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thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I don't know if I should post this here, or in the old Dungeon World thread, but anyways.

Leaving aside anything from Awful Good Games (because I don't want to give that guy my money), what third party playbooks for Dungeon World are worth getting?

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Jul 3, 2015

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thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I've recently started work on *World hack for a game about 17th Century monster hunters. It is heavily based on the Urban Shadows, and Apocalypse World itself.

I haven't really done much hacking of *World games before, so I'm kinda looking for someone who would be interested in lending a hand. I've got some basic moves, that need refinement, and I'm slowly working on outlining the various other rules to a state where they are playable.

The first draft of the basic moves is here.

I'm thinking the best way to approach playbooks is to use a variation on Simple World character creation until the majority of the rules are worked out, and to give a chance to see what kind of characters people like to play.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

madadric posted:



Investigating grisly deaths? Investigating heresy and dark cults? tracking and destroying horrific monsters?

Foggy and dark, with much of the world obscured and hazy? Gloomy and hopeless, a metaphor for the lot of a peasant? Superstitious and paranoid? Neighbors accusing each other of witchcraft?

Is man the real monster? Can you go into the darkness without bringing the darkness back out with you? What sacrifices must you make to keep the downtrodden safe? What will you do to survive in the face of unrelenting malice?


Pretty much all of this to some extent, although investigation and monster slaying are at the forefront. I'm not looking to go too deeply philosophical with this game bu,t given the setting puts the player either in the middle of, or emerging from, the War of Religion, I definitely want to make the conflict between characters' beliefs a part of the game (although more as a source of tension between PCs, and between PCs and human NPCs - the characters should be generally united in the goal of confronting the Darkness). I'm going for something mostly an action RPG, rather than anything particularly metaphorical. Likewise, at this point, I'm thinking more in terms of professions for playbooks, rather than any clever metaphors.

I am still grappling with how to define Innocents and Abominations, and whether it will be static or dependent on the character. That's going to end up being fairly important.

The partial draft rules are here, if you want to peek.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Golden Bee posted:

I feel like you have woe handled, but what about weal? Why are the PCs powerful, why does their duty matter? I'm sure it'll come across in the playbooks, but if I'm playing inspector, I want my decisions to be Final and Irreversible. What period literature and modernist literature are you reading about from the time?

A lot of the inspiration is from history books, in particular:

The Enemy Within by John Demos
The Devil of Great Island by Emerson W. Baker
The Devil Within by Brian P. Levack

My to-read-pile on that front includes:

The Arch-Conjuror of England by Glyn Parry
The Lancashire Witches by Philip C. Almond
England's First Demonologist by Philip C. Almond
The Tyrannacide Brief by Geoffrey Robertson
Some of the Diary of Samuel Pepys

Also probably a bit of Paradise Lost.

The fictional inspirations are much more modern, things like Buffy, Hellboy, Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer, Supernatural and the X-Files. Kind of mixing more modern monster hunting tropes with some of the historical religious background and aesthetics.

EDIT: I have added some draft Archetypes, and some draft starting moves. I would be grateful for comments on those.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 11:46 on Nov 4, 2015

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Captain Foo posted:

IMO you should really focus on trying to emulate one of them well - that's when the apocalypse engine really shines. You'll probably get the ability to do other styles with it as the moves develop, but trying to build a framework to support every aspect of the broader genre will not be as effective of a game.

When I say investigation and monster slaying, I mean it in the sense of finding out what the bad guy is and what its weaknesses are. I don't mean that it's intended to be a Gumshoe style investigation. The "investigation" is like the investigation in the average episode of Buffy or Supernatural - working out what you're dealing with so that you can go beat it up.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
Having said it's not a Gumshoe style investigative game, the thriller story cycle as set out in Night's Black Agents is, I think, pretty informative for the kind of structure the game will take in play:

In the thriller, the reward for danger is information; having information points you into danger. When the hero rests, add more danger. - Page 180

I have added "» Trade danger for information" as a GM move.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I've made some substantial additions to Malleus, my 17th Century monster hunting hack. Still mulling new archetypes, and it needs more commentary on the moves, as well as proper GMing advice but the majority of the mechanical stuff is now in place.

I got some very useful feed back from a few people last time I posted, so if anyone wants to take a look I would be super grateful. Looking to lineup some more play testing, including over Roll20 if anyone is interested.

The current draft is here.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Golden Bee posted:


Time to add evocative point-of-view text to the Classes.

Taken a first pass at this. Also added a rush job cover image.

Edit: On another note, how do people fell about "scenes" as a measure of time in PbtA games? One of the Inquisitor's moves "Fight Fire with Fire" is an Artifact that is basically two moves in one, but using the moves generates Corruption. I feel like using the Artifact should generate Corruption each time it is used, but that a given combat scene should count as a single use. Is it reasonable to talk about getting Corruption at the end of a scene in which the Artifact is used?

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Nov 24, 2015

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Golden Bee posted:

You have a few typos in the new Archetype sections, an incorrect your or its, and a few signs that you rewrote sentences (tense/number errors). You also say Darkness and Light a billion times; I'd try them as second person, or go for 3rd person mythic. The Rakehell is the best here.

Ex: Some people say the Inquisitors are as dangerous as the monsters they track.
They don't say this to an Inquisitor's face.


I've cheated on this and asked my fiction writer friend to do the archetype descriptions. The first three have been re-done and the Scholar is in progress.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Golden Bee posted:

Set up a doodle.


I don't know what this means?

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

DemonMage posted:

I assume this, it's a scheduling tool of some sort. From the example, you can have everyone say when they're free and get a numerical readout at the bottom for how many people can make it for that block, so you can try and find the most convenient time for everyone more easily.

Hugoon Chavez posted:

http://doodle.com

People sign in and vote on a time where most of them are able to game (or do whatever).

Ok, thanks.

Hopefully I did this right. I pretty much set it up so any day from now to Christmas can be voted for.

Edit:

QuantumNinja posted:


Also, I like the font.


There's some more info about the typeface here. It is digitized from a 17th century typeface.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Dec 1, 2015

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
Between work and the holidays Malleus kind of got left behind. I have started working on it again, but I really need to pick up the play testing and I'm still keen to play some games online if those who previously indicated interest still want to take part.

In the meantime, I am working on rules for buying (and selling) equipment, and paying for services. I suspect they are similar to existing rules in other games (although I have not specifically looked at anything for inspiration). I would be grateful for feedback:

Malleus Draft posted:

Buying and Selling Equipment
Currency is treated in a very abstract fashion in Malleus, it is not a game about acquiring wealth or resources. It is assumed that the player characters have somewhere to live and the ability to meet the basic costs of living, unless you choose to make that a particular issue in your game (these costs could be very substantial during the seventeenth century, but Malleus is not intended to be a game about seventeenth century economics). It is up to the players to determine where the characters' resources come from - be it the Church, a patron, inherited wealth or gainful employment. It is also assumed that common items, such as a new pair of boots, a simple outfit, a hot meal or a haircut are readily available and can be obtained without meaningful effort or expense in most cities and towns.

More specialised equipment, weapons, armour and services are generally more costly and difficult to acquire. Such items should be assigned an Availability rating by the GM. This ranges from +3, for cheap and easily available goods, to -3 for rare or extravagant purchases. This is also true or various services that the player characters might seek to obtain.

When a character tries to obtain goods or services, roll +Availability. On a 10+ the goods or services are obtained without complication, and at a reasonable price. On a 7-9 choose 3:
» The goods or services are of at least the quality sought.
» The goods or services do not take a problematically long time to acquire.
» The goods or services can be obtained for a price that does not prevent you from making further purchases this session.
» You don’t need help acquiring the goods or services, and don’t owe anyone a favour for helping you get them.


As a guide, most goods and services should fall between about +2 and -2. An Availability of +3 should be reserved for common and cheap items that otherwise would not require a roll, but for some minor impediment. An Availability of -3 is reserved for items such as a fine warhorse, suspiciously large quantities of gunpowder or getting a Bishop in your pocket.

As a starting point for availability, most items or services can be assigned an Availability of +1 in cities or large towns, +0 in smaller towns and large villages, and -1 in more remote regions and small villages. Adjustments up or down due to regional factors, high cost, how conspicuous the transaction is and/or PC contacts, can then be made. In general, renting goods rather than buying them is a positive factor in determining availability.

At the GM’s option, selling goods you already own in order to finance new spending might increase the Availability of new goods and services.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

madadric posted:

I will throw money to a fellow Australian for shared shipping to cut down on postage.

I'm trying to find a couple other people to go in on the four-pack level. Works out to like $52 AUD each I think.

Edit: Actually, if they add a retailer tier I might be able to sort a way to do it cheaper.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Feb 2, 2016

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
Since everybody seems to be sharing their work. Here is a link to the current draft of Malleus, my 17th century monster hunting game. I ran a second playtest game last night, which was fun but I've already made a few changes. I need to get some more regular play testing in so I can try and put more stress of the Drives, Beliefs and Vices stuff. It's hard to bring them all to bear in a one shot.

I also just finished the first draft of the playbook layout, which is here.

EDIT: I've refined the playbook layout some

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Feb 12, 2016

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I have made some revision to my playbook layout, I think for the better, and have added the Mystic. They can be found here. I would be grateful if anyone has any feedback as to whether the layout for the Mystic's moves make sense.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Nifara posted:

Makes sense to me, and looks good to boot.

Out of interest, what software do you use for your playbook layouts?

Thanks. I'm making them in Adobe Illustrator. I have a feeling that I would be better off using InDesign, but I am much more familiar with Illustrator.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Nifara posted:


Based on (very helpful) feedback I have a new version of the Beast playbook, the new Charm playbook, and a copy of the Moves Sheet for Bronze Circle. Let me know what you folks think.

Haven't had a good look, but this looks neat and I really like your playbook layout. However, I did notice the the Beast and the Charm have the same little fluff description, I'm not sure if that is an error?

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
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

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

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?

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.

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.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I'm looking for a couple more people to play test Malleus over Roll20. Is it appropriate to post in this thread about that, or do I need to make a Game Room thread?

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Covok posted:

I'd suggest doing both. It's the best way to get people. Make a nice thread explaining what to expect and link it here and in the TG Recruitment Megathread.

So I have done did that thing.


madadric posted:

I'm interested! This game continues to intrigue me!

Follow the above link. Although, from recollection, you are in Australia, so the current suggested playing times might not suit. Go ahead and leave a post in the recruit thread though as I'm happy to look at other times.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
For whatever it is worth, Vincent Baker has commented on his intention regarding these kinds of things when designing Apocalypse World

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
Given the lack of activity in Malleus play test recruit thread, I figured I would post the link to the G+ group I have set up to organise play test sessions in here, in case anyone is interested.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Nifara posted:

I'm almost certainly not up for online playtesting (never has sit right with me), but I will happily put it on my group's playtest list. Can you link out to the collection of all the materials we might need? It might be a while before we get to it, but it should happen.

Playbooks are here.

Full draft rules are here.

paradoxGentleman posted:

Personally speaking, I would have gladly given you an hand with playtesting but I am in a different timezone, and I am already staying up until 3 am for one game session once a week; I can't afford to do it more often.

What time zone are you in? There's som flexibility regarding play times.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Nifara posted:

This is great stuff to have feedback on, and I'll take a serious look at some examples, and see what I can change to make it easier. The printed ones seem pretty clear and clean, so it's possible I've been ignoring issues with the digital versions that won't arise in printed copies.

Thanks again.

In addition to what Golden Bee mentioned, which I generally agree with, the layout is very cramped which hurts readability. I know you have a lot of information to fit on there, but if you could open up your line spacing a little bit I think that would make a positive difference. The lines dividing the various creating a character sections are also too tightly spaced with the text.

The text of the headers often touches, or very nearly touches, the edges of the black backgrounds which I'm not a fan of. I also noticed a couple places where your text touches or is covered by the black header backgrounds.

Edit: also, think about italicising move triggers. I find makes it easier to identify what move you are looking for, and it breaks up the blocks of text a bit.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Mar 4, 2016

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Covok posted:

So, how are everyone's hacks going? Like Blood & Iron and Malleus and all the others. It'd be cool seeing how all of our projects have been going.

Malleus is in playtesting. I have run three sessions, and played in one. There are a couple of people in Google+ land who are apparently going to run the game too, so hopefully I will get their feedback soon enough.

I haven't really made any changes to the rules text since I last posted a draft. I have a few changes in mind, of bigger or smaller import, but I'm basically waiting for a critical mass of change so I can put a new version together.

I have also been thinking about the game structure, and how GM prep should work. The session that I have one have been self-contained stuff and I want to find a way to promote an ongoing narrative. I've been thinking about shows like Buffy that incorporate a season long big bad with other self-contained episodes and I'm wondering if any PbtA games have used something like that?

Edit: Also, unrelated, but it just occurred to me that it would be super trivial to reskin Malleus to do Dark Heresy.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Apr 13, 2016

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Covok posted:

As for your question, why aren't Fronts sufficient? I use them to similar effect in Friendship, Effort, Victory albeit with the addition of dividing NPCs between generals and villains so as to prolong the villains' life (assuming it works, of course) In general, wouldn't having a few simultaneous fronts manage this?

Ultimately Fronts might be perfectly fine, I'm just wondering if any games have tried something different that might be worth checking out.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I've run a handful of playtest session of Malleus since I last posted about it. Based on some feedback from those session, and some discussion on G+, I've done another draft of the rules with some pretty significant changes. I've added, deleted and renamed some basic moves. I have altered the end of session process. There is a new archetype, and some major changes to some old ones. If anyone what to take a peek you can check out the latest draft here.

I have not yet updated the playbooks as of yet.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

megane posted:

I would really like a D&D-Fantasy-esque hack for AW that's closer to standard PbtA design than DW is, if that makes sense.

I've made a very small number of notes for a high fantasy PbtA game that I might work on when I finish Malleus.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

ForgedIron posted:

Hello, I am trying to put together my own PbtA hack. I'm looking to make something horror themed. To be honest I want to be able to simulate the worlds of Darksouls/ Bloodborne. Not mechanically of course, but the themes of desperate people attempting to face outrageous odds. Literally fighting against despair (Darksouls) or being roped into facing eldritch threats (bloodborne). My first bit of inspiration was Monster of the Week. I'm looking for other good hacks that deal with horror, chases, combat, insanity.

I'm still working on defining the basic moves so that I can distill some lables from that.

One aspect I am working on is having every player generate a "Threat" threats have their own playbooks and represent the major adversarial forces the narrator can use. Threats will modify basic moves/add their own, while Also supplying new Hard Moves to the narrator. I'm also considering having every Threat playbook have a selection of moves that the players can take representing their connection to the threat. Current threat playbooks are "Infection", "Predator", "Nemesis" etc etc.

I'm still putting most of my ideas to paper, but I'm hoping I can get some help with inspiration.

Cold Ruins of Lastlife is a Dungeon World setting/supplement that pretty much hacks Dungeon World to do Dark Souls. I don't think it is perfect for what you want, but it might give you some ideas.

A while back, I also wrote some moves for Dungeon World that were trying to evoke the flow of Dark Souls combat. That is here.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
On clue talk, the clue finding move in my PbtA game Malleus is currently as follows:

Look Around
When you look around for clues or information, roll +Reason. On a 10+ all three, on a 7-9 choose two:
» You find information, evidence, an item, or an object that is useful or valuable.
» You uncover any present threats.
» You don’t put yourself in immediate peril.

So far it has been working well, but the proviso is that even on a miss they should normally get a clue - things just get real bad for the character. Also, "you find no evidence here that relates to your investigation" counts as useful information so long as it's clearly true.

Edit: Also, Malleus is based more around thrillers than mysteries, hence the consequences for getting information being also finding danger.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

ShineDog posted:

Would you use that to investigate a person?

Malleus uses a pretty standard Read a Person type move as well (it also has a Read a Situation move, and another one for recalling lore about the supernatural, it might well have too many information relate moves).

Edit: That said, Look Around would apply if you were asking around for information, or just hitting up a contact for info.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Oct 2, 2016

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
Probably because I've nearly nailed down most of the rules for Malleus, I've started to explore ideas on a bunch of other game projects instead of doing useful work on Malleus . Anyways, I've had some ideas rattling around for a while about making a PbtA game inspired by the powers, tactical options and big drat heroes assumptions of 4E D&D. The other day I came up with some ideas for how to make the combat system work (largely by ripping off A Storm Eternal with some added extras). I have written up a couple of pages of notes as a sort of minimum viable build to stick on the table and playtest. The notes elide a bunch of stuff that will be more detailed in a more complete game, and just has a choice of combat moves for testing which would normally be spread across different playbooks. There's also not much on the GM side as I haven't actually GM'd it yet.

Still, I'd be interested in thoughts anyone has about the general ideas.

The notes are here.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Covok posted:

There any good templates in either photoshop/indesign and/or word for making Mask playbooks that look official?

Just messing around with the PDF, it'd be straightfoward, I think. What does the template need to include? Does it just need the background elements - or do you want actual text boxes?

Edit: Like, if you just need something like this, it's pretty easy.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Jan 3, 2017

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Covok posted:

Hey, sweet. I think I'll use that to make my "Kid" playbook look a little more official. Can you also do a version with the full colors so I can edit details into that as well? Also one for the generic pages in the book? As long as this isn't asking too much, of course.

What are you planning to edit it with?

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
Development on my PbtA game, Malleus, has stalled out pretty hard. I suck at writing move commentary and GM advice, which is a substantial part of what is left. I also wanted to have a system of Organisation playbooks, a bit like Blades in the Dark's crew sheets, but I have been lacking inspiration for moves. Also I've been wrapped up in a PbP test of the Hero World material I posted a while back (which is actually working better than I expected).

I have made quite a few changes since I last posted about it here though, and maybe some feedback will get me more excited to get into the commentary.

CLICK HERE for the latest version.

Nuns with Guns posted:

Is anyone else backing Alas For the Awful Sea? It looks neat

I backed it, It is right in my wheelhouse, and seems cool. Also an Australia based project which is a bonus.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

potatocubed posted:


Okay, the very first thing: lose that font.

Well, maybe keep it for headers. But while it's a very evocative choice and perfectly suits the tone you're going for, I could feel my eyes starting to throb after about two paragraphs. Your body text needs to be in something way simpler -- Book Antiqua is a go-to choice of mine which might work.

At some point I will get around to switching it to a Garamond variant, like these out of date playbook drafts. Its even period appropriate.

Edit: In fact, I have changed it now. Don't love the available version of Garamond of Google docs, but oh well - It'll be fine when I stick it in InDesign.

thefakenews fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Feb 3, 2017

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

potatocubed posted:

Thanks for that. I've read! And commented!

Overall, I like it. There are a few bits in the basic moves which I'm not 100% about, but I'd want to play it before I make any more comments -- and I do want to play it.

I have tried to organise some online play tests here, and on G+, before but time zone differences (I'm in Australia) have meant I haven't been able to get a session off the ground.

thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012
I have been working on a revised layout style for my Malleus playbooks. I want to move to a single page sheet, rather than the old tri-fold design. It isn't easy getting everything in one sheet (and it doesn't step you through character creation as well) but, taking some inspiration from Blades in the Dark and Ghost Lines, I think it is getting there. Looking for any feedback anyone has (about the layout, the text will be edited before I do the final layouts).

The mock up example is here.

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thefakenews
Oct 20, 2012

Manofmanusernames posted:

Hey, does anybody know of any anime themed pbta games?

A running joke in my group is how anime our campaigns end up so we where like 'when we're finished with our current steampunk/weird west themed dungeon world campaign, why don't we just literally run an animee rpg?'

I feel like Covok has posted a few drafts of one somewhere in this thread.

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