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Investigate a world of fallen heroes and dark fairy tales in the horror RPG, Broken Tales

Storybook slayings.

Travel across a fictional version of 18th century Europe in search of twisted fairy tale characters in Broken Tales, an upcoming roleplaying game that’s currently on Kickstarter.

Long ago, after seemingly saving the land of fairy tales, a child was granted a wish of their choosing. However, having been approached by a nefarious entity called The One Who Plots in the Shadows, the child asked that those villains who had been defeated be given a chance at redemption. Now virtuous, the villains of the past are faced with the threat presented by the heroes of old - who have since taken on the mantle of evil.

Condemned to hide in the margins, the new villains - or broken ones - stalk rural towns in search of the answer to their desires, with the innocent adult civilians unaware of their presence. An order of hunters has since been established to deal with the broken ones, following rumours of their sightings and the words of the children who can see them. In Broken Tales, the players become one of these hunters and must use their unique abilities and skills to track down the broken ones one-by-one.

Cover image for YouTube video

A horror roleplaying game, Broken Tales sees players taking on the roles of characters inspired by the villains of classic fairy tales. As a member of the order of hunters, the player characters must journey across Europe and struggle their way through twisted versions of beloved fairy tales. Broken Tales can be played as either a series of one-shots - using the scenarios provided or one of the game master’s own making - or as a complete campaign.

Player characters can be created using the suggested hunters included in the core RPG, which feature the likes of Baba Yaga the Child Witch, Garou the Old Wolf - inspired by the Big Bad Wolf - James the Swordsman, which is based on Captain Hook, Regina the Thief of Hearts (the Queen of Hearts) and The Astonishing Pied Piper without a Name. Alternatively, the player can describe their own chosen hunter and then give them appropriate abilities to match.

The player characters can then experience one of the pre-set scenarios - which are based on classic fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast and Snow White - or a storyline of the GM’s own design. Whenever the GM asks players to overcome a challenge, they can choose to attempt a roll - using d6s - or spend some Soma to get an automatic success. The RPG uses the Monad Echo game system, which is used to create RPGs released by The World Anvil Publishing - which is co-publishing Broken Tales alongside Black Box Games.

Broken Tales RPG layout

Broken Tales was written by Alberto Tronchi - the author behind the Fate setting Evolution Pulse, Omen and the Valraven RPG series - with the game’s illustrations being created by Daniel Comerci, who has previously worked on roleplaying games such as Kult: Divinity Lost and Shadowrun.

The Kickstarter campaign for Broken Tales is currently live until May 25th, with a pledge of €50 (£44/$60) getting backers a copy of the core RPG that’s set to be released next April. Alternatively, a digital version of the game is available for €18 (£16/$21).

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Broken Tales

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About the Author
Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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