11 thoughts on “Has anyone played solidly with a Breakers crew?”

  1. I’m also interested to hear this. I’ve brought up Blades games for many different groups, and thus far not a single person has expressed interest in Breakers.

    (Hawkers is also unpopular with my friends, though there’s been a little interest — and some definite interest in taking their abilities through Veteran. Hawkers is probably the crew I’m MOST interested in being part of if I ever play instead of run. :P)

  2. We switched to Breakers immediately after it became available, as we were only Thieves inasmuch as we took valuables off of the broken bodies of our vanquished enemies. We only played a couple of sessions after that, before real life schedules put the game on hiatus, but we did manage to end the Lampblack-Red Sash War by storming a Red Sash drug den, killing their muscle, terrorizing their clientele, stealing their product, and burning the place to the ground before reinforcements could arrive.

    We liked playing Breakers.

  3. I’m in a long term Breakers game (our gang name is the Firebreakers). We’re big fans. Not only is the crew the hawtness (with abilities) it’s just a really fun gang type (extortion and brawling) that encourages a very Gangs of New York style game.

    Our premise started as kind of a neighborhood protection racket. We’re really the ‘good guys’ in our own eyes. A lot of our clocks are helping rebuild some buildings that get lit on fire, and fixing troubled relations with our community. Salt of the earth kind of people. Friends with the ward boss, doc, etc. We just got our own lawyer.

    We took over some distilleries over and run booze, control the canals, and had a long term war with the Circle of Flame.

    What do you want to know?

  4. Nihzlet I have yet to play, but I love the Hawker theme.

    Jim DelRosso sweet.

    Stras Acimovic THAT. And whatever else you have patience to mash keys to.

    I had an idea where the breakers are the muscle pushing for the start of a political agenda – like trade unions or communists. Lot of smashing machinery that takes jobs away from honest folk. Lot of bashing in faces of drug dealers who hurt the community.

  5. That sounds like it would work just fine. Also mafia style games work great with this (you can technically ‘hawk’ alcohol but this book fuels their angles and stories better imo). A lot of the ‘what a fine distillery … Sure would be a shame if something were to happen to it’.

    Peaky Blinders is also a good touchstone.

  8. So far I think Breakers are actually my favorite crew.

    I’ve done long term Thieves, but when I thief I prefer running with a thin 3-man crew type deal. So a lot of the turf wars and gang mechanics aren’t really what I aim for here. Game works great, just how I play and what I look for in the crew I think is a bit different (I prefer cat burglars and sneak-theives).

    Our Hawkers (Bloodletters) are fun, but we spend less time Hawking and more time being Breakers really. And I think the turf wars and the respect politics of street cred will often shape this fiction.

    Breakers really feels like a solid fit. Good match of powers, really strong interface with all the gang mechanics and the turf/crew bits. It just feels like it interfaces with all the bits well, and utilizes all aspects of the game to the max.

    The one gang I’ve only done a few one shots of that I really wish I could get into a more long term game with is a Cult. Because that feels like the gang part is incidental and it’s really a story about the people, their stranger mysterious patron, and what they do. I’m not sure of all the equations to it and I really want to play it more.

    And of course I’m looking forward to Assassins. ^_~ I have ideas for a longer form game for those guys.

  9. It seems to me a gang starts off with one theme but evolves according to the fiction the group generates. I wondered for instance how a “big” tier gang of Thieves would operate. Would the big guys (PCs) bother doing larger scores themselves, or have small crews paying them dues for mugging people and rooftop work? If it centres around the PCs being a cool crew of rogues (ala Gentlemen Bastards) then they won’t get turf or have people to hold it for them. It seems more rational to start with a crew playbook, and then evolve it up. This is why I liked Hawkers and Smugglers to some extent, because by nature they need to expand to grow their kind of business. As you say, the Breaker playbook seems to be the perfect tool any gang would use to upscale their existing business. There could also be a spider-esque crew sheet that covers “masterminding” organised crime at high tiers. Lots of bonuses to management of crews and the gaining of respect. I doubt any gang sticks to one type of business as they get bigger – aside from the cult which is less driven by money after all.

  10. One of the games I’m currently running is a Cult where not all of the members fully believe in their deity yet — they think it’s just a scam for money from the ‘believers’. However, out of game, the group has already agreed to take Glory Incarnate as their second special ability when the crew’s XP bar fills up, so that should change their fiction around a bit 😛

  11. The Breaker crew that my group plays as, The Coffin Street Killers, started out as a gang of thugs who took over a drug ring based out of food carts in the six towers district, then promptly declared war on everyone within arm’s reach. So far they have crushed the Billhooks, the Fog Hounds, and a upstart cult that worshipped the God of Razors. The one thing about Breakers Is that they are readily able to deal with unpredictability, and thrive on chaos.

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