 Cover of Breaking the Ice | |
| Designers | Emily Care Boss |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Black & Green Games |
| Publication | 2005 |
| Genres | Romance |
| Systems | Custom |
Breaking the Ice is an indie role-playing game by Emily Care Boss. It's a game for two players where the player characters go on three dates together to see if they will become a couple. [1] [2]
The setting and genre are created collaboratively by the two players before the game begins, and suggestions from the book are everything from modern romantic comedies to Romeo and Juliet. The characters are also created collaboratively, with the possibility to give suggestions for the other character's traits. An important part of character creation is the switch, where the players give their character an attribute from the other player. The switch could be gender, if the players are a man and a woman, an occupation if the players are working with different things in real life, or something else.
Breaking the Ice is a two-player role playing game in which the players collaboratively describe the story of a romance between their characters. [3]
The game uses pools of six-sided dice to determine the outcome of situations.
During dates one player is the active player and the other is the guide. The active player describes what happens during the date, and the guide can award bonus dice if the active player makes their character seem attractive or describes something true to life. After each scene the players roll the collected dice to see if their characters are attracted to each other, and then switch roles of active player and guide. If the active player describes something that puts their character at disadvantage, the guide can grant them re-roll dice.
After three dates the players get to decide, in part based on their characters' mutual attraction score, if the characters will stay together.
The game was released in the summer of 2005 by Emily Care Boss through the solely owned Black & Green Games.
Guillaume Clerc and Vincent Carleur reviewed Breaking the Ice as part of the article "Jeux Narrativistes: La sélection du bimestre" in Casus Belli (v4, Issue 12 - Nov/Dec 2014, pages 82-83, in French) and felt that traditional role-players would be wrong to be skeptical of this game, and that the players get attached to the characters very quickly. [4]
Breaking the Ice was a runner-up for Indie Game of the Year, [5] Most Innovative Game of the Year, [6] and Best Support, [7] at the 2005 Indie RPG Awards.
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
Fate is a generic role-playing game system based on the Fudge gaming system. It has no fixed setting, traits, or genre and is customizable. It is designed to offer minimal obstruction to role-playing by assuming players want to make fewer dice rolls.
Unknown Armies is an occult-themed roleplaying game by John Scott Tynes and Greg Stolze, published by Atlas Games. The first edition was published in 1998, with the second and third editions being released in 2002 and 2017 respectively. The game is set in a postmodernist occult underground where characters wield magick by personal belief.
Serenity Role Playing Game is a science fiction tabletop role-playing game released in 2005 and set in the universe of the movie Serenity and the television series Firefly. It was produced by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd, and its mechanics were the first iteration of the Cortex System. It won an Origins Award for Best RPG in 2005. Margaret Weis's license came to an end on January 31, 2011.
Role-playing games (RPGs) have developed specialized terminology. This includes both terminology used within RPGs to describe in-game concepts and terminology used to describe RPGs. Role-playing games also have specialized slang and jargon associated with them.
Cat is an indie role-playing game by John Wick, in which players roleplay humanity's silent guardians: cats.
In tabletop role-playing games, a plot point is a resource possessed by a player which can be spent to alter the plot of the game. The name is a pun on the TV and film term plot point.
A diceless role-playing game is a role-playing game which is not based on chance: it does not use randomisers to determine the outcome of events in its role-playing game system. The style of game is known as "diceless" because most games use dice as their randomiser; some games such as Castle Falkenstein use other randomisers such as playing cards as substitutes for dice, and are not considered "diceless".
A tabletop role-playing game, also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a classification for a role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a set formal system of rules and guidelines, usually involving randomization. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise, and their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.
Fiasco is a role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit Games. It is marketed as a "GM-less game for 3–5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with six-sided dice and no preparation". It is billed as "A game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control" and "inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong—films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan."
David Vincent Baker is a designer and theorist of tabletop role-playing games and the owner of indie role-playing games publisher Lumpley Games, which also hosts the archives of The Forge. He and his wife Meguey Baker designed Apocalypse World, the first game in the Powered by the Apocalypse system. Apocalypse World won Game of the Year, Best Support, and Most Innovative game at the 2010 Indie RPG Awards, and was 2011 RPG of the Year at both the Golden Geek Awards and Lucca Comics & Games. Baker also designed Dogs in the Vineyard, which won the 2004 Indie RPG Game of the Year and Innovation Award and was one of three games shortlisted for the 2004 Diana Jones Award.
Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role-playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later adapted for hundreds of other indie role-playing games.
Monsterhearts is an indie role-playing game about "the messy lives of teenage monsters." It was designed by Avery Alder as an adaptation of Apocalypse World. It is known for its handling of sexuality and LGBT content. It has been nominated or shortlisted for multiple awards.
Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of roleplaying games, which combine indie RPG principles and mechanics with Nordic freeform and American chamber live action role-playing techniques. She has been referred to as the "Dean" of the North American school of structured freeform game design.
Hillfolk is a tabletop role-playing game designed by Robin Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. It was initially launched via Kickstarter in 2012, with the funding being sufficiently successful that a second book called "Blood on the Snow", containing 33 new settings, was produced as a part of the kickstarter. Reception was positive, with RPGamer saying "mechanics don't so much get out of the way of roleplay as provide a supportive foundation for it to happen." Hillfolk is influenced by the Indie RPGs of the 2000s, and emphasises relationships and interpersonal conflicts among the player characters, rather than what the system calls "procedural" scenes putting the characters against external obstacles.
Dragon Age is a role-playing game published by Green Ronin Publishing in 2010. It is based on the Dragon Age video game series by BioWare, and uses the video game series' setting.
S/lay w/Me is a role-playing game published by Adept Press in 2009.
The Cortex System is a collection of related roleplaying games. Its most recent iteration, Cortex Prime, was designed by Cam Banks and initially published by Fandom Tabletop, then acquired by Dire Wolf Digital. Prior versions appeared in the licensed roleplaying games published by Margaret Weis Productions, where it was used as the house system. Cortex is an adaptable game system focusing on characterization and story development.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians is a narrative-focused tabletop role-playing game that emphasizes telling "melodramatic and queer stories". The game was funded via a 2020 Kickstarter campaign and published by Evil Hat Productions in 2021. It uses a modification of the Powered by the Apocalypse game system.
Ironsworn is an indie role-playing game written and self-published by Shawn Tomkin. Its Ironlands setting is low fantasy, set in a rugged frontier. The game received the 2019 ENNIE Gold Winner Award for Best Free Game/Product. Rob Wieland for Forbes named Ironsworn one of his favorite RPG products of 2022 and one of the best fantasy tabletop role-playing games for solo play.