by Daniel Kristian Lundsby, Jakob Israelsen og Otto Plantener Jensen
Noone once said “Theater is war”. But now it is. In “Break a Leg” you are actors, playing a stage play - like you were gladiators. You have to follow the manuscript, but your real goal is to outmaneuver the other actors, get in the spotlight and receive all the applause.
Presentation
- Time: 60-90 min
- Players: 3 – 4
- Language: English
It’s the last night before the final curtain falls on the old Theatre Magnifico. All the actors hope to be the one who is remembered as the glowing star of the stage and every trick in the book goes. You can push the other actors, take their props and draw the curtains, just to make them look like hapless extras, overshadowed by your talent and radiance. “Break a Leg” is normally an ironic saying to wish a performer good luck, but now that irony might be ironic too.
“Break a Leg” is a short ½-1 hour game for 3-4 players. For Fastaval, the script for the play will be written in advance, but you each have a handful of cards with actions like Move, Push and Steal, to improvise your antics on the stage. Everybody knows the script and your role, but by doing the unexpected you might just be able to steal the spotlight and get the best reviews.
It’s a bit like a light skirmish-based wargame or barroom brawl, but played with bananas and rotten tomatoes.
About the designers
“Break a Leg” was coined during PapJam Scratch in May 2024 and further developed by:
Daniel has participated in Papjam several times. He is also part of the team that is keeping the current version of Doomtown alive.
Jakob is a software developer with a passion for all kinds of games, from digital, to analogue, to roleplaying. He has been making games at PapJam for the past 5 years.
Otto has been making games for Fastaval about monsters, ants, parkour and theater, but he definitely has the most experience with the latter.
Kasper has played board games for more than 40 years. As a science librarian he loves to deconstruct games and scrutinize what makes a game bigger than the sum of its parts. He favors strategy games with historical settings. Kasper first Fastaval board game design “Witch Hunt” won an Otto for best board game and was published as “Pagan: Fate of Roanoke” in 2021.
