In this review I will tell you about Broken Tales, a role-playing game in which players will find themselves playing the antagonists of classic fairy tales and will investigate for the Order of the Papacy the supernatural events that occur in eighteenth-century Broken Europe.
Before we begin, I want to thank The World Anvil Publishing for giving us a digital copy of the manual in order to write this review of Broken Tales.
If you are interested in purchasing, the manual is available on the official store at the price of €55 in physical version (including PDF) or €17.90 in digital version.
Once Upon a Time…
When the King of Fairytales realized that only one Child still believed in the ancient stories told and handed down from generation to generation, he made him the Savior. The Child Savior was granted a wish, but the One who Plots in the Shadows managed to whisper to the child a seemingly harmless reward that turned out to be dangerous; unconsciously the Child approved the idea and asked for new life for the fairy tale Villains, a chance for redemption. This is how fairy tales fell apart: bad guys became good and vice versa.
In 1780 supernatural entities that were once only in man’s fantasies became tangible and Pope Clement therefore decided to create the Order, a secret group of Hunters with abilities beyond the threshold of reality. The Hunters have the task of defeating the shadows of Broken Tales, acting in the dark of the common population of eighteenth-century Europe.
General Characteristics of Broken Tales Hunters
This manual offers a wide choice of very attractive pre-generated Hunters; they are obviously inspired by the antagonists of the classic fairy tales that were told to us as children, such as The Astonishing Piper without a Name inspired by the very famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In this section, however, I would like to focus on how to create a Hunter.
Obviously, to be a Hunter, it must derive from a fairy tale: be inspired by your favorite story. Reading it, we must note down all the Key Words that can be useful to stimulate imagination and storytelling at the gaming table.
Then you need to write a brief background of the character, trying to insert the keywords in a sensible way; we need to narrate who the hunter is and what he does in the Order, how he lives in the game world, what connection he has with the fairytale self and what his Breaking Point is. The latter represents all those details that differ from the original fairy tale and which lead it to have different objectives. The rest is used to create the three Descriptors: each of these must have a Positive and Negative part; they serve to describe a Hunter, be inserted into the narrative during Checks, give experience points and understand the character’s abilities.
Just to give you an idea, here’s a Descriptor that stuck with me; it is that of the Child Witch Baba Yaga:
I am a witch and my magical powers allow me to do what I want. I need the right time to cast my spells.
The Practical Use of the Gifts
The Gifts, on the other hand, are the special abilities of the Hunters, defining their abilities. There are two Normal Gifts and a powerful Dark Ego Gift. The Gifts must be narrated in order to find a mechanical equivalent to which to link them, the important thing is that they remain consistent with the Hunter that is being created.
As for Normal Gifts, they are composed of two Archetypal Effects, which represent what happens when the Gift is brought into play; they also have an Archetypal Cost, i.e. a limit that avoids excessive use. A Normal Gift could be, for example, mind control magic or magic to inflict injuries.
The Gift of Io Oscuro, on the other hand, is composed of any number of Archetypal Effects and an Archetypal Activator Cost; in this regard one must bond with the fairy-tale self or suffer an injury. An example of a Gift of Dark Ego, in the case of the Piper, is the ability to emit a sound capable of causing injury.
The last things to determine for character creation are the Soma reserve, the Hunter’s energy useful for having automatic Successes or activating some Gifts, and the equipment. Base Soma may vary based on the power of the Gifts. Equipment is determined by Descriptors, therefore purely narrative and does not grant mechanical bonuses.
Broken Tales Mechanics Review
This role-playing game uses the Monad Echo rules system with the aim of promoting narrative and freedom of choices and actions for players. The manual suggests structuring the sessions as if they were conversations between the Narrator and the Players. In particular the Narrator has the task of asking for Position Checks when a character’s action has an uncertain outcome.
The player must check if one of the Descriptors can help him pass the Check; in this case you get three Basic Successes, otherwise only one. As a result of a Gift, by spending Soma or by deciding to roll one or more d6s, Additional Successes can be obtained which will modify the outcome; but be careful: if even just a 1 is rolled, the Check fails. Once this is done, you need to compare the Successes with the NPC’s Opposition or Threat Level; it can be 3 (Easy), 5 (Medium) or 7 (Difficult), possibly raised or lowered by the narrator based on the circumstances. The possible outcomes are:
- A Success with a Cost (number of successes equal to the Opposition Level) indicates that the Hunter will succeed in his action but there will be a narrative disadvantage at the discretion of the Storyteller based on the situation.
- With a Standard Success (number of successes exceeding the Opposition Level by 1) the action will simply be completed positively.
- Finally, a Success with an Increment (number of successes exceeds the Opposition Level by 2) means that the character will succeed in the action and will have a narrative advantage.
When an NPC or a Threat acts against Hunters it is necessary to carry out a Defense Check; it follows exactly the mechanics of the Position Check previously explained. It follows that the Storyteller never checks for NPCs and Threats.
Dark Presence
The NPCs that the Hunters encounter during the Scenario are called Dark Presences; as with the characters, they are linked to the fairy tale of origin and wander in Broken Europe. The Dark Presences can be Adversaries that the Hunters must face, Allies who can help the protagonists or Neutrals; so the latter have their own personal purpose and can become Allies or Adversaries of the characters depending on the situation.
Keep in mind that the creation of the Dark Presence is similar to that of the Hunter. The character taken from the original fairy tale is brought to the Breaking Point and a background is drawn up; the characteristics dictated by the Descriptor, the Lesions are then assigned and the Level of Opposition is decided. Each NPC has two Gifts available: in the case of Adversaries they will be designed to put the Order’s Hunters in difficulty, while the Allies will instead have Gifts capable of providing support to the protagonists.
You must also choose the Agenda of the Dark Presence, a phrase that contains the purpose of the NPC’s actions, consistent with his background or the Scenario.
The manual presents a multitude of ready-made cards of Adversaries, Allies and Neutrals that can be inserted into the Scenarios at the discretion of the Narrator. They are all entities inspired by the best-known fairy tales and reported in a broken and twisted version, but at the same time very interesting; for example, Goldilocks becomes a ruthless mercenary together with her three War Bears.
The Scenarios of Broken Tales
Like the protagonists of this role-playing game, the playable Scenarios must also be inspired by a story. They can be short, even a single session, or real campaigns.
The Narrator has the task of reading the Scenario and the Scene Tree, a plot with all the information and scenes to follow to ensure that the narration continues smoothly. Before starting to play you must obviously choose the Hunters, trying to exclude the characters least suited to the Scenario.
Also in this case the manual offers a wide choice of ready-made scenarios; but if a Narrator has the right imagination and the necessary time, he can create his own by overturning classic fairy tales. As in the creation of the Hunter, you need to read the story and note the inspirational Keywords and consequently define the Adversary, Allied and Neutral NPCs who will come into contact with the Hunters and their purposes.
The setting is a very important element; eighteenth-century Europe is taken as a reference, to which historical events that occurred in that period of time are added to give more context to the story. We then move on to writing the background, that is, what happened before the Order intervened, and the situation when the protagonists take action. Starting from these ideas, all parts of the Scenario are developed in more detail.
To make the adventure you are writing more readable and easier to consult, you can choose to fill in the Scene Tree; each Scene requires a Place, a Time, an Initial Situation and Information. The Tree groups together the succession of situations in the Scenario, specifying the consequences of the individual Scenes.
Conclusions of the Broken Tales Review
The manual consists of 272 pages, divided into paragraphs. The predominant colors are red, black and white; moreover the chosen font is very classic and recalls the fairy tale books we read as children. As you can admire from those included in this review, the illustrations are very present and give a more distorted and macabre tone to Broken Tales, managing to perfectly convey the tones of the game. In particular, I found those dedicated to the Dark Presences and Hunters extremely evocative.
The manual offers plenty of inspiration for the Storyteller; for example, it offers a large number of Dark Presences and Hunters cards that can also be used in your own Scenarios. Furthermore, the entire second part of the manual is dedicated to the presentation of how to play a Broken Tales Campaign.
I loved the dedication and passion that went into writing this work. The result is quick to assimilate and also suitable for beginners in role-playing games. Broken Tales is an RPG for everyone, focused on storytelling and creating compelling stories that evoke old, forgotten fairy tales. I recommend trying it to all those who want to put the Antagonists of their favorite stories back into play in an attempt to defeat the shadows of Broken Tales!
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