Spectres of Brocken

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A tabletop roleplaying game about making friends and then years later going to war against them in giant mechs.

Spectres of Brocken is a GM-less game that is largely inspired by the No Dice, No Masters system pioneered by Dream Askew and Dream Apart, by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum

You start of playing young mech pilots getting to know each other in an Academy. You’ll create, gain and spend Words (in a similar way to Tokens in No Dice, No Masters games) in the Academy Phase to find out who you are and what you want from this world.

Story

I remember those hot summer days when we skipped classes to cool off by this creek.  I remember our arguments in the dining halls, our competitions in the sims. How did it come to this?  Those days are over. We knew nothing of the world then.  I know better now. I know what needs to be done. I know I have to win this, to end this war. Even if it means killing you.
What is it?

Spectres of Brocken is a role-playing game about making friends and then years later going to war against them in giant mechs.

Make up some young, naive, messy trainee mech pilots. Find out who you are. Find out who you are to each other. Find out what you want in the world.

Years later, find each other on the field of battle, each in your own fearsome custom mechs. Find out who you’ve become. Find out what you’ve all done to get here. Find out what costs you would pay to get what you want in the world.

6x9 Softcover, Cover Art by Amita Sevellaraja

You can play Spectres of Brocken with 3-4 players, without needing any one player to take a game master role as everyone shares responsibilities as players for running the game. You could also designate an experienced player to facilitate the game and provide prompts and rules guidance. The game system is largely inspired by the No Dice, No Masters system used in Dream Askew and Dream Apart, by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum.

Key features of the game:

  • A fun twist on the No Dice, No Masters system, replacing Tokens with Words that you can use as prompts for character action when gained or spent.
  • Two phases of play, each with their own unique mechanics and feel, anchored by a common core.
  • Academy Phase works like extended character creation and discovery, starting off with just one character trait and relationship and filling in the rest as you play.
  • Conflict Phase pays off all the relationships and desires set up in the Academy phase, retaining Words from the past and recontextualizing them, bringing in Blood tokens to show how actions now extract a heavy toll due to the scale of the pilots’ mechs.
  • Mix-and-match scene set up allows you to create many fun combinations out of 16 different scene situations and 16 key questions.
  • Pick a theme song for your character that you can play during dramatic moments.
  • Design your mech’s features as you play, introducing them when they highlight your character’s traits.
Why play this game?

“Perfectly captures the tension between the coolness of mechs, the costs of war, and the cruelty of time.” – Fin “GEARTOOTH” Coe

Play this game if you want to…

…build up strong bonds between unlikely friends, finding common ground where you thought there was none.

…see those bonds strained and torn through the tragedy of war when obligations and ideals and circumstance put you on opposing sides.

…build up heated rivalries between young idiots clashing and misunderstanding each other, knowing that if you hadn’t been forced to train together you wouldn’t want anything to do with each other.

…see the culmination of these rivalries on a massive scale, where the ideals you represent finally clash in ways that leave lasting impacts on the scale of nations.

…see how all the quirks, potentials, flaws, ideals, and personality traits of your pilots are magnified by their mechs and how they can now fatally influence the world around them.

Play this game if you like: Mobile Suit Gundam and its successors, Break Blade, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Naruto,  Spider-Man 2, and Friends at the Table’s COUNTER/Weight. 

You’ll be familiar with how this game plays if you know Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum‘s Dream Askew/Dream Apart, Meguey and Vincent Baker‘s Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands, and Melody Watson’s On Mighty Wheels.

Examples of internal layout: a single column design with space on the outside edge for a reference bar. Different parts of the book is marked by double page art spreads.
What are people saying?

“Aaron’s games marry cutting-edge mechanical experimentation with a powerful dramatic premise. They are both the sausage and the sizzle. Spectres of Brocken is no exception.” – Thomas “TEABREAK” Manuel

“At every stage there are interesting dynamics to explore between the pilots and the larger wartime situation they exist in.” – Kris

“When the phase change hits and the realities of war set in, Spectres of Brocken expertly takes you past the laughs to what you really come to a mech game for: feeling incredibly sad about blasting your old friends with a rocket punch.” – Adam Bell

“I liked the dichotomy between the academy and war scenes, where former friends become enemies.” – Jonathan “VINDICATOR” Bagelman

“I cut up a trophy with a chainsaw in the academy and then years later accidentally set off a super weapon. Truly time makes fools of us all.” – Mona “LISA OVERDRIVE”

How do you play?

Spectres of Brocken is played over two phases – the Academy Phase and the Conflict Phase. 

At the start of the game, you create your Pilots and set up the world you’ll be playing in. By default, this should get you set up with a cool sci-fi setting where mechs play a critical role but the full game will also come with some alternate worldbuilding templates for settings with giant kaiju or magitech kingdoms.

You then populate the Word Bank with Words based on aspects of the world and character dynamics that you’re interested in exploring through play. This forms a palette of sorts to draw from during the game.

Microids to attend Tokyo Game Show 2022

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