Cubicle 7 launched the Kickstarter for its new book Broken Weave on Tuesday, and leisurely strolled past its $17k funding goal that afternoon. A decaying, fantasy post-apocalyptic world full of bizarre monsters and dead gods, the setting looks to take notes from Dark Souls – though Cubicle 7 creative director Emmet Byrne also lists Shadow of the Colossus, Annihilation, and the Dark Tower series as sources of inspiration.
As well as setting details and monsters, Broken Weave contains new mechanics – such as beast harvesting rules, and systems dictating the opposing forces of Decay and Hope. “There are rules for creating your own home to protect and nurture (called Havens), a new lifepath system for generating character skills and attributes, and new classes that have been built from the ground up to fit the world,” says Byrne.
Byrne says that with all the new rules, Broken Weave is one Cubicle 7’s most dramatic departures from the core 5e ruleset. In fact, while it’s 5e compatible, Broken Weave marks the debut of Cubicle 7’s very own set of rules, the C7d20 system. According to the creative director, this ruleset has unofficially been in development for six years, and is built on the back of every 5e project Cubicle 7 has done since Adventures in Middle-earth released in 2016.
“We decided to officially put it into production in January of this year due to the uncertainty around the OGL,” he explains. “It gives us a chance to bring all of the new systems we’ve created for 5e into one single book.”
While Broken Weave’s world is full of sadness, “one of the most important things to us when we were creating the world was that it should never be ceaselessly bleak. There should always be hope, and that comes in the form of your Haven and your allies. Community, love, and trust in one another can remake the world. “
Broken Weave’s Kickstarter campaign is running until March 2, and backers are expected to receive their books, and other goodies, in November 2023.