I made a game out of the Hall

For the past four years, my team and I have been painting people’s characters at FramedFantasy.

When I opened the Hall of Heroes, I thought a few clients and D&D players might add theirs. It’s now home to over a thousand characters, with names, classes and backstories.

Thank you for taking the time to add them and tell me about them. I still look through the Hall every week. Reading about the characters people have spent so much time playing is one of my favorite parts of it.

After a while, I wanted to give you a way to play with these characters. You could put them in a party, try their abilities and see which ones work well together.

That became Unbound. I’ve included some footage below so you can see what I’ve been working on.

You build a party of up to three heroes and fight your way through krakens, hydras, owlbears and bosses.

If you play D&D, the basics should feel familiar. Roll a d20 against Armor, move your heroes into position to flank, and make death saves when someone falls.

Between rounds, you’ll find heroes to recruit, abilities to upgrade and items to help your party.

Defeat Oran Black to unlock Hard mode. Hell mode comes after that if you want another challenge.

Every fifth round from round 10 you face a chained hero from the Hall.

Beat them and they join your side.

Heroes from the Hall show up in the other rounds too, as squads you have to get through.

So if you’ve added your character to the Hall, there’s a chance they’ve already shown up in someone’s game, as an ally or an enemy.

If my team and I have painted your character, you can play as them in Unbound.

Add the portrait to the Hall and tick the FramedFantasy box. I’ll check that it’s one of ours. Once it’s approved, sign in, open your hero and tap Play in Unbound.

If their class isn’t one of the twelve available, you can choose the one that best fits how you want them to fight.

The bosses were my favorite part to build. Each one gets their own moves and up to three phases, and their lair changes as they weaken.

Boss commissions start at $170 if you already have a FramedFantasy portrait. For a new character, the $300 package includes a thigh-up portrait made with my team.

If you have a villain from your campaign, or a boss you’ve been wanting to make, we can design them with you and add them to Unbound permanently.

We’ll plan their moves, phases, lair and music together. You’ll get three private playtests so you can try the fight and tell me what you’d like adjusted.

Other players will get to face the boss you helped design, and your own D&D group can play against them too.

I build each boss myself, so there are only 10 spots for new characters and 10 for characters we’ve already painted.

It takes 3 to 5 weeks to get a boss into the game. Once Unbound is polished, I want to bring it to the App Store too. Your boss would be included in that version as well.

This is the first version, and the rules borrow a lot from D&D. Try a few rounds and let me know how it goes.

If something breaks, a fight feels off, or you’re not sure what an ability does, email me at Jan@framedfantasy.com. I read every message, and hearing what happened in your run helps me work out what to improve.

Thank you for sharing your characters and supporting FramedFantasy. I’ve spent a lot of time with these characters while making Unbound, and I hope you enjoy seeing them in the game.

P.S. If you’d rather play first, go for it. Unbound is free, and you can play right in your browser.