# Heart: The City Beneath

Heart: The City Beneath is a story-forward dungeon-crawling RPG about delving into the nightmare undercity below Spire. It uses the Resistance system to turn desperate journeys, occult bargains, and character obsessions into escalating fallout.

## At a Glance

Resistance system • Surreal dungeon horror • 3-5 players + GM • Campaign play • 3-4h sessions

## Why It Fits

Heart fits dark fantasy and horror because its dungeon-crawling is built around desperation, bodily transformation, strange faith, and the cost of pursuing impossible desires.

## Fit Facts

- Players: 3-5 players + GM
- Session length: 180-240 minutes
- Prep: Medium
- Price: Paid

## Facets

- Genres: Dark Fantasy, Horror
- Mechanics: Exploration-Driven, Narrative-Driven
- Themes: Dark

## Scores

- Complexity: 3/5
- New GM Fit: 0/5
- Roleplay Focus: 5/5
- Combat Focus: 3/5
- Tactical Depth: 2/5
- Campaign Depth: 4/5

## Best For

- Groups that want dungeon delves to feel emotional, strange, and dangerous
- Tables that like horror consequences and character-driven obsession
- Fans of Spire who want a more expedition-focused sister game

## Avoid If

- You want low-intensity fantasy adventure
- You want tactical maps and balanced encounters to be the center
- You want light themes without body horror or despair

## Directory Notes

## What is Heart?

Heart: The City Beneath is a dark fantasy horror RPG from Rowan, Rook and Decard, set in the impossible undercity below Spire. Characters are not clean heroic adventurers. They are people drawn downward by callings, obsessions, debts, faith, or doomed ambition, looking for something the Heart might grant or twist beyond recognition.

## How play feels

Heart keeps the shape of a dungeon crawl, but its real focus is consequence. The Resistance system tracks stress across different domains and turns mounting pressure into fallout, so every expedition can change a character physically, emotionally, socially, or spiritually. Advancement comes through Beats that tell the table what kind of trouble a player wants to chase.

## What makes it distinct

The setting is the main attraction: stations, shrines, predatory pubs, strange refuges, hungry wilderness, impossible architecture, and multiple visions of heaven stacked beneath a city that should not exist. The game works best when the GM treats delves as surreal pressure cookers rather than tactical maps.

## Where it may not fit

Heart is intense. It expects body horror, ruin, desperation, and character transformation to stay close to the surface. Groups that want a clean heroic fantasy dungeon crawl, careful tactical balance, or a light low-prep one-shot may want something else. Groups that want horror, emotional stakes, and beautiful strangeness are the audience.

## Links

- Directory page: https://www.ttrpg-games.com/item/heart
- Agent JSON: https://www.ttrpg-games.com/api/games/heart.json
- Publisher or official site: https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/heart-the-city-beneath-rpg/
- Reviews or retailer page: https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/heart-the-city-beneath-rpg/#reviews