The Broken-Hearted playbook

The Broken-Hearted has been deeply hurt in love or in life, but dares to hope that they can love and be loved again. Their central conflict is about making tough choices and taking risks to grieve, heal, and find something new worth believing in.

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Cry it out with The Broken-Hearted,  a new unofficial playbook for Thirsty Sword Lesbians. This Powered by Lesbians community playbook includes:

• The Broken-Hearted playbook
• Relationship questions
• GM moves
• Falling Deeper question
• Table of friends, threats, and plots

Lament Your Loss

Torn apart from your love at sea? Got disillusioned by a scoundrel? Got replaced as a best friend? Got kicked out of a knighthood? Heartbreak comes in so many forms, and with this playbook your heartbreak can be romantic, platonic, social, or political. 

The playbook's core feature, Picking Up The Pieces, focuses in on your character's feeling of deep despair. But you won't be there forever. The playbook itself guides you through an arc  of letting go and moving on. Plus you can switch to a new playbook any time you're ready.

Love and Support from Your Friends — and Yourself

This playbook is designed to encourage your group to support you through your heartbreak. Relationship questions, GM moves, and the Bare Your Heart move ensure that someone's always got your back. And several playbook moves and goals encourage one-on-one moments, giving you mechanics to help you pull away in pain or get those moments of connection. 

Even when you feel most alone, several moves and goals encourage loving yourself as a way to process and get closure.

Small Heartbreaks  for Other Playbooks

A handful of moves from The Broken-Hearted are perfect as advances, if you want the flavor of heartbreak while keeping your playbook's core character arc. Lick Your Wounds when others want you to get closer, but you're still not ready. Or kick your evil ex to the curb with a Night On the Town. And if you just can't stay away from the person who crushed your heart, Tears on My Pillow gives you plenty of opportunities to chase a taste of the past or make a bad decision.

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This setting was designed in the Tamien Nation and Chochenyo lands, also known as San Jose and Oakland, on the unceded territories of Chochenyo, Muwekma, and Tamien Nation Oholone peoples.

Despite state-sanctioned murder, land-theft, and marginalization, the people of these nations and lands still live in these lands, practicing their traditional culture and religion. You can support them through donation, learning about them and their culture, and being mindful of how you represent indigenous communities and colonial forces in the stories you tell.

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This playbook was designed by Christie R. Fremon. 

Art: Christie R. Fremon

Layout by: Christie R. Fremon using a template created by Kona Goodhart

Thank you to Michelle Jones, Kona Goodhart, Siân Ada, and Kari Rudd. Your support, enthusiasm, and feedback helped make this playbook so much better. Thank you also to Emily, Daniel L., and Grey from the TSL discord community for the encouragement. 

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This work uses material from the Thirsty Sword Lesbians roleplaying game (found at https://swordlesbians.com), designed by April Kit Walsh and published by Evil Hat Productions, LLC, pursuant to the open license available at poweredbylesbians.com.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians™ is a trademark of April Kit Walsh. The Powered by Lesbians Logo is © April Kit Walsh, and is used pursuant to the open licensing terms at http://poweredbylesbians.com