype main board — Tavern, Inn, quest track, quest rewards, and personal goal rewards, including planar allies.

Why It's Different

  • Cards as both party and tactic: No other D&D board game asks players to weigh "play this in a hand" against "burn it for its solo effect" on every single card.

  • 13 suits, 13 classes (including the Artificer): A poker-familiar structure reskinned entirely around D&D's class fantasy, with real class flavour in every tactic.

  • Multi-quest hand resolution: A genuine skill ceiling for players who love optimising.

  • Grows with the player: Unlocked powers, new treasures and allies mean the game's complexity scales as players level up.

  • Built for two audiences at once: A current tight PvP experience, with a co-op campaign mode (and legacy-style ability upgrades between sessions) in active development on the same core system.

World & Setting

Built by a lifelong love of D&D and the Forgotten Realms setting, Heroes of Faerûn leans fully into its own cast for its Ally cards. Current prototype allies include figures like Drizzt, Elminster, and Erevis Cale, each themed to their class. These are placeholder allies for prototyping; final IP arrangements (licensed names vs. original characters) would be part of any publishing conversation.

Examples of allies that can assist players.

The Designer (Me!)

I've been a D&D player since cutting teeth on Dragon Warriors in the mid-'80s, and a "forever DM" ever since. I've been running games continuously from 2nd Edition through the current 2024 rules, an currently in the thick of “Vecna: Eve of Ruin” with my gaming group. As a board game designer with two previously published titles (Hadrian’s Wall & The Anarchy) and a third coming to Kickstarter in August (Orbitstar), I've been wanting to design a D&D game that captures real tabletop decision-making, drawing inspiration from one of my favourites: Lords of Waterdeep.

Playtesting

The game is in active, ongoing prototype testing with regular playtest groups including Shem Phillips and Sam Macdonald of Garphill Games, and multiple convention playtests over the past few months with unaffiliated gamers, with consistently positive feedback.

Playtesting at Playcon in Sydney, Australia, this July.

Contact details

If you’re keen on wanting more information, or if you’d like a chat, please feel free to contact me at motherlodegames@gmail.com. My number is 0064 2102 206028. I live in New Zealand. (UTC +12)