Sprocket mood sketches

Exploring mood. Leaning into post-apocalyptic setting.

Trouble in Sprocket: Gamemaster's Characters

Factions from the starter adventure

1. Goblin deserters and tag-alongs
2. Sprocket town guard
3. Lucid Drones of the wastelands

Cover image rework

Revisited earlier concept

Changes:

• Make ruins more industrial (not crumbling castle)
• Better colonization of stair well by vegetation
• Give battle princess 'Heart's blade'
• Reposition camera angle. 
• Main figure redrawn

Social Media Round-Up

I've done these before but I figured it would be nice to have an updated one.

Here are places you can read/talk about BREAK!!
The BREAK!! Facebook Page
The BREAK!! Tumblr!!
The BREAK!! Discord

Here is places you can see the creator's old stuff!
The Author's Old Blog for D&D Stuff
The Artist's old Blog for assorted stuff!

Non-Core Books (Or, what have I been doing during the layout wars)

I've always been torn when it comes to the supplement books and products for tabletop games. On one hand, more stuff is fun! At their best, these sorts of things provide new ways to play and interact with the existing game without clogging up the basics. At their worst, they are patchy, bloated, and come with a sort of power creep that eventually shoves things towards a new edition where the cycle begins anew.

Grey and I have gone back and forth a lot about what additional books for BREAK!! would be like. Obviously with the main book still being made we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. The three big requirements in my head so far are:

1. Anything provided should be something a GM or group with an average level of investment in the game wouldn't be expected to make themselves.
2. Anything provided should keep giving. Adventures should provide templates for other scenarios of that type, mechanics and options should lead to more opportunities for players and GM's, and so forth.
3. Nothing provided should exist to supersede or undermine something already in the game.

I don't think that's particularly ambitious, but it does give me something to focus on. So what does this translate into so far?

I've been working on the following

1. A BREAK!! companion book, with a lot of the supplemental stuff that we had to cut from the main book to make it a bit more feasible. Lots of GM facing info and rules here, mainly for making your own monsters and other tools.
2. Expanding Trouble in Sprocket, which has been discussed on the blog at length. Not only will it include the scenario, but info on the realm of Stahlfeld and character options for those wanting to play more sorts of synthetics.
3. A yet unnamed supplement on establishing and building up a "Hometown" - so far it's kind of like Animal Crossing but with a lot more opportunities for adventure and stuff. I am also thinking some kind of system for mass combat will be mushed into this one.

I promised Grey to keep these at around 100 pages or less - so hopefully they will be easy on your patience and wallet as well.

Strike Points for Colossi

One of my favorite bits of Break!! is Colossal Combat.

Each part of a giant adversary has it's own Heart Total and must be specifically targeted, this is called a Strike Point.

Destroying a body part removes a monster ability.

Moving from part to part is subject to same rules as moving through a regular Battlefield Area.

URARANI
The forgotten crystal beast

Creatures from the 1st Aeon do not follow the rules of other eras. They run the gamut from messengers with gossamer wings to killing machines made of unbreakable glass. Most have been destroyed or withered away in a reality they find suffocating, but others have found ways to remain.

Urarani is an enormous, arachnid creature made of murky chitin. It was once part of an Unshaped’s tale but abandoned when it was deemed unappealing by its creator. Its appearances in the Outer World almost always include a rampage of some kind, so it is fortunate that it remains a rare sight.

I am looking forward to Rey's Monsterhunter/Shadow of the Colossus inspired adventure/monster book!

Rey's original concept...

 

Visual summaries

I am hoping to summarise key rules into visual checklists.
The aim for these diagrams is to jog a GM's memory and avoid the need to 'lean in' during play, and present players a quick high level understanding of key concepts and possibilities.

Flow chart concept

Have finessed the rules flow chart concept.

Blue boxed indicate roll is required.

Green paths = positive/affirmative outcome.

Red paths = negative outcome.

Further enhancements might include: links/reference to relevant rules, illustration, clearer segregation of components/stages.
 

The Damage and Injury Table

Most in-game outcomes in BREAK!! are resolved with Checks and Contests.

The Injury/Damage table is one of the few exceptions.

In combat, if you are reduced to zero hearts, you roll and injury. Subsequent hits incur additional Injury rolls but with a different result spread (leaning towards more severe outcomes)

Anyway, being indulgent with the design.

Overland Travel Rules. Communicating ideas

At the end of the Overland Travel section (or as an appendix) I want to include an overview of the procedure for quick reference, and to show how the mechanics slot together.

I am investigating 2 formats (in raw form here)

A linear check list.
A process flow.

The checklist is boring but easy to follow.

The flow chart is visually interesting but intimidating (but an interesting exercise!)

Thinking I'll add more visual appeal to the checklist or simplify the flow chart.

What we've been working on

We've had a long stretch of invisible activity, so I thought it'd be nice to post an update on what's going on for the sake of all those following.

• The big one is the main book itself. You've probably seen screenshots of our alpha stuff - what's happened is that Grey has taken all of what I've written, transferred it into a PDF via some crazy docs-flow wizardry and is now slowly working through the resulting document and adding art, layout, and so forth - as well as making the text fit. After he's done I'll probably go through once or twice and tweak text again because I'm a jerk like that and we'll have something for people to look at and edit.
• I am sorry this is slow, but remember that it is just Grey and I working on BREAK!!. If one of us has some busy hiccup in like it puts a whole on things for a bit. It's because of this we've decided on doing smaller books from here on out.
• Speaking of those smaller books, I've more or less finished the draft of a Companion book filled with how to's and Game Master nonsense which should probably see the light of day soon after the main book. Trouble in Sprocket (our first adventure type thing) is more or less drafted, I just have to put the finishing touches on it. It reflects how I'd like all our adventure releases to be; a scenario within a larger area that can be used for further adventures.
• Sometime ago I wrote a little solitaire adventure for BREAK!! that I thought might be good for the rule book. We went for something different, but I thought it might be something I could release as a sort of preview for the game, so I've been touching that up too. Keep your eyes peeled because if I turns out alright I'll be letting everyone know where to get it. 

One of the two characters for the solitaire adventure

Thanks again to everyone reading for their interest and patience - here's hoping we don't let you down!

Tidbits

The last few weeks have been a lot of writing non-core stuff for me, so since I don't have a really good pertinent update I figured I could post some stranded bits I'd thrown out on various social media:

Adoption is informal and very common in the Outer World. This is mainly due to an abundance of families who are unable to bear children for a variety of reasons (same sex couples, inter-species relationships, chronic heroism, so on and so forth) and an alarming amount of orphaned individuals (the Outer World can be a dangerous and unpredictable place).

This means the concept of family itself has become pretty broad. It has brought the folk closer together in general; in a world where chibs and bruun can be brothers and sisters, it seems silly to fight over trivial things,

It also means that your human character may have been raised by a happily married couple consisting of a ghost and a robot.

In BREAK!! - you have your Hearts, which are basically a buffer for damage, representing luck, courage, and gusto. Once those are depleted you start taking injuries (or damage, if you’re a synthetic character). Enough injuries/damage can render you inert or kill you, of course. Hearts are fully restored at the start of every dangerous situation, and lots of magic and items can give you a bonus heart or two. Injuries/Damage does not - you either have to get them treated by someone trained or you have to take downtime actions to rest to heal them. A few spells assuage them for a time, but these are temporary solutions.

Hence why I say it’s harsher - it’s not gritty or anything, but a lot of games give you ways of restoring yourself instantly. BREAK!! doesn’t,

Status Ailments in BREAK!! are another harsh but not terribly gritty thing. I wanted to skew a bit more fantastic/animated, as well as have ones that make things odd or challenging rather than totally debilitating - so you might end up becoming a slime version of yourself, squashed into a chibi like state, blown up like a balloon, or randomly acting in ways counter to what you are trying to accomplish. Of course, some of the classics are in there too (being turned to stone/calcified over time, being blinded/deafened, etc) but I was careful when implementing them.

The 1st Aeon was a time of little order - beyond the intrinsic nature of mortal shape and finiteness, everything was at the capricious whim of the Unshaped. This changed with the actions of Regulus, the first hero. Not only did his rebellion against his former peers force them into physical form, it solidified the formerly liquid nature of reality itself. This was the creation of Fate, an invisible hierarchy that influenced the actions and consequences of the Outer World’s inhabitants.

Fate was an ever present force, but not a direct one. It would empower various individuals (predominantly Chosen Ones and their “villainous” counterparts) and encourage them towards certain actions via contrivance and coincidence. These actions were machinations in a cosmic cycle, one where the dominance of Light and Dark was in constant flux. This cycle was meant to be unending, a symphony which would vary somewhat in sound but never in basic structure. But the folk unknowingly defied this idea again and again, forming societies and taking initiatives that made Fate’s key players increasingly less relevant.

Some theorize that the catastrophic actions of Regulus during the 3rd Cataclysm were as much spurred on by the ragged remains of Fate as his own initiative. Indeed, this once omnipresent force now clings to him like a mournful wraith, only occasionally extending its influence to bitterly pull its chosen towards catastrophe and ruin.

BREAK!!cast Round up!

For those who might have missed these, all three podcasts where I answered questions about BREAK!! are linked here:

BREAK!!cast 1 -Where Sam and I talk about character options.
BREAK!!cast 2 - Where Kelsey, Produce and I talk about system stuff and the Shadowlands
BREAK!!cast 3 - Where Kiel and I talk about Game Master-centric stuff.

Thanks for listening everyone!

BREAK!!Cast Q&A Part II

A second podcast answering questions! This time with the help of two local playtesters. Audio is a little bad this time, so I do apologize for that. I still hope it's informative!

Play Example - Crafting

One thing in BREAK!! I'm pretty excited for but feel I've not talked enough about is Crafting. I wanted to make it so people could create their own gear without it being too much of a hassle mechanically. At the same time, I wanted it to encourage adventure - or at the very least, be the end product of one. So here's a brief example of how a player character made "Imbued Item" (as opposed to the unique "Relics" that a GM throws around, classic Reynaldo what with having his cake and eating it too) comes about.

Wumble Eveready, at your service!

The Scene

Wumble Eveready managed to snag a prism feather during the party’s last outing. This brilliant plumage can enhance someone’s speed if utilized correctly! Always seeking a way to stay a step ahead of danger, Green decides that Wumble will try and make an Outfit with them.

1. What are you making?
• Wumble is the practical sort, so he is attempting to create a an Extreme Weather (Cold) Outfit to incorporate the feathers into. This will take the form of a thick tunic and cloak.
• Green decides it will be called the “Hued Hood”, because alliteration is fun and it alludes to the Prism Feather used to create it.
2. Where are you making it?
• Wumble will do his Tailoring at the party’s room at a local inn since it does not require a Workshop.
3. What are you using to make it?
• 2 Units of Twilight Silk, 1 Prism Father and a single use of a Crafter’s Toolkit will go into creating Wumble’s Outfit. Green erases these from his character sheet.
4. Roll your Check!
• Wumble is using his Crafting Prodigy Ability to create the Hued Hood. This Ability allows him to use either his Deftness or Insight (whichever is higher) when crafting. Wumble is sharp-eyed and careful, so Green chooses Insight.
5. Success or Failure?
• Green Rolls right below Wumble’s Insight, meaning the Outfit is successfully created! He jots down the stats for the Hued Hood and it’s ready to go for the next session.

The Hued Hood

This Extreme Weather (Cold) Outfit is a cloak, cowl, and tunic in one. A rainbow plumed feather is incorporated into the clasp. It was designed to be worn by a small character, but can be easily taken out a bit to fit a normal sized one.

• The Hued Hood shifts in color in response to the level of light, becoming brightly colored in direct sunlight and darkening in accordance with its surroundings. (Twilight Silk)
• Anyone wearing the Hued Hood has their Speed Rating increased by a single step. (Prism Feather)