High on the Hog (Freebie, Species)

I asked our discord to vote on the next blog topic and a new playable species won out, so this week on the blog I'm sharing these lovely folks who were originally intended for the core rulebook but ended up being taken out for the purposes of space and flow. 

 

PORC 

A proud and piggish people whose exuberance charms as often as it gets them into trouble. Whether a porc is trendsetting or starting a fight, they are wont to leave their mark wherever they go.

Physiology: Porcine humanoids with distinct snouts and broad builds, porcs also have a lot of varied traits. They might sport fur, tusks, or fantastic heads of hair as well.

Demeanor: Gusto is perhaps the most commonly exalted trait among Porcs. Most try to make the most of each and every day, though this takes many different forms. They might be the life of the party, refined connoisseurs of the arts, or enthusiastic warriors eagerly seeking their next great battle. There is a thin line between a typical porc being a delight or a menace.

Outlook:

• If your glass is half empty, hurry it up and drink the rest!
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes you may need to give it a black eye, though.
• There is no virtue in putting up with something that's only drags down your spirits.
• Life is the finest dish, so everything you do deserves a bit of garnish.
• Never trust anyone you wouldn't carouse with. 

History: Much like the gadabovids and mundymutts, porcs have lived in the Blazing Garden for quite some time, mostly in the region now known as No-Folk's Land. The 4th Aeon has seen them more actively migrate outwards, because while their homeland remains a land of plenty, it's also filled with enough dangers that many of them didn't care to stick around.

Adventurers: Porcs often set off on journeys to seek out thrills, excitement, and new joys to experience. While most are happy to settle somewhere that provides, there are some with appetites that can't be satiated who continue adventuring instead.

They can be a lot to handle at times, but their enthusiasm can often pull their adventure team through rough times.

Typical Names: Porc given names are intended as enthusiastic exclamations, while family names lean towards a shared passion or object of adoration. 

Examples: Glorio Banquet, Huzza Fontaine, Snorts Sailing, Missy Finery, Deary Theater 

 

Quirks: Inheritor Species

 

Species Size

Porcs are comparable in size to a typical human, but a bit shorter and more robust.

• You are a Medium Species.
  
  

Innate Ability

 

Goodly Gourmand

Porc's often try to live life to the fullest. One way this manifests is their love of good food and drink.

• During a fight, you can use your action to inhale a day's worth of rations to restore 1 lost heart.
• If you also have the Big Eater Quirk, you may restore 2 lost hearts instead. You may only do this once every 24 hours, however. 

 

Maturative Ability

 

Boarish Affront

Among porcs there are those who've mastered the art of particularly cutting barbs. You happen to be one of them.

• You may take a Turn to berate and insult a target within 1 area of you.
• Requires an Contest: Your and the Target's Aura
• If you succeed, the target becomes Dispirited. This can be dealt with normally or when the conflict at hand ends.
• This Ability may only be used once per combat or other perilous situation. Even the most witty of insults are dulled after repeated attempts. 

START Week One: Preview Round Up

As you're probably aware START's kickstarter is currently in full swing. We've had a great first week, and Grey's been posting some fun previews on social media. I thought it might be fun to collect some of these here for posterity (and so everyone can see them)

 

Ready? 

 

 

Valarie Rosemace, a rookie Knight of Lantern, has consumed some 'unusual' mushrooms while looking for a rumored 'shadow blight' cure. Now she's disorientated and vulnerable. Will you be able to save 

her?

 

 

Helvetica, a small-minded Skelemaster, is in possession of a artifact that's true power is beyond his comprehension. Can you liberate it from him and put it to good use?
 

 

Keep off the grass! Groundskeeper drones are programmed to trim back unsightly overgrowth. Twigs, branches, arms, legs! What other marvels from the past will you encounter?

 

More awaits you in START - 200 pages more, even! Several adventurous scenarios, details on the Shadowed Lands, and new options and rules meant to customize characters and get you right into the fun of adventuring. Back it here!

BREAK!! x Animon Story crossover adventure: BREAK!! POINT (Bonus Download)

 

The BREAK!! x Animon Story crossover is now available for download!

You can grab it here! 

BREAK!! POINT is a short scenario that has animon trainers investigating some strange happenings in the Dunia Region! What is Team Steele doing there? Are those strange new creatures some sort of animon? Why is that lady blue!? Investigate these questions and more in this exciting adventure!

Also included are brand new illustrations from Grey Wizard, and rules for converting BREAK!! characters and adversaries into Animon Story ones if you want to keep the adventure going. 

BREAK!! in the new year!

Hey everyone! I know I usually use the blog for freebies - which I still will - but I thought I'd take this week to talk about some things we have coming down the pipeline. We've actually been working on several new things for BREAK!! and I want to talk about a few of them.

 

01 - START

A table-ready adventure

Kickstarter pre-launch page >

 

 

I have to admit we had some hiccups with this one. I had a whole scenario written out that, while I still really like, we agreed didn't make for a good first adventure. So we went back to an older concept and worked with that, creating a set of adventures that start out with something simple and gradually open up into a grander quest. There is a lot of new material for both old fans and novices alike, including rules for party dynamics, new species, and a fleshed out area you could use as the focus of an entire saga. A link to the pre-launch page for START's kickstarter should be right here on the side of the blog if you're interested.

 

 

 

02 - GENUS

Playable exotic lifeforms

 

 

  

Folks on the discord have seen me go on about this one. This is a supplement filled with Species/Calling combos that didn't quite fit in the main rulebook. They are similar to monster classes in other games and provide a different sort of play experience from normal callings (and one another). For example, Fairies mostly focus on support but are also the games first Tiny playable characters. Joining them are War-Mechanoids, Immortals, Dragons, and the shape-changing Ohku. Also included is setting information and new adversaries to help contextualize these newcomers' place in Outer World.

 

Genus is entirely drafted and has some preliminary illustration and layout. It shouldn't take as long as START did to finish (hopefully) so I'm hoping we can tell you all more about it soon.

 

 

 

03 - BIOMES

Mana rich environments

  

This is what I'm currently developing (with Grey making some excited sketches) - my hope is that it'll be a fairly sizeable book about the unique landscapes and ecosystems of Outer World. This will include an expanded look on travel, strange hazards, settlements, and creatures unique to the various corners of Outer World.

 

We have a few others things in the works as well, including some play-aids, those scenarios I wrote for START we didn't end up using, and maybe even a big surprise or two. Hopefully we can reveal those when the time is right.

 

Anyway, that's it for the first blog post of the year. Stay tuned for another freebie next time around. 

 

BREAK!! RPG Character Art Pack by LeviLagaan

Artist Levil has created an awesome art pack of character portraits for a variety of BREAK!! characters.  Check it out here!

 

Freebie: "Trooper Armjoe" (Gear)

Gleysian engineers understood all too well that they could not match the towering gigaframes and bio-titans of their rivals during the 3rd Aeon. While puretech had advantages in terms of practicality and efficiency, creating such staggeringly large machines without the assistance of magic proved to be impossible. This does not mean they didn't try.

"Troopers" were initially devised as a step between the mechanical-motion armor that the technocracy's infantry utilized and their own gigantic challenger to he gigaframe's supremacy on the battlefield. While this final step was never quite realized, numerous troopers were designed and produced in the latter part of the era. Most famously, a legion of them were destroyed by the wrath of the First Hero and the Sun-Machine in the first days of the 3rd Cataclysm.

While most of these weapons met a similar fate on the battlefield, a few have survived into the 4th Aeon: utilized by would-be overlords, maintained by collectors, or simply rusting away in some ancient, forgotten hanger. Trooper Armjoe is one of these, bearing a nickname given to it by junker who noted that unlike its closest equivalent (the Walker machines utilized throughout Outer World) it had arms.

 

 

TROOPER ARMJOE (Vehicle) 

Armjoe is a vaguely humanoid machine typical in size to a cart or other more common vehicle. Rather than a canopy or window, Armjoe's "head" contains a set of lenses that functions a bit like a scanner, transmitting images to a crystal pane inside its cockpit. Its metal arms and hands are quite sophisticated, not only able to make a fist and deliver devastating blows but also utilize tools and weapons. 

 

One could wax for quite some time about the specifics (and you can be certain at least half a dozen Helical Archive agents would, given the chance) but the important things to note is that troopers are humanoid vehicles that encase their pilot entirely. While currently being used for salvaging puretech from dangerous sites, even the humble Armjoe is unmistakably intended for combat.

 

Vehicle Use

• Crewing: 1 Pilot
• Fuel: Troopers include a Large Spell Engine. 2 Charges powers the machine for one day.
• Traversable Terrain: Any overland terrain. Troopers are not slowed by Difficult Terrain, as their humanoid limbs allow them to travel over a variety of surfaces.
• Inventory Slots: 20 Slots 
• Cost: 9 Gems
• Repairing or installing new things onto a trooper requires the ability to work with advanced gadgeteering items.

All the Vehicle Rules from the BREAK!! rulebook (including the notes on fighting with Vehicles) apply, though Troopers have some additional considerations if used in battle

•  Troopers... 
•  Move around a battlefield as if it had Supernatural Leaping.
•  Can fight as Massive Creatures and have a Sweep and Focus Attack based how they strike with their powerful mechanical limbs. They also benefit from Massive Might.
•  Have an Edge when making sunder attempts against structures or other vehicles. They are specifically designed for this sort of thing.
  
•  Have a Might and Grit of 12. They utilize their pilot's Deftness, Insight, and Aura.
•  Use the Pilot's Attack, though with an upper limit of +4 thanks to the controls simply not being able to keep up with those above a certain skill level. This cap is removed if an ATS (see below) is installed.

Damaging a Trooper is done via Sundering. They are made of a strong but non-magical alloy so they have an Object Defense Rating of Very Hard (18) and have 12 Hearts due to their size. It should be noted that the entire Trooper does not need to be destroyed - doing at least 6 Hearts of damage to the cockpit area exposes the pilot to attack. 

In addition, GM's may allow individuals with the ability to work with Advanced Gadgeteering Crafts to find ways to force the hatch open by succeeding in a set of linked contests with the pilot (Usually Insight versus Deftness, and then a straight Deftness Contest for the second) or allow for other, creative ways to work around the Trooper's defenses.

Trooper Customization

The Armjoe is a rather plain model bereft of bells and whistles, but other Troopers might include a variety of different features or have them added on later. Examples of these include but are not limited to:

• Anti-Infantry Sidearm: While about the size of a small pistol to the trooper itself, this gun is a large mechanical missile weapon with the rapid fire ability. They utilize special three-bullet clips for reloading. These are designed for troopers to use with one hand, any creature smaller than massive sized cannot use them properly. 
• Cost: 250 Coins
• Hover Thrusters: A series of mana-jets on the legs and back of the trooper allow it to float just above the ground, much like a skimmer. Traversable terrain now includes both the land and sea.
• Cost: 1 Gem
• ATS: Short for "Active Targeting System", this is a unique set of additional controls in a trooper's cockpit that allows for a pilot with an Attack of +5 or above to fully benefit from their Attack score, rather than be capped at +4. Troopers equipped with an ATS are usually marked in some special way, such as with a helmet crest, extravagant gilding, red colored shoulder, etc.
• Cost: 3 Gems

 

 

 

BREAK!! Kickstarter Days 23-25

 We were covered on Polygon!

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 22

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 20

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 16

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 15

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 13

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 12

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 10

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 9!

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BREAK!! Kickstarter Day 7!

 

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Another stream!

I did a second stream, this time for Adversary Creation. Once the game is out properly, I'll clean these two entries up and post them to this blog. 

Character Creation Live Stream Recording (and a YouTube channel!)

I recently did a live stream highlighting character creation, and it's now available on youtube to watch at your leisure.

And the road goes ever, ever on...

Just another "we're still at it" update - Grey and I are going full speed ahead. Some more proofreading is done and now we are looking at through edits, final touch ups, and maybe some final organizational additions.

Hoping to have more news for you soon!

Adventure site locations

Work continues...