A Tale of Two Festivals (Setting)

Spirits were understandably low at the start of the 4th Aeon. The war that had ushered in the cataclysm had no clear victor, leaving the world scarred, with the Sun Machine broken and the old empire diminished. While Emperor Regulus brooded and adjusted to the eternal day that now washed over his home, he decided that something must be done to lift the spirits of the people. He eventually thought of something, decreeing that there would be a great gathering of the skilled, strong, and clever in the newly christened Sol Alliance each year, right in the capital of Aeon. There they would compete among their peers to see which was the greatest in their particular field.

And thus, the Radiant Festival was born.

Overseen by the First Hero himself, the Radiant Festival has grown in complexity and scope over time but the basic structure remains simple: a few series of contests are held over a period of a week, the pool of contestants for each dwindling as the defeated are ejected from the competition, until each particular skill or vocation has a victor (or team of victors) to receive a gift from Regulus himself. The games include everything from mock combat, sports, poetry, and crafting contests. These are accompanied by parades and other grand displays. During the Radiant Festival the city of Aeon becomes lively and boisterous, its people thrilled to see what remarkable talents it will bring that particular year.

Aeon's ever present military guard has always brushed up uncomfortably against the city's cosmopolitan nature, and the Radiant Festival has always further tested this tension. Celebration around the the competitors and lively carousing are mostly ignored, assuming they don't get out of hand. These practices are seen as generally harmless. More mercantile activities are a different story however. Rumors of opportunistic individuals selling means to cheat in the competition, dodgy paraphernalia, and potentially dangerous snacks were enough to get traveling peddlers banned from the city proper during the festivities.

One year found a whole gaggle of merchants ejected from Aeon for this very reason. Undeterred, they decided that while they weren't allowed to do business within the city nothing said they weren't allowed to do something about half a days walk out from it.

On that day, Radiket ( a portmanteau of Radiant Market) was born, starting just a few days before the Radiant Festival and ending just a few days after. What was a small cluster of tents and blankets off the side of the main road towards Aeon has grown into an event that is in some ways, as grand as the more official festival that spawned it. A variety of temporary structures provide shade to merchants from all corners of Outer World as they sell a number of things that might be difficult to peddle anywhere else. Merchandise related to the Radiant Festival is the most common, but the sorts of things on sale include (but are not limited to) one of a kind crafts, novels and other works of fiction, cursed treasure some adventurers might have discovered in some forsaken ruins, and of course, odd snacks of all sorts.

The city itself has a tenuously friendly relationship with Radiket. While officials were quite annoyed, it is rumored that Regulus finds the whole thing rather amusing and more importantly, helpful to his goal of raising the spirits of the people of the Sol Alliance. As long as those participating in Radiket don't cause any trouble for Aeon itself, he's more than willing to overlook it.

There is of course, rumors of The First Hero himself visiting Radiket in disguise now and again...but of course, no one can prove anything.

A (very) short guide on converting material from other games to BREAK!!

One of the best things about owning a lot of tabletop material (adventures, supplements, and otherwise) is that all of it can be resources for whatever you happen to be playing at the moment. While often this involves simply cribbing ideas from different sources, it can also come in the form of porting things from one game to another. This entry is designed to help with that second part, providing some guidelines for converting things from other tabletop RPGs to BREAK!!

As a preface, it's worth saying that the neatest way to do this is to use the original material as inspiration to create brand new things for BREAK!! with the help of the GM's section of the core rulebook. However, there are instances when you are converting things to help save time and effort you would have spent making something entirely new, so meticulously creating stuff wholesale might detract from that purpose. 

With that in mind, the guidelines in this entry are meant to help with speedy conversions rather than meticulous ones. There will still be work involved and there could be a lot more said on this, but hopefully these can still help your efforts be smoother than they would have been before.

Monsters, Enemies, Etc

The first step in converting monsters, adversaries, and various entities from other material into BREAK!! is figuring out what the subject's Rank and Menace level would be so you can get its basic stats from the Adversary Table.

Entities from classic fantasy tabletop games have some easy benchmarks. If the system has something like Hit Dice or levels, this can usually be converted into a Rank by comparing the value range for them and adjusting accordingly. For example, if you are working from a game where enemies are leveled somewhere between 1-30, you could probably get away with dividing the level by 2 to figure out what their Rank in BREAK!! would be. A level 10 giant in this example would be Rank 5 and likely Massive to boot!

If there isn't a clear parallel to Rank in the source, or if the math doesn't quite work out, instead look at how strong the entity is relative to the characters in that particular game. For example, if it's a monster that's meant to go up against very powerful characters, it will probably be something that's Rank 11-15.

When choosing which aptitudes are primary and secondary, think about what the entity uses the most. A tough, brawny monster with good senses should likely have Might, Insight and Grit as primary aptitudes, leaving Deftness and Aura as the secondary ones.

If you are going for speed, when assigning something Traits give a +2 to what its most likely used aptitude, and -1 to its weak point. The aforementioned brawny monster might get a +2 Might and -1 Deftness, for example.

Figuring out Menace Level is a little trickier, but ultimately a matter of pinning down the scope of the entity in question.

• If it's something that really shouldn't be a threat to the player characters on its own, it's likely a Mook.
• If the entity is intended to be on the same level as a character in some form, or at least, mechanically comparable, it's a Boss.
• If the entity is intended to tangle with a bunch of characters on its own, it's probably a Mega Boss or Colossus if its large enough.

Of course, there probably isn't going to be a perfect match here - just go with the best fit for your own purposes.

When it comes to monstrous powers and attacks, the fastest way to adapt is to think of existing abilities in BREAK!! and converting said powers to those when possible. Tough creatures with extra Hit Points might gain an Ability like the Gruun's As tough as they look. A monster with a claw attack might make unarmed strikes as if it were wielding a master weapon. A dragon's breath weapon might be similar to the effect of the Heretic's Umbral Draconis ability, and so forth.

Powers and attacks that don't have an equivalent can be altered into ones that fit with BREAK!! - for example, spells that put targets to sleep might instead incur the Fatigued or Dispirited Ailment. Try to consider what the effect is meant for in the source material and run with it. 

Attacks or effects that kill instantly or shave away a characters ranks aren't well suited for BREAK!!, so you might consider using things like the Putrefied Status Ailment or Burning/Caustic injuries to keep their danger intact but within the game's scope by giving the characters more a chance to try and counter or deal with it.

Items, traps and other magic effects

Converting these is much like converting Abilities. The quick way is to go with something existing in the game already that's a close match - a ring that allows you to fly might grant you the Sage's Practical Flight ability, a magical trap that shrinks its victims might cause the chibbed status ailment, and so forth.

When possible BREAK!! items should offer some new power or tools to players, rather than increasing bonuses. Simple items items to this effect (your +1 Swords and shields, etc) could simply be made of magical materials and have a custom weapon/shield/armor ability for a similar feel. Items with higher bonuses could grant access to appropriate Calling Abilities instead, a powerful holy sword might mimic the Battle Princess's Luminous Blade, as an example.

Most traps and hazards can be modeled as something to avoid via careful planning or dodge with Checks, with consequences coming from the Impact or Burning Injury table. Certain other traps might be re-worked as causing troublesome or dangerous ailments.

Effects that are more narrative than mechanical, like a mirror that shows one their heart's desire, can usually just be kept as is. This is probably obvious, but it still warrants mentioning.

Maps

Most maps are easy enough to convert into use for BREAK!! - for example, in a traditional dungeon layout the rooms would be Locations in an Adventure Site while the doors and hallways would be access points (though certain ones might also be considered locations if there is something to interact with there). More open places (like a large forest or abandoned town) would be even easier to use.

You might want to cut down particularly large maps into a series of connected Adventure Sites to better suit BREAK!!'s style. Each level of a classic mega-dungeon could be its own site for example. Players can tackle each distinct part in different sessions/adventures that way.

If the map comes with a Random Encounter table already prepared, you might want to alter it to be more inline with how BREAK!! uses them (including "no encounter" results, at least a few non-hostile or potentially non-hostile encounters, etc). 

If the map doesn't use Random Encounters already, consider making a new table, or even taking some of the encounters on the map and making them into random rather than guardian style encounters. You could even use some of the encounters from any discarded spots on a map to make a new table if you're reducing the size of a larger site.