''Hillfolk'' is a tabletop role-playing game designed by

Robin Laws Robin D. Laws (born October 14, 1964 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist. Career Robin D. Laws ...

and published by

Pelgrane Press Pelgrane Press Ltd is a British role-playing game publishing company based in London and founded in 1999. It is co-owned by Simon J Rogers and Cat Tobin. It currently produces GUMSHOE System RPGs, '' 13th Age'', the Diana Jones award-winning ' ...

. It was initially launched via Kickstarter in 2012, with the funding being sufficiently successful that a second book called "Blood on the Snow", containing 33 new settings, was produced as a part of the kickstarter. Reception was positive, with RPGamer saying "mechanics don't so much get out of the way of roleplay as provide a supportive foundation for it to happen." Hillfolk is influenced by the Indie RPGs of the 2000s, and emphasises relationships and interpersonal conflicts among the player characters, rather than what the system calls "procedural" scenes putting the characters against external obstacles. As a result of the successful Kickstarter, ''Hillfolk'' incorporated additional settings by

Jason Morningstar Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often lack a Game Master and are often set in situations that quickly go unfortunately for the player characters. ...

, Ken Hite,

Matt Forbeck Matt Forbeck (born August 4, 1968) is an American author and game designer from Beloit, Wisconsin. Biography Forbeck first became interested in role-playing games at age 13 when he started playing ''Dungeons & Dragons''. He earned a degree in crea ...

, and

Emily Care Boss Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of r ...

, among others. The game won the

Indie RPG awards The Indie RPG Awards are annual, creator-based awards for Indie role-playing games and supplements. They were established in 2002 by Andy Kitkowski, and are the most sought-after awards in the ''Indie RPG'' community. For the purposes of the Award ...

for Game of the Year and Best Support for 2013 and the 2014

Diana Jones award The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite. The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded t ...

for excellence in gaming.

References

{{rpg-stub British role-playing games Indie role-playing games Pelgrane Press games Robin Laws games Role-playing games introduced in 2013