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Been wanting this so bad, and Urban Shadows is better than I hoped. It's possibly my favorite PBTA book. Also, I'm probably going to put up a recruiting thread for Urban Shadows later tonight.
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Jul 23, 2015 22:21
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 00:50 |
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An Urban Shadows game just got put up by some moron who's probably in over his head, if anyone is interested.
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Jul 24, 2015 13:59
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Golden Bee posted:Was my joke, not true I dunno. If you're comparing it to the beast and the proxie...
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Sep 5, 2015 21:33
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Golden Bee posted:Who created the Daemon? I'm pretty sure that's one of Megane's skins. Just wanna say that the Circle Too Many is brilliant. Covok posted:What does everyone think of PbtA games that go stat-less? I did it for Justice Friends because I felt Golden Age Superheroes didn't differentiate themselves enough thus stats wouldn't work to the game's benefit. It's a valid design choice that works for some games, like your four color heroes, but I think that there's merit in keeping stats for others.
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Sep 11, 2015 15:29
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Thanqol posted:My Masks playtest games haven't gone particularly well. We can see what they're trying to do but the basic moves don't quite do what you expect or give the results you'd want. There's also crazy indecision on 'powers matter and are woven into my playbook moves' and 'powers don't matter at all and all my playbook moves are social stuff'. They either need to scrap the Nova or scrap the Delinquent; having them both in the same ruleset is really jarring. I don't follow. Personally, I don't really care for the nova, but I don't see how they overlap.
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Jan 2, 2016 18:19
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Thanqol posted:Half the game seems to be about 'how do I use my cool powers to stop the bad guy'. The other half is 'how do I deal with the emotional turmoil of being a teenaged member of a team'. My playtest experience from 2 sessions was that the two do not meld nearly as well as I'd like. Ah, I thought you were saying that the Nova and the Delinquent were stepping on each other's toes thematically. It's more: "The Nova is a really crunchy playbook dealing with modeling extreme power and the Delinquent is full of narrative moves that encouraging a specific attitude." Yeah, I'm fine with everyone playing their own little mechanical mini-game, but everyone should be interacting with the themes of the game.
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Jan 4, 2016 15:29
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I'd love to play if you're still looking for players.
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Apr 15, 2016 14:21
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madadric posted:I'm having a design dilemma in my PBTA hack. I've never really had fun stopping my fantasy romp to play fantasy accountant. I'd stick with the barter system used by most PBTA games. For instance you can get moves like: When you try to replenish your ship's stores while in port, spend a barter and roll 2d6 + each additional barter spent: On a 7-9, pick one. You find a lead on a good gig. There aren't any hidden problems with the goods you buy. You don't attract unwanted attention from the locals. On a 10+. pick two.
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Sep 28, 2016 15:21
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Twibbit posted:Fiigured I would ask in here since there is no dedicated Masks thread- I am going to be GMing my first game of a pbta system (Masks) next week. I am having trouble making sense out of the statement that Giving my npc villain more conditions increases their longevity when they also say that a villain is defeated when they need to mark a condition but they are filled in. Wouldn't having more conditions move them closer to the limit? Villians don't have all of the conditions PC's do. You pick one to five, depending on how powerful or important they are. So, if you have three conditions, you can only take four hits. The first three fill up your conditions, and the fourth knocks you out. If your have five conditions, you can take six hits. The first five hits fill up your conditions, and the sixth knocks you out.
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Sep 30, 2016 17:08
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I've seen people play them in Masks, but I don't know of a dedicated game for it, no.
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Oct 10, 2016 19:03
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I don't think there are "official" answers on either thing, but personally: 1. I'd say they have to have enough for the other person to be able to miss/recognize the clothes if they see them, due to the power of DRAMA. So, if they're super distinctive socks, then sure, (because you've got a part of their identity, if you need a magic justification) but otherwise, nah. 2. I'd lean towards no. Partly because if clothes get confused, turning into someone unexpected could be quite interesting. Also, if they're interested in doing some tag popping, it could be fun to see where it goes. But, I wouldn't really blame an MC that wanted to keep things simpler by saying that if someone gives them to charity, then they aren't anyone's clothes.
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Oct 21, 2016 21:02
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Really, that alt version of shut down is super awful, for the previously mentioned reasons but also because two out of three options straight up end interactions, with the third forcing a pretty hard swerve in it. The ACE rules are sort of interesting, but they got me feeling a little sketchy with the reference to the new shut down.
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Oct 27, 2016 23:29
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rumble in the bunghole posted:There's nothing in the mechanics that states it has to be sex (depending on semantics about the trigger of turning someone on), but it's a particularly popular interpretation in play. If Teen Wolf takes off his shirt and rolls a 12 it's gotta be hard to roleplay Ace rimmer deferring to his leadership skills. I mean, in this theoretical example, I think the Ace option is watching something you know, intellectually, is supposed to be attractive and just... not really caring. Which sets off a whole new chain of teenage uncertainty along the lines of "Wait, is something wrong with me?" that translates pretty cleanly into a string.
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Oct 28, 2016 04:27
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Halloween Jack posted:WWWRPG is a head-scratcher for me at times, like how Real represents both your ability to shoot on someone, i.e. really fight, and your ability to shoot on the mic, i.e. break kayfabe. Disclaimer: I haven't read WWWRPG. However, it makes sense in the way Apoc World stats make sense. It's not representing how tough or strong you are. It's about representing how good you are at going off script and/or forcing people to deal with you. Also, I've never been fond of the sasquatch's theme, if only because there's not a lot of monster there. All the other monsters are mostly humanish, but with something horribly, horribly transgressive that they're hiding. They're either undead, wild things with no place in a human world, or literal witches. Chosen and Queens are in a weird space, admittedly. However, I'm willing to give them a pass because both of them being pretty iconic for supernatural teen drama. In addition, the Chosen usually has a lot to hide, and the Queen can be a monster if they want. But, Sasquatches have to hide the terrifying secret of... smelling weird? They're the skin that's encouraged to hide, but I'm not really sure what they're hiding. They're just shy, which doesn't really make much of a monster to me. Capfalcon fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 14, 2017 22:10
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Basically a straight improvement across the board, in my opinion. The Reformed's moves are all useful now. I'd probably boost Dark Past to let you pick two options, because it's a pretty serious narrative hose job as it stands now. The Innocent now has real moves that don't rely on their Edgy Future Self showing up, while still making them cast a long shadow over your actions. Newborn is way less janky, with the janky parts demoted to separate moves (even if getting the damaged condition feels a little weak for a whole move) and the creator's advice moved absorbed into the lesson's feature. The Star was always the best of the original ones, so it doesn't need much help. The changes to Time For The Show makes it way less of a headache as the MC, in my opinion. The gossip mags is a pretty good move for them too. The Joined is by far the most different, and it feels... underwhelming, I guess? You get to borrow someone else's playbook features but none of the moves really catch my interest, though. It's vastly more coherent than the first version, though. I just don't find the bonds and distinctions that interesting.
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May 9, 2017 18:13
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So, I haven't dived in very far, but it looks like a version of Vampire I'd actually want to play! One question, I can't seem to find the leverage sympathy move. Am I just being blind?
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Jun 2, 2017 02:33
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Fuego Fish posted:I've been working on a hack called Dragon Ball Parallels, which is specifically to emulate everyone's favourite punchmans soap opera. So, ha ha, there's no chance this will ever be for sale or even produced in a professional capacity, but I'm taking what I've learned here and putting it towards future projects. Gotta say, it's a really impressive amount of work. I know I'd be up for a game. On feedback, though, I haven't really gone super deep into it, but one thing that jumps out at me is "Let The Villain Die" doesn't really make sense as a MC move. It sounds like literally the opposite a MC move should be, since it slows things down instead of ramping them up and giving people more things to respond to.
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Jul 12, 2017 16:56
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paradoxGentleman posted:Speaking of Urban Shadows, I'm the GM for the game Spectralent is talking about, and I have a couple of questions. One thing I've discovered in playing Urban Shadows is that just leaving the factions as Mortality, Wild, etc. doesn't work very well, so you need to give them some names and flavor yourself. Not sure what you've thought about as the faction identities for Urban Shadows: NOLA, but I'm of two minds on the factions. One, the factions could stay largely unchanged, and you emphasize the difference between the Ivory Tower Wizards (Power) and more religious practitioners (Wild, in my opinion). In addition, the Fae reflavored as a mortal who's made bargains with spirits from the other side is quite doable. Two, if you don't want your Harry Dresdens rubbing elbows with your Marie Laveaus, then you might want more significant changes to the factions. Off the top of my head, I'd run with something like this for my factions: The Friendly Neighborhood Initiative (Mortality) Adapt to the changing circumstances Gather in numbers to confront a threat Discover information that puts someone in danger Remind someone of their mundane obligations The Bloodmoon Cartel (Night) Display an aggressive show of force Threaten someones interests or holdings Claim territory from the weak or foolish Make the best of a difficult situation The Congregation of the Faithful (Power) Mystically foreshadow a coming Storm Pull something from one realm into another Escalate conflict for reasons mysterious or opaque Offer power for a promise or a pledge The Crescent City Consortium (Wild) Prioritize the long-term consequences Act in opposition to chaos or change Snap up resources vulnerable or exposed Reveal the diversity of cultures alien and unique Mortality and Night are largely unchanged (and pretty generic), but Power and Wild would be mixed up. If the spellcasters aren't the 1%, then someone's got to be in the C-suite, and I think putting Demons and Fairies in there makes perfect sense. It makes banks filled with infernal wealth, and. In addition, while Fairies and Demons are traditionally people who hand out power at a price, The Crescent City Consortium has, from their perspective, already won. Why would they hand out power all willy-nilly if they're on top?
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Jul 8, 2018 05:06
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I'm a sucker for Pigsmoke
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Apr 16, 2019 12:18
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What about Noir World? I haven't read it, but the One Shot version of it sounded pretty good.
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Apr 29, 2019 16:05
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lessavini posted:What's the consensus on Masks: a New Generation? I'm reading it for the first time and finding it VERY good. The only thing I'm having trouble to grok is the combat with Conditions as "hit points". It feels really abstract. Masks, like all PBTA games, is very specific about what it's trying to emulate, and that is teenage superhero coming of age stories. In those, fights generally aren't about "Who's got the stronger power set?" but "Who's got more to prove?" and "Who's in a better mental state?" As far as running combat, the structure and pacing is similar to "traditional" PBTA combat, what with it lacking turns and having the GM shift the spotlight as needed. One of the "tricks" to keep in mind is to make sure there's more than one thing happening in a fight. If you just have a one person vs. the team, fights can grind down to "I hit them, they hit us, I hit him" which doesn't make for an interesting fight. So, add teams of villains, minions, and various collateral damage to keep fights interesting, and make sure you use the Condition moves for NPCs when they take conditions. I've seen it overlooked before, and they really make combat (and non-combat!) flow. As an extension of not being interested in the nitty-gritty of superhero fights, it's also not interested in the nuts and bolts of power sets. If you're a hacker, you can hack it. If you've got superstrength, it doesn't give you a max weight you can bench. Even the powers listed in the playbooks are technically optional, but they are thematically appropriate for playbooks. But, if someone has their heart set on a power that isn't listed, it's usually fine to just go with it.
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Jun 12, 2019 13:40
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lessavini posted:When do Labels reset to their original states (after being shifted left and right during a session)? I guess at the start of the next session? They don't. That's Masks' whole gimmick.
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Jun 14, 2019 22:12
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Covok posted:I've spent the last two days reading 180 chapters of My Hero Academia from issue 1 to issue 180. I have a shonen jump account so I'm limited to 100 chapters per day. just got to get to issue 232, which I can feasibly do this week. Then I move on to Doctor Stone. Since Phoneix Academy is at least 50% Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, it seems like a natural fit? Edit: also, lol @ america not caring about high school Capfalcon fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Jul 8, 2019 |
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Jul 8, 2019 05:11
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Golden Bee posted:You could always say when you directly engage this billing, you can’t choose to avoid their blows. List restriction is probably better than giving negatives because people will use influence and teamwork to make up the difference. Another way to handle this is to make sure the villain has is strong fictional positioning. If they get on the scene and Checkmate has his goons enacting his master plan, while his force field is up, and the bank is lifting off into the sky, well, there's a lot to do before you can "directly engage." Covok posted:In Japan, high schools are treated more like college. You have to take entrance exams and your high school placement is considered as important as your choice in university. That doesn't mean college is unimportant, of course. And, sure, there are private high schools, "good" schools, "bad schools", charter schools, etc in America. But, a lot of people in America just go to the high school assigned to their geographic region based on zoning. And, while people can see the value in a good high school, university is where most Americans worry about such things. And very few high schools have entrance exams in America. Most kind of view high school in America as a given, unless extraneous life factors arise. But, from my understanding, you could flunk the exams for every high school in Japan and end up hosed. I'm aware of the cultural differences, but the idea of a prestigious private high school where success guarantees admission to the ranks of the elite isn't exactly uncommon in the US.
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Jul 8, 2019 18:20
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Ilor posted:I routinely run AW or re-skins thereof at convention games and have never had anyone even bat an eye at the sex moves. It is a very non-trivial hurdle to getting people to play the game.
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Sep 8, 2019 23:42
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Golden Bee posted:You could cut this thread to five pages if you got rid of the litigation of sex moves. The fact there's so much discussion about it kinda proves the point, though. It's a stumbling block for an otherwise easy to pitch game. Also, the hardzones are really great for just picking up and playing apoc world without any prep. I'm a fan.
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Sep 9, 2019 04:09
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Kaja Rainbow posted:So I'm thinking about doing quick custom homebrew pbta systems for future games I'll be running. Design the basic moves, agenda/principles/GM moves, stuff like that. No playbooks, instead I'll work with the players to design moves specifically for their characters. This is in part because some of my players prefer more freeform character generation than playbooks provide for. It's hard to make a recommendation for that without knowing the agenda/principles/GM moves first.
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Oct 25, 2019 17:10
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Kaja Rainbow posted:I'll have to get back to you about that but a principle that's firmly stuck in my mind is "spare no character from embarrassment". It's basically going to be a campaign about idiots getting into martial art fights for stupid reasons. Some self-discovery is most likely given since it'll be an explicitly queer take on Ranma 1/2. Lots of entanglements including unwanted fiancees and such. Plenty of comedy. That's a very clear agenda. A few ideas to think about, then: How do you the rules encourage characters to do foolish things? Do people even get hurt in this game? Comic slapstick seems very in genre, but people tend to react very poorly to HP going down on their character sheet. Influence from Masks versus Strings from Monsterhearts. Influence being binary Yes/No that gives passive benefits and Strings being a currency with no benefits until they are spent give relationships a very significant feel. Monsterhearts relationships are transactional and quantifiable. "I will spend this string, offering you an XP, if you do a thing for me." Alternatively, you can have Influence over someone and just get +1 to moves targeting them, because you know them very well. I'm not saying either of these are right for your game, but think about what you want to happen around the table and try and encourage that. Also, for games that want to revolve around romantic (particularly unwanted romantic) relationships, Safehearts and the X Card are basically mandatory reading.
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Oct 25, 2019 21:30
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Girl with all the gifts is a pretty good, too.
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Jul 29, 2020 01:08
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BlackIronHeart posted:Ilor and I have talked about this a lot (and recently too, like, last week recently) and I'm of the opinion that a lot of AW Hacks are someone going 'Aw man, I have this sweet idea for a game! I'll just hack AW to make it!' and then they make AW needlessly complicated and it's worse for it. They probably could've just used vanilla AW with different names and terms and maybe an additional mechanic or two and it would've worked out just fine. Instead they staple on clunky sub-systems that disrupt the narrative based flow of the game. I'm looking at you here, John Harper. I gotta say, even tweaking the GM moves and principles will result in a dramatically different experience without touching the playbooks or player moves.
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Dec 3, 2020 05:47
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hyphz posted:It's a combination between the character's skill at the IC task overlapping with the player's skill at the OOC dice game. Normally they're in sync - the higher a bonus the character has, the easier the dice game is. Stakes are usually defined, though, just like in most games. What probably happened before this is that the goons showed up and demanded the plans or they'd shoot the place up. The difference is that instead of having a bunch of rolls in a slugfest to determine if they get it like you would have in D&D, there's usually one or two rolls to determine how the fight shook out.
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Jan 23, 2022 01:41
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 00:50 |
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Honestly, making your stats in Star Trek the different departments and your playbook be your "character archetype" So, you'd have: Engineering (examining strange technology and keeping things working and not exploding) Medical (Maybe sciences? It's book learning and research and being the Smart one, who finds the clue by scanning with multiphasic whatchamacallits as opposed to engineering, described above) Security (fighting and shooting and generally using force to solve a problem) Comms (dealing with people who aren't on your crew) Command (getting the NPC crew to execute your orders without complications and helping PCs with their tasks through force of leadership) Having a 2+ in a skill means you're the ______ officer (or first officer/captain if you are the highest in Command.) Only one player in the group can have a 2+ in a particular stat. And the playbooks would be something like: The Rebel The Alien The Hotshot The Android (might be redundant with alien) Etc. So you'd have the Alien Medical officer or the Hotshot Comms officer. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could do a dual playbook deal, I suppose, but I think most of the basic moves could cover what the officers should all be able to handle.
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Oct 2, 2022 16:49
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