Hey everyone! As you may well know, I play the Hero Kids role-playing game frequently with my “elder” two kids, ages 3 and 4. I’ve also used it with great success while learning the ropes for solitaire play — I already knew the rules, so it was super easy to let them fade into the background while I focused on writing, asking questions, and generating random elements. Stay tuned for more posts detailing my experiences with both styles of play sessions. Meanwhile, you can be playing with these freebies!

Hero Kids Compatible Game Master Screen

In the course of such events, I decided it would be useful to have a summarized version of the Hero Kids rules, something like a GM Screen or cheat sheet, which I managed to toss together and fit all on one page. I even got the thumbs up from the game’s creator, Justin Halliday. So, go out and grab your copy of the Ennie Award-winning Hero Kids at DriveThruRPG: the core rules (in PDF, Print, or PDF+Print options) or the COMPLETE PDF bundle (at a very generous discount).  Then, grab the absolutely free PDF of my Hero Kids Compatible Game Master Screen below.

Hero Kids Compatible Game Master Screen

Bonus Hero Kids Compatible Monster Generator!

Wow, another something free on top of the free something?! Sure, why not! I can’t take credit for this one, though. I first found the generator on the Hero Kids blog, which gives original credit to one Josiah Fiscus, a reader of Adam Bragg’s SpiralBound Studios blog. Adam gives a smashing example of putting the tool to use for generating not just a monster or an encounter, but an entire adventure plot! Definitely check this example out, especially if you’re a solo gamer (even if you’re not interested in Hero Kids, it’s a great example of letting the dice lead the way). Adam’s description of the tool summarizes it nicely:

Josiah has compiled all the monsters from the compendium, assigned them relative challenge ratings, and cross-referenced them by region or terrain to create a system for randomly generating an encounter’s-worth of monsters, adjusted to match both the area you’re in, the number of players in your party, and the difficulty you’re looking for…

The “compendium” refers to the Hero Kids Monster Compendium (also available as PDF, Print, or PDF+Print), of course, which you’ll need to make full use of the tool.

I took the liberty of adapting Josiah’s Excel spreadsheet to Google Sheets so I could more easily use it from my phone. I’ve added drop-downs for the various inputs and an extra “regenerate” drop-down (ignore the validation warning, a necessary evil) which allows for regenerating an encounter at the current settings without having to reload the entire spreadsheet (in your browser, Ctrl+R or F5 would reload the entire sheet, in case you’re wondering). I’ve made the sheet publicly editable so you can manipulate the drop-downs, but I’ve protected all the other cells (and the two hidden sheets that contain the secret sauce). Since Sheets is collaboratively edited in real time, this may pose problems if multiple users are on the sheet at the same time (or if hooligans start adding sheets for no good reason), so I suggest you go to File -> Make a Copy to add the sheet to your own personal Google Dive so you can play without interference. Grab Josiah’s PDF here if you prefer to roll the dice yourself, or Josiah’s Excel file here. My Google Sheets adaptation is here, with a preview below. Enjoy!

BONUS Bonus Hero Kids Compatible Monster Generator!!

You heard right, that’s BONUS Bonus and with not one, but two exclamation points!! I wasn’t totally satisfied with the spreadsheet version of the encounter generator because I tend to use it on my mobile phone and it isn’t the most intuitive interface. So, I threw together a responsive web app version of the generator. It’s written in JavaScript and implements an AppCache manifest file, which should allow you to use it offline. (Technical note: AppCache may not work on all browsers, and is actually deprecated technology, but seemed the quickest and easiest way to get it up and running with offline capability.)

It’s in an “alpha” state currently, so please let me know if you see any issues or room for improvement. The results may not compare with the spreadsheet, but Josiah’s point values are all the same. The highest Hard Boss encounter for 4 players I’ve managed to generate is 31 points, which is a tad higher than the max of 26 on the original PDF, so beware of wiping out your party of children. 🙂

Grab it at the link below. I’ll get the code up on GitHub at some point, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested.