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...

Officer Hickley - Prod Goon with Shock Baton. Eager future Prods and Breakers! We've got our first casts in hand, and I have to say that I am ecstatic. Sure, there is always room for improvement and this is a learning process, but it doesn't change that this project has come so far in the last year, and rapid progress has been made in just the last 4 months. Valiant Enterprises has sent over three casts (two that we'll show today) and it was such an epic moment opening that parcel; very exciting indeed. That being said, Officer Hickley (above), was our first sculpt, and now we have him in hand and its a proud moment. Officer Hickley will be a Kickstarter and convention Exclusive character. He's a brutal tool of corporatocracy - a willing bloodthirsty goon. I'm even more excited because he is modeled after my friend and play tester - Chuck Hickey. Trest - Gen-Mod Brute with Rocksaw. Trest stands an epic 38mm from foot to eye. He is a genetically modifie...

Current incarnation of the Character Stat Card by Sam Alcarez. With the Kickstarter demonstrating that we need to start smaller, we're working towards getting the rule book together to fund separately. If you've downloaded the Alpha Rules then you know that it currently stands at about 27 pages. That means we still have 5 pages to play with if we want to release it as a 32 page book. Some of that space will be given over to diagrams, but rather than filling it with a bunch of pre-generated Characters, I figure most people would like the option to create their own to get up and playing. With that in mind, I unearthed an old rough draft of some Character Creation rules I had written earlier in the year and started fleshing it out to work with the current character card prototype. This is the current rough draft. I understand that the Skills aren't explained yet, but let me know if this seems pretty clear. It wouldn't take much to have Sam create a blank character ca...

Officer Hickley sculpt by Tim Barry. Over the last month Tim Barry been working on and off with the first Broken Contract sculpt - Officer Hickley, the Prod Goon. If you missed the Character description written by Chuck Hickey himself, you can check it out here:  XVI. Assembling the Cast - Officer Hickley . Tim Barry has most recently known for sculpting the models for Aetherium by Anvil-Eight Games. I'm really excited with the result and looking forward to more sculpts in the coming months as the project evolves. -Nick

Today marks the beginning of a two month push to get ready for the launch of the Broken Contract - Deep Underground Kickstarter. Here's another teaser video and expect a big reveal any time now. Thanks to everyone who is following and paying attention! Hopefully there will be a lot to get excited about over the next two months. -Nick

Officer Hickley concept art by Geng Gendall Officer Hickley is the product of a system that treats humans as a commodity. Raised by the state, he pummeled his way to the top of the food chain in several orphanages. When he came of age, he contracted with a security firm as a guard so he could dole out any punishment that satisfied his whims. Officer Hickley is a callous, sadistic worm, beholden to no law of God or man. He enforces rules only for the pleasure of sizzling flesh with his shock baton and crushing the weak labor dogs under his jack boots. His zealous pursuit of bullying his charges has kept him a lowly grunt, but he is quietly prized by the Overseers as a deterrent to work stoppage and break attempts. Officer Hickley (Prod Goon) Core: Actions: 3 Move:  3 Wounds: 3 Combat: Shoot: 5 Melee: 5 Strength: 5 Agility: 5 Brain: Intellect: 5 Perceive: 5 Psyche: 5 Medic: 5 Social: Lead: 6 Dealing: 6 Intangible: Recovery: 5 Faith: 6 Equipment: Shock Baton, Gas Mask, R...

Another piece of the puzzle that is game development. This is a 3D sculpt in progress courtesy of Tim Barry. One of the really gratifying parts of this project is documenting the process as I see my ideas evolve and take shape. One of my pet projects that should be familiar to anyone who's been following the blog has been to take my friend and play tester, Chuck Hickey, and turn him into a part of the game. From the moment he walked in the door and sat down at the table for his first play testing session he had a fervent enthusiasm to play a Security Officer. With that enthusiasm to crack heads for the corporate Execs combined with his imposing presence I thought he'd make a great character in the game. Security Officer sketch by Geng Gendall featuring Chuck Hickey's mug. At the time the pet project started, Sam had just come on to work on getting the core concepts and look of the setting together. With him tied up I asked Geng Gendall if he could take on my pet...

Over the last few weeks I've allowed two worlds to collide. My two greatest loves have long been tabletop gaming and punk music. As far back as 3rd grade when I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons by my older cousins, I've wanted to be involved in the gaming industry. In the late 80's though, I discovered hardcore punk and eventually started playing in bands and running my own record label as a hobby. My two loves vied for my attention as I juggled touring and putting out records with working in game stores and making time to game. At various points one would dominate over the other largely because my two loves rarely intermingle. For me both loves are sort of all encompassing as they are such time intensive interests. Get It Away s/t EP record cover. Get It Away featured Anton Zaleski of Hyacinth Games on vocals. The art was drawn by Colin Swanson-White and the record was released on Third Party Records around 2002. Third Party Records is the record label I...

Since we have a reasonable idea of what the Security Officers are going to look like, and Sam Alcarez was busy moving this weekend, I asked Geng Gendall if he would do something special for me. One of the Broken Contract play testers is a good friend of mine named Chuck. He gets a charge out of playing as the Security Officers during play testing so I asked him via text, "Hypothetically, if you, Chuck Hickey were a fascist security officer, would you carry a baton, shock baton, arc pistol, or repeater rifle? Would you be in charge or a grunt? Strictly hypothetical." He responded: "I like things up close, and hate responsibility, so I'd be a grunt with a shock baton. :)" This is Chuck standing hard at a grocery co-op, because as we know, co-ops are the hardest. I wanted to see Chuck in Security Officer attire so I sent a brief to artist Geng Gendall who enthusiastically accepted the request. It went something like this: "He'd like to be a lo...