A nice little shout-out

A friend of the team, Daniel, wrote up a nice little thing on why he's excited for BREAK!!  and obvious bias on my part aside, it's a very nice read and even points out things I'd not thought of.

McByrde-Thomas Projection

Giving sense of spherical nature using loose approximation of geographic projection.
Prolly stick with iscoheadron net

Icosahedro-map

The net for the 20 sided world is much more 2D friendly than the 12 sided one.

Regions could fit into a triangular face, then isolated and explained in subsequent chapters.
You would go on trian-crawls!

Dodeca-map!

Rethinking map presentation (again).

Please ignore labels and geography (just there for conceptual purposes)

How about presenting the world map as a dodecahedron net?

New Subreddit!

We now have a BREAK!! subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/breakrpg/

Please feel free to join and ask questions - it'll keep us on our toes!

Outer World Map iteration and annotation

Exploring ways to annotate the original world map with the more detailed region locations.

Version 1: Contextual
Like the full page-ness here, would be impactful on page flip.

Version 2: Look up tableThink this gives clearer segmentation of the 3 core surface regions
Have put the regions corresponding areas/landmasses directly underneath the map, so you can look straight down to find the names of the notable areas.

More Header fun!

Combat and Shopping (neither finished, but I'm done for now)

Header Art

Two pics...

Overland Travel and Downtime rules headers

The Big Plan of the moment

So it's no secret we've been plugging at this book for a while now - while it is in fact, written, layout, art, and so forth take a while and Grey is going full speed ahead on it. In the mean time I have about two full supplement's worth of stuff drafted and waiting in the wings. So once this gets off the ground, you'll have plenty of content, don't worry.

The big thing we've been talking about is how we are going to release things once the main book is ready. Grey had a pretty cool idea - zine style releases periodically, while I suggested things could be collected (based on demand) into bigger books later on. The zine thing is particularly nice as it's something Grey and I could probably keep up with as our two man team.

As for a preview - I am sorry about that. We'll have something around release (so people know what they are getting into) but at the moment we figured we'd put our energy into getting this full game out for all of you. 

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Calling Mini Comics (cont.)

Two more illustration/mini-comics, this time less fighty types. Factotum (Everyman with unique skills)

Sneak (Sneaky!)

Calling mini comics

Callings (classes) deserve mini-comics (like the monsters/adversaries do, see here and here)

The Raider (fast and precise)

The Champion (direct and forceful)

Sprocket mood sketches

Exploring mood. Leaning into post-apocalyptic setting.

Trouble in Sprocket: Gamemaster's Characters

Factions from the starter adventure

1. Goblin deserters and tag-alongs
2. Sprocket town guard
3. Lucid Drones of the wastelands

Cover image rework

Revisited earlier concept

Changes:

• Make ruins more industrial (not crumbling castle)
• Better colonization of stair well by vegetation
• Give battle princess 'Heart's blade'
• Reposition camera angle. 
• Main figure redrawn

Social Media Round-Up

I've done these before but I figured it would be nice to have an updated one.

Here are places you can read/talk about BREAK!!
The BREAK!! Facebook Page
The BREAK!! Tumblr!!
The BREAK!! Discord

Here is places you can see the creator's old stuff!
The Author's Old Blog for D&D Stuff
The Artist's old Blog for assorted stuff!

Non-Core Books (Or, what have I been doing during the layout wars)

I've always been torn when it comes to the supplement books and products for tabletop games. On one hand, more stuff is fun! At their best, these sorts of things provide new ways to play and interact with the existing game without clogging up the basics. At their worst, they are patchy, bloated, and come with a sort of power creep that eventually shoves things towards a new edition where the cycle begins anew.

Grey and I have gone back and forth a lot about what additional books for BREAK!! would be like. Obviously with the main book still being made we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. The three big requirements in my head so far are:

1. Anything provided should be something a GM or group with an average level of investment in the game wouldn't be expected to make themselves.
2. Anything provided should keep giving. Adventures should provide templates for other scenarios of that type, mechanics and options should lead to more opportunities for players and GM's, and so forth.
3. Nothing provided should exist to supersede or undermine something already in the game.

I don't think that's particularly ambitious, but it does give me something to focus on. So what does this translate into so far?

I've been working on the following

1. A BREAK!! companion book, with a lot of the supplemental stuff that we had to cut from the main book to make it a bit more feasible. Lots of GM facing info and rules here, mainly for making your own monsters and other tools.
2. Expanding Trouble in Sprocket, which has been discussed on the blog at length. Not only will it include the scenario, but info on the realm of Stahlfeld and character options for those wanting to play more sorts of synthetics.
3. A yet unnamed supplement on establishing and building up a "Hometown" - so far it's kind of like Animal Crossing but with a lot more opportunities for adventure and stuff. I am also thinking some kind of system for mass combat will be mushed into this one.

I promised Grey to keep these at around 100 pages or less - so hopefully they will be easy on your patience and wallet as well.

Strike Points for Colossi

One of my favorite bits of Break!! is Colossal Combat.

Each part of a giant adversary has it's own Heart Total and must be specifically targeted, this is called a Strike Point.

Destroying a body part removes a monster ability.

Moving from part to part is subject to same rules as moving through a regular Battlefield Area.

URARANI
The forgotten crystal beast

Creatures from the 1st Aeon do not follow the rules of other eras. They run the gamut from messengers with gossamer wings to killing machines made of unbreakable glass. Most have been destroyed or withered away in a reality they find suffocating, but others have found ways to remain.

Urarani is an enormous, arachnid creature made of murky chitin. It was once part of an Unshaped’s tale but abandoned when it was deemed unappealing by its creator. Its appearances in the Outer World almost always include a rampage of some kind, so it is fortunate that it remains a rare sight.

I am looking forward to Rey's Monsterhunter/Shadow of the Colossus inspired adventure/monster book!

Rey's original concept...

 

Visual summaries

I am hoping to summarise key rules into visual checklists.
The aim for these diagrams is to jog a GM's memory and avoid the need to 'lean in' during play, and present players a quick high level understanding of key concepts and possibilities.

Flow chart concept

Have finessed the rules flow chart concept.

Blue boxed indicate roll is required.

Green paths = positive/affirmative outcome.

Red paths = negative outcome.

Further enhancements might include: links/reference to relevant rules, illustration, clearer segregation of components/stages.
 

The Damage and Injury Table

Most in-game outcomes in BREAK!! are resolved with Checks and Contests.

The Injury/Damage table is one of the few exceptions.

In combat, if you are reduced to zero hearts, you roll and injury. Subsequent hits incur additional Injury rolls but with a different result spread (leaning towards more severe outcomes)

Anyway, being indulgent with the design.