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Showing posts from April, 2016

Broken Contract Game Designer's Notebook #3

Game Designer's Notebook is a series of articles discussing design decisions in progress. It's meant to discuss theory and intent, but also to get feedback on potential developments within the system. Let us know what you think here in the comments or on the  Broken Contract Playtesters Group . -Nick The most frequently asked question I had at AdeptiCon was, "where do you see the story going in the future?" and when probed most people were trying to find out "what other factions do you foresee?" This is a tricky question from a designer's perspective because we tend to have a multitude of ideas swimming in our heads but limited resources to carry them out. You don't want to finish running a demo, get someone interested in your fledgling game, and then prattle on about your ideas for "x", "y", or "z" faction and have them waiting until "z" faction comes out to get into your game, particularly when "z&

Painting: Speaker and Surveillance Drones

Drones are used extensively throughout the FerrumSky mines to monitor all of the work sites and barracks areas. They exist to ensure everything is functioning smoothly. Surveillance Drones are equipped with a central wide angle lense camera eye and a stereo microphone array to be the eyes and ears of the administrators situated above ground. Drone pilots sit for endless hours each day in a command center atop the mine watching and listening. The mines are an expansive space and every area cannot be directly monitored by the Prods, so the Surveillance Drones patrol and occasionally engage workers who have wandered out of bounds. In case of these circumstances they are equipped with an Arc Discharger. The Arc Discharger is identical in effect to the Arc Pistol carried by many of Black Squadron Security staff. Quietly swooping in with the Arc Discharger, a Breaker can be felled with this short ranged taser weapon while the pilot radios the nearest officer to restrain the victim.

Broken Contract Game Designer's Notebook #2

Game Designer's Notebook is a series of articles discussing design decisions in progress. It's meant to discuss theory and intent, but also to get feedback on potential developments within the system. Let us know what you think here in the comments or on the Broken Contract Playtesters Group . -Nick Broken Contract has been designed as a micro-skirmish game and narrative play. Immediately, for many gamers, this conjures images of "post game sequences" where loot is accumulated, experience is earned, and crippling injuries and death are sometimes meted out. These post game sequences are often the source of triumphant die rolling and curses over foul luck. One of the things I wanted to address in Broken Contract was the nuance of injury and death. Should an unconscious Down Character have the same chance of death as a Character who endured a chop from an Oversized Rock Saw and ended them game in Critical condition? How should I address this? One of the things I h

Post #100: Rules, Background, and Cards! (Updated!)

AdeptiCon 2016 Broken Contract Background and Rulebooks. For AdeptiCon 2016 I produced a very short run of Broken Contract Rule and Background books. I don't want anyone who didn't attend feeling left out on the contents so I've collected the files and uploaded them to Dropbox, along with a PDF file handy for printing out your own Character Dashboards and chits so you can get up and playing with the models and cards in your possession. I did deliberately omit the covers of both books for home printing. If you would like to see the covers added, let me know and I will do so. Broken Contract Background Book Broken Contract Playtest Rules 3-31-16 Broken Contract Character Dashboard and Chits NEW! Broken Contract Character and Crew Creation Rules NEW 5/28/16! Broken Contract Act: Escape Route What is in the Broken Contract Background Book? The Broken Contract Background Book is an overview of the FerrumSky setting. In a way, much of it is a collection of ess

Thank You Attendees of AdeptiCon2016!

Mike and Aaron running demos at AdeptiCon2016! Being a former Chicago resident and only living an hour and a half away by car in my new home of Milwaukee, AdeptiCon, as the largest miniature wargaming event in the country, is a "must attend" event. The organizers and volunteer staff are hugely accommodating and are amazingly supportive of small companies. This year, as a special treat, two friends who I hadn't seen in a decade agreed to make the trek from Buffalo, NY and San Diego, CA respectively, to help me out and run demos. I'd like to share our history briefly. Back in the late 90's I worked for GW and Mike and Aaron were my co-workers. Less than a year after starting work at GW#108 in Buffalo, NY, I was promoted to manager and these two gentlemen were two of my most prized employees because of their passion for gaming and their understanding of the mission: to build the wargaming hobby. We all left GW#108 in 2001 and over the next few years we all went