What is Broken Tales?
Once upon a time, a child saved the world of fairytales. 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 Fairytales that the Villains, accursed for centuries, be granted a new life. This was to be their chance for redemption. This was how the Villains became good. But any light needs a shadow, and in turn, the Heroes became evil. At that moment, all fairytales were shattered.
Broken Tales reinterprets traditional fairytales through a dark lens, upending their premises. Players belong to the Order, a secret group operating on behalf of the Papacy, whose duty is to investigate events and threats beyond human understanding. An eerie 18th century Europe becomes the background for these unusual heroes – villains from various fairytales, now acting as protagonists in the new reality shaped by the Child Saviour.
Broken Tales is born from the blasphemous union of The World Anvil Publishing and Black Box Games.
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FAQ
When does the game release on retail?
We’re targeting the end of Summer 2022 for the printed Core Book. Preorders from our store and digital files will be available earlier. To be notified, please sign up for our newsletter.
What system does Broken Tales use?
Like our previous games
Evolution Pulse Rebirth and
Valraven,
Broken Tales uses a system called Monad Echo. We streamlined it for the occasion, to highlight the narrative focus of the game. This choice allows us to offer characters that are capable from the start, and whose personality has been completely rebuilt compared to the one on display on the fairytale of reference.
A few highlights of the system:
The traditional creation process is reversed. Instead of starting from the math, Monad Echo starts from the Hunter’s narrative concept. With that in mind, you’ll be able to derive character aspects (Descriptors). Once you’ve described your character, you can give them special abilities (Gifts) to use during play. When playing Broken Tales, your character stats aren’t as important as who you are.
Action resolution is a mix of chance and risk. By spending Soma, you can get automatic Successes, but Soma is a limited resource. Rolling dice for Successes is free, but it introduces the possibility of failure. The two mechanics can be mixed to reduce risk.
The story keeps going. Each test determines a change in the situation – there are no meaningless rolls here.
Monad Echo uses regular d6s: you don’t need special dice to play.
