I got my hands on a review copy of Break!! recently, the anime-inspired tabletop RPG from Grey Wizard, and I'm humming with excitement getting ready to start my first campaign. Last night, however, as I was hungrily thumbing through the pages trying to adapt the game's lore to suit my dastardly campaign plans, I spotted a blog by Break!! co-designer Reynaldo Madriñan.
There I was, flipping through the almost 500 page rule book, wondering if the Break!! TRPG might be one to make it onto our best tabletop RPGs guide, when I happened across Madriñan's Blogspot. This thing is positively brimming with free supplemental content, and I now have enough lore to keep me going while I wait for the tutorial adventure zine 'Start' to launch on Kickstarter.
If you're in the same boat, perhaps looking for something a bit less vague than the sourcebook's 'possible' world history, the Break!! RPG Blogspot is chock-full of everything from new species designs, to advice on creating your own Outer World histories and quick re-skins of adversaries, to Outer World Holidays meant to spice up your game world with some commonly held festivities.
The most recent post, and one that really got me going, outlines some more of the lore behind the entity known as the Wondersmith. Not only that, it also hints at the existence of another entity for all you lorehounds to latch onto. Just as a spoiler warning, players may want to steer clear in case your GM plans to use any of this as a big reveal moment in your campaign.
The Core Rules note that the Wondersmith is said to have created the Outer World and the Sun Machine against the will of the true Creator. He sides with the Unshaped and steals the people away from the mythical land of Promise, to be used as playthings on the Outer World, or so many believe.
In the blog post, Madriñan goes into more detail around how "Descriptions of the Wondersmith are extremely varied. A bouncing, jocular toymaker. A plump and kindly baker. A wiry blacksmith who lets their craft speak for them, just to name a few. The only consistency is flowing red clothing and a golden mask of some kind." While players might assume those spouting such rumours are mistaken, Madriñan makes it clear that "they are not - these individuals and more are all the Wondersmith. They are simply one of their 7 masks."
In a Voldemort-esque twist, players might come into contact with one of the Wondersmiths many masked constituent parts, whose existence was a sure way for the Wondersmith to "outmaneuver Ending".
Ending is something fans have begun to notice is capitalised, too, and in questioning this ominous capitalisation Madriñan pops into the comments to say they're "Glad to see people caught that". They go on to explain that "Ending is both a concept and an individual, something I'm saving for later."
If that isn't a tease for the upcoming Start adventure I don't know what is.
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