My group’s been on a bit of a hot streak with BREAK!! item creation lately. Along with this post, I’ve added 2 more items - Feather Stones and the Feather-Touched Pouch - to the Druid/Fey Items post. Been working on prep for running the Cog-based adventure within my Helical Expeditions book, and wanted to build out potential tinkerer-esque items found across Stahlfeld. Here are my attempts. Enjoy!
A Coat of Arms
I saw the given art below while browsing Pinterest and Artstation (the former can be quite good if you curate quite diligently; the latter is always just solid), and got inspired to build this item up. As mentioned in the Druids/Fey post, adapting Quirks into items/boons is just free real estate for item creation. I really like the Grasping Tresses Quirk and think this is a fun flavoring of it. Shout-out to a member of the BREAK!! Discord for the Munchkins vibe/name inspiration.
one pragmatic Junker finally took the problem into their own hands.
- Two mechanical arms are strapped onto a harness that you wear on your back.
- While wearing, you gain the benefits and downsides of the Grasping Tresses Quirk (Source, pg. 138)
- Additionally, you gain a Minor Bonus on Gadgeteering Checks.
- The claws are themselves a bit clumsy, and are incapable of delicate manipulation tasks.
- You cannot wear a Traveler's Bag or a Backpack while wearing this device.
Drone Discombobulator
As of writing this post, one of the most slept-on categories of Abilities/Items/etc within BREAK!! (at least, homebrew-wise) are things that interact with the Journey and Explore mechanics. By that I mean Adversaries with Abilities that directly affect Location Actions, the Random Encounter Table, Guardian Encounters, what-have-you. I think there is a ton of creative space here to spark unique interactions. The best example I’ve seen so far is the Corrupted Muk from GoblinJunkyard on the BREAK!! Discord, where the Adventure Site is altered as a result of the Adversary’s demise.
to secure this life-saving relic for diving into the junkyards.
- When activated, this device scrambles the tracking systems of all nearby Drones (or similar mechanical entities).
- It is used in 2 ways - as a Location Action or during a Fight:
- Location Action: When used as a Location Action in an area filled with Drones, it enables the Party to automatically use Sneaky Movement alongside another Location Action.
- Fight: During a Fight, as an Action, activating the relic prompts an Insight Check on all applicable Drones in the Location Area. On Failure, they become Disoriented for 2 Turns before regaining functionality.
- This item may only be used safely once in a given Adventure Site. Further use requires an Insight Check or the Item is Sundered, requiring an Advanced Gadgeteer to fix.
- The GM may rule this Item is applicable to interacting with, or disabling, other pieces of technology.
Skyrider Wristband
This item is a good one to give early on in a campaign as a starter movement item. It gives a glimpse of what true freedom movement looks like but is restricted in power. Saying that, however, this has been a staple item in my ongoing Rank 1-10 campaign and has saved multiple characters, as well as found use in various hijinks.
is able to shoot out a sticky tether line and propel the user forward.
- Once per Day, you can activate this watch to give yourself Supernatural Leaping (Source, pg. 107) for a Turn.
- You can activate this Item in addition to any other Actions permitted on your Turn.
Gobbie Scrap Bracer
Rules-as-written I believe does not allow combination Weapon x Shield Items, but I do think there is some design space here for interesting mechanics and flavor. This specific item has seen some use in my campaign but only on occasions when my player remembers that they have it in their (now bloated) Inventory.
A sharp rotation of the wrist activates this bracer, exposing a set of three hooked blades.
- Functionally, this Item acts as a Concealed Weapon.
- During a Fight, however, you may choose one of the following effects:
- Use the Concealed Weapon's Ambush Feature
- Use the Item as a Small Shield
- Due to its worn nature, it cannot be Disarmed.
Junk Trophy System
Another item in the augmented Shield design space. I am still a little unsure if these items should negate the ability to also wield a pure Shield entirely. Potentially having 2 Parries in a fight seems pretty strong. That said, there is the Prism Feather additive in the core book (Source, pg. 292) and these items have no Defense Bonus so maybe it isn’t too bad.
One might ask - is this item unnecessarily mean to Small Species with the Topple? 100%, but the visual amuses me and my player has leveraged it to genuine success (i.e., moving away from a Slow Adversary).
Junkyard goblins have found a means of recreation with these gadgets in a game they call "Rocket Jump".
- Once per Fight, you can unload the Trophy System, doing one of the following:
- Attack all Creatures in the same Area as you, dealing 1 Heart of Damage on a failed Deftness Check.
- Parry 1 Missile Attack. This includes Spells or any special Attacks that require an Attack roll.
- If a Small Species uses this, they must make a Deftness Check or be thrown an Area away and be Toppled.
Flash Pop
This Item stems from my Peacekeeper Adversary on the BREAK!! Homebrew Sheet, just reflavored to be more scrappy. Is it just a reflavored Grenade? Yeah, kinda. I chose straight Turn count as the Blinded duration rather than the more standard “Requires an Action/Check to remove” approach to emulate eyes just needing time to readjust from the flash.
- A Grenade can be thrown up to 1 Battlefield Area away.
- Anyone in the Battlefield Area where the Grenade detonates is a Target unless they are wearing Blackout Goggles.
- Targets must make a Grit Check:
- Failure: They take 1 Heart of Damage and are Blinded for 2 Turns.
- Success: Wiping away a teary eye, they avoid any ill effect.
Throw-a-Wall
Ok, this one is a little more cooked than the others but I wanted to work it out and see what resulted. Originally I was going to go with a deployable Barricaded Large Shield item but that felt a little muted and stepped on existing mechanics. Thus came about the bigger, bombastic Throw-a-Wall. Note that there is no specific dimensions stated here to keep it general, so agree with your players on a best per-situation judgement if needed.
The Throw-a-Wall is one such...advancement.
- This heavy suitcase, when thrown onto the ground, violently expands into a full-sized steel wall.
- During a Fight, the wall may be placed on a connection between 2 adjacent Battlefield Areas. These Areas become sectioned off from each other, blocking travel and attacks between them.
- If placed in a location with no/high ceilings (e.g., an outdoor field)...
- A Might or Deftness Check is required to climb over the wall.
- Supernatural Leaping (Source, pg. 107) bypasses this Check.
- Failure means you waste a Turn making little or no progress.
- The wall has 8 Hearts, a Defense Rating of 18, and follows Sundering rules. A Bomb instantly destroys the wall.
- The engineers of this device did not concern themselves with reuse. Once deployed, it remains a wall.
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