#110: Spectres of Brocken

the tragic mecha game by aaron lim

I. Dear Reader,

So for the last year or so, ever seen we’ve been doing regular fortnightly playtest meet-ups over on the Session Zero discord, I’ve been involved in a ridiculous number of playtests on a ridiculous variety of games. It’s been a really fascinating experience because while some games come quite polished, many games start off rough. With those games, you get to see them go through iteration after iteration - sometimes radically departing from the previous version if some part of the design didn’t work. Spectres of Brocken is one of those games.

If you haven’t heard of it, Spectres of Brocken is a tragic mecha game from Malaysian designer Aaron Lim. It’s about “making friends and then years later going to war against them in giant mechs”. And it’s on kickstarter right now.

I’ve seen the game go from standard Belonging outside Belonging to a game where you trade words instead of tokens. I’ve seen the number of moves expand and contract. I’ve seen whole mechanics get cut because they didn’t work. But what has stayed constant is Aaron Lim’s commitment to making a game that’s fun for him to play. It has honestly been an inspirational process to watch.

Another constant was the two phases of the game: In phase one, you’re at the academy. Your character sheets are only partially filled out (because you’re teens) and you play out a small handful of “students at boarding school” scenes. In phase two, the world has changed and you’re at war. You’re in big mechs and you’re possibly facing your old friends because you now work for rival corps.

The timeskip hits you hard every time - the juxtaposition of friendship and violence has the gravity of a cement truck dropped on your heart.

I think in my first playtest of it, I created a character who looked like Dave Bautista, piloted a mech called the Master Exploder, and whose theme song was Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball. In my last playtest of it, if I remember correctly, I played a character who piloted a “living mech” (basically a giant tree). You can get weird with this game.

If you like mechs and GM-less games, you’ll probably get some fun out of this. Check it out!

Yours lost in thought about the friends I faced in battle,

Thomas

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II. Listen of the Week

• AA Voigt talks about Everest Pipkin’s new book, full of games that you can use as epilogues to end your campaigns.

• Banana Chan has an introduction to larping!

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III. Links of the Week

• The Chapbook Co-op is another exciting attempt at a more equitable, sustainable publishing entity for RPGs. Their first adventure, the Weaver’s Observatory designed by Gem Room Games, has just come out.

• New discord bot, Sparks, is one specifically designed for FitD, PbtA and Resistance games a la Heart and Spire.

• If you like Ironsworn Starforged, this very fancy google spreadsheet is VTT and character keeper all in one.

• On the Indie Game Reading Club:

  • Paul Beakley does a round-up of games he’s been playing: Nahual, Torq, Zombie World and more.

  • Also, surprise, Im guesting on the blog with a (kinda) review of Trophy Gold.

• Metatopia has announced it will be online only for 2022 and si currently slated for November 4th and 5th. Panel submissions are open.

• Molen Sulfur blog continues to serve up historical adventure inspiration with a new series of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty in India.

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IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

• Cloud Empress is a science-fantasy setting for the Mothership RPG inspired by Nausicaa and Elden Ring crowdfunding in 2023. Download a free introductory adventure and subscribe to the game's newsletter to find out more.

This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.

• The latest offering is Troika Worlds, a bundle of sourcebooks and adventures for Troika, an off-beat, wacky science fantasy OSR game. Bones Deep is one I personally am quite excited to check out.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.

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