I love how the cover tiefling waifu looks nothing like those _other_ tieflings. She looks closer to an anime elf than the _actual_ elves in this. 01:23 - I can't help put feel that they decided to give the Battle Princess gloves _after_ the lineart was done. Her arms just turn _white_ , with no line to separate skin from glove.
@@bloodrunsclear No, and I'm going to double down. Mork Borg is a Black Metal album cover turned into an incomplete campaign setting stapled to an anemic BX D&D clone carried only by its art style and the efforts of its audience making single-page adventures in the guise of monster entries.
@@stevemanart huh..... I mean.... You're not wrong.... xD I love mork borg for its simplicity and its art and theme. But really I just like looking at it, I don't actually play it lol.
@@stevemanartpop off! 🔥 That’s exactly what I’ve said many times. It is a wonderful coffee table book. Great piece of artwork to hold and flip through. It is a painfully mediocre game made worse because the book is miserable to actually try and use. Inevitably someone responds “there is a free, artless version that’s just the rules” Yes. Yes there is. But those rules are so barebones and uninspired without the art that I wouldn’t even bother.
I am genuinely convinced this began life as something more than another OSR/NSR hack with a vague theme it only halfway sticks to, but the siren song of not having to come up with new ideas was too tempting so they just backslid into the usual marching-order-keep-on-border-gore-for-mortar ShadowMorkSR thing with Tumblr-tween animu art that no longer really fits the mechanical tone.
I think they know it looks like tumbler weeb kid doodles and i think thats what they were going for. Plent of of people like that stuff and have nostalgia for it. I liked it well enough but didn't want to spend that sort of money without a review of whats in the book. This is the first review ive seen that feels like a game review and not just an art review.
i was willing to ignore the less than passable art on the account of the thematic juxtaposition. Disney's Berserk feels like a interesting dichotomy. but then inflation came into the mix and my opinion deflated in a second
Um, Akshually The name is "Break!!" Uh, the two exclamation points are very important. But seriously though, The setting is a clockwork world where the "heavenly watchmaker" effed off and something like sauron broke the world mechanism and the demigod hero wasn't able to fix it.
Noticed in your videos that there's this unspoken dislike of PBTA and In The Dark. I'm curious as to why that is, since I'm inexperienced with the hobby and unfamiliar with those types of games. The only things I know are that playbooks are more restrictive than classes, and that most PBTA games are just reskins of one another.
Hit the nail on the head there more than anything. My rather spoken dislike mostly stems from making the same game over-and-over-and-over again with the new and exciting mechanic of rolling 2d6+Mod. Again. Though I could go on a longer rant about it. PbtA is just a quick way to write a high concept down and refuse to expand upon it any further. Forged in the Dark isn't bad, I just find it really, really, boring. I like games that have a strong idea and work the mechanics into that idea. These two usually don't do that. Weirdly enough I don't hate Apocalypse World 1e though, and Blades in the Dark proper is a perfect 6.5/10 in my book.
@@NotepadAnon I think that concept with ludonarrative expansion is why I really love your YIIK system so much. You don't like YIIK, but you still respected it enough to try and make a game that felt like YIIK as opposed to putting YIIK stickers (YIIcKers) onto a 5e rulebook.
Step back, it's a new OSR! New OSR! They gave me the same shit...! One more miss, new OSR, Gimmicky OSR! I feel the need to quit! Step back, it's 'nother OSR! New OSR! They gave me the same shit...! One more miss, new OSR, Gimmicky OSR!
Bravo, sir. Excellent entertainment value with this one. Must admit that I never heard of "BREAK!!" till now, so I'll snoop around. Donald Duck with a a Berserk blade... you Elder Millennial enough to remember Cold Shadow? 😂 BTW, I'm loving Clanhead. 👍🏻
Your description of Break!! reminds of Magical Girl Madoka Magica and the Higurashi anime, aesthetic vice: cute/pretty anime characters meet bloody/gruesome ends
On the one hand, I wasn't really excited for Break!™ because it didn't really appeal to me aesthetically and from the early previews I thought it was gonna be closer to Ryuutama than Veins of the Earth. This actually looks like a great game to blindside my players with a one-shot where they get to experience in RPG form what Madoka watchers did their first time viewing it.
Hey Anon, I don’t know if you take recommendations but I would love to see your thoughts on FIST a cold war paranormal mercenary rpg. It’s a rules lite World of Dungeons / Pbta based game that I think avoids and corrects some of the criticisms you had at other rules lite rpgs. It deliberately has very little lore and canon, but it has a major enemy faction and big ass tables to make everything from organizations and conspiracies to singular npcs and weapon camos. It ditches classes and instead every fresh character starts with a personal goal and just 2 traits, but there is a fuck ton of them to choose from, and besides of being really strong and influential they all come with a unique item. The mechanics are simple, but they aren’t written in a verbose way, and besides of having optional rules the game is public domain and encourages hacking and making fan expansions to it. (I too made my first publicly released project for FIST) I have introduced multiple friends who have never touched a ttrpg before to the hobby through this game, and have been running it with them for almost a year now. I’ve been planning to make a video on it myself, but I would like to see your thoughts on it, since you are a lot more experienced in ttrpgs than me. (I’ve only been interested in this hobby since the quarantine)
Notepad, I love the unhinged irrational hatred you have for the visuals. It seriously made my day. 😂 You're great at slicing into the weak points of games but I hope you do watch your blood pressure, lol. If I ever write something for public consumption I hope to find a hater of your caliber to disassemble it for me before I publish. Thanks for keeping it silly with Disney Berserk. Thinking of Donald Berserk, that could be done easier with Dragonbane or Duckquest or Mutant year zero... wasn't there an indie satire version of DuckTales last year?
Sword World RPG... It hasn't been officially translated into English by the creators, but fans have. It's a pretty awesome RPG and grew to popularity around the same time as Lodoss War. Check it out! It's easy to find all the english translations of the PDFs/
Because, as mentioned by Xararion; Sword World exists, and SW is the official game for Lodoss that was created from it because it was pretty much impossible to play D&D in Japan at the time. (though it evolved into something quite different since 2.5)
So in the end, functional but uninspired and trying hard to look like something it really isn't. Noted. Could be worse, especially for the portion of humanity that likes that art style.
@@sparklingwater925 I don't really review that much OSR content if there isn't a "Thing" to it. Hell, I didn't realize Break was OSR until I delved into it. Unconquered had the entire plagiarism angle as well. There is a TON of OSR content out there that I don't touch. Someone may be interested in it and there's probably a channel dedicated to it, but I've never been too interested in it.
Wait, a game with a brutal injury table actively encourages players to hide behind their underpaid child soldiers? That’s unironically hilarious.
"everything makes sense when you make it a toon Berserk with Goofy as Casca" LMAO SOLD
Same XD
@@EvilDoresh yooo DORESH
inb4 Anon makes a video about FIGHT! perhaps?
@@adzi6164 I'm sure there are enough fighting games out for a Curious Case...
I love how the cover tiefling waifu looks nothing like those _other_ tieflings. She looks closer to an anime elf than the _actual_ elves in this.
01:23 - I can't help put feel that they decided to give the Battle Princess gloves _after_ the lineart was done. Her arms just turn _white_ , with no line to separate skin from glove.
Break!! is Mork Borg or Black Hack, but replacing Black Metal and Punk music with dubbed anime openings.
@@bloodrunsclear No, and I'm going to double down. Mork Borg is a Black Metal album cover turned into an incomplete campaign setting stapled to an anemic BX D&D clone carried only by its art style and the efforts of its audience making single-page adventures in the guise of monster entries.
@@stevemanart huh..... I mean.... You're not wrong.... xD I love mork borg for its simplicity and its art and theme. But really I just like looking at it, I don't actually play it lol.
@@stevemanartpop off! 🔥
That’s exactly what I’ve said many times. It is a wonderful coffee table book. Great piece of artwork to hold and flip through. It is a painfully mediocre game made worse because the book is miserable to actually try and use.
Inevitably someone responds “there is a free, artless version that’s just the rules”
Yes. Yes there is. But those rules are so barebones and uninspired without the art that I wouldn’t even bother.
mork borg isn't even black metal. it's a shitty poser attempt at black metal
I am genuinely convinced this began life as something more than another OSR/NSR hack with a vague theme it only halfway sticks to, but the siren song of not having to come up with new ideas was too tempting so they just backslid into the usual marching-order-keep-on-border-gore-for-mortar ShadowMorkSR thing with Tumblr-tween animu art that no longer really fits the mechanical tone.
I think they know it looks like tumbler weeb kid doodles and i think thats what they were going for. Plent of of people like that stuff and have nostalgia for it. I liked it well enough but didn't want to spend that sort of money without a review of whats in the book. This is the first review ive seen that feels like a game review and not just an art review.
i was willing to ignore the less than passable art on the account of the thematic juxtaposition. Disney's Berserk feels like a interesting dichotomy. but then inflation came into the mix and my opinion deflated in a second
Why is it even called Break? I assumed it was an anime style game with limit breaks or something.
It's cause the PCs will keep breaking their bones.
Um, Akshually The name is "Break!!" Uh, the two exclamation points are very important. But seriously though,
The setting is a clockwork world where the "heavenly watchmaker" effed off and something like sauron broke the world mechanism and the demigod hero wasn't able to fix it.
@@beardyben7848 Sounds like the premise of Godbound, just a bit dumber
I'm grateful I watched this video. Saved me some money once I found out it was OSR related. The stupid class names were already pushing it though.
Noticed in your videos that there's this unspoken dislike of PBTA and In The Dark. I'm curious as to why that is, since I'm inexperienced with the hobby and unfamiliar with those types of games. The only things I know are that playbooks are more restrictive than classes, and that most PBTA games are just reskins of one another.
Hit the nail on the head there more than anything. My rather spoken dislike mostly stems from making the same game over-and-over-and-over again with the new and exciting mechanic of rolling 2d6+Mod.
Again.
Though I could go on a longer rant about it. PbtA is just a quick way to write a high concept down and refuse to expand upon it any further. Forged in the Dark isn't bad, I just find it really, really, boring. I like games that have a strong idea and work the mechanics into that idea. These two usually don't do that.
Weirdly enough I don't hate Apocalypse World 1e though, and Blades in the Dark proper is a perfect 6.5/10 in my book.
@@NotepadAnon I think that concept with ludonarrative expansion is why I really love your YIIK system so much. You don't like YIIK, but you still respected it enough to try and make a game that felt like YIIK as opposed to putting YIIK stickers (YIIcKers) onto a 5e rulebook.
Step back, it's a new OSR! New OSR!
They gave me the same shit...!
One more miss, new OSR, Gimmicky OSR!
I feel the need to quit!
Step back, it's 'nother OSR! New OSR!
They gave me the same shit...!
One more miss, new OSR, Gimmicky OSR!
Bravo, sir. Excellent entertainment value with this one. Must admit that I never heard of "BREAK!!" till now, so I'll snoop around. Donald Duck with a a Berserk blade... you Elder Millennial enough to remember Cold Shadow? 😂 BTW, I'm loving Clanhead. 👍🏻
Dunno how well the actual platforming in Cold Shadow holds up, but I remember the music being pretty darn good.
Your description of Break!! reminds of Magical Girl Madoka Magica and the Higurashi anime, aesthetic vice: cute/pretty anime characters meet bloody/gruesome ends
On the one hand, I wasn't really excited for Break!™ because it didn't really appeal to me aesthetically and from the early previews I thought it was gonna be closer to Ryuutama than Veins of the Earth. This actually looks like a great game to blindside my players with a one-shot where they get to experience in RPG form what Madoka watchers did their first time viewing it.
Yo, what even IS a Notepad Anon?
Ryan Gosling
Break... It really should have gone with Disney Cartoon Berserk!
That is both messed up, hilarious... And somehow more interesting than this.
Hey Anon, I don’t know if you take recommendations but I would love to see your thoughts on FIST a cold war paranormal mercenary rpg. It’s a rules lite World of Dungeons / Pbta based game that I think avoids and corrects some of the criticisms you had at other rules lite rpgs.
It deliberately has very little lore and canon, but it has a major enemy faction and big ass tables to make everything from organizations and conspiracies to singular npcs and weapon camos.
It ditches classes and instead every fresh character starts with a personal goal and just 2 traits, but there is a fuck ton of them to choose from, and besides of being really strong and influential they all come with a unique item.
The mechanics are simple, but they aren’t written in a verbose way, and besides of having optional rules the game is public domain and encourages hacking and making fan expansions to it. (I too made my first publicly released project for FIST)
I have introduced multiple friends who have never touched a ttrpg before to the hobby through this game, and have been running it with them for almost a year now.
I’ve been planning to make a video on it myself, but I would like to see your thoughts on it, since you are a lot more experienced in ttrpgs than me. (I’ve only been interested in this hobby since the quarantine)
Notepad, I love the unhinged irrational hatred you have for the visuals. It seriously made my day. 😂 You're great at slicing into the weak points of games but I hope you do watch your blood pressure, lol. If I ever write something for public consumption I hope to find a hater of your caliber to disassemble it for me before I publish.
Thanks for keeping it silly with Disney Berserk. Thinking of Donald Berserk, that could be done easier with Dragonbane or Duckquest or Mutant year zero... wasn't there an indie satire version of DuckTales last year?
Inspired by Studio Ghibli, Berserk. What?
Guts vs Totoro when?
‘I do not like this game’
No sh*t??!
Im waiting on the sequel named "Topple!!"
I believe the author of this game said it started as a Labyrinth Lord hack.
Break sounds like Fear and Hunger for table top.
Why can't there just be a game that looks like record of lodoss war and not this shitty style each time.
At least the characters don't all have pig noses. It could've been worse.
Because Record of Lodoss War is just AD&D, so just play AD&D.
Sword World RPG... It hasn't been officially translated into English by the creators, but fans have. It's a pretty awesome RPG and grew to popularity around the same time as Lodoss War. Check it out! It's easy to find all the english translations of the PDFs/
I recommend Sword World 2.5 if you're looking for something that looks like Record of Lodoss war, Notepad has a video up on it too.
Because, as mentioned by Xararion; Sword World exists, and SW is the official game for Lodoss that was created from it because it was pretty much impossible to play D&D in Japan at the time. (though it evolved into something quite different since 2.5)
So in the end, functional but uninspired and trying hard to look like something it really isn't. Noted. Could be worse, especially for the portion of humanity that likes that art style.
Isekai? No Thanks
They bring it up for the joke, but never really iterate upon it further. May be buried in the lore section.
Why do you review so many osr if you don't like osr?
@@sparklingwater925 I don't really review that much OSR content if there isn't a "Thing" to it. Hell, I didn't realize Break was OSR until I delved into it. Unconquered had the entire plagiarism angle as well.
There is a TON of OSR content out there that I don't touch. Someone may be interested in it and there's probably a channel dedicated to it, but I've never been too interested in it.
So it's a shittier version of Fabula Ultima. Got it.
PS Play Fabula Ultima. It's good.
The pantsuless blue demon girl is 👌 👌 👌 I must say
Wtf is this break ? I can't find any information about it anywhere else, than this video.
Usually you need Break RPG or Break TTRPG for the website to pop up for it. Not exactly an intuitive name.
I blame the fact that the !! on the end of "Break!!" is unintuitive for search.