Once upon a time, a child saved the world of fairy tales. His reward was a wish. The One Who Plots in the Shadows saw an opportunity to tarnish the child's heart, whispering to him a corrupted idea. The child asked the King of Fairy Tales that the Villains, accursed for centuries, be granted a new life, a chance for redemption. Thus the Villains became good. But any light needs a shadow, and in turn, the Heroes became evil. At that moment, all fairy tales were shattered.
Broken Tales is an RPG of dark stories, reinterpreting fairy tales from an upside-down perspective. In an 18th-Century Broken Europe imbued with mysticism and horror, characters are Hunters (former villains and antagonists) who reluctantly serve the Order, a secret Papal group that investigates supernatural events beyond human comprehension. The Hunters' adversaries are the former protagonists of fairy tales, turned evil and thrown into a new world by the unwitting wish of the Child Savior.
Broken Tales uses the Monad Echo rules, an extremely fiction-first system where players describe their characters' actions to the Narrator (gamemaster), always aiming for specific, concrete outcomes – and, if the Narrator doesn't intervene, the characters get exactly what the players describe. But there's more to it! Character generation starts with your character's narrative concept, from which you derive aspects called Descriptors ("I'm an excellent duelist, but I fight poorly when surrounded" – "People pay attention to me, but sometimes I give in and manipulate them, even though it makes me feel sick"); the Descriptors in turn suggest Gifts (special abilities). Conflicts in a Scene use a rotating turn system of Exchanges. Each subject in the scene can attempt an action to change their narrative position. When a player character initiates an action with an uncertain outcome, the Narrator can call for a Position Check, "because the character's position in the narrative is challenged." Likewise, Defense Checks, prompted by NPC attacks, test "the character's ability to maintain their current narrative position" against interference.
A positive outcome for a Check requires a certain number of Successes based on the Threat's Opposition Level. Your character's Descriptors and Gifts, along with equipment and circumstances, automatically grant a certain number of Base Successes. You can also spend Soma, a resource, for automatic successes, but your Soma points are scarce and tricky to replenish. If you still haven't met the Opposition Level, you can try to generate Additional Successes by rolling dice – as many dice as you want. Every die counts as a Success, except if any of the dice rolls a 1, the entire Check fails. Matching the Opposition Level gives you an Outcome with a Cost; one extra Success gives a Standard Outcome; two or more extra gives an "Outcome with an Increment" (benefit). A failed Defense Check may inflict a Wound, which activates your character's Dark Ego power for the rest of the scene. After three Wounds, you're dead.
Want to know more? Check the free Monad Echo System Reference Document.
- 14 ready-made Hunters based on well-known fairy tale villains: Baba Yaga the Child Witch, Babai the Judge, Garou the Old Wolf, James the Swordsman, George the Holy Dragon Slayer, the Immortal, the Woman of the Woods, Marina the Sea Explorer, Niklaus von Krampus, the Astonishing Piper Without a Name, Regina the Thief of Hearts, Sun Wukong the Amazing Monkey, Verdoux Bluebeard, and Yukie Onn the Wandering Artist
- Fox and Cat: An extra Hunter playbook, previously released only to Kickstarter backers, presenting two good-for-nothing boys cursed by a witch to transform into animals each day and night
- 10 ready-to-play scenarios based on classic fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Thousand and One Nights, plus many story hooks and ideas
- A six-track soundtrack with 36 minutes of atmospheric music
- Rules for creating your own Hunters and scenarios from a reference fairy tale
Learn more at the May 2021 Kickstarter campaign page.
Hunter! This all-new Broken Tales Bundle presents the English-language rulebook and supplements for Broken Tales, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of upside-down fairy tales from Italian game publisher The World Anvil Publishing (not to be confused with UK-based online campaign manager World Anvil). In Broken Tales the Savior Child asked the King of Fairy Tales to redeem and reform villains like Bluebeard, Baba Yaga, the Queen of Hearts, Krampus, the Bogeyman, and the Big Bad Wolf. But The One Who Plots in the Shadows corrupted the child's wish: Yes, the Villains became good, but any light needs a shadow, and in turn, the Heroes became evil. The old tales shattered. Now, in an 18th-Century Broken Europe infused with magic and mysticism, the former villains have become Hunters reluctantly serving the Order, a powerful Papal secret society. As Hunters, you use your incredible abilities to counter the Broken Tales – onetime "good guys" now twisted and darkened, like Iskra the Young Wolf (Red Riding Hood), Carlo the Living Puppet, Beauty and her Beast, Alice of Other Worlds (with her shadowy lynx Cheshire), Morgana, Mulan, the Gang of Pigs, and Goldilocks and her War Bears.
Broken Tales adapts the narrativist Monad Echo rules system for fiction-first storytelling of twisted scenarios almost as dark, brutal, and blood-soaked as the original fairy tales that inspired them. For just US$9.95 you get all three titles in our fully intact Broken Collection (retail value $47) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete 268-page Broken Tales core rulebook (plus the free Quickstart, the Monad Echo SRD, the soundtrack, and the exclusive Fox and Cat playbook), the Storyteller's Screen, and the character expansion The Broken Ones.
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