Are you ready to play the most intense game of poker in your life? That’s been the response so far to our very first larp, The Deal, and now is your chance to get in on the action.
After a successful Kickstarter earlier this year, Broken Ruler Games is pleased to announce The Deal, a live-action roleplaying game about blackmail and confrontation during a high stakes game of poker, is now available to the gaming public. You can download the rules for free on The Deal‘s page as well as purchase print-and-play and/or print-on-demand cards from DriveThruCards.
This game is the third in our line of Fragments mini-games and one shots. You can discover more on our Fragments page, including Duel and By The General’s Hand.
At the time of this writing, there are 7 projects currently in various forms of writing, design, editing, and development plus a couple more stewing in the pot. In other words, a lot’s going on around here and we could use some playtesters. Would we just ask? Nope, that’s not our style.
Broken Ruler Games is proud to announce the launch of our Patreon page, Broken Designs. Here, our patrons will gain access to early drafts of various games and other projects in development (though not all of them – it’s worth noting that patrons will not, for example, get to see any of The Tower.) Some of these projects will provide exclusive access to certain projects, such as Dimensions, our long-brewing PbtA game of inter-dimensional travellers and the first game on tap for our patrons. Each playtest draft will include an online form to provide different types of feedback (from simply reading through the text to actually playing as a Player or Facilitator) to earn playtest points that are then used to earn bonus rewards for your feedback. Basically, the more playtesting you do, the more rewards you get. It’s the Patreon that gives back.
How Does It Work?
You can read all about how the Broken Designs Patreon works by checking it out here and reading more about how playtest points work right here.
Here’s the gist of it. Back in 2015-16, we experiment with the idea of rewarding playtesters with points collected based on the type of feedback they provided. Hence the ENnie-nominated ScreenPlay: The Rehearsal Edition was born and our playtesters were able to earn free copies (including a handful of print ones) of the finished game. Based on the success of that experience, we wanted to bring it back on a more regular basis while also finding a reliable revenue stream that could help support what is still a fledgling publishing company. This Patreon will not only help us stock up the coffers to afford new original art, writers, designers, and more, it will also help us cover the costs of the special rewards each project will create.
If you’ve already made it this far into the post, you’re past the point of no return and should – nay, MUST – check out the Broken Designs Patreon page. Thank you to all of our fans and supporters for everything you do.
…because that’s when The Deal goes live on DriveThruRPG and DriveThruCards.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this summer, The Deal has gone out to backers and we’ve set the date for the public launch. Beginning September 10th, you can purchase a print-and-play and/or print version of this poker larp. If you haven’t heard about this game before, check out its page under our Fragments line of mini-games.
All of us who worked on The Deal would like to thank our backers to helping bring this game to life. Now let’s get ready to deal the cards and face our demons.
This past weekend, we launched a new Kickstarter. Quietly and with very little fuss. Why? Well… this one’s a little different. It’s not a game you’ll be able to buy online or find in any stores and it will only be available through the 21-day window of this campaign. Oh, and you won’t be able to play it until I’m dead.
The Kickstarter campaign for The Tower, an unfortunate game that you can’t play until I’m dead.
While most of the posts made on this website represent our various product lines and more publicly consumable games, this one’s far too personal. And it’s difficult to explain so perhaps let’s cut straight to a passage from the Kickstarter itself.
Some ideas are a hard sell. They may have an important message you want to share with the world but there’s something about the idea that’s controversial or risky. Particularly when it comes to making a game about a terrible event that will spiral out of control in ways we never imagined until it becomes a part of modern life. You know you may never be able to share it but it never truly goes away. Until you see a sign and the opportunity suddenly presents itself.
The Tower is a mature tabletop roleplaying game about a terrifying moment that changes the lives of the people involved. And you won’t be able to play it until I’m dead. In the spirit of Break Kickstarter, this campaign will provide you with a password-protected PDF of the finished game by the promised delivery date. The password will only be provided by me in the event of my death by natural or accidental causes.
From The Tower’s Kickstarter page
In the first 48 hours of this campaign, we’re already approaching 300% funding. Due to the nature of this unique publication (it will technically be available through BRG but not outside of this Kickstarter), there were no plans to even include any mention of it on this website. Yet as this thing starts to catch on with a few curious backers so early into the campaign, that may change. For now, if you’ve ever been interested in any of my work as a tabletop game design and can appreciate what one backer generously referred to as “performance art,” everything you can know can be found on The Tower’s Kickstarter page.
