Overland travel layout

Words not official!

It was a good year.

The High Holy was tired.

This year had been trying. The city of Torm openly violated church decree, opening its gates to the forsaken. Spire's political unrest and subsequent violence cost a hiearch their life. According to rumors, a terrible Unshaped named "The Queen of Weeping Shadows" had enslaved the ghosts of the southern ruins.

With a weary sigh the ancient raised a pale hand, tracing an unseen sigil into the air. There was a brief hiss, not dissimilar to the sound of air rushing out of an opened window. A small orb covered in eyes emerged, hovering inches above the the High Holy's palm. 

"Yurn, feeble thing that can never look away..." The pale being spoke with lazy, assumed authority. "...show me the progress of the potential keys."

Yurn's many eyes opened wide as a series of images entered the High Holy's consciousness. A tenebrate woman weeps softly as she raises her heart's blade against an unrelenting foe. A chib searches his pack for something to save his friends. A warmechanoid lumbers alone, without purpose, somewhere beneath the surface.

Yurn was dismissed with the being's ancient smile, evaporating to that place between reality where it belonged. Five keys had already been claimed, only six were needed - and the High Holy had their choice of three. Perhaps all this hardship was not in vain.

"Next year then." They said, finally allowing themselves the luxury of slumber.

  

So, three years later...

It has been 3 years since the first blog post and so, dear follower, and we are still not finished.

So far we have ignored all the advice. We used a homebrew campaign as a starting point, went about fixing D&D and pursued a sprawling ruleset for our very first project. Rather than a sprint to the finish line it's been more of ramble in a vague direction. We're prone to expansive thinking and often meander into non-essential areas. But we are getting there.

Rey has been a fabulous and generous collaborator and ride has personally been immensely fun thus far.

Anyway, I present the evolution of the species table.

Dec 2013
 

Jan 2014
 

Nov 2014
 

Oct 2015
 

Hmm, that firsts one's pretty good...

More Other World

More antics on Other World

Other World

Dimensional strays are humans that have been plucked from Other World (a world remarkably similar to our own) and deposited in BREAK!!'s fantasy/tech setting.

The Strays are one of my favourite BREAK!! constructs. At one point I even suggested that PCs should ONLY be allowed to be dimensional strays (I still think that would be cool!)

Anyway, it figures that if humans can get sucked out of Other World the reverse can happen too... fantasy creatures can get drawn/summoned into a contemporary setting.

Visiting Other World creates TMNT-esque game opportunities:

• PCs would need to conceal their exotic appearance (make-up, prosthetics, sunglasses...)
• PCs could user their powers to fight crime, commit crime or tackle mysterious/sinister corporations.
• Skelemonarchs (Lich types) might run shady crime syndicates or organisations with dubious business practices (planning a full blown skeleman invasion?).
• PCs would get access to cool 80s tech like GameGal, Jogman, 3D glasses and skateboards.
• Traversing dimensions is not temporally precise. PCs find themselves in Other World eras equivalent to our own Victorian/Edo/80s.
• The Secret Service are on to all this dimension hopping and want to destroy/harness/exploit it. Special agents wield magical weapons and scientist are keen to perform their next extra-dimensional autopsy.
• Returning Strays have a lot of explaining to do. "Hi mom, I'm home... and I bought some new friends"

Three Factoids (Second Scroll)

Legend

"The fish that never rots"

• Just south of the grand city of Portia is a small fishing village that is quite famous for one of its residents - an enormous aquatic Deva that lives in the waters near the town. Powerful, old and mostly content, it protects the town from all danger and asks for nothing but a single fish in return. The only issue is that it is quite picky, and will study the offering for weeks at a time, guaranteeing that even a suitable meal will be rotting by the time it deigns to eat it. Fortunately, the town elders found a way to catch a fish that never rots, though it requires a trip to a dangerous undersea cave off the coast...

World

"The Kingdom of Shard"

• The great Kingdom of Akenia was left devastated by the Third Cataclysm, its people orphaned by a war with a legend and abandoned by the retreating sun. Left alone in the darkness, they huddled around the great "Star Shards" - glowing pieces of the Sun Machine that had fallen to the ground after that final, devastating battle. They conglomerated and rebuilt in these odd facsimiles of the dawn, and the new confederacy of city states that rose from it was named "Shard" in honor of what had saved them.

Persona

"Shogun Seika - she who would unite all under the sky"

• It is said that the Seven Holy Isles were always destined to be at war, and yet she rules three of them now. She, the daughter of a disgraced ronin, who rose to prominence by earning victory after victory from those who doubted, berated and looked down upon her. She, who struck down her ruler in an act of treachery that was cheered by the soldiers under her and the peasants freed from the yoke of a tyrant. If the Will of Heaven does not support her, she will simply make her own path - because truly, what is a few more lives crushed underfoot when the end result is a true and lasting peace?

Elective Abilities

I hammered out the main/essential rules to the game finally, which Grey is currently giving a once-over (where he will inevitably tut-tut the lack of u's in words like armor and color) before I run through it again for last minute revision.

As for me, I've switched gears back to character rules. This is actually one of my favorite things to write, so beyond the occasional writer's block I've been really enjoying myself. Even though all the Callings I'd put to pen a couple years back have needed to be re-worked (and in some cases, totally scrapped) it's just inspired me to put my all into them; as well as freed me up to play around with some new ideas.

Every Calling has three or so "Starting" Abilities - these are defining skills and powers shared by all members of that particular Calling; the Battle Princess's Heart's Blade and the Factotum's Pack are good examples of these.

However, Calling also has a list of Elective Abilities. These are not universal, like Starting Abilities are. Instead, players may select a new one when a character reaches a certain Rank. These can take many different forms.

(Just a reminder, all text and rules will likely face revision and maybe alterations in the next process!)

Some, are simple. The following Factotum Ability guarantees a certain proficiency in social situations.

Silver Tongue

Whether a quaint earthy drawl, subtle accent or eloquent manner, a good speaking voice can make any argument sound convincing. Well, almost any argument...

• The Factotum has an Edge on all Negotiation Procedure Rolls as long as they are given a chance to speak.

Others are Advanced - Abilities that you may only take once you are Rank 5 or higher, like this Champion Ability.

Roaring Spirit

Even when calm and still, this Champion’s soul crackles with an energy beyond normal beings. A mere look can send spread this force outwards, sapping the fighting spirit and blood lust from lesser warriors in the Champion’s presence.

• To use this ability, the warrior must glower at the intended targets and make an Aura check.
• Success means that all hostile creatures within shouting distance will step back and will not engage the Champion or their allies unless they strike first.
• This ability has no effect on any creature or adversary with a Rank equal to or higher than the Warrior’s.
• This ability may be used once a session.

Some Abilities are just magical. Bad jokes aside, take note - this Sage Ability is marked as (Magic, Dark): all magical abilities are aligned with Light or Darkness, and taking one earns you an Allegiance point. These points can add up pretty quickly, and can potentially lead to some interesting changes for magic using characters..

Murky Mask (Magic, Dark)

By coating themselves with malleable dark mana, this Sage is able to create an incredibly convincing disguise.

• By taking a few minutes and mushing their face and body a bit like clay, the Sage may alter their physical appearance. They may change their build, coloring, face and height within reason. 
• The result will always somewhat resemble the true form of the Sage, so looking like a another specific individual is generally out of the question.
• As an example: a Human would be able to sculpt themselves to look like an Elf or Tenebrate, but would not be able to mimic a smaller Chib or the significantly larger Prometheans.
• This disguise immediately dissolves if the Sage is caught in a direct lie, loses at least one Heart from an offensive action, or wills the effect to end. Otherwise it will last for an hour before everything snaps back into its proper place.
• Regardless of how the Ability Ends, the Sage needs to let their body rest for another hour before they can use Murky Mask again.

Obake hunters

Whether in human or animal form, the Obake predator will always savour the fresh kill.

Spooky creation

I'm hoping the crafting rules will allow you to create... companions!

Buried Kingdom Railway

Some of the less well established trainlines weave curious paths through the Buried Kingdom. Often built for exploratory purposes, players can find themselves passengers on these quirky transports on route to an adventure site. Despite being far from the main battlefront Goblin saboteurs are still a threat, throw in the unpredictable geology and journeys on the network are rarely uneventful.

Characters designs

Sage

Champion

Demons, Witches & ...

Demons

Witches

Ghosts?

Immortals

Immortals are a Genus (race as class) calling type. Your immortal can have 1 of 5 origins, each granting you a number unique abilities.

Origin 1: Sealed Overlord
You were previously a big bad with terrible and corrupting powers. Everything was going well until a group of pesky heroes managed to repress your darkened soul and 'save' you. That was a long time ago and you can't quite remember what it was that you did that got everybody soooo upset. Anyway, you've changed a bit since then, maybe you'd be more responsible with those powers now... if you could only remove those irritating seals.

Origin 2: Small God
One minute your in charge of a minor but essential celestial department, the next your obsolete. With your previous career path removed you've resigned yourself to treading the material plan in search of employment/greatness. Surely these mortals could benefit from your (minor) divinity?

Origin 3: Forgotten Legend
Your countless great deeds have faded over the generations, and also diminished in your own frail mind. Having reached the pinnacle of hero-dom and gained immortality you've sat and festered upon your crumbling throne. Slowly but surely, your powers ebbed away leaving you a tragic shadow of your former self. It's time to get back on the road and re-establish the legend of you.

Origin 4: Chosen Vessel
You were normal once. Now you are the puppet of a higher power, a conduit of its will. You can feel its presence burning inside you, changing you, manipulating you and it feels... wonderful. Lately you've been thinking you wish it would completely consume you.

Origin 5: Botched Summoning
Its bad enough that some mortal dragged you here, but their incompetence has meant you've not materialised in your normal (fearsome!) form. You'll reach your fully potential eventually but it will take a while. You may as well make a little mischief while you wait.

Character creation page

Obake 'form assignment' ritual.

Chibi helpers

Amongst the rules there will be chunks text aimed at different audiences, rule interpretation for GMs or examples for new players. There will be various chibi avatars that represent these user types and they will explain the rules and concepts from the relevant perspective. Hopefully they will be genuinely useful and not an awful RPG version of Clippy!

Layout change - 2 columns

I liked the simplicity of a single column but have recently been feeling like the layouts are boring and wasteful. Finally thinking about moving to a 2 column layout. This means:

• Higher information density
• Less wasted space
• Less page flicking
• Less pages
• Cheaper to print

This change, according to rough estimate should reduce the overall page count by a 1/3 or more (that's a saving of about 100 pages on current projections)

I can also see the narrower column format porting well to a mobile phone rules app!

Not all layouts are converting well to the new system (but I'll keep investigating)

Other design experiments include: Die icon for random tables, moving the reference number to the left and redesigning it for better visual punctuation, a continuation icon for content that wraps over to the next page (I know I'm over engineering! I'll remove it later), different illustration sizes to add variety.

Crafting illustrations

Adventure layout

Thinking more about the Intro Adventure to be included in the core rulebook.
I have used (and mangled) the awesome Von Bottom’s Hoard to test out some layout concepts.

Big nod to Roger Giner-Sorolla and Kiel Chenier for their thoughts on dungeon maps and their usability at the table.

Maps

• The map will be relied upon by the GM to draw basic architectural description (room dimensions, windows and exits)
• Larger maps will broken down into smaller sections that enable the visible portion to sit next to room entries on double page spread (inspired by Kiel's painstaking module notes)
• Quick reference pointers to connecting map sections (will also have an overall map to show how all the segments fit together)
• Icons will used to indicate battlefield conditions (will also need some GM attention markers!)

Room entries

• Room entries will be broken into info chunks and marked with an icon to provide at-a-glance clue to what the segment of text is about.
• Eye icon - Short extract for first impression (including distinguishing visuals, sounds, smell, objects)
• Magnifying glass icon -Extract for closer inspection (including insight checks and extra senses)
• Gem icon - Extract for collectible objects.
• Knight icon - Extract for encounters.
• Alert triangle - Concealed exits/traps.
• Mini monster stat blocks where needed.
• Occasional pics!

 

Monsters layouts

Thinking about the intro module how we might present monsters. A while ago we revisited the earlier monster concepts and updated with new content which I'm sharing here. Not sure if the core rulebook will include a mini-bestiary or be limited to creatures that show up in the demo adventures at this point.

These designs need further development but are moving in the right direction (the main block could do with a bit more visual interest!)

Section heading roughs

Each rule section will have an accompanying illustration. Just putting some ideas down. Coming soon: combat, colossal combat, crafting, downtime, leveling)

Negotiation

Overland travel 

Equipment 

Crafting

Downtime