I try to put a sentence here at least before launching directly into things, but some games just don't lend themselves to such. I dunno. CRUNCH goes the broken tide!
The Game: Tide Breaker
The Publisher: Nick Butler, I guess? I don't see a company name
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Setting-agnostic games are an odd duck. On the one hand, there was a time in my life when games like this and Unbound would have been fantastic for me, because I loved coming up with settings that were not quite one thing and almost another.
Nowadays...not so much. That's not say I couldn't, or wouldn't, but life and recent events ("recent," lol, it's been almost six years) have ground down my desire to be creative so much that I'd really rather play a game that somebody else wrote and just fill in the gaps.
With that said, I'm thrilled games like Tide Breaker exist. Does this particular game look awesome? I don't know. It doesn't look bad; actually it looks fantastic. Production values are good, layout is clean, text is easy to read. The idea behind the game - the characters are hyper-competent badasses, the game has Hope and Doom as metacurrencies, it's designed to be cinematic - looks a lot more focused than such games often are.
The tone of the writing is perhaps a little chattier than it needs to be, but that's just a personal preference. And there's a series of tables that can be used to make a setting, and that's an immediate draw for me, because I love the "mad libs" kind of challenge that presents.
But when I was reading the game system I felt like there were a lot of buzzwords and maybe not enough clarity? I dunno. It feels like one of those games that I might like, but that I can't see my group expending a lot of energy on figuring out. Let's make a character and see how easy that is.
As ever in such games, I need a setting. Fortunately there's an example one (though the temptation to use the tables is strong).
That actually sounds like a pretty cool setup, so sure, I'll make a character within that. On to chargen!
My first step is, as is often the case, to come up with a concept. The first thing that came to mind when I started thinking about this was the idea of an outsider to the town but an expert in some relevant field showing up because His Skills Are Needed. The second thing to come to mind was this dude:
If you haven't seen the cinematic masterpiece that is Lake Placid, Oliver Platt's character, Hector Cyr, is a mythology professor and crocodile expert that shows up in the midst of the other characters bumblefucking around Maine trying not to get eaten. Narratively, he makes for a good foil to Brendan Gleeson's character, and also works for comic relief. But how about such a character translated into a supernatural horror setting?
Cool, so my character is Dr. Philip Cairo (the Tide Breaker book also includes a random name table!). Dr. Cairo has written books about shadowy cults, the most famous of which is Don't Call Up What You Can't Put Down. Cultists the world over know about him and his knack for getting weak members to spill their guts or leave the fold, and there are even cults that have put out hits on him.
I think I'll leave that as concept for now and move on; I never like to conceptualize too much for new systems because I never want to get my heart set on something and discover it's out of reach for starting characters. So what's next?
Motivation and Goals! I'm meant to pick an existing Issue and consider how it affects my character in order to make a Goal. Let's check the Issues for Harper's Hill.
Ooh, a bunch of these are cool. My usual inclination would be to involve a character in the missing college students plot, but I want to be a little darker today. One of the issues is:
So we'll say Dr. Cairo's Goal is "Make sure the student disappearances don't lead back to Project Arrowhead or its superiors." Ooh, hang about, I'm supposed to shoot for three Goals. So for our secondary Goal, how about "learn the secrets of the cult operating on campus," and for the tertiary, "secure some funding for my research."
And then I write Questions...or, wait, do I? There's no slot on the sheet. Guess it's not important.
And now, Stats. I'm meant to roll 10d6 for each of three pairs of stats (Might/Endurance, Agility/Focus, Wits/Intuition) and the split the number of successes I get in each roll between those two stats. What's a success again? 4 or better. Yeah, sure, sounds good.
Roll one: 7. Roll two: 6. Roll three: 8. Nice!
Minimum is 1, max is 5. Let's see. For Might/Endurance, I'll put 3 into Might and 4 into Endurance. Agility/Focus, 2 Agility and 4 Focus. And finally for Intuition/Wits, I'll just split them evenly, 4/4.
Secondary stats: Power level starts at +2. Critical is Endurance + Focus + Power level, or 10 in my case. Recovery is Might + Agility + Power Level (7 for me). Attrition looks like it's generated during play, and Momentum gets reset every scene, so I don't need to worry about those right now.
Jobs & Specialties! I get a number of tasks related to my job equal to my Intuition (which is 4). Dr. Cairo is an author/professor/cult expert, so my four tasks will be: researching, interviewing, convincing, and searching. I also get a specialty based on these, which I will call "Breaking Cult Programming."
Quirks! These are little powers/abilities I have. I get three, but then also a Standout Feature. The GM would be able to use Quirks for NPCs, but the Feature would be locked in for Cairo, which I think is a fun little rule. Let's check these out!
Well, I very much want Astute, which makes me a more effective social investigator. (This game uses a lot of terminology and keywords, which is great except it means I'm kinda guessing on a lot of these Quirks.) Ooh, Indomitable seems appropriate. That raises my Critical Value to 12. Finally, I'll take Keen Eye. For my Special Feature, I shall take Hot Blooded. It's not what you'd expect for Cairo, but I like the idea that his fascination with cultists and what they might summon is actually very personal. He just doesn't let it out much.
Abilities! I...um. OK, this is cool, it's just involved. I get three Abilities, but I have to build them. All Abilities have some combat function (I actually really like that; if combat is important in a game then everyone should be able to do is). But I gotta learn these keyword thingies at least a little. Hmm. This may need to wait until after dinner so my brain is a little more online.
All righty, after an imperceptible (from your perspective) time jump, here we go. This doesn't look too difficult, actually. Each Ability has two Functions. Functions break down into Offense, Defense, Utility, and Movement, but there's no limit on mixing and matching. The game recommends making Abilities by thinking about what the character does in the fiction and then modeling it with the mechanics, so I need to think about what Dr. Cairo would do in a fight.
Well, the more I think about it, the more I think Cairo has some military experience. So I think one Ability might be just be Military Training - maybe training with a variety of firearms and the instinctive ability to pick up, check ammo, fire, clear a breach, all with muscle memory? Let's see what kinds of Functions are available. Ooh, how about Breaching and Coordinate? That's not quite so reliant on firearms training specifically, but I think it'd reflect how Cairo fights.
OK, for my next one, I think Cairo fights smartly, not hardly. I want an Ability called Tactical, to reflect him thinking through a scenario quickly. For this one, I'll take Gather Energy and Analyze.
And finally, I want an Ability to reflect social warfare, cause I think Cairo's good at it. Let's call it Personality, because it's late and I'm having trouble being clever. We'll give it Betraying and...oh, hell yeah, Unburden.
And that's actually all of chargen, because Tricks would happen in play. So.
I figure Dr. Cairo is in his 40s, severe face, bald, blue eyes. Not in fighting trim as much as he once was, but he keeps himself in shape. He doesn't carry a gun unless he's sure he'll need it, and if he's sure he'll need it he'd rather send in police or other people who get paid to do that kind of thing. He does carry a baton, however - most cultists have no real combat experience and they fold pretty quickly if you bonk 'em on the knee.
And that'll do it!
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