Hero Kids Creator's Guild

Welcome to the Hero Kids Creator's Guild!

For years, the world of Hero Kids has been hidden from view. But now, a new way has been found, and a new guild has formed to explore the Brecken Vale and beyond. Whether you are looking to chart new territory in the high fantasy or outer space worlds of Hero Kids, forge a new path in the superpowered world of Super Kids, or break new ground in yet unexplored realms, the Hero Kids Creator's Guild opens the way. The Creator’s Guild presents opportunities for game masters to find new stories to tell, for venturers from distant lands to find tomes in their native tongues, and for young explorers to find new heroes and companions to journey with.

As you set off on your journey in developing your Hero Kids’ materials, know that I’m always here to answer your call: justinhalliday@gmail.com. And for Super Kids related questions, send out a signal to Conrad Evanshire at cevanshire@gmail.com.

What's In the Hero Kids Creator's Guild?

Hero Kids is the premier role-playing game for kids. Since its release, Hero Kids has enthralled kids' attention and unleashed their imaginations in a world full of adventure.

The Hero Kids Creator's Guild is home to community created adventures, translations, monsters, equipment, heroes, pets, and expansions.

For game designers, translators, and enthusiasts, the Creator's Guild is a place for you to contribute to the Hero Kids universe. Here, you can build on existing Hero Kids and Super Kids materials or create something new. Once when you're ready, you can publish and sell your work for the growing community of Hero Kids fans.

How can I publish content for the Hero Kids Creator's Guild?

First, welcome to the guild! You’ve taken your first step to becoming a guild master.

Your next step is to read the Creator's Guild Content Guidelines outlined below.

The next step is to download the included templates, translatable documents, artwork, and other assets. For both Hero Kids and Super Kids, these assets are provided for you to:

• Design new adventures using the document and map templates

• Create new heroes, pets and monsters

• Translate the core Hero Kids rules (and introductory adventure Basement O Rats) into other languages

• Translate Hero Kids heroes, pets and monsters into other languages

• Translate Super Kids products into other languages

After creating your content, go to your account page and look in the "My Content" section. You can use the "Add a new title" link after you agree to the Community Content Agreement.

Once content is published, it's listed in the Hero Kids Creator's Guild. You'll be able to check your sales history, view reviews, and check on book royalties using your Account page on DriveThruRPG. The My Money section of your Account page will allow you to withdraw royalties via PayPal.

Content Guidelines

What is the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild?

The Hero Kids Creator’s Guild is a DriveThruRPG-powered platform for community members to create, publish, and distribute Hero Kids and Super Kids content. Here, community members like you can publish and sell new adventures, expansions, heroes, pets, and translations of existing Hero Kids and Super Kids products.

When you create and publish your work on DriveThruRPG, it becomes part of the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild. Other creators can build on your work, and you can build on theirs.

Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire have made available templates for new adventures, existing product files to undertake translations, and artwork to incorporate into your own creations.

What materials can I use in my titles for the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild?

Your Hero Kids Creator’s Guild work can use any rules and setting materials from Hero Kids and Super Kids products published by Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire respectively.

Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire will also make available the following:

• Adventure templates to create new Hero Kids Creator’s Guild adventures

• Existing monsters to incorporate into your adventures

• Art assets to create maps for Hero Kids adventures

• Art assets to create new heroes, pets, and monsters

• Additional assets including maps, spot art, and fonts

• Hero Kids core rules and adventure documents for translations

Only Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire assets available through the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild can be used to create your products.

You are free to commission art for use within your products. If you do this, it’s your responsibility to ensure that you have all the rights you need to publish that artwork on the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

The Hero Kids Creator’s Guild is a community resource. This means that you’re also welcome to expand on and adapt work that other authors have created here. You can write a sequel, prequel, or sidestory to adventures published by Hero Forge Games, Conrad Evanshire, or other Hero Kids Creator’s Guild members. You can incorporate characters, places, or monsters published by other creators and reference them in your adventures.

If you want to directly include content created by other community members into your products, such as equipment or monsters, then get the agreement of that creator first.

Remember that the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild is a community, so always appropriately credit the original work that you’re building on.

What can’t I use in my Hero Kids Creator’s Guild products?

First, you cannot use Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire intellectual property that hasn’t been made available through the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild. If there’s something you would like to use, get in touch.

Second, products published in the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild cannot use the intellectual property of third-party organisations (i.e. not you, Conrad Evanshire, or Hero Forge Games) without permission from the owners of the IP and specific permission from Hero Forge Games or Conrad Evanshire, where appropriate.

How can I use Hero Kids and Super Kids art?

Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire have released a selection of art, assets, and templates for you to use to create your products for the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild. These assets and art are licensed for use in content submitted to our community content program. You can only use the materials in products you publish in the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

Additionally, you cannot simply collate and republish materials supplied by Hero Forge Games, Conrad Evanshire, or other community members.

AI Art

AI art can only be used in the Hero Kids Creator's Guild if you have all rights to the source art in the learning dataset and you have the express permission of the artists involved in the creation of the underlying art.

What products are welcome in the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild?

We’re looking for these types of Hero Kids and Super Kids content in the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

Expansions:

• Adventures

• Hero, Villain, Monster, and Pet Cards

• Equipment Cards

• Character Advancement (magic, melee, and ranged special actions, bonus abilities, etc)

• Location maps

• Encounter maps

• Adventure seeds

• Game characters

• Gazetteers for other regions of the Varld (Hero Kids) and regions beyond Capital City (Super Kids)

Supplements:

• GM screens

• Mapping tools

• Handouts

Fiction:

• Comic books

• Short stories

Custom Settings:

• Expansions of the Hero Kids rules, heroes and monsters for other settings (e.g. superheroes, modern, urban fantasy, etc)

Translations of Hero Kids products published by Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire:

• Hero Kids core rules

  • Hero Kids - Fantasy Role-Playing Game

  • Basement O Rats

  • Hero Cards - Core

  • Monster Cards - Core

• Hero Kids adventures

  • Curse of the Shadow Walkers

  • Darkness Neath Rivenshore

  • Escape from the Ghost Pirates

  • Fire In Rivenshore

  • Glade of the Unicorn

  • The Lost Village

  • Maze of the Minotaur

  • Mines of Martek

  • Reign of the Dragon

  • Tomb of the Lost King

  • Wizard's Tower

  • Yuletide Journey

• Hero Kids heroes and pets expansions

  • Heroes II

  • Heroes III - Heroes From Out of Town

  • Heroes IV - Forest Friends

  • Heroes V - Monstrous Heroes

  • Heroes VI - All Hallows' Eve

  • Pets

  • Pets II - Monstrous Pets

• Hero Kids Monster Compendium and associated monster cards

• Hero Kids equipment and advancement expansions

• Super Kids products

  • Super Kids - A Superhero Expansion for Hero Kids

  • New Recruits - A Super Kids Adventure

  • Super Kids - Super Kids Cards II

  • Super Kids - Supervillains, Henchmen, and Minions Cards

When undertaking translations, first contact Hero Forge Games (for Hero Kids) or Conrad Evanshire (for Super Kids) to coordinate with other translators and ensure you’re using the latest version of each product.

What types of content are prohibited?

Hero Kids and Super Kids are designed for a young audience, so the tone and content of your adventures needs to be appropriate for that audience.

Hero Kids and Super Kids adventures do not include horror, gore, gratuitous violence, bad language, or erotic themes. These should be avoided in content aimed at kids.

Do not publish anything racist, sexist, homophobic, defamatory, ableist, discriminatory, or otherwise repugnant; and avoid using depictions or descriptions of excessive violence against children, rape, torture, or similar perversions. Additionally, do not publish content that includes the use of nicotine, addictive or harmful substances, or the excessive use of alcohol (though, some mead may be spilled).

Don’t copy or republish other creators’ work. We reserve the right to stop selling any product that goes against the spirit of the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild program.

How do I capture the tone of Hero Kids and Super Kids?

If you’re wondering about the tone of Hero Kids content, then these are good touchpoints:

• D&D

• How to Train Your Dragon

• The Dragon Prince

• Brave

• The Ranger’s Apprentice

All of this infuses a world steeped in Norse and pagan mythology.

In the world of Hero Kids - the Varld - the adults are largely absent. They are off fighting battles to protect their home or exploring distant lands. In their absence, the defense of the Brecken Vale is left to those who remain below; farmers, elders, and our heroes, the kids.

Inspiration for creating Super Kids content can be found in shows like:

• PJ Masks

• Teen Titans Go!

• The Incredibles

• Despicable Me

Capital City, a modern sprawling metropolis, serves as the main backdrop for Super Kids adventures. Adults - superheroes and otherwise - are in the picture, but largely take a backseat to our protagonists: the super kids. The young supers hone their powers through everyday happenstance and super kid schools from around the city and beyond. Super kids acquire their powers in myriad ways. Some are born with innate abilities or have been bestowed their powers by a supernatural being, others have experienced a life-changing event that has awakened something within them, and still others have acquired their abilities through technological ingenuity or arcane training.

While adventures for adult audiences are careful to avoid obvious tropes, Hero Kids’ younger audience are not jaded, and readily enjoy the achievable challenge of clearing a basement overwhelmed by rodents of unusual size or thwarting a bank heist by a group of masked supervillains.

Can I sell the content I create?

Hero Kid Creator’s Guild publishers can sell their community content or release it for free.

If you are publishing a translation of an existing Hero Kids or Super Kids product, then it must be sold for the same price as the original product. For example, a French translation of the Hero Kids rules must be priced at $5.99.

Any retail sales are split between the creator (i.e. you), OneBookShelf (DriveThru's parent company), and Hero Forge Games or Conrad Evanshire. As creator, you get 50% of the sale. For example, if your product retails on the site for USD $10.00, this is how the split of revenue is made:

• $5.00 to the creator (you)

• $3.00 to DriveThruRPG

• $2.00 to Hero Forge Games (or for Super Kids: $1.00 to Hero Forge Games and $1.00 to Conrad Evanshire)

The financial process is fully automated, requiring no additional administration from the creator. You can read DriveThruRPG’s notes about this at:

https://support.drivethrurpg.com/hc/en-us/categories/201257283-Community-Content-Programs

If you’re familiar with the DM’s Guild community content program for D&D, ours follows the same model in terms of revenue split and general rules.

Other than translations, you set the price from your products. When choosing the pricing model for your products, ensure it reflects your effort and its value to the community. Hero Kids products are usually priced at a few tiers:

• Adventures and expansions: $2.99 (e.g. Curse of the Shadow Walkers, Heroes II)

• Premium adventures and expansions: $5.99 (e.g. Reign of the Dragon, Hero Advancement Cards)

• Really really long adventures or expansions: $9.99 (e.g. Monster Compendium)

Can I copy information from Hero Kids or Super Kids rulebooks into my Hero Kids Creator’s Guild title?

Feel free to reference the text of official Hero Forge Games and Conrad Evanshire products, but don’t copy text outright from those books. Your text should be original work.

Can I use characters and locations from Hero Kids or Super Kids in my Hero Kids Creator’s Guild products?

Yes, we’re more than happy for creators to use characters from Hero Kids and Super Kids in your stories, whether it’s Hero Kids’ Bree the firestarter, Mortain and his talkative crow, Saffie the fast-talking farmgirl or Super Kids’ Dr. Crandall Hailey the principal of Linwood Academy or Coach Quackers the magical purple duck.

However, events and situations from your products won’t be canon for official Hero Kids and Super Kids stories, so try to return borrowed characters in the condition you found them!

How do I prepare the PDF of my title for sale?

Proper Legal Attribution

The Hero Kids Creator’s Guild logo must appear on the cover of your work. It must be discernible and legible at normal full-screen viewing size.

If you’re using one of the templates with Hero Kids or Super Kids trade dress, then the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild logo cannot be changed.

If you’re not using one of the templates (such as the adventure, core rules, or equipment, hero, pet, or monster cards), then you cannot use the Hero Kids or Super Kids trade dress or unique designs.

Legal and Copyright Information:

For Hero Kids material published through The Hero Kids Creator’s Guild, the following text must appear within your product, wherever the work otherwise lists legal and copyright information:

This product was created under license. Hero Kids and Hero Forge Games are trademarks of Justin Halliday.

This work contains material that is copyright Justin Halliday. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

All other original material in this work is copyright [2020] by [your legal name or company name] and published under the Community Content Agreement for the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

Or when publishing Super Kids materials, use the following legal and copyright text instead:

This product was created under license. Hero Kids and Hero Forge Games are trademarks of Justin Halliday. Super Kids is a trademark of Conrad Evanshire.

This work contains material that is copyright Justin Halliday and Conrad Evanshire. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

All other original material in this work is copyright [2020] by [your legal name or company name] and published under the Community Content Agreement for the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild.

Cover Details:

All Hero Kids Creator’s Guild content using Hero Forge Games branded property must include the following on the cover:

Requires Hero Kids from Hero Forge Games. Distributed through the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild at DriveThruRPG.

Or if your Hero Kids Creator’s Guild product includes Super Kids branded property, it must include the following on the cover:

Requires Hero Kids from Hero Forge Games.
Designed for Super Kids - a superhero expansion for Hero Kids.
Distributed through the Hero Kids Creator’s Guild at DriveThruRPG.

Product Description:

In the Product Description field when setting up the title on DriveThruRPG, you must include:

Requires Hero Kids from Hero Forge Games.

Or if your product is for Super Kids, you must include the following in the Product Description:

 

Requires Hero Kids from Hero Forge Games.

Designed for Super Kids - a superhero expansion for Hero Kids.