Bleeding Heroic

a 200 word TTRPG by @tiiimezombie

v1.0.0 | 2025-12-03

You are a hero.

Well, you're a kind-hearted person, and you JUST got superpowers.
Flight or strength? Telekinesis or magic? Controlling water or every third pigeon?
Pick a power and embrace it.

You need an alias, some principles on using your powers responsibly, and some idea of what weakness haunts you.

Would you look good in spandex?

Here's the situation:

I figure there's dozens of people in your fine city that could use your help right now, including the ways that don't involve your powers.
You probably don't know them.
In fact, if you rolled a D20, I'd bet you'd only know 1 of them.
So don't sweat it if you roll higher then that number.
They won't miss you.

If you do choose to help, it will take a bit of effort on your part.
Not much, about one (1) push-up (or squat or crunch or something you can do a couple times).
You won't even feel it.
It's easy.

I will say, though, when you help, the number to be increases by one. Two people in city would really notice if you couldn't help.

Soon there might be more.

Shouldn't you help them too?

Aren't you a hero?

This should link to the talk I gave about how easy it is to make TTRPG's. Because part of the talk was how, the vibe of a game resolution mechanic is a good starting point, and I talked about wanting to make a game about doing physical excerise until failure.

Anything to get you in the headspace of your character, right?

"What if I can't do pushups"

I hate to explain the art but like, that is the point. I am physically capable and have money to help real life people but I have friends that are neither. This game does not have a win condition. You don't win by doing more pushups. Your help is statistically meaningless. You have to care, though. To meaningfully engage with the world is to hurt yourself in service of others. You absolutely have to learn your limits and accept when something is too much. Maybe the game isn't broadly applicable but personally, I'm trying to learn what limits are so I can help sustainably.