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Wednesday, 11 October 2023

Freebie: Wonder and Whimsy (Gear + Adventure Site Features)

I'm unreasonably excited for Super Mario Wonder, so I thought it might be fun to theme this freebie around it. 

I've loved the Mario games since I was a kid, and while it might not be quite as influential on my stuff as a certain other Nintendo franchise I do think some of its DNA did make its way into BREAK!!

Besides, BREAK!! really wears its influences on its sleeve, so it just feels right to occasionally write things like this and show off how people might translate their own favorite things into it for their own sagas.

Anyway, enough blathering, onto the freebies!


(On the off chance you don't know what game I'm talking about, here's the trailer)

Wonder Fruits
These unique consumables grant an array of effects upon use, usually a bonus ability coupled with an appropriate physical or cosmetic alteration. They are quite rare, often manifesting a few at a time every century or so in very specific places. They have proven to be impossible to cultivate or reproduce and are unsuitable for use in even magical crafting - given this, and the fact they seem to have been around in some capacity for as long as history has been recorded, scholars have defaulted to blaming the Unshaped for this one.

Wonder Fruits:
  • Take up a single inventory slot if stored
  • Can be consumed with an action.
  • Unless otherwise noted, their effects last until the user would lose a heart or incur an injury somehow. The user is spared the damage, but the power up's effects end immediately.
Due to their nature as rare, single use items found in specific places, it's hard to put a value on Wonder Fruits as normal merchants simply don't have much reason to try and sell them. Undead Merchants however occasionally hunker down and peddle them for a (negotiable) 50 Coins a pop.

Bumpo Berry (Consumable, Power-Up)
This odd, fist size berry looks a bit like a Wooly Bumpo's head, growing in magic saturated places that are in some way affiliated with those majestic beasts.
  • Consuming one of these fruits will not only nourish you for a day, but also transform you into a mighty hybrid of yourself and the berry's namesake! In this form:
    • You grow to Large size, if you aren't that big (or bigger) already.
    • Grants you Supernatural Might and the Champion's Brute Elective Ability.
Other Wonder Fruits can be created by pairing different abilities with physical changes or colorful effects. Given their temporary nature, you might even allow players to gain access to powerful abilities that are usually only available to adversaries, or create a sort of  power-up that is essential to getting around a particular Adventure site.

Whimsy Stones
Whimsy Stones are an extremely concentrated version of the magical energy that Sages draw on for a number of their spells. There are a few reasons why enough mana collects to form one of these: magical duels involving repeated spells, rituals that go a little too well, or the death of a particularly powerful sage are perhaps the most well known.

Whimsy Stones are rooted in the ground of certain Adventure Sites and are activated by touch. This creates a Whimsy Effect (see below) that affects the site for 24 Hours. This drains the stone of its magic, though it will resume soaking in mana and become charged again in a span of time dependent on the nature of the site itself. These effects extend to the player's party unless otherwise noted.

It is said that the these stones, ripped from their place of origin and with their mischief shucked away, are an integral component of a Pedagogue's apparatus.

Whimsy Effect (Roll or Choose)
  • 1-2: Everything and everyone currently in the Adventure Site is granted a very unbecoming hat they are compelled to wear for the duration of the effect.
  • 3-4: Every location in the Adventure Site now has 3 Chompas (from the adversary section of the BREAK!! rulebook) wandering around them in addition to whatever was in there before. Roll on the Chompa's Mood Table to see how each trio is handling the situation.
  • 5-6: Every applicable target within the Adventure Site becomes afflicted with a thematically appropriate Status Ailment as chosen by the GM.
  • 7-8: The scenery within the site has come to life and is now moving or wobbling about! Roll a die for each Battlefield Area that comes up to see what condition they gain from all this wiggling:
    • 1-4: Nothing new, thankfully
    • 5-8: Isolated
    • 9-12: Sheltered
    • 13-16: Cramped 
    • 17-20: Precarious
  • 9-10: The entire Adventure site is now flooded with water. It's thankfully breathable even for folks bereft of gills, but it does mean everyone inside is going to be stuck wading or swimming everywhere.
  • 11-12: The doors and portals of this adventure site are tired of being slammed, having their locks picked, or being bashed open at a whim and are on strike. Anyone wanting to move through one normally will have to negotiate with them (their Aptitudes for any negotiation rolls are equal to their Object Defense Rating, -2)
  • 13-14: Physical violence is impossible within the Adventure Site for the duration of the effect. Conflicts are instead resolved via things like card games, rock paper scissors, tongue twisters - whatever the GM has on hand, really. Anyone who loses one of these contests or attempts to attack someone else (including the use of hostile abilities) vanishes until the effect is over, re-appearing at the spot they last got a decent rest at.
  • 15-16: The lighting of the adventure site inverts. Well lit places are now pitch dark, shadowy spots are now bright and so forth. It's very disorienting and has likely got the site's normal inhabitants in a tizzy.
  • 17-18: The smallest inhabitant of the Adventure Site (not including members of the player's party) is now Massive size (per the Adversary section of the BREAK!! Rulebook). This often comes with an proportionate increase in aggression.
  • 19-20: The Adventure site is immediately flipped upside down. This one is probably a (comedic) disaster.


2 comments:

  1. I love it! This particular kind of Freebie would be great as a regular exercise.

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    Replies
    1. I wouldn't be adverse honestly! I'll have to keep it in mind.

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