K6BD Broken World- Character Story Seeds

Roll 1d6 for any character playsheet in the game to generate a story hook. This table is designed specifically for the K6BD official "Broken World" Powered-by-the-Apocalypse game, but you could use it for any K6BD inspired game.

The Fated

[1] There is a young child who is tied to your Fate. You know that they live within an orphanage, a young urchin with few if any family or friends. You don't know how they will help, but one day they will save your life or give you the tiniest bit of help you need to overcome a challenge that you have no way of overcoming without them.

[2] For a brief moment, your destiny is broken. You can feel the bonds of Fate and time slip away from you in the presence of something innocuous- a stuffed animal, a sheet of a single color, the ringing sound of a cup's rim. This is your one weakness it seems, even though your Fate returns once this ends. Whenever exposed to this weakness, you cannot use any of your advanced moves. You hope to keep this a secret from your adversaries.

[3] Someone you were sure would be instrumental to your destiny is dead. Just gone- their effects no longer felt on your weave of fate. But your destiny still abounds without them. Did they really mean nothing, or was their death a part of your story?

[4] Three sisters, who act as one, warn you of your destiny's dangers and brew you a potion. It is a foul thing that seems to have no direct benefits; but you are told to drink it when no other option seems viable. The potion may even be poisonous, you have no way of knowing until the time comes.

[5] For the past two years, you have dreamed one single moment. That moment finally comes and, you don't follow it. You don't speak to that woman in a red shawl in the market, you don't pluck that last glowing flower in the field decimated by war. You move on and the moment in your dream means nothing. Did you ruin your destiny, or did you act in accordance?

[6] Your Fated Style; The unique, special martial arts or weapon skill that was passed down to you, has no equal or equivalent. That is until you meet another, with a claim to fame surprisingly similar to you. They use something very similar to your Fated Style- are they an impostor? Or a fellow lost student?

The Fury

[1] There is one thing that calms your rage. It is your child brother or sister, the babbling of a stream, or a freshly cut bouquet of flowers. Someone who you despise is threatening to take it away, and if they do, there is no telling as to how you will control your anger.

[2] Rage boils up inside of you when you see a person. They may be a soup-slinger, street peddler, or low ranking guild official. Regardless of what they do, they are harmless, polite, and helpful to your goals. You have no idea why you are so angry at them, but you feel the urge to rip them limb from limb. Why?

[3] You feel as though possessed by a spirit, and whenever you channel your fury your “alter ego” starts to manifest more often. It is an entity inside you that is empowering your blows and defenses while you are enraged. However, it has started to want to “control” you outside of combat encounters too, slowly taking control over your life. if you find a way to defeat them you may lose the power, but you will also regain control of yourself.

[4] You break things, sometimes. You broke something innocuous- a decorative urn or a little puzzle box made of wood. Inside the object was a hidden scroll, with instructions to a hidden treasure.

[5] There is a magical weapon that you acquire. It has great power, but when wielded in anger it slows to a crawl, the blade becomes dull, and the grip loosens and sags. You could use this weapon if you control your rage, or would your focused state lack the wild power your berserk stance brings?

[6] There is a hesitation in your muscle fiber, a pause in your killing glint. You can no longer use Mantra of Meti, the Bloody to slay foes, something inside you stops you. It's as though the edge of your rage is dulled. You need to rekindle your anger by witnessing a great injustice, or imbibing the drink that you swore off years ago to restore the fire within.

The Master

[1] You find a young talent. They seem naturally skilled in your discipline, but lack training and guidance. They may be able to surpass you in your own field if allowed to blossom.

[2] Much of your own skill and wisdom comes from your own Master's training, all those years ago. Through some miracle of fate, you find his old manuscript filled with both details of his life as well as new training regimes and observations of universal truths.

[3] Another upstart school has copied some of your own traditions and skills; they are mocking you and your students. However, they are unassailable. Their martial discipline is as good as yours, and can be done even by their youngest and most arrogant students- you find out that their power is coming from the necklaces they wear, weaved with enchantment. If the creator is humbled, then the false power granted to all the others will be lost.

[4] When you were young and reckless, you ate at a lord's table. Now, that lord's descendant comes to you with a special power- he can activate the long dormant poison still inside your gut, slowly killing you from the inside out, unless if you teach him your most powerful of blade arts.

[5] The next time you use Mantra of Hansa, the Wise, one of your students finds a flaw in your technique. In the same way that wisdom pours forth from the mouth of babes, you are told a simple method or procedure of improvement to your skill, and it works. Is there some critical failure in the shortcut, or is it truly an overlooked piece of wisdom?

[6] The next time you use Dragon Gazes in Mirror, you cannot see the answer you seek. The future and past are clouded with dark energies. For some reason, you get the feeling that someone you know is responsible. The figure seeks to profit from you, and is hiding something from your spirit.

The Refined

[1] You have been gifted a portrait of yourself. He is well known for the realism in his paints; and as such has highlighted a flaw of yours in your portrait. All other noble portraits you have seen done by this artist do not have the flaw of their subjects illustrated so plainly. Is he mocking you? Or is your flaw imperceptible to others; the other nobility secretly as ashamed as you? Shall you end this insult or learn some sort of lesson?

[2] You find a prodigy. This young urchin, with just the perfect scuff of dirt or a scar on their face, has the absolute best combination of features, natural grace, and charming disposition to be refined and turned into something respectable. Despite their rough start, you can make them into an elegant artiste. You simply can't let this talent go to waste.

[3] The Refined know of some magic. You find a magic book in an old antique shop with a silver clasp that can teach you a new secret. However, learning this new grotesque magic may upset your social standing if anyone were to know you're learning new and unannounced forms of Sorcery. If you are a Demon, the book teaches a healing spell or fanciful childish display instead, which would tarnish your reputation among your own kind and make people less likely to take you seriously.

[4] As part of your normal patronage of small businesses and expeditions- one archaeologist has made a minor find in Throne. They have found a rare or magical item with some amount of power within it, but are now asking for triple the price to dig deeper. There is no guarantee that they will find another, but this site is precarious and it is highly likely that anyone else you hire will either try to steal anything else they find or destroy the site through incompetence; only this person you trust with this mission, despite their obsession and inability to leverage the costs of the operation with your own coffers. They may very well believe your coffers are inexhaustible, and are impatient in your response.

[5] You have a rival noble. Both your superior in terms of appearance and charm, as well as noble status and wealth, you may already scheme against them. But in secret concordance they reveal to you their doubts and personal shames, speaking to you as though you are a friend. Are they really revealing this to you and giving you the tools to unmake them? Or is it a trick? Does your personal honor go above your desire to harm them, or will the pursuit of ruining them lower your status even more?

[6] There is a new drug going around the noble palaces. It is a rare herbal spice mixed with the salt from a unremarkable world- its effects are legendarily pleasurable as is the drug's cost to purchase and consume regularly. You indulge in the drug at least once, perhaps multiple times if your character is interested in it. However, you learn that somehow, a high ranking member of a Guild is collecting secrets from the users of these drugs, even without any obvious methods of coercion. Is the special libation enchanted, whispering your secrets to him even now? Can you recover them before he gains the leverage against you and your noble house?

The Law

[1] Common criminals are using a tiny loophole in law to commit ridiculously obvious abuses. The law is clear that they are not breaking it directly, but are greatly overstaying their welcome in the gray area between what is legal and illegal, despite them clearly being over the line when it comes from right and wrong. The Law is at fault here, these criminals must be brought to justice.

[2] There is a part of Throne that is growing a forest. The forest is swallowing the islands, the old gods and their monuments. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but the city itself is becoming a jungle there with lawlessness and people fusing with trees and plants, becoming one together. It is becoming a lawless place where bandits rule the streets. You must cut out the heart of this place. If you do not care for Throne or are not running a game in Throne, use a nearby safe neutral city for this instead.

[3] Your body is failing you. You have some sort of problem that is making you fail, either a disease or a problem. If you are an Angel, then it is your current iteration and you would need to die to rekindle your stone body correctly. If you are something else then you will need to find a special doctor to cure your disease. But you want to push yourself to uphold your law, and keep any rumors about your condition from spending, else the criminal gets confident from your moment of weakness.

[4] Animals are not subject to the same laws as people are. But a small cadre of wildlife of throne have formed a “gang”. They steal, they wear uniforms in their fur, they've started to harass local businesses who don't give them “payments” for protection. Can you put a animal on trial, or should you call an exterminator?

[5] You can find or make some armor. It's intensely powerful, improving your rolls and appearance as a righteous figure of justice. However, you notice as you wear it is degrades your morality- you become less caring of innocents and the Old Gods Law. The moment you abandon the armor, it becomes alive and decides it doesn't need you anymore.

[6] The next time you use Mantra of Het, the Watchful, you must add a new law to the Old Gods law. The enemy is exploiting a loophole; unless you put a stop to it with righteous spirit.

The Hunter

[1] Your target has seemingly vanished. You know exactly where they are, but they live in a sort of mathematical reality or abstract realm beyond the directly physical. How can you get in? Or how can you get them out?

[2] Your target has seemingly vanished. This time; they are lost within a highly secretive and insular ward in the city of Throne. The locals clam up and even your most trusted sources and tactics aren't working- it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The only rumor you have to go on suggests that the target will be sneaking out in a hidden tunnel, covered wagon, or through a more arcane method in the next three days, at which point you may never find them.

[3] Poison is a tool in your kit. You get it from a reputable seller; but you've found evidence of one of your old marks up and alive again, and your poison seller up and gone. You've been had with a draught of false death.

[4] You were given a contract to kill someone. You find them, and they're paralyzed, locked in a dream on a bed where they cannot wake up. You have no idea who offered you this job, until you realize it's the target themselves.

[5] You were given a contract to kill someone. It's a child. Regardless of your own feelings, carrying out this contract will cause great social backlash and a serious negative reputation; but the employer has an undeniable prophecy and the unshakable belief that this child will grow to become a great evil, and this is the only way to end them before they become the great tyrant they will one day be.

[6] The next time you use Mantra of Ovis, the Empty One, you are intercepted by a guard or enemy of the target you were stalking. They put a knife to your throat and force you to leave; your Shadow art has been bested. Your Shadow Art school is also threatened; you cannot effectively use your Shadow art until you regain your confidence by ending this foe.

The Boss

[1] One of your boys is harder working and even more devoted then normal. When you press him about it, he admits that his younger sister is deathly ill, and he can't afford the rare and expensive medicine. It seems to you that when she dies, it will ruin him and make him unable to work for you anymore. Is this just a ticking time bomb of grief? Or could you somehow manage to get the cure?

[2] Your gang is being strong-armed by another gang of a similar size and strength. While you may have your own plans at dealing with them, you know that the rival gang is friends with a powerful high ranking guild noble- they are well financed and equipped and could spontaneously gain a large financial edge needed to destroy or put you out of the picture one way or another if needed. The only way you could defeat them is to cut off their money supply. Can you ruin the relationship?

[3] Your gang is being strong-armed by another gang of a similar size and strength. While you may have your own plans at dealing with them, you know that the rival gang is friends with a corrupt Lawman with few scruples. Their criminal acts are written off and not seriously punished, where as several of your boys have already gotten hard time or even the death penalty from this corrupt official. Could you depose them or bring their corruption to light?

[4] The “Boss” is getting blamed for a lot of problems and failures going on. One of your crew has started to act more proudly and in command- are they going for a mutiny? Or are they just trying to pick up your slack?

[5] Luck strikes. You've found a crate of some great crafted goods; suits of identical armors, pikes suited to dance in formation, finely spun robes for social functions, and so on. This great collection will greatly aide your entire gang; until you find out who it belongs to. An incredibly powerful and influential being had the items commissioned to give to their elite army themselves. Now, you've taken it. Should you leave it where you found it, or damn the consequences?

[6] The next time you are separate from your gang, or use a Dirty Work move, a handful of members of your gang disappear. You could replace them with enough time, but the whispers of terrible things done to them and needing to prove your loyalty and get them back will haunt you if you refuse to investigate. Besides, where did they go? And who, or what, took them?

The Hunger

[1] There is a powerful demon, angel, or something far stranger in a far off land. It seeks adherents to follow it, and teaches them secrets of magic. You know you could follow it, or even usurp it, the only challenge would be to find it and gain its trust.

[2] There is a young detective who has confided in you. He or she is following the trail of a mysterious, deranged magic using being that is causing chaos. They cast dark rituals, confide in an evil being for power, and have left ruin in their wake. It is extremely obvious they are talking about you, but can't seem to put the pieces together. They seem to respect you and will even do favors for you, but you are the object of their pursuit. They may be too much of a liability to keep around, but could you possibly turn them to your way of thinking?

[3] Man was not meant to know some secrets. You have learned something that you'd rather forget now; only with the help of a powerful patron can help teach you how to excise this tumor from your own memory.

[4] An old hag approaches you. She gives you a gift, a magical amulet, that she no longer wishes to burden her. It is almost certainly cursed, but it will grant you additional power. Whenever you use your Dread Sorcery ability of Red Word, it deals +1 damage. However, the amulet will cause a major catastrophe for you later on, which will require you to split it open, enter the trinket, and destroy the cause of this issue within that hidden realm.

[5] Your dreams whisper of prophecy. There is a seed that will grow into a tree that will be used to make a crib that will cradle the baby that will one day kill you. From this you can tell your destiny will be long and you will grow to great infamy, but you are also doomed. There is a chance that trying to find the seed will only result in it getting planted- your destiny may not be able to be changed.

[6] If you learn the move A House Removed; you begin to notice strange things in your extra dimensional “house”. The place seems haunted, with objects moving while nobody is watching, and eventually strange beings appear there, frozen in crystal, creaking and groaning. These beings are Angels and Demons, frozen in time since the great war before the union of the worlds by the God Kings. Freeing them now could unleash a great evil, but the beings may be indebted to you for their freedom, and grant you the power you seek.