It was a good year.

The High Holy was tired.

This year had been trying. The city of Torm openly violated church decree, opening its gates to the forsaken. Spire's political unrest and subsequent violence cost a hiearch their life. According to rumors, a terrible Unshaped named "The Queen of Weeping Shadows" had enslaved the ghosts of the southern ruins.

With a weary sigh the ancient raised a pale hand, tracing an unseen sigil into the air. There was a brief hiss, not dissimilar to the sound of air rushing out of an opened window. A small orb covered in eyes emerged, hovering inches above the the High Holy's palm. 

"Yurn, feeble thing that can never look away..." The pale being spoke with lazy, assumed authority. "...show me the progress of the potential keys."

Yurn's many eyes opened wide as a series of images entered the High Holy's consciousness. A tenebrate woman weeps softly as she raises her heart's blade against an unrelenting foe. A chib searches his pack for something to save his friends. A warmechanoid lumbers alone, without purpose, somewhere beneath the surface.

Yurn was dismissed with the being's ancient smile, evaporating to that place between reality where it belonged. Five keys had already been claimed, only six were needed - and the High Holy had their choice of three. Perhaps all this hardship was not in vain.

"Next year then." They said, finally allowing themselves the luxury of slumber.

  

So, three years later...

It has been 3 years since the first blog post and so, dear follower, and we are still not finished.

So far we have ignored all the advice. We used a homebrew campaign as a starting point, went about fixing D&D and pursued a sprawling ruleset for our very first project. Rather than a sprint to the finish line it's been more of ramble in a vague direction. We're prone to expansive thinking and often meander into non-essential areas. But we are getting there.

Rey has been a fabulous and generous collaborator and ride has personally been immensely fun thus far.

Anyway, I present the evolution of the species table.

Dec 2013
 

Jan 2014
 

Nov 2014
 

Oct 2015
 

Hmm, that firsts one's pretty good...

More Other World

More antics on Other World

Other World

Dimensional strays are humans that have been plucked from Other World (a world remarkably similar to our own) and deposited in BREAK!!'s fantasy/tech setting.

The Strays are one of my favourite BREAK!! constructs. At one point I even suggested that PCs should ONLY be allowed to be dimensional strays (I still think that would be cool!)

Anyway, it figures that if humans can get sucked out of Other World the reverse can happen too... fantasy creatures can get drawn/summoned into a contemporary setting.

Visiting Other World creates TMNT-esque game opportunities:

• PCs would need to conceal their exotic appearance (make-up, prosthetics, sunglasses...)
• PCs could user their powers to fight crime, commit crime or tackle mysterious/sinister corporations.
• Skelemonarchs (Lich types) might run shady crime syndicates or organisations with dubious business practices (planning a full blown skeleman invasion?).
• PCs would get access to cool 80s tech like GameGal, Jogman, 3D glasses and skateboards.
• Traversing dimensions is not temporally precise. PCs find themselves in Other World eras equivalent to our own Victorian/Edo/80s.
• The Secret Service are on to all this dimension hopping and want to destroy/harness/exploit it. Special agents wield magical weapons and scientist are keen to perform their next extra-dimensional autopsy.
• Returning Strays have a lot of explaining to do. "Hi mom, I'm home... and I bought some new friends"

Three Factoids (Second Scroll)

Legend

"The fish that never rots"

• Just south of the grand city of Portia is a small fishing village that is quite famous for one of its residents - an enormous aquatic Deva that lives in the waters near the town. Powerful, old and mostly content, it protects the town from all danger and asks for nothing but a single fish in return. The only issue is that it is quite picky, and will study the offering for weeks at a time, guaranteeing that even a suitable meal will be rotting by the time it deigns to eat it. Fortunately, the town elders found a way to catch a fish that never rots, though it requires a trip to a dangerous undersea cave off the coast...

World

"The Kingdom of Shard"

• The great Kingdom of Akenia was left devastated by the Third Cataclysm, its people orphaned by a war with a legend and abandoned by the retreating sun. Left alone in the darkness, they huddled around the great "Star Shards" - glowing pieces of the Sun Machine that had fallen to the ground after that final, devastating battle. They conglomerated and rebuilt in these odd facsimiles of the dawn, and the new confederacy of city states that rose from it was named "Shard" in honor of what had saved them.

Persona

"Shogun Seika - she who would unite all under the sky"

• It is said that the Seven Holy Isles were always destined to be at war, and yet she rules three of them now. She, the daughter of a disgraced ronin, who rose to prominence by earning victory after victory from those who doubted, berated and looked down upon her. She, who struck down her ruler in an act of treachery that was cheered by the soldiers under her and the peasants freed from the yoke of a tyrant. If the Will of Heaven does not support her, she will simply make her own path - because truly, what is a few more lives crushed underfoot when the end result is a true and lasting peace?