An Adventure Site for Break!! RPG

I run a fortnightly D&D game for a group of 9-12 year olds (they might actually be 10-13 year olds at this point - time flies!). Our current adventure was running out of steam so I decided to wrap it up early and suggest a few different RPGs. They were all really taken by the art for Break!! RPG, so we quickly settled on that for our next game! I’ve run a short adventure for Break!! once before and had a blast with it, so I’m excited to be coming back to it.

I wanted to use the opportunity to have another go at using the tools in the book to create an adventure, to get more used to them. So this post is an adventure site I've made for the adventure using pretty much only the tools in the book.

The jist is that an ancient temple has been taken up as the stonghold of a skelemaster. The characters might be drawn here as a result of encountering the skelemen forces patrolling the area, or they might have learned about the treasure to be found at the temple's inner sanctum. The site also features a teleportation 'puzzle': Hard to reach areas can be easily accessed by teleport gates from a central location; the catch is that the gates require activation stones to function, and some of them are missing!

The Temple of Arches

• A crumbling obsidian shrine used by the Dragon Elders in times past.
• Nothing grows here, the whole site is a desolate ruin.
• Now the lair of a newly arisen Skelemaster, Ser Dracomere.

Villain: Ser Dracomere

• Imperious but deluded Skelemaster (p406) once a Dragon Knight of this temple.
• Believes himself the rightful ruler of the surrounding area (his realm).
• Uses the temple as a stronghold to enforce and expand his authority.
• Wears a black stone pendant in the shape of Umbra Draconis (opens door to 3)
• Armed with
• Dragon Glaive (Master-Arc Combination Weapon)
• Drakescale Plate (Heavy Armour, Magnificent)
• When dealing with strangers he:
• Demands fealty, seeing all as his subjects.
• Is interested in any intelligence on threats to his realm.

Wandering Encounters

• Locations 1-4: 4 patrolling Skelemen
• Locations 5-8: 1 Tiny Unhelpful Cloud (generated by the Skelemage's misery)

The Temple of Arches

Locations

1) ENTRANCE

• Remains of a gatehouse, stone ruins sunken in the dry dirt
• Ambush: Bones everywhere, 6 Skelemen waiting to ambush any who approach
• Access: Stairs at the base of the central black tower to 2.
• Access: Across the campus to 4.

2) DRAKESTONE TOWER

• A glossy black triangular Tower with stairs carved into the sides.
• At the top is an exposed platform, no wall or battlement. A stone arch faces each of the gates at the points of the triangle. Each archway has space for a circular stone at its apex. Inserting the Brightstone, Darkstone or Twilightstone allows anyone to teleport to the corresponding gate by walking through the arch.
• Access: At the midpoint of the stairs there is a handsized impression of Umbra Draconis, the last dragon, carved into the stone. If the Dragonstone (worn on a pendant by Ser Dracomere) is inserted here, a stone panel slides up to 3. (the interior of the Tower)
• Access: Via arch to 5. (The Brightstone is inserted)
• Access: Via arch to 7. (The Darkstone is missing (see 4))
• Access: Via arch to 8. (The Twilightstone is missing (see 6))

3) UMBRAL SHRINE

• Sacred inner sanctum venerated by the Dragon Elders of old.
• Torches burn with dark light, the smell of pinewood burning, the shrine is built around a drake skull.
• The treasures and riches of the Dragon Elders (now Ser Dracomere’s) are hoarded here.
• 5 Gems and 50 Coins
• Holy Icon (p180) in the shape of a purple draconic circlet.

4) RUINED TOWER

• Crenelations of crumbling battlements like broken teeth, all that remains of this fallen tower.
• A green mist hangs ominously inside the perimeter, no one can breathe in the mist (Suffocated p457).
• The Darkstone is hidden amongst the debris.

5) BRIGHTSTONE GATE

• A circle of runes glowing with green light surrounds the gate.
• Leaving the circle triggers the alarm bell at 6.
• Interfering with the runes from within the circle can break the enchantment.
• Access: via battlement to 6.

6) THE HIGH TOWER

• Watchtower used by the skelemen under Ser Dracomere's command.
• 1 miserable Skelemage and 2 Skelemen on guard here. 
• Skelemage: Rank 2 Boss with Sage's Staff (p59) and Eldritch Explosives (p63)
• Alarm bell here can be triggered from 5 and 7.
• A chest beneath the alarm bell contains The Twilightstone.
• Access: via battlement to 5.
• Access: via battlement to 7.

7) DARKSTONE GATE

• A circle of runes glowing with green light surrounds the gate. 
• Leaving the circle triggers the alarm bell at 6.
• Interfering with the runes from within the circle can break the enchantment.
• Access: via battlement to 6.

8) TWILIGHTSTONE TOWER

• Floating tower, a faint purple glow pulses beneath it. 
• Near the gate, a spiral stairway leads down into the tower.
• Inside is the hall of Ser Dracomere. He pores over an outdated map of his realm, tracking movements of intruders.
• The mana crystal keeping the tower aloft is suspended in a shaft of purple light. Removing it will cause the tower to fall.

That's all for this one, till next time!

Warrior, Hunter, Bard, Druid

One of the design goals I've set myself for Legends of Alba is a single resolution mechanic. A lot of TTRPGs have a completely separate resolution system for combat. I want combat to be a feature, but I don't want it broken out into its own thing as I think that puts an undue emphasis on it and slows the game down.

At the minute the resolution for LoA is handled by Tests. There are 4 Ability Scores - called Talents - which are: Might, Agility, Awareness & Charisma (or Spirit, names are still changing).

When it comes to fighting, characters would use their best stat, representing their fighting style. My thinking there is that this allows for player expression in describing how their character fights. But it requires a little explanation to get to.

Separately though, not represented anywhere in the rules for the game, I have four character archetypes in my head when I think about LoA : Warrior, Hunter, Bard, Druid.

"The Chief Druid" from "Mona Antiqua Restaurata", 1723 (public domain)

I always liked how Knave 2E describes its Ability Scores in relation to Character Classes (though it doesn't feature Character Classes at all!). So for example it'd describe Strength as The Fighter Ability, Dexterity as The Thief Ability etc.

Bumbling around online I came across Warrior, Rogue, Mage which uses goes a step further and just using those 3 class names as the Ability Scores. I felt something click. Is it more intuitive if I just use those 4 archetypes as the Ability Scores? Let's see!

The point I'm trying to get to is a minimal set of stats that would allow us to resolve the broadest range of situations that might come up.

It'd be crazy to try and list everything that might come up. So I'll take a look at other games that use Skills and see how these match up.

I play a lot of D&D so it's always an easy benchmark for ideas like this. D&D uses skills to represent a broad range of challenges that Characters might face during a fantasy role playing game. So can we map D&D skills to our 4 archetypes?

• Warrior: Athletics, Intimidation
• Hunter: Acrobatics, Stealth, Perception, Survival, Investigation
• Bard: Sleight of Hand, History, Deception, Performance, Persuasion 
• Druid: Arcana, Religion, Nature, Insight, Medicine, Animal Handling

We kinda sorta can! It's not an even spread, the Warrior is a bit light but that was the one I was least concerned about. Tests of physical might come up often enough.

So how would I describe these as abilities? What's the remit of each?

• Warrior Tests are for feats of strength, endurance, and martial skill.
• Hunter Tests are for awareness, precision and for moving quickly and quietly.
• Bard Tests are for performance, negotiation and guile.
• Druid Tests are for intuition, willpower and communication with nature.

I think that works. The Druid is tricky. My idea of what a Druid is in this setting is clear in my head but hard to describe. My intention with the point about communication with nature is for things like settling a frightened beast, judging if the dark clouds are signs of incoming storm, identifying plants... and I'm already having to be careful here. Generally I don't want players to be rolling to see if their Character knows something. That's something the player and GM agree as questions come up based on the Character's Homeland, Heritage and Service. So the question of "Can I tell if this plant is poisonous?" shouldn't really be answered by a Druid Test: If they're a Blacksmith from a different Kingdom, then it's a no; but if they're a Forager then it's a yes.

My Druid example of predicting incoming weather also sounds dangerously more like a special power the Druid has than an ability which every Character possesses to a greater or lesser degree. And that highlights probably my main concern with using class names is that these bring baggage with them from other games. Players might expect that because they have a high Warrior stat they should be getting abilities like Second Wind or Action Surge. As demonstrated I've already found myself thinking along those lines.

That said: I quite like this. I'm not sure if I like it enough to say this is the way I'm going but I wanted to use this post to put the idea out there and get me thinking about it.

Till next time!

Bells & Machines

I've maybe let this one brew too long but I wanted to lay out my thoughts on generative AI. Does it belong on this blog, which is mostly about TTRPGs and game design? Yes.

TLDR: I don't like generative AI and I'm going to take a long time trying to explain why by talking about Bloodborne.

Bloodborne has an obtuse multiplayer feature. In most games, opening up a session and inviting players to join you is done via a menu. It makes sense to at least try to simplify a complicated thing. Bloodborne (and actually all of From Software's "Souls" games) doesn't do it this way and instead uses in-world items. It takes a complicated thing and makes it more complicated. If you've played the game, this is pretty on-brand.

Here's how it works: Players can open their world to collaborators by ringing their Beckoning Bell. Players who are open to collaboration signal this by ringing their Resonant Bell. The Beckoner does not know who they are calling out to. Likewise, the Resonant Bell-Ringers don't know who they are answering. Neither the call nor the response cares who hears them, so long as they might be heard. And of course they might never be heard. It's an indirect, unreliable and anonymous process that, nonetheless, connects people.

Bloodborne (2015, FromSoftware), image from 
https://www.bloodborne-wiki.com/2015/03/co-op.html

This disjointed call and response is a bit like what happens when you make something and put it out into the world. And by something I mean anything like a story you wrote or a photo you took or a game you made. You don't know who will find it. Maybe no-one will. Of those who do, you don't know who will like it. You don't know who it will resonate with. Maybe no-one.

But maybe someone will stumble across this thing you made and realise with astonishment that this is speaking in their language, these are shapes they recognise, this is a song they feel like they already know. They resonate with the thing and, though you might never meet or even know this has taken place, they've resonated with you.

Why is that important?

It's important because you are you. There's no one else like you! You have a unique "you-ness" comprised, to a massive extent, by the thoughts in your head. These are a product of an unquantifiable and unreproducible series of events and circumstance (time, place, experiences, influences etc) peculiar to you and only truly known to you.

No one can look inside your head and see your thoughts. So in order to share them with anyone you have to go through a process of expression. There are lots of different forms of expression for you to choose from. You might even be expressing something through your choice of method! But whatever form it takes, the goal of expression is the same: You are taking a thought that was in your head and trying to show it to another person.

Even via the seemingly simple method of conversation, this is not easy. You have to choose words to represent your thoughts and say them to the other person. You've no way of knowing for sure if what you've said and how you've said it means the same thing to them as it did to you. So you might go back and forth, you might agree or disagree but generally what you are striving towards is understanding. When that has been achieved, you might just have performed something incredible. You might just have shared something of your "you-ness" with the outside world.

All of the above is a very laboured description of the act of communication. It's my hope though that describing it like this conveys my belief that communication is a creative act. Humans are social animals, communication is necessary to our survival. It's a creative skill that we practise daily, so what I'm trying to say here is that humans are also creative beings.

I'm also trying to say that this is what art is. It's not fine art, it's not classic literature, it's not a symphony: It's everyday human stuff. It's people trying to put something that was in their head out into the world in the vague hope that it might be understood. The Beckoning Bell seeking Resonance.

And if and when that resonance miraculously happens, there's the connection. To a time and a place that existed. To a real live person who made whatever this thing is. What an amazing thing this is that we can do - we can reach out to one another across centuries and vast distances of space. As long as art survives, not even death can stop us from reaching out to one another.

So with all of that in mind what, then, is the point of art that was made by nobody? That expresses nothing? Connects you to noone?

None whatsoever.

If we outsource creativity to AI, we are giving up our voice. We are giving up on communication with and understanding of one another, our thoughts imprisoned and unknown, our inner selves doomed to solitary confinement.

I would like to continue existing outside of myself. I I want my world and the worlds of others to remain open, always, to cooperators. So I will continue to ring the Beckoning Bell, and continue to seek resonance.

-Till next time!

Tabletop Scotland 2025

Our second year attending Tabletop Scotland and a fantastic time was had!

I got a sneaky peak at a preview copy of Carved in Stone, the upcoming Pictish source book from Stout Stoat. I've been following this project since 2021 so to see it this close to it's release in November was really exciting as it's been a big inspiration for Legends of Alba! 

My wife got a full colour drawing of her Legends of Alba character, Mitha Seawolf, done by Tanya Roberts at Blue Bottle Ink. Tanya was there all weekend doing drawn to order commissions! Lovely person to have met and her work is awesome!

Between us we came away with a bunch of new games and books, here are my highlights: 

Doomsong by Caesar Ink - God is dead, the apocalypse looms! This one drew me in with it's grim line art, Mordew vibes and Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style character creation system. I've had a chance to try out the character creator and can confirm it's great fun! The book actually includes sheet music for the Doomsong, or you can sing the other doom song.

 

Goblin Country by Biscuit Fund Games - GM-less, diceless RPG where you play as the Goblin camp plotting against the human settlements for a change! Character Creation is a playbook style, with representing a goblin archetype characterised by a set of Weak Moves (unhelpful action
s you can perform to gain 'tokens') and Strong Moves (helpful actions you can perform which require and use 'tokens'). Really like this as a design space to explore!

Rising Star Championship Edition 2025 by Dog Petrol - this was a bit of a gamble to try out something a bit different! It's a co-operative RPG where players help a rising sports star achieve their goals. So you might play as the star, or their coach, or their number one fan. The catch is that you each take turns playing as the Heel - their rival trying to mess everything up! It's a small book but it's got some really helpful examples, and great random tables for prompts, including some for making up your own weird sport! A great candidate for a one-shot if ever I saw one! 

Tabletop Scotland is such a great event that we'll definitely be back next year. I said it last year and missed the boat but I'm also going to try and be more organised this time round as well to get myself signed up for running something! We'll see how that goes!

Till next time!

Inspiration: The Buried Giant

Kazuo Ishiguro's mythic fantasy tale takes place in an imagined past, in which a strange mist has settled over the British Isles, causing everyone to lose their memories. The story follows an elderly couple named Axl and Beatrice who set out from the safety of their underground village in search of their adult son. Dangers await them in the form of monsters and strange folk roaming the wilds. They also find allies in a Saxon warrior named Wistan and in Sir Gawain, the last knight of King Arthur's court. Axl & Beatrice's journey to reach their son's village leads them to discover the true nature of the mist itself, and puts them in the position to bring about an end to it. As they come closer to achieving this, we are invited to consider along with them what it means to remember and to forget, to hold on and to let go, to persevere and to resign.

I loved this story. Ishiguro’s clear and simple language leads you confidently through the tale. There’s a care and gentleness to his storytelling which (as with Never Let Me Go) does nothing to detract from the hardship or distress of the events being described. He also tackles the mythic fantasy genre as faithfully and yet innovatively as his treatment of the Kafkaesque in The Unconsoled. Much of the world is discovered by characters asking questions of one another, lending a dream-like quality to the landscape as it emerges from the mists. Characters are met along the way who seem familiar and yet are not decisively revealed as a new or returning character, hinting at the narrative warping of stories told and retold through oral tradition till they are written down at last. This occurs even between characters in the story, with both Wistan and Sir Gawain recalling memories of Axl himself that might not quite align but equally could both be true. Archetypes too are well used, with Knights, Hags and Ogres simultaneously subverted and permitted to resonate with their forebears in every story that’s come before. Achieving this balance of the vague yet evocative is extremely hard to do without plunging an exciting tale into the realm of inconsequential, disjointed nonsense - and it’s struck perfectly here. 

A key component of this balance is the anchor of Axl and Beatrice throughout. One of the most compelling elements of their journey is the early-asked question of whether love can exist without the anchor of memory. They are tested by doubt and fear throughout, and when presented with the path to dispel the mist and regain their memories, have quite different views on whether they should. It is telling on both their characters that Axl, afraid to confront their memories since they seem content in their present, refers constantly to his wife as ‘princess’ while Beatrice, desperate to remember what’s been lost, no matter what it is, calls Axl ‘husband’. Axl, though fearful of the past, still lives firmly in it. Beatrice meanwhile, though suffering far more from the physical frailties of age, shows perhaps a greater strength here.

They do however have faith in their promise to one another, not only to find their son, but in their commitment to one another. This, together with their moment to moment kindness to one another, account for some of the most touching scenes in the book. In the face of their fading memories, Axl and Beatrice’s love learns to live in the active present and potential future.

As a shadow to this love at the centre of the story, there is a pervasive sense of ending. The faded grandeur of Sir Gawain, the frailty of Axl and Beatrice themselves, the giant cairns that loom from the mist: It’s a story that is saying goodbye. Goodbye to the last remnants of magic in the world, goodbye to the Britain that came before Britain, perhaps even a goodbye to life itself. Somehow even this darker element landed for me as a life affirming one because even with the sense of loss, there is one of acceptance and dignity. There's a natural order of things at work here. Standing in the way of that, clinging on to what should be let go, can only lead to the wasteland. The ending, though ambiguous (perhaps even because of its ambiguity), has stuck with me since I finished reading. It’s one that I truly hope does not fade into the mists.

Till next time!

Mythic Bastionland Without Knights?

I’ve been running games in the Legends of Alba setting since January last year. Under the hood of these ostensibly 5e games though, the engine that has been doing the real work has been the World Prep and Travel procedures from Mythic Bastionland. These are excellent - they’re lightweight and evocative and I find them intuitive to run. The game has been at its best when the player characters have been journeying between destinations on the Kingdom map, encountering the Augurs of the Legends, seeking out Hags for advice, or negotiating clan politics. Seek the Myths, Honor the Seers, Protect the Realm… where have I heard that before?

The Mester Stoor Worm,
from my copy of "The Lore of Scotland",
Westwood & Kingshill

Taking stock of where I’m at with Legends of Alba as a project, I’m reconsidering whether this setting might best be expressed as a ‘module’ for Mythic Bastionland. If I wrote up the Clans like Knights, and the Legends as Myths (which they pretty much are already), would that ‘just work’?

Let’s see. What needs to change?

Clans instead of Knights

Player Characters are called from the clans to answer the Legends. The clans are also effectively the NPC factions that the Characters will be dealing with. Clans are ruled by Chiefs. Druids advise the Chiefs in terms of The Law of The Land, Bards chronicle and spread word of a Chief’s deeds, while Warriors lead their warband. 

 Knights in MB are expected to uphold their Oaths, which elevates them from the vassals but places a burden of responsibility upon them. There’s a great line in the book that they ‘rely on their arms, but are expected to know the customs of peace’. 

The clans of Alba meanwhile are all about finding the balance between civilization and nature. They are dependent on their harsh but beautiful land for survival. They also walk a line between prioritising the self and the community, embodied by the Chiefs, whose ambition can get the better of their sense of duty. 

Hags instead of Seers

The Seers are one of my favourite parts of MB, but are more morally ambiguous than the Hags of Alba. Both fulfil an important role - a hermit that players can seek out for information that not everyone has access to. But while the Seers are intended to provide an optional extra level of conflict to the game (their motivations are not always aligned to the PCs), the Hags of Alba embody the link between mortal folk and The Otherworld, as they have one foot in each. Like Seers, they are able to glimpse the past, present and future, making their advice tend towards the cryptic. But what they offer is Truth to those who seek it, and they aim to steer mortals towards equilibrium with the land and, by extension, The Otherworld.

Just Works?

So if we take Mythic Bastionland and swap Knights, Seers, Myths and The City for Clans, Hags, Legends and The Otherworld, do we get Legends of Alba? And are those two meaningfully distinct? To the first, I think so. To the second, I hope so! I had a go at writing up one Clan and one Legend just to try it on for size. It was good fun, so at the moment I’m thinking it would be worth writing more. If I can get up to 12 Clans and 12 Legends, that’d be enough for a test game I think! 

 Till next time!

Ancient Power Vacuum

An era of ancient history I find endlessly interesting is The Wars of the Diadochi: A time of big battles and even bigger egos. Alexander The Great conquered the known world and then died suddenly and mysteriously, leaving no one in charge. The following decades saw his empire tear itself apart as his Successors pressed their claim to rule. It's a time of skyrocketing ambition, doomed nostalgia, desperate survival, hero-worship and emulation, murderous intrigue and truly massive pitched battles. There's no holds barred. There's everything to play for, everything to lose and, of course, so much is lost.

Alexander Sarcophagus, CC James Carnehan
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2918/alexander-sarcophagus/

A power vacuum is a great situation for an RPG isn't it? It's volatile, charged with potential energy and possibility for impactful change. Whether it's the main focus or a background element it gives players unprecedented opportunities and interesting choices to make, which is always valuable!

The Wars of The Successors provides some great inspiration for who might step forward when the Ruler of the Realm suddenly drops out of the picture.

I have the Throne

The thing about a seat of power is that, once someone is sitting in it, it's very hard to move them if they don't want to be moved. Antipater had been appointed as Regent of Macedonia And Greece, ruling the home countries while Alexander was off conquering the world. In other words he was sitting in the seat Alexander might have been expected to one day return to. The seat that now had many envious eyes on it.

I have the Right

The members of Alexander's Companion Cavalry (his honour guard) each considered themselves First Among Equals, bearing a sense of entitlement that they might succeed their King. In the case of Perdiccas, this stemmed from his tenure as second in command, having served Alexander since the beginning and been gifted with his signet ring. Surely such a clear favourite had the right to rule?

I have the Heir

Roxana's life as a Persian Princess had already taken a sharp turn when Persia was conquered by Alexander. At the time of his death she was married to him and pregnant with his child. She'd travelled with him on campaign and made both enemies and friends among his Generals, those who now squabbled over the empire. She knew her unborn son could not be ignored.

I have the Body

What better way to cement your claim to the crown than by burying the old King? In one of the more wacky plots of this period, Ptolemy stole Alexander's body to have it brought to him in Egypt for a proper funeral.

I have the Army

The Silver Shields were the veteran infantry, hardened soldiers of Alexander's long campaign of military subjugation. Whoever could call on them wielded not only a fearsome weapon of war, but their famous reputation to match. They were also a liability, being a turbulent bunch who, when it came down to it, valued the treasure they'd won in their 40 years of warfare over any ideas of loyalty (No judgement here, that's a lot of treasure!).

I have the People

I don't have a historical example to point to for this one (maybe it says something about this time period that 'the people' suffering under all this fighting are seldom mentioned? If ever?!) but a people's champion would certainly be an interesting addition to the mix here either as a sympathetic candidate or (another) villainous one!

That's it for now, till next time!