Broken Cities is a diceless, GMless RPG in ZineQuest

Côme Martin returns to Kickstarter to take part in ZineQuest for the Broken Cities RPG. The tabletop game has travellers exploring a strange and changing city.

The diceless and GMless zine RPG asked for €2,500 and has hit that target. There’s still two weeks left to get involved.

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The Kickstarter is offered in French, as Côme is based in Paris, but starts in English.

The core rules need 2 to 5 players, but there is a solo RPG options, for one-shot sessions that require only a few hours to play.

We’re told the game offers asymmetrical roles for tabletop fans who like surrealism and weird experiences. The first chapter is a free preview, and we’re told the whole English version is ready to go to the printers.

Exploration of the City is made by laying playing cards on a table: each card corresponds to the focus of a scene (object, place, inhabitant, event…). Cards are played by the City following certain placement rules, and help it decide what the Travelers will encounter on their way.

As for resolving the Travelers’ actions, Broken Cities uses a hack of the “Belonging Outside Belonging” system: the City offers them a hard choice which they can accept, thus gaining a card, refuse by playing a card, or negotiate through discussion.

As usual, indie RPG supporters can help the zine project along by sharing news about it or pledging some cash. Those who pledge €9, which is about £8, will get the PDF of the game with ready-to-print card templates as a reward.

The paper version of the game, with a free PDF and worldwide shipping, is the reward at €13.

Broken Cities uses cards and printed versions of those, but no game is the reward at €15, while both game and cards are the thank you at €22.

There’s a limited and going quickly top tier at €35, which adds a signature to the printed copy and a unique playing card.

Côme Martin estimates March for the PDF, May for the paper productions and June for the limited-edition signatures.