START Week Two: Roundabout

 

Our kickstarter for START launched last week (as I’m sure anyone even paying a bit of attention to this blog would know) and it took us a bit of time to get to it. In this entry, I talk about the twists and turns we took to get here.

Beacon: The original starting adventure cut from the core rules

Work on what would eventually become START began in the core rulebook. I had originally wanted to have a small adventure in the back so I thought up an abandoned old facility to show off the history of the setting and filled it with Skelemen since they were the first Adversaries I came up with for the game. Eventually it was decided that a collection of shorter examples would be more broadly helpful than something fleshed out but pretty simplistic, so the idea was shelved. Looking back, I’m glad we did because honestly, I don’t think a spooky basement full of skeletons with no real context was a great introduction to Outer World.

The idea of making a beginner’s adventure for the game came shortly after we wrapped up the first kickstarter. Grey and I had a back and forth about what we wanted to do next. I wanted to jump right into new rules (specifically, we had taken out a whole set of Callings from the main book that I wanted to publish) but he quite wisely suggested that a small thing for people just starting out might be good to go with. My original idea was for a 30-ish page adventure, though as per usual the page count exploded from there. Sorry Grey!

Sprocket: A Playtest

While I was working on BREAK!! I devised a little scenario alongside it called “Trouble in Sprocket”. I am still quite fond of this one, I worked backwards from stuff like wanting to reverse some of the assumptions of adventures like “Keep on the Borderlands” as well as the desire to include a giant robot. It gave me a lot of chances to stress test the combat and negotiation system as well and I learned a lot running it. I still want to publish this one someday, but I’d need to tighten it up and apply some of the knowledge I’ve learned in the time since I first wrote it. Sadly, it just wouldn’t have worked as a good introductory adventure.

 

Mellica: An adventure too complex for newbies?

My original concept for START’s scenario involved a town in the Twilight Meridian suffering from an outbreak of Arcane Contamination Syndrome (otherwise known as Odditis by laymen - something readers of the blog will be familiar with). I liked this one a lot, as it involved exploration, a bit of mystery solving, and went into the issues of magical pollution that permeate throughout the setting. I sent the finished version off to Grey and…well, he thought it was too complicated for a beginner adventure. D’oh!

 

Back to Beacon: Reviving the original adventure

Funny enough, Grey wanted to go back to my original concept of the magitech facility that had been taken over by Skelemen combined with some other ideas I’d written out: a training course run by the Knights of the Lantern and a “lantern town” in the Shadowed Lands called Beacon. He figured the three could be a combined set, a low-stakes scenario where players could easily learn the rules and a more traditional, dangerous endeavor where the adventure team would help out the people of the town. We just needed some more connective tissue.

Once we had finally decided what the adventure would be, I started expanding on some of Grey’s ideas. The facility had housed some magical plants, so he suggested putting a garden above it. I came up with a monster inspired by my wife’s houseplant, a seemingly unkillable mess of vines we’ve had for many years now. The garden grew into a park, and eventually we thought it and the area around it could represent the project of one particular Mage Knight. That guy doesn’t feature heavily in the main adventure, but it helped me get an idea of how we could expand on things.

With the main two scenarios drafted, we decided that the third section would actually be an entire locale, a map with a variety of adventure sites and settlements written in brief that Game Masters could use as a jumping off point if they wanted to run more adventures in the Shadowed Lands. Since START was no longer just an intro adventure, I thought it was best if we included a customizable and expandable section. Many of these places had their origins in the failed ambitions of that aforementioned mage knight, and I ended up getting a lot of new ideas for them from watching documentaries on the youtube channel Defunctland. Outer World bears a lot of scars from the follies of the previous aeons, and it was fun to show off a bit of that here.

So what else made it in there, then?

There are some things we wanted to add to START that didn’t quite fit into the main three sections. Special rules for starting Social Bonds, Adventure Team types, Saga Hubs, stuff on customizing species and callings as well as a few additional thoughts on the core rules. While they don’t have a direct connection to the setting or adventures in the book, we felt like they applied well to the core principles of START: mainly, to make a supplement that made things easier on new groups while providing experienced players with additional material to customize their games. Some of these things have been on devblog as freebies for a while now, but having them here helps contextualize them and also makes them readily available for a potentially larger audience.

These just happen to be some of my favorite things to write. I have an obvious fondness for big projects, but these little bits and bobs are something that I can finish and test out relatively quickly and they really help keep my creative energy up for things that take far more time and planning. 

I do want to end on that thought. One reason I hope this kickstarter makes it big is so I can use that momentum to work on a bunch of new books, but I’ll be writing these little bits and bobs (and blogs!) no matter what happens.

 

Check out START on Kickstarter

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. 

 

Twilight Meridian Items (Freebie, Gear)

The Twilight Meridian is an odd place, a region of true contrasts where dusk and dawn meet and fade away. Outer World's most active region in terms of mercantile and maritime exploits, it happens to also be the place one is most likely to find items from other regions sitting alongside local ones on a street stand or shop shelf.

 

Midday Gourds (Trade Goods) 

These colorful fruits flourish throughout the Twilight Meridian. They come in a variety of colors that denote different flavors (with pink being tart, blue being sour, etc and so forth). Some grow quite large and are even occasionally used as homes by eccentric sorts. People tend to only sell the more reasonably sized ones at markets, however.

• Midday Gourds are trade goods from the Twilight Meridian, taking up 3 slots as normal and costing 25 Coins in that region and 75 Coins in any other. 

 

Pokko-Do (Mount, Swim)

Slender, elegant cousins of the Mokko-Do and Rokko-Do, Pokko-Do are famous for their graceful swimming and deft, fish catching beaks. They prove invaluable for those traveling the waterways of the Galvanus Archipelago or Seven Sacred Isles. While most have white feathers, there are a few variants such as pale yellow and light green.

 

Hearts: 3 ATK: +0 DEF: 11 (12) Speed: Fast

Might: 8 Deft: 8 Grit: 5 Ins: 5 Aura: 5

• Mount Abilities
• Water Fowl: Pokko-Do are graceful swimmers, able to stay afloat as long as they are not Overburdened. 
• Fishing Buddy: While plants will do, Pokko-Do love fish most of all. If you take a Pokko-Do along with you while Fishing, you gain and Major (+4) Bonus on your Check to see if you catch anything.
• Grazing: Pokko-Do's require an environment with lots of plants and/or fish to Graze, preferring river banks and other freshwater bodies.  
•  Inventory Slots: 12 with Harness
•  Fighting: Long, curved beak strikes as a Quick Weapon
•  Cost: 160 Coins

 

Dusk Amber (Magic Stone)

This pale orange stone is very rare, forming in the sky where day and night meet thanks to the congealing of a mixture of energies. Occasionally shards of it rain down from the sky above the Seven Sacred Isles and Night Haven for lucky inhabitants to collect. Items made from Dusk Amber are translucent, with anything seen through them appearing a bit better than normal.

• 150 Coins Per Slot 

 

Crystal Wine, Liquid (Magical Consumable)

Made from the glass grapes found in Night Haven vineyards, this delicious, mana absorbing alcohol retains its delightful fizz even when left exposed. While it can be imbibed as a Basic Potion without any extra work, most people use it to make magical concoctions.

• 50 Coins Per Slot

 

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. 

Freebie: Harmful Terrain

 

Traveling throughout Outer World is exciting, but also perilous. Sometimes the danger doesn't come from a monster or ne'er-do-well like one might expect, but from the land itself.

 

Below are a few examples of Harmful Terrain as described in the Journey section of the BREAK!! tabletop rpg rulebook. These might surround an important adventure site, add some perilous color to a location in your saga, or work as an explanation as to why merchants usually take the long way around when traveling to a particular settlement.

 

Ailments contracted from the below Harmful Territory examples can be healed in the normal fashion described in their individual entries, Abilities that remove said Ailments, or by simply remaining outside of the Harmful Terrain for at least 24 hours and resting. Also note that Bio-Mechanoids and other characters immune to things that affect organic individuals are immune to effects that can be blocked with re-breathers or armor with the Anti-Hazard custom ability.

Scorching Sands

• Most commonly encountered in the Blazing Garden, these desserts have absorbed so much of the sun machine's light that they have become dangerously hot. Watch out for all the fire aligned creatures that stalk these sands!
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through or entering the Scorching Sands means you incur the Fatigued Ailment. You can avoid this by wearing Extreme Weather Clothing (Heat).
  
• Inhabitants: Monsters in the sands often breathe fire and have protection from heat. It's said dancing cacti that bring luck hang around as well, but few have ever seen them.
  
  

Doldrum Flats

• Certain places in the Wistful Dark are so devoid of joy and energy that they sap that from anything traveling around them. This is usually due to the presence of a particularly terrible curse or grudge. These places are grey and near lifeless, with twisted plant life and some sort of heavy mist framing them.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through or entering the Doldrum Flats means you incur the Dispirited Ailment. You can avoid this if wearing armor with the Anti-Hazard custom ability.
  
• Inhabitants: Not many creatures are able to live in the Doldrum Flats, though wicked undead are fond of wandering around them hoping to pick off helplessly despondent travelers. Strangely, the occasional flower will grow here and these are beautiful and rather valuable.
  
  

Confounding Cavern

• Deep in the Buried Kingdom are caverns of reflective crystal and echoing halls that confuse and discombobulate. It's very easy to lose both your senses and your way in these winding tunnels. Scholars wonder if some primordial magic left behind by the Creator is to blame.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through or entering a Confounding Cavern means you incur the Disoriented Ailment. Understanding Creator's Script renders you immune to this effect.
  
• Inhabitants: The main dangers here come from getting lost or harming yourself. These caverns often seem to be near places of ancient importance and so any defenses or guardians of such locations also pose a threat.
  
  

Petrifying Forest 

• Sometimes if an unshaped is slain in a particularly violent or indelicate way, its body curses the ground where it lies and fills it with calcifying energy. The trees that grow here are made of bone, ice, or rock, and anything living that passes through has a chance of joining them in that state.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through or entering a Petrifying Forest means you incur the Petrified Ailment. This can be avoided by wearing armor with the Anti-Hazard custom Ability.
  
• Inhabitants: Twisted monsters made of the forest's cursed material wander these places and collect - or destroy - statues made from unwary travelers. They are tough and difficult to harm, but some might make for good crafting material if skinned.
  
  

Bounce Bog 

• Among the marshes and wetlands of the Twilight Meridian is the occasional Bounce Bog, where pent up whimsy gasses can cause animal, monster, and folk alike to become oddly buoyant. The animals and plants that live in these places are sometimes carried elsewhere by the wind, which can warn travelers of their presence.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through or entering a Bounce Bog means you incur the Ballooned Ailment. This can be avoided by wearing a Re-Breather, or armor with the Anti-Hazard custom Ability.
  
• Inhabitants: Creatures that have adapted to these places use their odd state to their advantage, bobbing smoothly along the surface of the water. Some of the larger floating plants can be used as makeshift transportation if pruned.
  
  

Frosted Tundra

• The eternal night of the Wistful Dark can create these bitterly cold regions that are often covered in a blanket of permanent snow. The wind here can occasionally sound like mournful singing, only making it all the more haunting.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through a Frosted Tundra means you incur the Fatigued Ailment. This can be avoided by wearing an Extreme Weather (Cold) outfit.
  
• Inhabitants and Other Dangers: The monsters that wander a Frosted Tundra are unsurprisingly imbued with ice abilities. The occasional frozen undead also graces these dreadful lands.
  
  

Flux Fields

• Flux fields are odd spots where the flow of mana is so precariously balanced it's actually volatile, causing the landscape and its inhabitants to shift on occasion and become a little gooey. These are mostly found in the Twilight Meridian, but have been seen in other parts of Outer World as well.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Failing a Grit Check while traveling through a Flux Field means you incur the Jellyfied Ailment. This can be avoided by wearing armor with the Anti-Hazard custom ability.
  
• Inhabitants and Other Dangers: Odd, flexible monsters that look partially melted stalk the Flux Field. In addition, certain individuals find the risks of living in them are outweighed by the potential magical studies that can be conducted in these spaces.
  
  

Prismatic Wasteland 

• Many ancient facilities from the 3rd Aeon have gone unmaintained, falling in disrepair and creating an excess of magic that pollutes the land. Frankly, some of these structures were doing it while they were being maintained, but that's neither here nor there. The thing to understand is that the spots getting the worst of it sprout any number of strange magical flora, becoming garishly colorful and dangerous.
  
• Contracted Ailment: Traveling through a Prismatic Wasteland exposes you to Arcane Contamination Syndrome. This can be avoided by wearing armor with the Anti-Hazard Custom ability.
• GM NOTE!: This one is just here to show that you can play around with Harmful Terrain to induce other effects alongside Status Ailments!
  
• Inhabitants and Other Dangers: Creatures within the Prismatic Wasteland often have abilities associated with a particular Odditis symptom. In addition, while the plants here are contaminated, they often can be used to make potent imbued consumables.
  

 

BREAK!! x Animon Story

 

In case you missed it, BREAK!! will be having a crossover with Animon Story, a tabletop rpg inspired by various things in the monster buddy genre. It's for their new Legend's Wake kickstarter - read more about it here! We're big fans of the original Animon Story release, so this is a very exciting team up for us.

I don't want to give too much away just yet, but this will include some BREAK!! style mechanics as well as something that ties in with Outer World itself. It'll be great!

Freebie Mini-Entry: Quick Re-Skins And Other Shortcuts

Just some things that popped into my head that aren't quite big enough for a full entry, but I thought were fun nonetheless.

 

Big Boomerangs

While most boomerangs would fall under Thrown Weapons in BREAK!!, you occasionally get the desire for a character with an especially large one to function as their primary weapon. These sorts of boomerangs, that can be swung about like a melee weapon, can be thrown for a bit of distance and dependably return, can just be treated like Lash Weapons, though the sort of combat tricks and stunts they would allow for would be different than whips and the like.

What is reason people who are proficient with Lash weapons are also good with Big Boomerangs? It's all in the wrist.

 

Passing the Torch

Sometimes when a character dies in an anime, video game, or other media, they'll pass on their magical power or what have you to someone else, so they can carry on in their stead. Judgements on this particular technique in writing aside, it can be useful for BREAK!! games. 

If a player character does perish and the player doesn't want to make an entirely new one, they can decide that their fallen PC becomes a little speck of light that beseeches and empowers a chosen ally, or something like that.

Upon receiving this blessing, the target gains the Aptitudes, Combat Statistics, and Calling Abilities of the new character. Their original Traits, Species and Quirk stick (or get chosen/rolled, if they lacked these)

In these cases, the target cannot be another Player Character (or Game Master Character) with ranks or potent Abilities. The best choices tend to be basic folk somehow related to the character (a long lost relative, perhaps) or follower whose existing talents can be easily replaced by their new Abilities (For example, a Custrel gaining the power of a fallen Champion)

BREAK!! Book Secrets

First things first, we won the Ennie for best Family Game! Thanks to everyone for all their support.

 

Now then, for this week's entry, I thought I might highlight a few little tidbits in the BREAK!! rulebook itself. I like to think of these as little hidden bonuses and secrets, and many people have already discovered them, but I noticed quite a few hadn't so I thought it'd be fun to reveal them the way an old video game magazine might.

You may have noticed these little colored d20's in the corner of the page. These are here in case you don't have a die on hand! Just flip to a random page to get your result. Fantastic when gaming on the go or on the fly!

 

There are already a fair amount of playable species in BREAK!!, but maybe you want just one more - or maybe you'd really like to play a stalwart doggo or fierce wolf - well fear not, if you go to the end of the Mundymutt entries in the adversary section...

 

 

 

Speaking of oddball playable characters, death in BREAK!! is pretty finite, but, if you slip past the Skelemonarch's write-up on the adversary section you might find a temporary solution in the form of some helpful GM advice...

 

 

Of course, you could also use this to let players start a Saga as a skeleman, if your game can accommodate the undead...

Anyway, that's all the tidbits for now - we'll be sure to tuck some more fun things in future supplements as well!