My first round of custom dice for Broken Contract. The -# dice are for Critical Fumbles and the 7/8 dice are for Critical Hits. I watch a lot of "how to play" videos on YouTube. I think it's important to know what's going on out there even if I don't have the opportunity to try every game available for myself, so this is a great way to stay up on the industry. One of my favorite sources for these videos is the "Let's Play!" series on Guerrilla Miniature Games YouTube channel . By demand, Ash did a video of a game of his own design that he's been developing called, Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse . It's a great looking game and the video is very entertaining. It just seems like it will be very fun to play. But a question came up in the comments: "Why D6?" Ash didn't answer that I saw, but I'm sure there will be those out there who will wonder the same thing about Broken Contract. I figured I would take the time to discus...

This is the first Act (scenario) designed for "matched play" games of Broken Contract. It's random set up is meant to make the Act endlessly replayable. Though Broken Contract was designed for narrative play, this scenario will allow for pick up games, or a great "mid episode" game as Characters move from Act 1 to Act 3 of an Episode of your own crafting. Give it a try and let us know what you think! -Nick  Escape Route The Mission: The Breakers have established one or more viable escape routes and are making a press toward their exit. Black Squadron Security or Loyalists must try to stop their attempt to break through. Set-Up: The Breakers know their viable exit points. Roll a D3 to find out how many exit points they may choose from. Next roll 3D3 to determine how many 8”x8” board tiles they may set down to determine their potential exit routes. The Breaker player sets down one tile as their start point and then continues to lay tiles until t...

One of the things that narrative wargamers want is the ability to create their own characters so that they can develop their own storylines and rivalries. We want to encourage this sort of game play and engagement so a while back I had created and posted very basic character creation rules. A lot has transpired since then and it was time to update them to make the most of all the cards available to you now. While revisiting character creation I thought it was about time I added a point system to allow for the "matched play" that a lot of wargamers are used to. This is a very open system but it still creates a functional structure for gamers of all stripes. It is still in the playtesting stages so feedback is welcomed and encouraged! -Nick Creating Characters and Assembling a Crew Every Broken Contract Supplement comes with Characters to play, but you might want to create your own story lines, scenarios, and Characters. Creating your own Characters can be very rewarding...

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...

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...

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...

Nanomei Goliath from Aetherium standing in for a Prod Gen-Mod Model courtesy of Anvil-Eight Games Over the last two weeks I've taken time to sit down and try out some ideas for the Prod Gen-Mod. It's always exciting trying out a new character with untested stats and equipment. Our Kickstarter Backers wanted to see the Prod Gen-Mod as more intimidating than the Breaker Gen-Mod. I think I've done so and kept it within reason, though it will take more testing to know for sure. Prod Gen-Mod Core: Actions 4 Move: 3 Wounds: 4 Combat: Shoot: 5 Melee: 4 Strength: 4 Agility: 5 Brain: Intellect: 5 Perception: 5 Psyche: 5 Medic: 5 Social: Lead: 6 Dealing: 6 Intangible: Recovery: 6 Faith: 6 Equipment: Shock Fists, Gen-Mod Apparatus Special Rules: Heavy Lifter, Dependent, Massive. The idea behind giving the Prod Gen-Mod an extra Action was to ensure they could be viewed as an unstoppable threat bearing down on the enemy. Once in close combat they could rain blows on ...

Mine section by Robh from Kickstarter/Lead Adventure Its been a while since I did a hobby post. The Kickstarter had me furiously painting models, but I didn't really touch any of the scenery during the last month or so. Today I wanted to shake the dust off and get back into the terrain mindset. Now before I talk about my own FerrumSky mine and some theory, I want to take a moment to showcase the work of Robh. During the Kickstarter I got a message from Rob telling me that they had worked on some mines of their own, inspired by the game. I was ecstatic and pleaded to see pics. They happily obliged. Featured here are two of their sections. They deviated from my own straight lines and went for something more winding. The game play options for their sections are excellent. There are obstacles to fight around and jump over, and spots to get out of line of sight. "T" section by Robh. Rob actually goes into detail on how these sections and others were made on th...