Recent content by Breaking Star Games

I've run it for a oneshot and a short campaign, its very much Battlestar Galactica with the serial numbers filed off Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game. Which means it has a nice variety of action, intrigue and drama just like the show - although it has an alternative High Fantasy setting as...

I think its fair to split G and RP. Although all games (whether that is a boardgame, videogame, sport, or TTRPG) has the player take on certain specific agencies, TTRPGs have a much more complex agency - you are (usually) roleplaying an entire person. So, while playing Catan, resource...

I really love Space Western/Neo Noir of Cowboy Bebop. Not too big and bombastic like Space Opera - I love the more personal story telling. What is the dynamic of being a spacer. Though I would prefer a Harder Sci Fi lens than Cowboy Bebop ever bothers with, so more The Expanse. RPGs with base...

Let's say in video game terms, I enjoy Monaco but don't enjoy Payday 2. Some planning is fun. Tedious planning to to get everything right isn't. And even less fun is being in a 10 min shootout with endless waves of cops. But generally I like Blades in the Dark's execution. The PCs should still...

I mean the other thing than just silently not supporting something is to publicly shame it. And I think its a business model that deserves to be publicly shamed which I am doing here. I think normalizing it is a serious issue of the trends of anti consumer and anti worker righters we have had...

I think most Kickstarters I've backed say they have a nearly complete product that usually comes with a Quickstart of rules. They need the money for layout, additional art and printing/shipping, but I also don't back a ton (my backlog of reading is SO long!). Is this other people's opinions of...

I think I've seen most in the BitD subreddit agree that there are issues around organization and weak explanations in the book. Personally, I didn't feel well prepared to GM after just reading, so I watched dozens of hours of John Harper running the game. And of course no game should require...

Slightly steering off topic but I am interested in more talk of Clocks. Have you guys experienced over-using Clocks? When I read the official Cowboy Bebop rpg, I found it all too clock focused. Every action's success or failure ticks one clock or another. It felt too much disconnection from the...

I haven't found the Playbooks to be very closed or prescriptive. Blades in the Dark was actually originally designed without Playbooks. So Harper actually allows you to take as many Special Abilities outside of your Playbook as you like when he runs it and its an easy bit of Homebrew to take...

100% agree on Harm in BitD. Only one player out of something like a dozen I ran BitD and S&V really engaged with the "drive the character like a stolen car." Most are newer with mostly just D&D 5e under their belts but I did walk them through what the game expects. But Harm (more in BitD than...

It includes my favorite game, Scum & Villainy that hits on being a Space Scoundrel amazingly. I have also run quite of a bit of Blades in the Dark and read through a few other FitDs that were very close to the original. CBR+PNK and Band of Blades are very solid differentiations from the original...

I know there are many here that don't find any mechanics will help support this for them and that is okay, but not the point of this thread. I am interested in what kind of structures (ideally player facing) have made for satisfying stories challenging your character. I've always felt more...

I believe rules are supposed to make the conversation of playing TTRPGs easier. A lot of them end up adding more crunch/complexity than they're worth. But there is a lot of value in having permissions and setting expectations by everyone having a shared understanding what consequences may unfold...

Help me understand where we are disagreeing. We both say the game is about the PCs. We both say, the world doesn't revolve around them.

I feel like I already responded to this. If ASOIAF was a game run by a GM, was the GM not a fan of the characters who died? IMO, no. Nothing about being a fan means you no longer can run the world real and consistent. In fact, if they were mutually exclusive, then it'd be just impossible to run...