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Covok posted:I've just finished the latest draft for Friendship, Effort, Victory. So, firstly, you've put a ton of effort into this, and I'm really genuinely impressed. I'm honestly not familiar with any of the source material. As I said on chat, arcs are great - structured and yet flexible. I see where you're going with countdown tracks, but they're really not long - it feels like as soon as I'm aware of something, I'm going to be dealing with it. With a countdown clock it feels like I'm going to have some time to reflect on the impending doom, but here it's all a bit rushed. Principles seem pretty sound, and the explanations make sense. Good job. I'd echo the statement that "temper" seems a little out of place. How about "passion"? So, basic moves. Let me go through these one at a time. I'll come back to battle in a bit. Friendship, Effort, Victory posted:When you try to avoid something bad, roll 2d6 + Cool. On a 10+, you do it. On a 7,8,9, you flitch, hesitate, or stall: the MK will tell you what bad thing will occur if you are to succeed. I'm honestly not sure about this. It's clearly the act under fire analogue, but I feel like it doesn't evoke it's subject as well as the original move does. Plus, I feel like the wording of "avoid something bad" is pretty vague. I've skipped around, but I've not seen any explanation of the moves, so correct me if I'm wrong here. Regardless, I guess they should be clearer - can I avoid any kind of bad thing? I mean, can I "dodge" insults? Emotional hurt? Can I "dodge" someone's attempt to find me? I feel like this is supposed to be an explicitly physical move, but it's not clear. I wonder if something like "when you try to dodge incoming violence or bodily harm, roll+cool" would make more sense? Make it explicit it's about dodging a thing that would hurt you, and that is physical. Friendship, Effort, Victory posted:When you try to help someone heal or inspire them to ignore their pain, roll 2d6 + Cool. On a 7+, they heal a harm and you gain a tie on them. On a 10+, they are inspired. On a 6-, they still heal harm, but you left yourself open: you end up in Awe. Having a healing move as a basic move is an interesting choice. It tells me that violence is going to be common, but also shouldn't be too much of a threat in the long term. I know that it's considered "basic" it should come up a lot, and it should be a pretty fundamental part of the proceedings. I'm just not sure that it's true about this - maybe I'm wrong (again not really knowing the sources) but I can't imagine that healing comes up in every episode of anime, but probably gets abstracted away like in action films and stuff. I'm just not sure it's worthy of this position. The reason healing gets relegated to the Angel in AW is because it's a specialist thing, and it doesn't come up - and that playbook needs to add extra cool stuff to healing to make it interesting. Friendship, Effort, Victory posted:When you try to figure things out, roll 2d6 + Genius. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7,8,9, hold 2. Spend these holds to ask the MK the following questions. They must answer honestly. I like the miss condition here. That's good. Option 1 makes sense from what I know of the material. Most of the others seem reasonable, and they're very combative - I'm assuming that's what you're going for. Friendship, Effort, Victory posted:When you go out on a long journey, every person on the journey takes part. If a move doesn’t trigger, a person simply succeeds: journeys are about showing off your abilities, if necessary. Once a move triggers, a journey ends. What moves could trigger here? I'm guessing playbook moves? It seems odd to have the "underpinning" of a system as a basic move, without having any systems. Maybe make this some options rather than a thing that triggers moves (that presumably trigger anyway)? I'm just not sure how this works. Friendship, Effort, Victory posted:When you try to get a non-hostile person to believe in you, roll 2d6 + Temper. For an NPC: On a 7+, they agree with you and trust you can do as you promised. On a 7,8,9, they will need some show of ability or a promise to be swayed. For a PC: On 10+, both. On a 7,8,9, choose 1: This makes Temper even weirder - it just doesn't seem to fit. You don't actually state in the move that you're promising something, or how that works - just that they trust you to do it, or need a show or promise. It needs some rewording. Friendship, Effort, Victory posted:When you try to understand or read a person, roll 2d6 + Angst. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7,8,9, hold 1. Spend these holds to ask the MK or the player the following questions. They must answer honestly. If you want, you can opt to gain extra hold, by giving them 1 hold as well. Angst doesn't feel suitable here - like the move and the stat just don't line up somehow. I like the option to get extra hold - that's super cool. It's weird that this gives you the same option (to find out fighting style) as a different move. Seems like it's squeezing the niche. I'll pick this up and look at battle moves and stuff later. BTW, I took into account your suggestions, and updated the solar package . Let me know what you think of the updates?
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Feb 14, 2016 23:46
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wait wait wait On chat? We have a chat?
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Feb 14, 2016 23:50
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I have now done the layout for all of the archetype playbooks for Malleus, and also prepared a moves reference sheet. They can be found here. I have not done the GM's reference stuff, because that part of the game is still under cooked, and I plan to flesh it out after playtesting once I work out what needs to go in there. EDIT: I did a quick and dirty GM reference sheet, since I will need it for playtesting anyways. It's included here. thefakenews fucked around with this message at 11:45 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 04:28
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paradoxGentleman posted:wait wait wait SynIRC #BadWrongFun for general TG discussion #gonzo for Apoc World #Swampthings for Monsterhearts I'm sure there are a few more, but those are the main ones
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Feb 15, 2016 05:18
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Nifara posted:So, firstly, you've put a ton of effort into this, and I'm really genuinely impressed. I'm honestly not familiar with any of the source material. I'm glad you liked them. It's a good point on the countdown tracks: I'll consider adding in two-three more steps to the track to allow for more granularity. Nifara posted:I'd echo the statement that "temper" seems a little out of place. How about "passion"? This seems to be becoming a very common sentiment. Bently, you, and quite a few people on irc last night all felt this way. I suppose passion is a good alternative. It does lower the inherent "hot-blooded" nature that most shonen protagonists exhibit ("I'm goind to be king of the pirates!, "I'm going to be the next hokage", etc.), but it still hits the key notes and removes some of the negative connotations with the term that seem to be tripping people. Nifara posted:So, basic moves. Let me go through these one at a time. I'll come back to battle in a bit. Alright. Thanks for the very indepth look through. Nifara posted:I'm honestly not sure about this. It's clearly the act under fire analogue, but I feel like it doesn't evoke it's subject as well as the original move does. Plus, I feel like the wording of "avoid something bad" is pretty vague. I've skipped around, but I've not seen any explanation of the moves, so correct me if I'm wrong here. Regardless, I guess they should be clearer - can I avoid any kind of bad thing? I mean, can I "dodge" insults? Emotional hurt? Can I "dodge" someone's attempt to find me? I feel like this is supposed to be an explicitly physical move, but it's not clear. I wonder if something like "when you try to dodge incoming violence or bodily harm, roll+cool" would make more sense? Make it explicit it's about dodging a thing that would hurt you, and that is physical. I can't remember if it was meant to be more general "avoid bad poo poo" move that would include non-physical things. It was soo long ago. I'd have to ponder this. Vaguely, I remember it being more encompassing. However, it might be best as just a physical thing. I'll think on that. Your alternative trigger seems good. Nifara posted:Having a healing move as a basic move is an interesting choice. It tells me that violence is going to be common, but also shouldn't be too much of a threat in the long term. I know that it's considered "basic" it should come up a lot, and it should be a pretty fundamental part of the proceedings. I'm just not sure that it's true about this - maybe I'm wrong (again not really knowing the sources) but I can't imagine that healing comes up in every episode of anime, but probably gets abstracted away like in action films and stuff. I'm just not sure it's worthy of this position. The reason healing gets relegated to the Angel in AW is because it's a specialist thing, and it doesn't come up - and that playbook needs to add extra cool stuff to healing to make it interesting. The reason it's a basic move is for those scenes that show up a lot in shonen battle comics where one guy is on the verge then the other person makes an impassioned speech and gets them back on their feet. That kind of "all you need is passion and effort" kind of mentality that drives these comics. Thinking back on it, it often happens a lot where the person does it to themselves. Hmm. I could make it inspire people (even themselves). I expanded the trigger to include the fact that some people have inherently healing powers. It might be best as just inspire, though. The thing is, there also really can't be a playbook just based around healing. It just doesn't come up enough as an archetype. It's too small of an aspect of the characters who can do it to make a playbook so I rolled it into this move. Nifara posted:I like the miss condition here. That's good. Option 1 makes sense from what I know of the material. Most of the others seem reasonable, and they're very combative - I'm assuming that's what you're going for. Yeah, it's literally the "eyeing people up during a battle" move. Or, before a battle. It happens that way a lot in shonen comics when a person only examines a situation to figure out what's about to fight him or how they fight or who they really work for or etc. They don't usually do it for other reasons. Nifara posted:What moves could trigger here? I'm guessing playbook moves? It seems odd to have the "underpinning" of a system as a basic move, without having any systems. Maybe make this some options rather than a thing that triggers moves (that presumably trigger anyway)? I'm just not sure how this works. This is a weird, weird one. It basically was put in after the only playtest due to complaints. Some people felt we needed a move to cover the fact that a lot of times things just happen in these kinds of stories. Like, events that would trigger a move, but are just window dressing in the show, so to speak. Running through the forest, destroying the environment, etc. I put it in, but was iffy on it. Or, at least, I'm iffy on it now as, while justifying it, it does seem really unnecessary and confusing. Nifara posted:This makes Temper even weirder - it just doesn't seem to fit. You don't actually state in the move that you're promising something, or how that works - just that they trust you to do it, or need a show or promise. It needs some rewording. Well, here is where I disagree on that. It's something that only makes sense if you know the source material. Shonen protagonists almost universally bark their beliefs at people when they want others to trust they can pull something off. It's always some yelled, impassioned, borderline or straight-out angry speech where they cry out their self-confidence in a dazzling display of gar! But, yeah, maybe all the temper issues would be better as passion. It is confusing a lot of people. Nifara posted:Angst doesn't feel suitable here - like the move and the stat just don't line up somehow. I like the option to get extra hold - that's super cool. It's weird that this gives you the same option (to find out fighting style) as a different move. Seems like it's squeezing the niche. I get what I was going for, but, when I was looking this one over, it did stick out to me as odd. Someone complained that genius was underrepresented and this might be a good place to give it some more power. Basically, here is why I choose +Angst: a lot of times, people figure each other out (mostly in modern shonen battle comics, but sometimes in older) though some exchange of tragic backstories or using their knowledge of their own tragic backstory to relate to someone else. Naruto understood Gaara because they both have demons inside of them. Stuff like that. They know each other through shared angst. In hindsight, this hack strangely takes a lot from Naruto even though I don't like that comic that much due to its shitshow last 3 years. Nifara posted:I'll pick this up and look at battle moves and stuff later. Seriously, this is a BIG help. Thanks! I am very curious on your thoughts on the battle moves. I borrowed mechanics from the World Wide Wrestling RPG because that does longer battles and keeps them interesting, but some worry it might not work in play. I'm of the mind that playtesting is currently the only way to get a solid bead on it, but every opinion helps. Nifara posted:BTW, I took into account your suggestions, and updated the solar package . Let me know what you think of the updates? These look good, but two things: Benly posted:So I guess I'm not 100% clear on how Excellencies work. I'm reading it as "when you do your caste's core move in specific ways, add the relevant charms you know to the list of options for that basic move", plus "when you get 12+ you go hog wild and pick all the options you want"? Where does rolling +virtue enter into this? Do you roll the +virtue instead of the +caste if you want access to the excellency's benefits? Sorry if I'm being thick. I think I know why Benly is confused. You tend to cut excellencies across two pages of the playbook. As such, it takes a little while for someone to notice that those two sections are linked so the rules for using excellencies described on the left, back page applies to the excellencies on the right, back page. There might be no good way to fix that, though. A little, quick measurements I did showed you can't put all the excellencies on one page even if you move the panoply, other excellencies, and wealth section to a different page. It might just be a bit of unintuitiveness you just have to make clear in the final book so the MC can correct it when players get confused. Unless, of course, someone has a better idea And, two: the twilight playbook looks a lot less cluttered, but did you cut out spells from the playbook? paradoxGentleman posted:wait wait wait He means my google docs page, but I could make an IRC group if people want. thefakenews posted:I have now done the layout for all of the archetype playbooks for Malleus, and also prepared a moves reference sheet. They can be found here. I just looked over their aesthetics, but I feel they really evoke the dread, depressing setting you're going for.
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Feb 15, 2016 05:19
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Covok posted:He means my google docs page, but I could make an IRC group if people want. Or you could even move up to 2014 or so and just make a Discord channel =-p
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Feb 15, 2016 05:36
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Also, I noticed Passion (formerly Temper) and Angst get used more than the other stats and always are higher on the stat lines. Well, people complained. I tried replacing it. I don't know if it was for the best. The jobber feels off with its new stat line, but it may work. The straight man was easy to change due to the new name for Temper. Anyway, just thought I mentiom that and see what y'all think. DemonMage posted:Or you could even move up to 2014 or so and just make a Discord channel =-p I think more people here use irc than discord. I could make one of those if y'all want. Nifara posted:I'm going to read through the FEV document tomorrow when my brain isn't so melted from doing playbook layout - but I'll definitely read and feedback. Looking it over, I have one issue with the MC Sheet: the harm rules for mortals was taken word-by-word from Apocalypse World and feels out of place. Besides the fact they should take less harm just to fit the Exalted rule that mortals are nothing, the wording just feels off. Covok fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 06:19
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DemonMage posted:Or you could even move up to 2014 or so and just make a Discord channel =-p What are the actual benefits to using Discord other than "it's new"? I already have an IRC client for other poo poo and I'm not sure how fancy something like this really needs to be.
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Feb 15, 2016 07:42
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I was mostly being silly. It's largely the same thing, just upgraded in about every way. Easy access control, more fully featured text support, unfurling, server-less user for PMing and such. Solid apps for every platform/web app as well. Hooks up to Twitch/YouTube so you can auto join channels you have access to for being a sub. Replaces Vent too. It's largely taking over as the communication tool for gamers outside of close friends (where you'd still use skype since it's got the best voice/video chat). But ultimately whatever you can get people to actually use is going to be the most beneficial, regardless of anything else.
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Feb 15, 2016 08:14
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Covok posted:Looking it over, I have one issue with the MC Sheet: the harm rules for mortals was taken word-by-word from Apocalypse World and feels out of place. Besides the fact they should take less harm just to fit the Exalted rule that mortals are nothing, the wording just feels off. Guilty as charged. I'll gather up some effort and overcome my laziness to tinker with it at some point.
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Feb 15, 2016 10:25
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Nifara posted:I think this is an interesting take on it - letting any of the playbooks play as any exalted type is a cool idea if you can get it to work. How were you thinking you would represent the impact of being different exalt types? I'm imagining Dungeon World esque backgrounds? The looks and feels dope, please post more of it as you get it done. The Backgrounds, Styles and Holdings are all great shortcuts to giving you distinct and flavourful options.
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Feb 15, 2016 14:37
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Since we're all posting our PBTA WIP ITT... Pigsmoke: roleplaying as the faculty of a cut-rate American Hogwarts. It's a very basic 6000 word hack, and it's not complete, but there should be enough there for PBTAers to see the shape of it. Anyone want to tell me what they think?
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Feb 15, 2016 15:29
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thefakenews posted:I have now done the layout for all of the archetype playbooks for Malleus, and also prepared a moves reference sheet. They can be found here. Malleus is looking great! I envy your layout and design skills. I'm finding discord to be really user friendly in a lot of ways - the biggest being that the mobile app is really solid, and you get notifications when someone @mentions you or sends you a pm. I'm even participating in a play by post motw game in a discord server specifically set up for the game. I figure I'll mention my actual real hack here that's between 60% and 80% complete: Impulse Drive I've run 3 different play test campaigns that have helped shape it in a lot of ways. Right now I'm tackling the problem that players are gaining advances too fast, so I need to look into ways that curb that, but still engage the players in the behaviours that I want. One thing I learned from gnomes awesome fellowship is to abandon +1 or -1 forward or ongoing, and replace them with roll 3d6 and drop highest/lowest die. It really preserves the bell curve while still adding an advantage or disadvantage, and feels really powerful at the table.
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Feb 15, 2016 21:01
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I can also vouch for discord being a great chat client. They have an unofficial API out so people can make bots and are working on an offical one
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Feb 15, 2016 21:40
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Thanks for the support everyone! It's really encouraging to see the interest. Here are: The Moves The First Session The Beast The Boss The Charm The Sneak Please do let me know what you think.
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Feb 16, 2016 15:36
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Nifara posted:Thanks for the support everyone! It's really encouraging to see the interest. Okay, I like a lot of what I'm seeing here. You really did an interesting job of both having a very explicit setting and not having a very explicit setting: putting the skeleton and having each playbook put in the details is clever. Is the intention of the first session sheet to put it back to back and make a full circle? If so, that's pretty tight. The layout looks pretty drat solid. You really got a knack for this.Though, I would say it'd probably look better to just put the word to the next line, if you have to use a hyphen. My main complaint, from my cursory glance, is I don't really get the Bronze, Silver, Gold distinction. Are the gold the rich or just the really strong gang bangers? I guess my biggest issue is I'm having trouble getting that from the sheet. It could just be me, though. Also, does everyone fill in all the blanks about the districts in their playbook or just one? It seems unclear.
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Feb 16, 2016 21:03
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Covok posted:Okay, I like a lot of what I'm seeing here. You really did an interesting job of both having a very explicit setting and not having a very explicit setting: putting the skeleton and having each playbook put in the details is clever. Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad the setting stuff has made sense, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Yeah, the idea is you have both sheets and you put them together to make a map and a setup sheet and a connections tracker and etc etc. I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm glad the layouts work - I thought I'd caught all my impromptu hyphenations. I'll track down the last ones. I think I might need do to some more explanation on the Copper/Silver/Gold thing. Basically the Copper are the "town guards", but they can be anything you like - they break up fist fights, catch thieves and generally patrol the streets The Silver are the magic police - colleges of mages licensing people, creepy hollow-eyed undead hunting down illegal magic use and smuggling of artifacts, all that stuff. The Gold are the secret police, or super scary special enforcers - spy networks, gestapo, horrific monsters hunting the worst criminals, that kind of thing. They can be whatever makes sense for your version of the City and the Bronze Circle, but the idea is to give "levels" of enforcement. If you have some suggestions of how to work that in, I'd be very appreciative. The blanks on the sheet just reflect the info on the central circle - it's there as an aid to play, so people make sure they keep track of things. If later it seems sensible to replace them with other things, they'll go. I'm thinking about putting the basic moves on there, but I don't want to have to squeeze them in too badly.
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Feb 16, 2016 22:32
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Nifara posted:I think I might need do to some more explanation on the Copper/Silver/Gold thing. Basically the Copper are the "town guards", but they can be anything you like - they break up fist fights, catch thieves and generally patrol the streets The Silver are the magic police - colleges of mages licensing people, creepy hollow-eyed undead hunting down illegal magic use and smuggling of artifacts, all that stuff. The Gold are the secret police, or super scary special enforcers - spy networks, gestapo, horrific monsters hunting the worst criminals, that kind of thing. They can be whatever makes sense for your version of the City and the Bronze Circle, but the idea is to give "levels" of enforcement. As a slave to the direct approach, why not just do it like you did it here?
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Feb 16, 2016 22:34
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Covok posted:As a slave to the direct approach, why not just do it like you did it here? That is hard to argue with. Touche, sir, touche.
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Feb 16, 2016 22:45
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Since we're doing sharing time, here's the magical girl hack I've been working on. I haven't included the MC sheet because it's less done, but that includes a Move to inflict Disadvantage, if you're wondering why there aren't many ways to suffer Disadvantage. Also, some of the enemy's Menaces will inflict Disadvantage on certain actions until they're removed. You might see some influence from Fellowship. You wouldn't be wrong, though I had the basic concept of Menaces before I saw Fellowship's NPC stats. I've been working on this hack on and off for a long time, with long periods of inactivity. There're a number of things I'm unsure about, so I'd like feedback on if things strike you as not particularly good or whatever. EDIT: Also, Magical Burst and Magical Fury are pretty good, but I wanted to make a magical girl game with a considerably less dark mood, even if there might be some sadness here and there. Kaja Rainbow fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Feb 17, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 20:55
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There are some proofing errors (the Ace is also called the Warrior and the moves aren't finished; you say Roll and Add X instead of Roll +X, pick two of those instead of "Pick two moves below", etc). For Flashy: quote:Flashy Celerity for the Idol should probably be Celebrity. The Idol should probably get more bonds than everyone else (and moves that trigger off stats besides +Kind; it's important to mix and match good and bad stats to create odd builds and elicit cross-playbook move choices).
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Feb 17, 2016 21:15
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Thank you for the feedback. Yes, I need to fix the proofing errors. Also, celerity/celebrity is my bad. I'll fix up Flashy as suggested and consider the issue of using non-strong stats for moves. I've been thinking I should do that more.
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Feb 17, 2016 22:05
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Golden Bee posted:There are some proofing errors (the Ace is also called the Warrior and the moves aren't finished; you say Roll and Add X instead of Roll +X, pick two of those instead of "Pick two moves below", etc). I agree with all this, and just wanted to add that you can do what I think of as riders. Something like "the first time you meet someone" or "when you announce yourself" or "when you make an entrance." If you look at AW and the good PbtA hacks, you'll see these a lot. The character isn't prompting the move directly, but they're still making a specific decision and taking a specific action that will trigger the move. It's a good option to keep in mind if the most direct action (eg. asking someone if they've heard of you) feels awkward or out of place.
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Feb 17, 2016 22:14
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[quote="Comrade Gorbash" post="456392677 If you look at AW and the good PbtA hacks, you'll see these a lot. The character isn't prompting the move directly, but they're still making a specific decision and taking a specific action that will trigger the move. [/quote] Yeah, agreed. I'd like to see a Non-Powered class, even if it's not common in the genre, it's common in the expys. What does it mean to save the world without henshin transformations? Does that make you the moral center of the group, or even more harsh to keep pace with the monsters and demons?
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Feb 17, 2016 23:27
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Comrade Gorbash posted:I agree with all this, and just wanted to add that you can do what I think of as riders. Something like "the first time you meet someone" or "when you announce yourself" or "when you make an entrance." Thanks for the suggestion. While it's not yet reflected in that link (I'd have to reupload and I want to make some more changes before I do that), I did change the trigger to "When you introduce yourself as your alterego". And "They're somewhat impressed" was changed to "They're really curious about you." I'm still working on developing more moves for the playbooks, as well as developing more alt-stat moves.
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Feb 18, 2016 03:20
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Huh. So Mike Sands, the writer of Monster of the Week, said over on RPG.net that one of the ideas he had too late to include in the revised edition was that -every- playbook should have a special effect when they spend luck- like how for the Chosen some aspect of their destiny comes into play or the Spooky's dark side gets worse. I can see natural options for a lot of the existing playbooks (The Flake finds a clue to a larger conspiracy, the crooked's past as a criminal comes home to roost, etc.) and now I'm tempted to figure this out for my homebrew stuff.
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Feb 18, 2016 07:31
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unseenlibrarian posted:Huh. So Mike Sands, the writer of Monster of the Week, said over on RPG.net that one of the ideas he had too late to include in the revised edition was that -every- playbook should have a special effect when they spend luck- like how for the Chosen some aspect of their destiny comes into play or the Spooky's dark side gets worse. I feel like the 6- results on at least one move per playbook is negative. The Expert has "You were complicit in whatever darkness you're researching" is good (although it hasn't come up in my game since it's either +Sharp or +Weird, the Expert's key stats.)
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Feb 18, 2016 08:10
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I really like The Summoned's version of luck-spending consequences- Anyone else runs out of luck? They're doomed. You run out of luck? The world ends.
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Feb 18, 2016 14:24
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I'm planning the start of a Blades in the Dark campaign with some friends. I briefly GMed it before with some old kickstarter rules but it seems to have improved a lot since then. I don't see it talked about in this thread much though. Has anyone run it, and is there any general advice to offer that goes beyond what's in the quickstart rules? Last time I ran into trouble because the Cutter handled combat really well, and instead of running cool heists, all of the gang's scores turned into bloodbaths that he dominated because he kept rolling really well and I didn't want to punish him for choosing to engage in the skill that he chose at character creation. Next time I probably want to make more use of things like progress clocks for large encounters, and effect modifiers for things like scale. I also found that my players liked to plan too much, and even though I tried to discourage them and just get them into the action as the rules suggest, I found it difficult to come up with interesting obstacles in a Thief-y style heist on the fly - everything had been mapped out during the plan. Maybe that just takes practice though.
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Feb 20, 2016 22:27
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Boing posted:I'm planning the start of a Blades in the Dark campaign with some friends. I briefly GMed it before with some old kickstarter rules but it seems to have improved a lot since then. I don't see it talked about in this thread much though. Has anyone run it, and is there any general advice to offer that goes beyond what's in the quickstart rules? I don't know that there's any rule preventing BitD discussion in this thread, but Blades does have its own thread. You will probably find some useful discussion in there.
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Feb 21, 2016 00:52
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Boing posted:Last time I ran into trouble because the Cutter handled combat really well, and instead of running cool heists, all of the gang's scores turned into bloodbaths that he dominated because he kept rolling really well and I didn't want to punish him for choosing to engage in the skill that he chose at character creation. Next time I probably want to make more use of things like progress clocks for large encounters, and effect modifiers for things like scale. These sort of problems seem to crop up in every campaign where the PCs are doing criminal activities. I feel the way to deal with them is via RP, not through any mechanical means. Here are my suggestions for these issues, having played a criminal in a mafia-style campaign for years and years. The PCs always resort to ultra-violence : That's cool for them but it tends to upset the people that give heists and scores. If you're a fence/fixer/Johnson/etc looking to hire folks for a score, you don't want to be an accessory to the deaths of 8 people who were working their regular job on the wrong day. So have push-back in the form of reactions from NPCs they work for/with. If push comes to shove, have them stop getting work or get a bad reputation. 'You get results but jesus the cops are going to be all over this! I can't work like this!' The PCs overcome every obstacle: This is harder to deal with but ask yourself some questions: Do the PCs always know every obstacle they might encounter? If so, how/why do they have perfect intel on their scores? Could that intel be wrong? Why hasn't the unexpected thrown a wrench into things? Who is working against them that could feasibly throw that wrench?
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Feb 21, 2016 01:43
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Make sure the players know things can go wrong. Solicit their suggestions on compromised rolls. Re-discuss tone: is this a bloody underworld, or are the players gentlemen?
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Feb 21, 2016 01:48
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thefakenews posted:I don't know that there's any rule preventing BitD discussion in this thread, but Blades does have its own thread. You will probably find some useful discussion in there. Oops, I looked for one but couldn't find it. Thanks!
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Feb 21, 2016 12:12
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I've had some time to adjust for comments I've been getting on Friendship, Effort, Victory and put it into it's sixth draft. I've lowered the amount of moves that give experience. They were pretty unnecessary with the new experience system.I replaced them with moves that interact with the tie mechanic. I've changed a bunch of moves and playbooks around to make them more thematic. I've also changed how the reset mechanic works to make it more interesting and less damning. I might have forgotten to update some thing, but I feel this draft is ready. Any comments are appreciated. I'd like to thank Quantum Ninja and Nifara for their help with draft five!
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Feb 22, 2016 00:03
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Thanks Golden Bee for the help. You made a similar point to Quantum that I should explore: removing or limiting the direct references. While I honestly don't feel it's bad to assume people looking at a game called Friendship, Effort, Victory (the slogan of Shueisha comics) have some familarity with shueisha comics, it is limiting and lazy. Some more honest and dissecting discussions of the source material are neccesary. Also, yeah, I forgot I had that proto-tie move still in there. I should update it to avoid confusion.
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Feb 22, 2016 17:40
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So based on the earlier Luck moves chat, Mike Sands went back and did special luck stuff for all the corebook+ official non-corebook playbooks: http://www.genericgames.co.nz/files/special_moves.pdf.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:28
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Masks finally sung for me as a game last week. As a bit of GM advice: if you're not pushing the influence mechanic, you're not really playing Masks. Pushing influence lead to one player accepting that he may only be a superhero because his mentor raised him to be one, not because he wants to. Then, when his mentor tried to order him around, he tried to resist, failed, and got the angry condition for it. So, he went off on one of the team mates (she helped the villain escape because the villain was just someone in a bad circumstance and she helped the villain get a new lease on life) for helping the villain start over a new leaf. The team mate shot back on how he had no spine because he kept agreeing how his mentor is controlling him, but couldn't stand up to him: so, they went to blows and the session ended with him, the leader, leaving the team. It was a pretty drat good session.
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Feb 23, 2016 04:49
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Masks really sings when you push influence. You're supposed to get in your heroes' face about how hard they don't fit in (and if they're the Delinquent, they can give you the middle finger right back!) Our group also had plenty of punching in the face when an attempt to learn a teammate's real name turned into a fight that nearly destroyed the living room. The Bull and her rival ended the game in a relationship where they're best friends who are deeply, deeply willing to beat the poo poo out of each other.
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Feb 23, 2016 08:38
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The first new AW2 playbook was just released: The Waterbearerquote:Every once in awhile there’s a place worth being, even in Apocalypse World. And if you’re in that place, sometimes you wind up becoming more than you were. You’re not about the grasping, gasping thirsty mess of the world, you’re not afraid of the howling wolves, and you could give a drat about what October wants or who T-Bone is loving. You have the Source, and it can quench any thirst they have.
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Feb 24, 2016 03:47
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| # ? May 14, 2024 19:21 |
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Vincent Baker has just dropped the first new playbook for AW 2nd Edition in an open update. I can see this causing some controversy alongside the quarantine becoming core as it does define a bit of the apocalypse for you. Edit: Damnit, beat to it.
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Feb 24, 2016 03:48
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