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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Probably be more in line with the fiction if Spice was a resource rather than a stat, but yeah. I think it works as a stat, being more "Spice Exposure" than "Spice on Hand you can imbibe right now". How much you've been exposed to being a level that determines some of your abilities. Fremen would naturally have higher Spice stat than others, etc. Elector_Nerdlingen posted:You'd need a word other than "spend", yeah, but isn't one of the themes that it's addictive, that it allows you to do certain things that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do, but that you need a built tolerance to get to that stage? Yes, but the people at the "stage" where they can fully see the future or fold spacetime because of spice powers are very rare and effectively become inhuman by the process. On the other hand, if you live on Dune everything you do, everything you eat, contains at least trace amounts of spice. So I think treating it as a stat makes as much sense. But you could also have Melange or Spice as a resource, yeah totally.
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Apr 22, 2021 08:17
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It could be both, something like this. You have a Spice stat, representing long-term exposure or whatever. However, you can also get your hands on Melange, the actual stuff, as a currency like Barter. When you ingest a significant quantity of Melange, choose: eat 1 Melange and take +1 Spice forward, or eat 2 Melange and take +2 Spice forward but also take 1 harm ap (or whatever).
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Apr 22, 2021 08:34
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Poland Spring posted:all this talk of spice is making me think of a spice girls hack where each stat is a spice girl name Sporty, Posh, Scary, Baby, and Ginger as your core stats is, by itself, enough world building to get you like 75% of the way to a functional game.
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Apr 22, 2021 15:31
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Those sound like the stats for a Sailor Moon hack but I'm pretty sure that already exists...
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Apr 22, 2021 17:48
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I don't like Spice being a stat, as it's fictional counterpart is simply too important and frequently used, thus making it confusing. I would prefer Sand, Soul or even Vision, Eye, etc.
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Apr 22, 2021 19:18
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Any suggestions on PbtA games with crunchier or tactically interesting combat? I know it's not the system's strength but I'm noodling on a hack and want to see what's out there
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Apr 23, 2021 04:00
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Strike! is 4e with some PbtA influence on the non-combat side. I hear Chimera Engine might also fit your parameters.
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Apr 23, 2021 11:04
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Xand_Man posted:Any suggestions on PbtA games with crunchier or tactically interesting combat? I know it's not the system's strength but I'm noodling on a hack and want to see what's out there The Regiment.
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Apr 23, 2021 12:54
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I was just about to suggest that one.
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Apr 23, 2021 17:13
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My friend and GM is planning on running a PbtA game and wants to do a fairy-tale thing, are there any games that lean into that aesthetic? She plans on doing Dungeon World if we cant find anything which I imagine will work with some tweaking, but would love to have something more in-line with her idea.
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May 1, 2021 22:16
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I'd say Monsterhearts could work with some tweaking for a dark fairy tale setting, especially with the Fae playbook. But I don't know of any PbtA games that are designed to emulate fairy tales.
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May 1, 2021 22:37
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How many players and how weird do you wanna get? Midsummer Wood and Half-a-Fool are both explicitly PBTA faerie tale games, but they do have specific dynamics.
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May 2, 2021 00:28
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Tulip posted:How many players and how weird do you wanna get? Midsummer Wood and Half-a-Fool are both explicitly PBTA faerie tale games, but they do have specific dynamics. 3 players, Neither of these seems quite what we are looking for. Her own words on the game: Friend GM posted:just gonna go ahead and say some things about what I'm thinking: I want to run a fantasy game with something of a fairy tale vibe with a setting that is at times whimsical and vibrant and others dark and spooky. I'm imagining a cozy, quiet village surrounded by a vast forest, doing its best not to be swallowed up. As strange creatures venture closer to your home and kill your goats and rattle the windows, someone has to find out what's happening and it's going to be y'all. I want to play with the good and bad sides of small communities and how real or scary their fears may or may not actually be. Let's play with different ways to relate to nature and the question of what is and isn't "natural" and what to even make of such a question.
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May 2, 2021 01:02
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Ash Rose posted:3 players, Neither of these seems quite what we are looking for. Her own words on the game: Stonetop (originally based on DW, though it improves greatly on it) is a "hearth fantasy" game about the fortunes of a small, relatively isolated village on the edge of a massive forest full of ancient ruins, fae, giant spiders, thieving little gremlins, weird chimeric monsters, and dinosaurs. (The other side is a huge prairie filled with horse-riding nomads, saber-toothed tigers, aurochs herds, haunted burial mounds, and different dinosaurs.) I think it could work well, especially with a little tweaking to get the setting where she wants it, though the Kickstarter just finished and I don't think it's available yet for pre-order. Luke Jordan is also very shortly putting out a new playtest packet for their in-development game Tales from the Low Cantrefs, which has a similar vibe to Stonetop, though the setting is less defined (so far) and the protagonists are explicitly kids and teens in the process of growing up and finding their way. I saw an earlier version of the playtest and it looked really cool. https://twitter.com/wildwoodsgames/status/1386672111163383811
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May 2, 2021 01:26
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Ash Rose posted:3 players, Neither of these seems quite what we are looking for. Her own words on the game: OK yeah, that's fair, both of those are pretty particular games. I can't vouch for Stonetop but based on Azathoth's post above it sounds about as close to perfect as you're gonna get using off the shelf. Second best is probably "a lightly reskinned AW," third best is probably DW with somebody playing the Faerie and/or Princess (have done this, it was cool). After that I figure it's kind of guess work.
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May 2, 2021 01:32
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Stonetop seems to be exactly what we are looking for, though I will keep an eye on Low Cantrefs because we both love Sabriel.
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May 2, 2021 02:42
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I am going through what is on the kickstarter and it looks incredible, seems to be sidestepping a lot of what I didnt like about DW too. The Arcana stuff seems especially neat.
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May 2, 2021 03:34
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I don't think it's probably right for this particular context but just wanted to say Vincent and Meguey Baker have a fairy game... https://lumpley.games/under-hollow-hills-about-the-game/
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May 2, 2021 03:52
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Anyone have any suggestions for a "gambling" move? Either homebrew or one that's been done well in one of the many PbTA hacks?
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May 8, 2021 20:12
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Dr. Clockwork posted:Anyone have any suggestions for a "gambling" move? Either homebrew or one that's been done well in one of the many PbTA hacks? Why does "gambling" need to be a move of its own? What's unique about it that it can't just be an "act under fire" (or equivalent) roll?
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May 8, 2021 20:36
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I made one for Urban Shadows way back:Vulpes Vulpes posted:I threw together this one, it might be "a bit much":
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May 8, 2021 20:55
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Depending on your goals, Dungeon World's Carouse might be a good starting point. Or Lancer's Get a drat Drink, though it's not precisely PbtA. Both are essentially a roll to see what manner of plot hook you stumble into in the course of your night on the town. More directly, you can always just fall back to the Ur-Move: 6- bad result or twist, 7-9 good result but maybe with some downside or cost, 10+ good result with a bonus or with no downside. As in the above examples, you could make a list of a few positive outcomes (someone important owes you a favor! you won a cool item!); 10+ the player picks one and everything's square, 7-9 the GM picks one and it comes with strings attached, 6- something nasty happens.
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May 8, 2021 20:59
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Dr. Clockwork posted:Anyone have any suggestions for a "gambling" move? Either homebrew or one that's been done well in one of the many PbTA hacks? Well let me ask you - what's the intent for having the move? There's kind of two axes that occur to me here - gambling as in a peculiar form of entertainment, or gambling as in taking risk on where the story might go, and then also gambling as something that specific characters do, or gambling is something endemic to the whole genre. If gambling is just meant as the entertainment and is endemic, then the carouse from DW is pretty good for those purposes. If you want it to be taking a risk but not character specific, then I'd probably just go "roll + nothing (it's luck!), then the GM makes a hard move, soft move, or provides a beneficial lead on a fail/mixed/success." If it's going to be playbook specific that's a little trickier, nothing comes immediately to mind but I'd probably make some modification on either of the two listed ideas to try to make it suit the genre better.
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May 8, 2021 22:16
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Dr. Clockwork posted:Anyone have any suggestions for a "gambling" move? Either homebrew or one that's been done well in one of the many PbTA hacks? I've just straight up ran a game of Craps in several of my roleplaying games; you only need D6s, its a social game, and its quick and fun. Groups tend to love the heck out of it. If you don't want to dedicate that much time though, I'd just offer them some bets and then roll and pay-out if they succeed at a roll that matches the odds of the bet. The classic move of 6 - lose your money, 7-9 - get your money back, 10+ get your money plus more would work pretty easily, although someone repeatedly making several small bet rolls goes a little against the idea of PBTA. But you could just ask them how much money they're gambling all at once and make a single roll if you don't want to drag it out too much.  And then you could offer someone like +1 or -1 forward to the bet roll, but increased/decreased payouts as a result, that kind of thing. But that's purely for an economic gamble, without any chances of like, going into debt and that starting a story, or winning all of some NPC's money and them having a vendetta against you, but you could easily add those as effects for rolling 6- or 7-9.
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May 9, 2021 00:50
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Find the old dungeon magazine with the toad dice game. I think it’s number 12, “at the Spottle parlor.” Funny 80 minute gambling detour that can fit into any fantasy game
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May 9, 2021 08:21
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Vulpes Vulpes posted:I made one for Urban Shadows way back: I like this option, and the various social hooks that could result is more or less what I had in mind. I just needed to see it in print.
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May 10, 2021 18:49
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It's worth nothing that debts (or more properly, Debts) have mechanical significance in Urban Shadows, so make sure to adapt as needed to your setting/ruleset.
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May 10, 2021 19:01
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Vulpes Vulpes posted:It's worth nothing that debts (or more properly, Debts) have mechanical significance in Urban Shadows, so make sure to adapt as needed to your setting/ruleset. Yeah for stock Apocalypse World I would probably just have fiction consequences rather than strict mechanical consequences.
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May 10, 2021 19:05
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My store got a solicitation from Trail of Dice today, and I'm curious what the goons think about Strange World, Spiralis and In the Hollow of the Spider Queen, if anything?
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May 13, 2021 17:51
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Trying to think ahead on a few things regarding the first in-person AW2E I'm starting tonight. One of my players is doing Hardholder, and obviously we'll see how things play out but one thing that concerns me is how much screen time he'll be afforded if he delegates a lot of the action to his gang. One hypothetical I had in mind was, what if another player or two go on a mission and the Hardholder declines to attend in person but sends some of his gang to help out? Would the gang be under my control in the absence of their leader, or do I let him roll battle moves for them (and mark experience if Hard is highlighted)? I assume he would only be rolling and marking experience for gang battle moves if he was present to lead them, but I'm not sure how most people handle this.
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May 22, 2021 19:16
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Nah, absolutely let the hardholder roll for their gang even if they're not personally present. Same goes for any character with a gang, really.
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May 22, 2021 19:22
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And if there are individual PCs attending, they would also roll their Battle Moves separate in addition to the gang, or does it all wrap into one big effort if they all plan to just Seize By Force? I feel like I'm just overlooking something in the rules for fighting with gangs, but I wanted to sort this out ahead of time so it doesn't slow down play if it comes up.
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May 22, 2021 19:46
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Did anyone ever play Transit? It's a game I've had an eye on from a distance for quite some time now, hard to imagine what you'd actually do with it but it's a compelling concept.
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Jul 1, 2021 21:57
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SkyeAuroline posted:Did anyone ever play Transit? It's a game I've had an eye on from a distance for quite some time now, hard to imagine what you'd actually do with it but it's a compelling concept. I played it!! It was fun, but annoyingly narrow focused on combat.
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Jul 2, 2021 03:33
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I've played Transit, it was real fun. The rulebook has straight up contradictions, word from the devs was to use whichever reference is earlier in the book. It is as mentioned very combat focused, and we didn't get much chance to like, switch what ship we were in, but it was good. I made a fairly complicated google sheets based character sheet I might be able to dig up if that's helpful (honestly it was just me fiddling with conditional tables).
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Jul 2, 2021 04:32
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Kinda what I had gathered, as far as the combat focus goes. The concept of "players as fleet of ships" didn't seem to leave a ton of room for character-focus scenes or that sort of thing, versus ship action that's much easier to work with the mechanics. But I think the last version of it I read was the first release while it was still actively being written, so I'm very out of the loop on it (and on whether it's worth the money since it'll never see a table with the way my groups go).
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Jul 2, 2021 15:46
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One part of the mechanics that really worked outside combat was the crew stuff. Your crew is an independent NPC that you're effectively symbiotic with, and since they have an independent conscience and such from your but are still very interdependent we found some pretty interesting role-playing moments. Kind of like more fleshed out rules for gangs that every player is obligated to manage. It isn't my absolute favorite AW (AW still is) but I'd put it in about the same tier as MOTW.
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Jul 2, 2021 17:58
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I'm wanting to pitch a group on Masks, which I've only played a couple times, and I want to get a better feel for how it can and should be played and GMed because the stats-shifting element of gameplay is kind of new and hard to read from the outside. As a player, do I want my character to consciously build toward specifically the things they're good at, almost min-maxing it? Or on the other extreme, playing as a flesh-and-blood character and letting the stats and abilities do what they may? Is there a happy medium I can tell players to aim for where the system will more or less take care of them and allow them to just immerse and let the mechanics move that character forward? And as a GM, how do I know whether/when/how much to try to shift PC labels to keep things engaging without being adversarial? I guess I have a hard time wrapping my mind around a character constantly being in flux and that flux potentially putting them in danger.
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Aug 10, 2021 18:45
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The flux is part of the game! Think about what NPC’s want them to do. Know that shifting their labels is a move, so you shouldn’t if you don’t have a chance to do a move. (You can’t nest it within another move or do it without a fictional trigger.) Heroes in masks are extremely robust, and the team mechanic means they can succeed even when the dice are against them. But to heal they need other players, and that’s part of the system. And with influence bonuses, people can swing around +4 without a ton of effort. In terms of stats, it’s the actor/director stance issue. Your character might not know that being low-key angry is going to make them bad at comforting and supporting, at least the first time. As GM, you should be shifting labels much more than you think you should (it’s one of the main ways people get XP!). The world is unfair to teenagers and it’s your job to show that. Ask provocative questions: How are they going to deal with people who slide them? What are they doing because their hopeless? Clearing conditions creates story! And while players are comforting and supporting each other, you have a chance to check your notes, look at what villains schemes are, and pace. I try and keep combat under 35 minutes in a row, with villains either winning, surrendering or fleeing at that time, but if you have a mixture of story action and combat (A chase, a mysterious ally showing up, someone getting hurled into a car) it can go longer. Unlike a dungeon crawler, enemies who win one day are going to show up again. I’ve had a lot of fights that ended because one of the PCs got punched over the skyline and the rest of them went to check up on them. More than other systems, failure can lead to story, especially since your character shouldn’t be dealing with world ending crisises on the regular.
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Aug 10, 2021 19:28
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I think you're intended to address that question as an in-universe conflict. The central theme of Masks is figuring out who you are and growing into your "adult self," whatever the heck that's supposed to mean. Label shifting and locking is there to represent that struggle, and the conflicting strategies you mention are choices the characters might be fretting over. Should they intentionally try to behave a certain way and fit a certain ideal - whether theirs or someone else's? If they don't like the way they currently are, is it better to try and accept themselves, or to change? Should they let others' influence on them stick, or reject it? If acting one way makes them "stronger" or better at their job, does that make it worth not "being themselves"? They're questions real kids (not to mention many adults) struggle with, and that's what Masks is really trying to be about. The Protégé (I think that's the name) is the best representative of this; her mentor should be openly, directly pushing her to max out X and minimize Y... but should she? e: I feel I should note: I don't really feel like Masks knocks it out if the park here. Exploring this theme is an explicit goal, but the mechanics and rules don't always follow through on it. The Protégé is pretty solid, but several of the other playbooks are just lists of superpowers with a vague implication that you should maybe feel angsty about them. megane fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Aug 10, 2021 |
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Aug 10, 2021 19:32
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