Hard copy of the Broken Contract Rulebook. The Broken Contract Rulebook is getting very close to a completed state. Pictured above is a hard copy of the current incarnation with graphic design by Sam Alcarez. He's currently working on the 3rd draft and I'm still going over the 2nd draft looking for corrections and changes that need to be made. The new Critical Successes and Fumbles Chart. One of the key changes from the first draft to the second was the inclusion of this chart. If you've looked at or played older incarnations then you may know that most Actions and Interruptions had special rules for Critical Successes and Failures, triggered by rolling natural 6's or 1's. Some of these had their own mini charts under their entries in the Actions and Interruptions section of the book, and this resulted in a lot of page flipping. It also chewed up a lot of space with needless repetition throughout the section. This chapter went through a complete re-writ...

The blog has been silent for months, and for that I should apologize. The Kickstarter Backers have been getting regular updates, and the Broken Contract Facebook page has gotten some too. But I have left those of you who look to the blog for updates on the development of Broken Contract in silence for 3 months now. Fear not though, it's all been coming together behind the scenes! First off, the models. All of the character models promised during the Kickstarter have been sculpted and 3D printed. A couple of months ago the first 2/3 of them went into production and the models have been sitting here with me in Milwaukee, awaiting the necessary printing and remaining models, Currently, the final batch of sculpts are at the caster and are in the hands of the mold makers. I should have masters in my hands very soon. Around the time the blog went quiet I had gotten in the Character Dashboards, the first wave of Equipment Cards, and a variety of counters to keep track of Actio...

Playtesting at Brainstorm in Chicago. Photo Matt Wirth I have to admit I've been neglecting the blog. It isn't that Broken Contract has taken a backseat. Indeed, it's actually been the primary focus of my "free time." Here is a breakdown of what has been going on: The Rulebook Over the summer I made the decision to extract all of the background information from the rulebook to keep it concise and useful to those who use rule sets for their own purposes. This gives us the flexibility that as the rules evolve, the background and scenarios can still maintain their relevance. It also means that I can put the compact rule set anywhere I want, making them more accessible to people. Broken Contract Rule Book PDF 9/3/15 FerrumSky Episode I This means that all of that background and the scenarios need to go somewhere. For now the new home is in the FerrumSky book which presents all of the background information composed regarding the iron mining and...

Dead counter by Sam Alcarez One thing that most miniature games have in common is the use of counters. I fell in love with miniature gaming because of the immersion that comes with the visual experience. One of the things that has always detracted from that visual experience though is all of the on board clutter that comes from counters littering the field of battle. There have been some more artful approaches like upright blast markers, but cardstock or plastic counters have a hard time preserving the look and feel of my game area.  I am one of those extremists that has an assortment of fully modeled counters for some of my armies just so that I can maintain an attractive play area. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I love in-game effects like being drugged, set on fire, knocked unconscious, shocked, etc. When you have a lot of in-game effects, you need counters to keep track of them all. In my early playtesting of Broken Contract, the field was littered with ugly counte...

Look for this banner at AdeptiCon! I missed my Wednesday blog post because I was sick all week. I may not have been able to muster the strength to work on scenery, but a lot of stuff has been happening behind the scenes. One of the biggest things to transpire recently is the addition of freelance artist, Filip Dudek , onto the project. If you are familiar with the post-apocalyptic RPG, Across the Dead Earth , you'll already know his work. We've been looking for someone to do atmospheric pieces for the rule book and I saw that he might be looking for work so I got in touch. He dove straight in and started producing fantastic work that really captures the feel of the setting and we couldn't be happier to have him on board. The above piece of art is the proof Sam Alcarez sent over adding his latest logo design. This will be our 3'x5' banner marking our territory at AdeptiCon . Here's a better view of the art itself: Filip's work is stunning and h...

The chasm taking shape. Today we're going to focus a bit more on the chasm board section. Last week I posted the above picture showing the pieces I was going to use for the incline. I actually opted to split the small connector piece in half and shape the "chasm end" some. The middle piece was split in two so they could be spread apart. The other half is sitting all the way to the left of the picture, on top of the black cardstock. The other weird offcut was to be used as well. Cardstock spread across the pink foam to create the incline. I spread the 3 pieces of foam out to create a more gradual transition, and then I glued down a piece of black cardstock across the 3 pieces. This created a nice shallow smooth incline. I had some offcut foam suitable for making some larger rocks so I shaped and glued those down as well. Finally, I laid down the two pieces of I-beam/girder, traced them with a pencil in the spot I wanted them, and then I cut insets into th...

Ari Gaylen - the Breaker daredevil 3D sculpt by Tim Barry Its been another exciting week of development in the world of Broken Contract. Prototype figures are now in the hands of the caster and we are now eagerly awaiting our very first master models. We also had a batch of 3D renders from Tim Barry that we had sent back for revision, and two of them came back finalized on Friday. Those have now been sent off to VisionProto for prototyping! The initial model range is really coming together. Last week, I posted the new background and art for Overseer Billins . John Gendall 's next project is actually the last essential piece of art for the initial cast of characters - Kollis, the Breaker Crew Leader. He has all of the references in hand, so hopefully he'll be done sometime this week. Officer Tulson - the Prod gunner 3D sculpt by Tim Barry A couple of days ago I showed a snapshot of a page from the rulebook . That same night Sam sent over a brand new mock-up Stat Card...

Abandoned iron mine pic I stole off of Google Images. Today I jumped around between 3 different projects relating to the iron mine scenery I'm working on. The afternoon began with some quick shaping of the other half of the chasm I was working on in Making Mine Scenery Part II . Since I already discuss the shaping process in detail, I'll just show you two quick shots, one of the pieces after shaping and then another of pieces being left to glue. Pretty dramatic stuff (actually its really not). Thanks to Edgar Allen Poe for the assist. More shaped pink foam waiting for glue. Luckily for my project Edgar Allan Poe was a prolific writer. I'm not sure where my bricks are. Which begs the question.. "How do you lose a brick?" So with the chasm section left to dry it was time to work on something else, so I dragged out the three original board sections from Making Mine Scenery Part I for some rough detailing. In the photo I started the article with yo...

Early concept art by Oliver Zavala. This art pre-dated the escaping miners storyline that the game is currently based around. 2014 was a very exciting year for me. This, the Broken Contract Design Blog, was launched in late January 2014. With each month that past, the project evolved. What began as a rough set of rules and a couple pages of story developed into a thematic rule set and a much deeper setting with many paths for future adventures. The first two pieces of art conceived by Oliver Zavala helped frame the context for future artists, Samuel Alcarez and John "Geng" Gendall. One of the earliest play testing nights at my old place in Chicago. Over the months I hosted play testing sessions in my home, Next Dimension Games (RIP) and Dimo's Pizza (all in Chicago), and got a lot of great feedback that inspired better scenarios, and a more dynamic set of rules. I used Miniature Addicts Anonymous regularly to solicit feedback on art and sculpts, and found most...