Further Perusal (A.K.A Appendix NES)

I think it's often helpful to wear your influences on your sleeve when writing for tabletop RPGs. Not only does it allow someone skimming through your work to get a good idea of what they are getting into, it also means they have a place to draw ideas from while playing and running your game.

A friend posted something for an up and coming game that had an impressive list of influences and I had to laugh, since BREAK!!'s mostly consists of video games and animated programs!

Still, I clearly think those things still have a lot of worth - I am writing a whole game thanks to them after all! So since Grey and I are hammering out the finer points at the moment, my "we aren't dead" post for the fortnight will be BREAK!!'s "Further Perusal" list.

(As always, forgive me for any roughness/typos. Still in draft and all that.)

Video Games

While those listed are some of the primary influences on BREAK!!, any game with a focus on exploration, wistful stories, bombastic characters and fantastic places could provide you with workable ideas.

• Godslayer/Crystalis

This game presents a world recovering from the mistakes of the past, where magic and technology clash and combine. Greedy, short-sighted ambition threatens to awaken a great, slumbering danger and salvation lies with a youth on a perilous journey. Sound familiar?

• Seiken Densetsu/Mana Series

While this game series varies in quality and style, there is a consistent story of corruption, hope and rebirth that cycles throughout. The colorful cast of characters, charming locales and grand battles would feel right at home in the Outer World.

• NieR

NieR’s influence on BREAK!! seems obvious at first, with its misfit heroes, shambling remains of a former world and gloriously strange antagonists. But it’s the heart of its narrative, where no conflict is as black and white as it seems, that seeped the most into the game you are reading right now.

Anime and Manga

Often visually dynamic and exciting, action and fantasy anime set a basis for how the active sequences in BREAK!! might look in the mind’s eye, and the impressive visual world-building in many works can help with understanding the mysterious Outer World.

• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

The general look and feel of this classic are natural inspirations for BREAK!!, but it’s fantastic cast of characters could easily make for a great party of adventurers. The heroine the film is named for inspired the spirit behind the Battle Princess Calling.

• Berserk

While considerably darker than BREAK!! normally leans, Berserk has some fantastic battle scenes that should provide some good inspiration for Combat Stunts! Careful though, the terrible creatures that show up in the Black Swordsman arc and onwards may give the Game Master some ideas...

• Morabito

This beautifully animated show also provides some wonderful battle sequences, but also a distinctly asian setting and a good idea of how Social Bonds between adventurers look like in play.

• The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk/Sword of Uruk

While not terribly original, this anime provides a very good visual basis for the sort of  dungeon crawling and various character types that may show up in a campaign. There are also hidden depths to its otherwise light hearted story, which lends itself well to BREAK!!.

Other Animation

While Anime provides BREAK!! with its primary visual basis, there is plenty of other animated features that present complementary images or even alternative ones.

• The Last Unicorn

BREAK!!’s immortal characters and creatures were directly informed by this beautifully melancholic story. Also; Molly Grue is perhaps the perfect Factotum character, even if she is missing an oversized backpack.

• Wizards

The darker parts of this film should give you a pretty good idea of how the Shadowed Lands look. Without giving too much away, it’s also the main reason Sages are able to use small mechanical missile weapons.

Literature

Books will always be a good source of ideas of any kind, but the ones presented here contain settings or themes that resonate very closely with BREAK!!’s.

• The Earthsea Series

A beautifully written set of books that provide good examples of how magic, social bonds and even travel might work in play.

• The Once and Future King

The Outer World’s many beautifully flawed attempts at being an overall better place and the hope that it may all work out someday we’re mostly informed by this version of the story of King Arthur. Merlin and the other magic users in this collection were also the primary inspiration for the Sage Calling.

• The Swords Trilogy

While nearly all of the stories of the Eternal Champion would be good reading for BREAK!!, Corum’s first set of adventures are especially so with its put upon hero, pushy gods and colorful, fractured setting.