Driving

I posted about the rulebook, being some thirty odd pages. Pretty refined? I think so.

While I was driving I was randomly thinking about the rules and was thinking about how to further refine. Spoiler, pages are still same length but maybe paragraphs are more legible?

One of the troubling ideas that I was coming up with to refine was removing the Force/Penetration quandary. Which, after working out a new system then I realized that my entire reason for having Force/Penetration was to work with differing units. Second Spoiler, drones. Defacto, the difference between drones and humans would be that drones are designed with higher armor, effective against penetration, but do not have the vigor to defend against force (a broken motherboard is a broken motherboard, use a hammer on your computer for a reference).

So that was my idea while driving.

Then one of our other team members said he wanted to put all the universes under the same rule system so we could cross gameplay. Which sounds like a great idea, any unit any faction and universe pitted against one another, all the what ifs of guns versus arrows.

But he doesn't want a complex game (30 pages, mostly blank spaces for artwork, is complex?). He wants a straight forward roll and done. E.G. Having a single roll instead of Armor-Penetration and Vigor-Force. Incentive for me to integrate my random idea... whew, didn't publish these yet (Sad Face, Please Donate so we do publish).

Revised Manifesto

So, here is the original Manifesto:

1. Rules are written on paper—not etched on stone.

2. Rules are suggested guidelines—not required edicts.

3. If the rules don’t say you can’t do something—you can.

4. There are no official answers—only official opinions.

5. When dice conflict with the story—story always wins.

6. Rule abuse isn’t a problem with the game—it’s a  problem with the players.

7. A game that is not fun is no longer a game—it’s a chore.

8. This book contains the answers to all things.

9. When the above does not apply… look again, or make it up.

And here is my idea for a revision:

1. Special Edition Rulebooks will be etched on stone.

2. Rules are suggested guidelines—so don't color outside of the lines.

3. If the rules don’t say you can’t do something then don't do it.

4. There are no official answers—except from the game maker.

5. When dice conflict with the story—case of beer wins.

6. Rule abuse isn’t a problem with the game—it’s a  problem with unimaginative people.

7. A game that is not fun is no longer a game—it’s an opportunity for murder.

8. This book contains the answers to all things.

9. When the above does not apply… look again.

Think this will work all the same?

Back in the Saddle

Going on near a year now since posting any updates on here. Life happened and kept me away from doing much that didn't constitute drooling out of the corner of my mouth. War still finds us, and we will always remain broken.

Then I was brought back out of retirement to continue on with this perilous journey of attempting to develop a game for you.

But the ruleset is so needlessly amazing that I really don't have much to do to improve on it. I realize however that I never really wrote much about the system that was in place, so that I can then write about how the system is being changed... once again.

So we will take it from the top.

Broken Wars consists of three universes: Fantasy, Steampunk, and Science Fiction.

The End

Greetings and Salutations

Guess I should introduce myself, I am G.A. Heris. Creative Director, among other things, on the Sanitarium Studios team. My job is to help shape the story and art of the Broken Wars continuity, as well as other IPs in development at Sanitarium Studios.

And I am not the person who has been primarily posting up to this point, I will try and tag my stuff with GAHeris for blog posts so that you know it is 'I' writing.

I am not sure how often I will make use of this blog, or what purpose all those posts will be. I am going to attempt to make commentary on rules sets and how they are both shaping and shaped by the creative direction of the stories for the Broken Wars. Also make commentary or respond to questions about creative choices in the stories being written for these IPs. In that vein I welcome questions, comments, and to be frank out right insults. Anything that will help shape these worlds.

I am currently lead director of the Arglwyddi Stêm rules and development cycle. Which is still in conception phase. But looks to be heading towards card game first and follow up games later.

Perhaps I should offer some brief commentary so this isn't just a 'who cares' post about one of the team members.

διασπορά αρραβώνες : We have been working on this project for years, between my other numerous projects and ideas lays this one. Our attempts and desire to create an alternate world, a universe that might have been and the universe that follows. And after all this time I look back at it and go... "that's it? That is all we've done?" Usually this is followed up with a brief sigh, and then a "we've made a lot of progress from where we started." I go from depressed to depressed. But, I am still proud of everything that has come together from this story and look forward to start really posting about the story as it exists, maybe get some of the concept art out as well. We may have gone a bit backwards, rules first, then story, but we are getting there.

Arglwyddi Stêm : A result of a stupid question, "hey, wouldn't it be neat to apply our Broken Wars rules to a steampunkish setting!" Yeah, stupid comment on my part, but still has potential. This project is much more sideline then the first. But I still see potential for it in a world that loves the steam punk, the idea of what we could have done with a more fantastical application of steam technology. The universe is an another world. While I was tempted to follow the classic line of an alternate history Earth I felt that it limited too much of the potential stories and ideas. Not to mention 'meetings', I want my Napoleon counterpart to fight against my Patton counterpart, or against by von Richthofen counterpart. Not as easy to do in an alternate history.

Myths and Legends: *spoilers* Don't want to give them, this is still in early, early development.

Well, hope the introduction and brief thoughts give you some insight into one of the slightly crazed minds at Sanitarium Studios. Good gaming and good luck,

G.A.Heris

2105 Books

So here is where we are standing on books:

• 2105 Rule Book
• 2105 Army List
• 2105 Experimental Rules

The rulebook is currently a 38 page pdf, including front and back covers. Some of these pages are completely blank just as empty chapter space for including artwork.

The army list is currently a 35 page pdf. Although it will be about twice that length in the end.

The experimental rules, all of those optional rules and blank pages. Currently 20 pages, with over 6 blank pages for you to write your own stuff in. We don't want to give you too much space y'know.

Although there was the quick start rulebook, do I really need it when the rules themselves are currently narrowed down to 38 pages? Okay, I may still try to put something together that has none of the space for artwork, refined down to pretty much straight text, and maybe one of the sections (unaligned) from the army list book thrown into it. This one we will provide for you for free. Or you can access our torrent link that leads you to a poor quality scanned copy of our rulebook... if you are really cheap and don't want to actually support us even when we work to provide the quick rules for free. Pay for our artwork mostly.

Still, remember to Donate.

Heraldry

Designing the banners for the different factions is lots of fun. There are the concepts which inspire each flag. With the starting two factions, the American Confederacy and Star Kingdoms, the flags were partially just put together as what worked. Two of the planned future factions took a little more thought to put together. The pirates flag was actually something put together years ago for the most part; and the Unaligned flag was put together, well, within the last few hours.

So we can go down the list.

Unaligned

The inspiration is pretty much just the NAM, Non-Aligned Movement heraldry. A dove carrying a branch. Pretty simple. Though the Dove is Argent instead, the branch is Or. And I threw in a Or wreath around it, all on the UN light azure field.

Pirates

I am not actually going to say what their faction name is... yet. But the banner is various circle patterns around the central three characters for their acronym. This was something I worked on considering years ago with a friend when thinking about pirate factions.

I wanted to get the Pirates and Unaligned having something so I could throw that into the Army List book as chapter headers... that way there is some kind of artwork.

Star Kingdoms

This one is pretty funny. Start with a dark azure field. Put or aquilas on the upper corners, just for decoration mostly. In the center is a slight modification of a Swiss shield, argent with an or border. On the shield is what I adopted as their symbol that is a five pointed star, with each point being a different color to represent the five kingdoms. This faction, in general, has actually been the funnest faction to put together.
Today I modified the aquila decorations, upgraded them you could say.

American Confederacy

This was jumbled together with whatever I could think of. The symbol alone is a gold icon based off of an idea I formed after seeing a shadow on my ceiling. I then put this on a modified Swiss shield, still different design then the Star Kingdoms. Then for the field I used a Argent saltire dividing two dark azure sections and two sanguine sections; what a friend of mine collectively refers to as Democratic Blue and Republican Red. This flag is admittedly my favorite flag just because of the two field colors with the saltire.


Today, aside from making up one of these flags, I was mostly putting them together at a higher resolution. Or the same resolution that the cards are built on. Higher quality images, pixel by pixel was fine years ago but it really no longer satisfies me properly.

Manifesto

1. Rules are written on paper—not etched on stone.

2. Rules are suggested guidelines—not required edicts.

3. If the rules don’t say you can’t do something—you can.

4. There are no official answers—only official opinions.

5. When dice conflict with the story—story always wins.

6. Rule abuse isn’t a problem with the game—it’s a  problem with the players.

7. A game that is not fun is no longer a game—it’s a chore.

8. This book contains the answers to all things.

9. When the above does not apply… look again, or make it up.