|
Vincent Baker is working on two Apocolypse world zines. They're going to have the stuff from his Patreon, but if you aren't subscribed to him there it'd be worth backing it if you want access to the other playbooks and supplements he's made, along with Burned Over (the PG-13 version of Apocalypse World).
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2019 22:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 10:40 |
|
|
The Skiller expansion has one of my favourite AW lines in the Hitchhiking move: "On a miss, cannibals."
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 00:40
|
|
|
Have the Bakers said anything about when Under Hollow Hills is going to be available/finished? (Is it finished? The state of that is unclear to me.)
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 01:54
|
|
|
Rhapsody of Blood question: the Legendary Heroes' pact text says "Set your pact with them to 1," and the Half-Damned's says "set your pact with each other to 1." Do those mean exactly what they say (the Heroes change their pact with bloodline X to pact-1, the Half-Damned choose bloodline X and get pact-1 both ways to represent a tenuous alliance), or am I misreading? I've been assuming the former, but my players have some doubts.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 19:42
|
|
|
Poltergrift posted:Rhapsody of Blood question: the Legendary Heroes' pact text says "Set your pact with them to 1," and the Half-Damned's says "set your pact with each other to 1." Do those mean exactly what they say (the Heroes change their pact with bloodline X to pact-1, the Half-Damned choose bloodline X and get pact-1 both ways to represent a tenuous alliance), or am I misreading? I've been assuming the former, but my players have some doubts. It was likely written intending the first, but I'd say it's better to make it uniform as 'Gain 1 Pact on them' for all of the Bloodline's first pact question.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 20:31
|
|
|
I also have a Rhapsody question, but focused less on mechanics and more on flavor. What happens if the players pick breeches that don't really add together to a coherent Castle? What if they don't fit the Regent, either the adversary the GM had planned or the grail-grasping explorer from the last set?
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 11:30
|
|
|
paradoxGentleman posted:I also have a Rhapsody question, but focused less on mechanics and more on flavor. In this situation, there’s a few approaches I’d take:
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 12:16
|
|
|
I’m finding that I wish I did more prep when running Dungeon World, or even had a module to follow or something. We play after work, and I was so goddamn tired last night that I just couldn’t make the game interesting - describing the environment was tough, the monsters were lame, the action didn’t flow very well, and little of what I did tied into the moves. I think a lot of it was that I just had no idea what should happen for a given action and every reaction had little to no meaning on its own. It felt like I was just going through the motions instead of really taking advantage of the fiction, partly because the wants and needs of the dangers in the front were really straightforward and boring on their own, and partly because a lot of the response from the players was “sit back and watch what happens” which required me to fill in the action as two dangers threatening each other which was not very exciting. I know that a massive chunk of this is that GMing while sleep deprived and braindead from work is a bad idea, so I’m wondering if PbtA is just not a good fit for the environment/situation we’re in after a long workday. Or am I just doing it wrong? It feels like every other GM immediately knows what happens whenever they want to pull something out of their rear end, whereas in just drawing blanks all the time. I mean last night I spent a good 10 seconds staring blankly at the list of GM moves before just declaring that I was too worn out to keep playing and called it there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 14:55
|
|
|
Re: Rhapsody I gave my players a region and approximate year as a prompt and let them run with it. That gave us a framework for architecture and a city structure. We had broken steam pipes in a bathhouse and massive domes made of chitin for giant spider Acolyte. “You’re in Byzantium ca. 500 CE, but that also means the Silk Roads are in full operation, so your character can be from pretty much anywhere.” f/e: One of my players really wanted to be an aristocrat from a different part of Rome and we decided that their suites somehow connected to the palace, and the catacombs from another player’s church eventually connected to the Castle. They also fought The Undertaker there, but that’s a different story... BetterWeirdthanDead fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Feb 7, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 14:57
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:I know that a massive chunk of this is that GMing while sleep deprived and braindead from work is a bad idea, so I’m wondering if PbtA is just not a good fit for the environment/situation we’re in after a long workday. Or am I just doing it wrong? Yes, GMing is demanding, PbtA more so than most in the moment. Prep can help. Practice when you're not exhausted can also help. But neither of those things work miracles.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 16:15
|
|
|
As I expected. I‘ll make sure to just physically prepare for it. That said, I can’t do the same for my players, so I might end up needing something less demanding for them too. EDIT: my players also generally respond to action with typical D&D-ish hack & slash actions, so it might also be that I'm trying to do something that the players just aren't interested in or don't have the energy to do after work. It's possible we should actually be playing a different game altogether. Though, I'm not entirely sure what. I think I might take a break from DW altogether and suggest a couple sessions under a different system, something that we can all agree we're interested in and that we all think we can handle after work. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Feb 7, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 16:25
|
|
|
Mike Danger posted:Have the Bakers said anything about when Under Hollow Hills is going to be available/finished? (Is it finished? The state of that is unclear to me.) I asked him about it via the KS. He says that UHH will be his next KS after the zines. 🧚♀️😀 hyphz fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Feb 7, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 21:10
|
|
|
Play fiasco or BFF or something. Distribute the creativity requirements. Also, on a botch feel free to have the player succeed and then have something bad happen later. Instead of having a player blow themselves up with dynamite, I had them succeed, which led him to be very suspicious… Until they got a phone call, where a previous contact canceled the contract they had. Same thing when a player was trying to snipe near another one and failed. The obvious move would have one character shot another, but that would cause a lot of intraparty chaos. Mysterious gun failure and you move on with the scenario. (Which was a stuntman trying to take control of an escaping helicopter by hitting the pilot.)
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 21:36
|
|
|
In Dragon Ball Parallels I'm altering things slightly so that each martial arts technique is not its own move, but more of a rider on a basic move. Sort of like how spells are done in Dungeon World, but with a few changes. Here's my first draft for the basic martial arts move, any thoughts on how this could be improved? Either mechanically or in terms of wording. When you use a martial arts technique, spend Power and roll. On a 10+, you perform the technique. On a 7-9, pick one:
edit: MARTIAL ARTS When you use a martial arts technique, roll. On a 10+, you perform the technique for its Power cost. On a 7-9, pick one:
Fuego Fish fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Feb 8, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 13:59
|
|
|
I think "instead of" is kinda awkward. Like, Goku's not gonna accidentally punch someone when he's trying to charge a Kamehameha. I like the idea of having to settle for drawing aggro without making a big impact, but it's oddly phrased. Also, what does "perform the technique" mean here? Does that mean inflicting harm, causing a condition, what?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 14:08
|
|
|
DoctorWhat posted:I think "instead of" is kinda awkward. Like, Goku's not gonna accidentally punch someone when he's trying to charge a Kamehameha. I like the idea of having to settle for drawing aggro without making a big impact, but it's oddly phrased. It's not so much "accidentally" punching as being unable to pull off the technique given the situation. You could lack the time, space, proper angle, and so on. Sometimes you get interrupted and have to just beat down your foe. The upfront Power cost does make that a bit annoying, so making them spend Power after the roll, rather than before, would probably fix that. DoctorWhat posted:Also, what does "perform the technique" mean here? Does that mean inflicting harm, causing a condition, what? Like how in DW you pick a spell from the list of spells (assuming you're a spellcasting playbook with the "Cast a Spell" move), you pick a martial arts technique from the list. So there'll be a section with stuff like, Masenko (4 Power, Beam) A two-handed beam attack that requires no charge. The target takes a hit. And that's the technique you'd be performing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 14:28
|
|
|
Fuego Fish posted:It's not so much "accidentally" punching as being unable to pull off the technique given the situation. You could lack the time, space, proper angle, and so on. Sometimes you get interrupted and have to just beat down your foe. Okay, then make that sense of "taking the shot you have" clear in the phrasing of the move. Volley in Dungeon World does a good job of that - I'd quote it but I'm on mobile. quote:The upfront Power cost does make that a bit annoying, so making them spend Power after the roll, rather than before, would probably fix that. Either that. or have the Ki Blast/Autocombo be effective in combat but at the cost of drawing aggro, but still worth spending power.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 14:55
|
|
|
I’m putting my Dungeon World campaign on hiatus, mostly for the aforementioned overhead reasons (I almost never have the energy to think on my feet after work), but also because the campaign started off on the wrong foot. There was no session 0, characters were created independently and then brought to the table, bonds/Hx weren’t used effectively to tie the party together, and I brought a predetermined, PC-irrelevant campaign premise the PCs didn’t really have a reason to care about. Before the last session, I asked the players what bound the party together after a whole bunch of danger and adventure, and each player had a somewhat different response that all boiled down to “cuz we’re here and the other PCs are also social outsiders”. That seemed to me like a red flag, because the system is intended to give them a better reason than that. Based on that, and the fact that the PCs just weren’t getting opportunities to play to their class’s advantage, I figured that it was time to pull the plug and reconvene another time, of not just start over at some point. I’ve talked to my players, and we’re workshopping one-offs and new systems to try in the meantime. Before I run another PbtA campaign, though, I’m gonna go back to the basics and really try getting Apocalypse World 2e down pat first - that’ll be the next PbtA game I GM.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 17:36
|
|
|
For the martial arts move, isn’t it always better To draw Agro than get hit? You would think draw agro is a soft move whereas getting hit is a hard move.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 18:19
|
|
|
Golden Bee posted:For the martial arts move, isn’t it always better To draw Agro than get hit? You would think draw agro is a soft move whereas getting hit is a hard move. Not entirely. Sometimes it's worth trading damage 1 for 1, sometimes you've got a way to step your damage back down, and in the end it's a DBZ game so death is relatively meaningless. Remember, it's not a choice between simply "take a hit" or "draw aggro" as the result. The real choice is between "do the technique" or "don't do the technique".
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 20:25
|
|
|
Random thought: I was looking through the Sprawl playbooks recently, and a thing that bothers me is that Synth is an entirely self-justifying stat. Unless your campaign ties some custom moves to it, it only exists so that the Killer and Hacker can take moves that redirect other moves to using Synth. Yet most playbooks will get a choice of cyberware that uses Synth, when they wouldn't be using Synth for anything else. It would make a lot more sense if there was some Open Your Brain type move tied to it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 22:10
|
|
|
Fuego Fish posted:
the trigger needs some work. A move is a bigger deal than just a single attack, you want it to focus on something bigger. you wouldn't roll this to chop a concrete block in half, for instance. Try something like "When you try to overwhelm another with a martial arts technique" or something that highlights the move as a significant turning point in the fiction.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 22:39
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure that in Fuego's game, Martial Arts Techniques are specific discreet mechanics like Dungeon World treats spells. So you wouldn't roll that to break a concrete block, no, you'd roll it to 'cast' Kamehameha or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 22:43
|
|
|
Wrestlepig posted:the trigger needs some work. A move is a bigger deal than just a single attack, you want it to focus on something bigger. you wouldn't roll this to chop a concrete block in half, for instance. It's DBZ, when it says "martial arts technique" it doesn't mean chopping a concrete block in half, it means firing a mountain-shattering laser or fusing bodies with your best frenemy. It's assumed that the characters are all fully capable of breaking concrete blocks without needing to roll for it. The martial arts techniques are in a list and the particulars of each technique (who it targets, what it does) are listed under each one. Like the spells list for wizards/clerics in Dungeon World.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 22:46
|
|
|
ok, that makes sense. Should work fine then.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 22:50
|
|
|
I misread it initially. Seems OK.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 00:01
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Random thought: I was looking through the Sprawl playbooks recently, and a thing that bothers me is that Synth is an entirely self-justifying stat. Unless your campaign ties some custom moves to it, it only exists so that the Killer and Hacker can take moves that redirect other moves to using Synth. Yet most playbooks will get a choice of cyberware that uses Synth, when they wouldn't be using Synth for anything else. It would make a lot more sense if there was some Open Your Brain type move tied to it. The hacking system use Synth. But you need equipment/cyberware to do that, and if you have low Synth you definitely aren't the person doing that. I remember when I made a Killer for a game (that sadly never got off the ground), I decided to have high Meat so that I could still be dangerous even if I lost access to my cyberware - and then I realized that there didn't seem to be a downside to putting my -1 in Synth since there was no way I'd ever be using it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 00:54
|
|
|
double ?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 05:30
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:I’m finding that I wish I did more prep when running Dungeon World, or even had a module to follow or something. We play after work, and I was so goddamn tired last night that I just couldn’t make the game interesting - describing the environment was tough, the monsters were lame, the action didn’t flow very well, and little of what I did tied into the moves. Pollyanna posted:I’m finding that I wish I did more prep when running Dungeon World, or even had a module to follow or something. We play after work, and I was so goddamn tired last night that I just couldn’t make the game interesting - describing the environment was tough, the monsters were lame, the action didn’t flow very well, and little of what I did tied into the moves. Well, the DW Guide is awesome for getting your GM game up to par. It's now hosted on the official DW site. http://www.dungeon-world.com/downloads/ And did you say adventure ideas ? http://catsoftindalos.blogspot.com/p/dungeon-starter-archive.html http://blog.trilemma.com/search/label/adventure Or maybe you just need a shitload of dungeons https://www.dungeoncontest.com/copy-of-home-1
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 05:31
|
|
|
mllaneza posted:Well, the DW Guide is awesome for getting your GM game up to par. It's now hosted on the official DW site. Honestly, at this point, I'd rather just take a break before starting a different system - I was starting to get kinda bored anyway. I've considered running a more straightforward, combat-oriented system like Strike! or something to shift gears a bit. TBQH I'm not sure I'll return to that campaign.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 05:54
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Random thought: I was looking through the Sprawl playbooks recently, and a thing that bothers me is that Synth is an entirely self-justifying stat. Unless your campaign ties some custom moves to it, it only exists so that the Killer and Hacker can take moves that redirect other moves to using Synth. Yet most playbooks will get a choice of cyberware that uses Synth, when they wouldn't be using Synth for anything else. It would make a lot more sense if there was some Open Your Brain type move tied to it. Am I reading correctly that there are no basic moves tied to Synth? I'm not familiar with Sprawl, but having a core stat with no basic moves attached seems like an extremely serious design flaw.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 06:22
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:Am I reading correctly that there are no basic moves tied to Synth? I'm not familiar with Sprawl, but having a core stat with no basic moves attached seems like an extremely serious design flaw. Yeah that's correct. Some of the Matrix moves use Synth, but you also need to have the Jacked In move and the right equipment to be able to do that stuff. There are some cyberware and playbooks moves that let you stat substitute Synth.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 06:36
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:Honestly, at this point, I'd rather just take a break before starting a different system - I was starting to get kinda bored anyway. I've considered running a more straightforward, combat-oriented system like Strike! or something to shift gears a bit. TBQH I'm not sure I'll return to that campaign. A break is good. Also, a long session of being a PbtA GM is incredibly taxing. Take breaks during the session, you'll want them for thinking up what's next anyway.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 10:05
|
|
|
Pauses in PbtA games are definitely useful, but I feel like those games are a lot easier to run than something like Call of Cthulhu. You don't need to memorize anything, and rarely are there much in the way of handouts to prepare and keep track of.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 13:48
|
|
|
Yeah, I can see them being useful but honestly I find PBTA games easier to run off the cuff and with improvisation, rather than harder. OTOH I guess it's very YMMV.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 15:04
|
|
|
Yeah, different GMs have different strengths. I find improv very comfortable to do and more comfortable than detailed prep (assigning NPC stats, creating maps, etc.) so I love PBtA games because I can just play right to my strength. They do require a bit of prep, but more in the "what're the impending threats and what can they do" area. That sort of thing. Though some of my players disliked the playbook based approach because they felt it was too limiting. So I wouldn't mind hearing of any PBtA/derivatives that take a different approach than playbooks or other systems with similar strengths of being favorable to improv.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 16:17
|
|
|
Kaja Rainbow posted:Though some of my players disliked the playbook based approach because they felt it was too limiting. In what ways did they find it to be overly limiting?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 17:01
|
|
|
Subjunctive posted:In what ways did they find it to be overly limiting? I'd have to talk to them about it. But that was the complaint they had. Most of the time they play systems like Valor, FATE, some D&D 5E. Valor is particularly popular within this friend circle and in fact were made by two of my friends (one of who's still working on Valor). That system has very significant differences in its approach to character creation than PBtA generally do, focusing more on flexibility than recreating specific archetypes. We also all do or used to do play-by-post freeform roleplaying.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 21:20
|
|
|
Here're some actual comments from some of my friends:Friend 1 posted:the thing is that pbta's customization is all at the system level and the moment-to-moment freeform action level - you can do lots of things with any character and you can make lots of different games with the engine easily Friend 2 posted:the actions themselves are also highly limited tbh. Friend 3 posted:My honest opinon, borne of playing in Dungeon World and watching a campaign of Masks, is that character creation is stifilingly limited. Like they tried to make a D&D For Dummies and went way, way, way too far taking out far too many things in the process.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 21:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 10:40 |
|
|
Subjunctive posted:In what ways did they find it to be overly limiting? They could be like my players and look at the playbook moves as all they can do, rather than triggers with special rolls when they do something that matches it. You really have to stress that the moves are secondary and reactive, and that they really shouldn't be trying to do them by default. Not everyone gets PbtA games, and for some people they're just a poor fit. mllaneza posted:A break is good. I've learned that, yeah. I think the tradeoff for PbtA is that you have to take a break once a "scene" is over to come up with the next one. spectralent posted:Yeah, I can see them being useful but honestly I find PBTA games easier to run off the cuff and with improvisation, rather than harder. Kaja Rainbow posted:Yeah, different GMs have different strengths. I find improv very comfortable to do and more comfortable than detailed prep (assigning NPC stats, creating maps, etc.) so I love PBtA games because I can just play right to my strength. They do require a bit of prep, but more in the "what're the impending threats and what can they do" area. That sort of thing. Improv is definitely not my strong point, but it's not any more energy-intensive compared to traditional GMing unless I'm already tired. I prefer it over preplanning and railroading. The problem is that there's no guarantee whatsoever that what I improv will actually be any better than the prepared stuff because I can't think on my feet at all. For 2~2.5hr games after work, when I've had a long work day, I'd rather just GM out of an adventure or dungeon - it's not the right time or mindset to be improvising PbtA style.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2019 22:33
|
|