BREAK!! Into the Gaming Shelf With an Homage to Classic JRPGs

There are so many incredible crowdfunding campaigns going on, I really can’t stand it. Games are so good, y’all. I’ve also got some new games, supplements and additions, and indie designers who are taking it upon themselves to break apart systems and find new, incredible, and transformative ways to play games. (Every Lancer fan should buy Legionnaire, for real.) But onto our featured game, a JRPG inspired TTRPG 10+ years in the making.

Featured Game: BREAK!! 

Break!! is a D20-friendly tabletop roleplaying game inspired by anime, manga, and classic JRPGs like Zelda, Ni no Kuni, Illusion of Gaia, and Phantasy Star IV. Even just perusing the Kickstarter page it’s clear that Grey Wizard and the team involved in the game have a deeply playtested and developed product that is ready to go as soon as the paper shortage clears up. (I think it’s mostly been cleared up.)

Break!! is also massive. The full game is 470 pages, full of color illustrations and “loaded with diagrams and infographics to make learning and playing the game as fast and fun as possible.” With point crawls, dungeons, and puzzles, the game is moldable for a variety of play styles.

The game has been built with a classic-inspire post-apocalyptic fantasy setting “full of derelict mega structures, shambling war machines, and nature warped by magical pollution.” The DevBlog for the game details allt he ways it has evolved and changed over its development, and the insights and challenges are impressive. It highlights the themes of many of these JRPGs and demonstrates how the writers have figured out a way to make the game fit all these different genres.

New Releases: Legionnaire, Witchy Woodlands, Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Legionnaire is a third party supplement for the Lancer tabletop roleplaying game by Massif Press. Legionnaire contains a deep dive into the lore behind NHPs, the setting’s equivalent of AI, extensive GM tools, and player options for use in campaigns.

Witchy Woodland is a single player tabletop roleplaying game. The mood is cute and weird, the vibe is whimsical, Grimm-like, and kid-friendly, focused on non-fighting options.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition Core Rulebook, the next companion to the Werewolf: The Apocalypse tabletop role-playing game, will hit store shelves on August 31. The 300-page full-color book includes everything players need to build a character or guide a pack. Eager players can pre-order the hardcover book now for $55. For a limited time, those who pre-order will receive a PDF version of the core rulebook for no additional cost.

Crowdfunding: Stoneburner, Inevitable, Harrow, Scoundrels of Brixton, Thimbleton Inksquire’s Runic Compendium, The Portal Tomb, Bridgetown, Runecairn Bestiary, The Wildsea

Stoneburner is a solo-friendly TTRPG of demon hunting and community building in a dwarven asteroid mine, set in an original sci-fantasy world where classic fantasy cultures have taken to the stars and spread across countless galaxies.

Inevitable is a storygame that uses super system rules that rely on your character Reputations. Your characters are fabled heroes participating in the legend of the destruction of your society, and instead of having stats, you track how both your characters are spoken of in song around campfires, and how they are spoken of at the royal court of Knightsholme.

Harrow: The Blighted Plane is a crystalpunk setting in a fallen fantasy world for the Cypher System. While playing in Harrow, you’ll explore massive fungal forests filled with dangerous creatures and strange beings competing for the precious natural resources found there. You may even find your way off of the Blighted Plane, should your luck play out and you so choose.

Scoundrels of Brixton injects player characters into a seedy civilization in the far future, creating a role-playing environment where there’s no shortage of action and moral dilemma. It’s a setting tailored for space-going heroes driven to fight injustice, or interstellar villains seeking to launch a criminal empire.

Thimbleton Inksquire’s Runic Compendium is a 5E-compatible, supplemental magic system. Tap into the heart of the Weave and access power and peril beyond that of mere spells. The Runesmith class comes with four specializations with which to wield the magic of the world: the Willbreaker, the Bloodrune, the Aardforged, and the Arcanesmith. The game also introduces Runic Subclasses to use with the core classes of Dungeons & Dragons.

The Portal Tomb is a single session diceless roleplaying that uses an Ogham casting inspired resolution. Together, a group of players get together and create a Queen, their characters, and their relationships using divination. These are marked on a ritual circle that sits at the center of the table, a changing artifact unique for every playthrough. Each ritual the players progress through is a mini-game that pushes drama to the forefront and impacts the trajectory of the characters’ stories.

Bridgetown is a pastoral, liminal RPG setting of a never-ending, ever-crumbling bridge. It’s built for Troika (rules freely available); however, the content is easily adapted to your favorite old-school system.

Runecairn Bestiary is a 68-page tabletop RPG supplement for Norse fantasy roleplaying game Runecairn, adding 100 new monsters and rules for creating or converting even more.

The Wildsea is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-6 players inspired by stories like Sunless Sea, Bastion, and the Bas-Lag Trilogy. Set in a world overrun by greenery, Wildsea uses a narrative, fiction-first d6 dicepool system that draws inspiration from games like Belly of the Beast, Blades in the Dark, and 13th Age.

In Other News

• My First Dungeon Presents: DIE is an eight-episode podcast releasing every Friday starting April 7 to celebrate the new TTRPG DIE produced in collaboration with Kieron Gillen (author and game designer of DIE) and Grant Howitt (ENnie Award-winning publisher of DIE, Heart, and Spire).
• The Faraway Sea is a 5E campaign setting sure to intrigue and delight. For in that sea lies an endless chain of mysterious islands, each with its own invaluable treasure.
• Chaosium, creators of the award-winning Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game, have released Basic Roleplaying: The Universal Game Engine in PDF, with hardcover to follow later in 2023.
• First Draft of the Paizo-sponsored ORC License is now ready for public comment.
• The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying for 5E will be published by Free League on May 9.
• Free League Publishing digitally released Dragonbane–the new edition of Sweden’s first and biggest tabletop RPG Drakar och Demoner.

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