BREAK!! A Ghibli inspired Tabletop RPG, and my experiences with the genre.
I'm not really a tabletop guy until recently. For most of my life, the genre was treated as that thing nerdy kids do and because I, with my vast collection of Megaman action figures, was not a nerd, I never really gave it the time of day. Save for some short stints with friends in college.
Honestly, I had my reasons for not diving into the mystical world of tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) but they wouldn't be cohesive until years later. I had a lot of complicated feelings, being a first generation black person living in white suburban America. While I was always happy to express my nerdier habits in private, I struggled for many years to be anything other than black in public. Whenever the cracks showed, I was deemed to an "oreo" or "one of the good ones," because black people never did that nerdy stuff, all we liked were sports and rap music.
It was complicated, and I still have a lot of those feelings buried in the back of my mind today. In white spaces I was the token minority that they would point to so they could say they were diverse, and in black spaces I always felt like I was playing a part. As I grew older, I became more comfortable letting pieces leak through, in high school I was known as the comic book kid, and in college I was the fighting game guy and stand-up comedian.
Part of that feeling is why I started writing this blog to begin with, to express some of these feelings because I know I'm not the only person with this experience. There's an innate desire to fit in and be accepted that we all have, but there are people who feel like the stray no matter what.
My first experience with tabletop role playing games crystallized these feelings for me. I was among friends, playing Dungeons and Dragons around the living room table. It was my first time, and they helped me get started, which I really appreciated, but these feelings inside me held me back.
My first character was a wizard named Kendrick Lamartington, because To Pimp a Butterfly had just released, and I was afraid to be creative.
The game lasted a couple of weeks, I never got too attached. When the opportunity arose again I turned it down, saying it just wasn't for me.
About a year or two ago I decided to change this, alongside my budding career as a writer I decided to tip my hand in other creative pursuits, I started learning how to produce music and I joined some writing groups. It wasn't easy and I'm still trying to be more open and accepting of myself.
One thing led to another, and eventually I'm talking with some friends in an online chat room. One of them mentions that they'd been working on a ttrpg of their own and were looking to play test some of the recent changes, I say yes.
Now, anxiety aside, there are other reasons why I didn't like Dungeons and Dragons, and a lot of that has to do with the racial coding the books have (Orcs always being evil was something I remember vividly,) but a lot of that has to do with the Western fantasy genre in general. It feels really repetitious and samey to me. Dragons, skeleton warriors, cobblestone roads, it's not my scene. Honestly, I only agreed to my friend's request because it was something he'd been working on and I'm a good friend.
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| BREAK!! With two exclamation marks, don't forget it!! |
BREAK!! Is the brainchild of Reynaldo Madriñan and Grey Wizard, described by Madriñan as "a tabletop RPG about going on an adventure with your friends. Mechanically, it focuses on team efforts and utilizing various unique abilities to solve problems and find ways through difficult situations. It has a built in setting as well, called the Outer World, which is mostly inspired by old video games, anime, and other things the creators like."
I'm not going to pretend to be an authority on TTRPGs, I don't watch Critical Role and I've played about three campaigns in my entire life, but BREAK!! has given me the best time I've ever had with the genre.
It doesn't take a genius eye to realize that the genre is dominated by Wizard of The Coast's Dungeons and Dragons, it's the most ubiquitous. Because of this, there's less awareness around works that are completely separate from D&D. As a relative newbie to the genre, I always just wanted to tell a fun story with some friends and roll as few dice as possible, though I realize that the mechanical depth is an important part of the experience for some.
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| BREAK!! Provides simple, yet in depth ways to make the cool stuff happen. |
BREAK!! Is nonstandard and simplified in ways that I feel contribute to a more kinetic feeling game. For instance, a combat turn against a basic enemy in BREAK!! is two rolls of a twenty sided dice; your attacking stat versus their defending stat. Then it's onto the next player. Many skills don't even require rolls, my current character, a back-packing salesman samurai gadgeteer spends most of his time in combat confusing foes with his words and providing his allies with simple stat bonuses.
"I come from a certain school of thought when it comes to gaming - I like things to be quick and breezy," Madriñan said, "People should be able to play as much of the game as possible just using their character sheets, and I favor on the spot thinking and fun application of various character facets rather than system mastery." Characters in BREAK!! are implored to be strange conglomerations of traits, and similar to the world design, BREAK!!'s classes are built from common player types.
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| Live out your kitchen nightmares |
The Factotum is a class (or Calling, as they're called here) built around the type of player who loves holding onto things and interacting with the environment. When speaking to me, Madriñan mentioned a player who deliberately marked down every object they'd collected onto a list. The class's iconic backpack is a reference to their character, who needed a comically large bag to carry all of their junk. The Factotum's skill tree is built around interacting and ingenuity, the combat related skills they do have are more aimed at assisting their teammates as opposed to dishing out damage themselves. They work around the situation instead of hammering through it.
The strange, Studio Ghibli and retro video game inspired world is deep in a way that is reflective of the time put into it. Much like the mechanical design, it's simplified so that things are easy enough to grasp without digging through booklets. For instance, the Sol Alliance named because it a territory that celebrates military victories, and also the sun. It's not that hard to grasp and is similar to tropes found in other properties- but the world design and art give it a different feeling. Day and night in Break!!'s world are assigned to geographic locations, and the Sol Alliance own the sun. The pieces here are different in ways that matter, and the concepts that could come across a bit more generic are given definition by Grey Wizard's art and Madriñan's writing.
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| Like any good JRPG, you can fish in BREAK!! |
The diversity represented in BREAK!!'s art is admirable, as someone who enjoys seeing people of color just existing in fantastical worlds. It's not part of the marketing to any extent, but BREAK!! dodges the racist coding that has made me uncomfortable in the past. Culture is treated respectfully, anyone can be a cool sword guy, and they can be any kind of person. There aren't any morality requirements, when asked about this Madriñan said "part of this is me being Asian-American, or at least half, and side-eyeing "Oriental Adventures," but also just a conscious effort to better reflect the world we live in. I feel like fantasy games should be for everyone and that's something we are really still only scratching the surface of. Truth be told, there are a lot of great indie games doing a better job of it than D&D and I want our own efforts to match that, too."
Overall, I think BREAK!! Is deserving of your time, whether you're a newcomer or a veteran of TTRPGs. Not only that, but indie tabletops deserve more attention than they do now. The genre is about creating adventures and while it's good that there is a game everyone understands, these alternate takes could grab the attention of someone who otherwise might not play, as it did for me.
BREAK!! has been in development for close to ten years at this point, and is creeping ever closer to release. You can follow development at the BREAK!! blog or the Facebook, Reddit and Tumblr pages.
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Thanks for reading! I hope this little piece on a tabletop didn't make anyone's brain melt from how inexperienced I am. At the end of our chat, Naldo tossed me a couple of other indie tabletops that you guys might want to look at.
This is the first of hopefully many pieces covering indie projects. I'd like for these to be the focus of this blog, but that also requires me to have more projects coming in. Next I'm looking at some comic books, a field I have a lot more experience in.
Lastly, here's a link to the Discord again.
It's not that active right now, but I'll be around to greet anyone who joins!
- DrowZ
Nice one right there
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteVery interesting read! It's always good to read the experience of folks new to the genre, so those developing their own systems can use the feedback to make a better experience for everyone.
ReplyDelete"I always just wanted to tell a fun story with some friends and roll as few dice as possible" If you're looking for a suggestion, Hill folk is pretty similar to that description as well. Break!! seems super awesome and I'll be checking it out for sure!
Thanks for the suggestion!
Deletethe schedules a little stacked atm but I'll be sure to look at Hill folk