Barf Forth Apocalyptica

barf forth apocalyptica => Apocalypse World => Topic started by: fnord3125 on July 14, 2010, 06:30:44 PM

Title: NPC "brainers"
Post by: fnord3125 on July 14, 2010, 06:30:44 PM
So none of my three friends decided to play a brainer.  This disappoints me and I feel that psychic weirdness is crucial to what I want AW to be.  Of course I know that everyone can open their brain (and the gunlugger even took the move that lets her use hard to open her brain when she's in a fight) but I'm thinking of putting some kind of weirdass psychic dude (or chick, i'm not sure yet) into the game as an NPC and I'm curious about how others have handled that sort of thing.  Do you do anything special with them?
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Chris on July 14, 2010, 06:57:57 PM
mindfuckers, from the threats.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: fnord3125 on July 14, 2010, 07:08:12 PM
You... you know that wasn't really what I was asking, right?
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Margolotte on July 14, 2010, 07:49:47 PM
Well, it might not be what you were asking, but 'brainer' is not an NPC option,whereas 'mindfucker' is. You gotta build that psychic weirdness into something else or someone else. In Alison's Holding, Vx introduced an NPC from the same brainer family that Marie, our PC brainer, hailed from. The key difference, though, was that while his words were all spooky-talk, his moves were all 'devour all their resources'. Him and his crew nearly ate us out of house and hold! Other ways to bring in creepiness:

-mess with the water supply. Nothing overt, just show that people are acting different in small ways after drinking.

-possess a PC. Figure out the front for it, natch, but there's nothing more mind-bending than blowing a roll and having your MC say "You come to covered in blood. It's not yours."

-play up environmental details. Twisted weather, animals that are...off, vivid descriptions of smells and textures out of sync with expectations.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: fnord3125 on July 14, 2010, 08:05:11 PM
Well, it might not be what you were asking, but 'brainer' is not an NPC option,whereas 'mindfucker' is.
I know, but that's why I didn't ask what "class" you'd make them.  :)  I was asking about other things you might do, stuff like oh... this stuff:
You gotta build that psychic weirdness into something else or someone else. In Alison's Holding, Vx introduced an NPC from the same brainer family that Marie, our PC brainer, hailed from. The key difference, though, was that while his words were all spooky-talk, his moves were all 'devour all their resources'. Him and his crew nearly ate us out of house and hold! Other ways to bring in creepiness:

-mess with the water supply. Nothing overt, just show that people are acting different in small ways after drinking.

-possess a PC. Figure out the front for it, natch, but there's nothing more mind-bending than blowing a roll and having your MC say "You come to covered in blood. It's not yours."

-play up environmental details. Twisted weather, animals that are...off, vivid descriptions of smells and textures out of sync with expectations.
Thanks!
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Shreyas on July 14, 2010, 10:06:12 PM
One day you realize that you keep seeing Carl in your dreams. Every night. He's not really in them, though. Usually he's just sitting somewhere, watching. Once he was reading a book.

You come home to find all the food in your pantry replaced with doll parts. Everywhere you look, there are naked plastic arms, or legs, hands, feet, torsos. Stuffed into a flour sack, bundled like dried fish, immersed in jam jars. Where your garlic braid once was hangs a braid of doll heads, neatly hung on its hook.

Change an NPC's personality radically, overnight! When someone notices, make them read the situation and tell them something scary.

Sometimes, people go missing, and a few days later they come back, but they don't remember that they've been gone.

When it rains, everyone bursts into tears.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Matt Wilson on July 14, 2010, 10:42:03 PM
Custom moves!

Nobody can make eye contact with Ikea the Mindfucker for more than like a second. Trying is acting under fire.

Drivers get +1 to that roll because they have those emo bangs for protection and nobody would ever suspect them of trying to make eye contact with anyone.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: benhimself on July 15, 2010, 06:55:38 AM
Custom Move: When (insert Brainer name here) has time and intimacy with you, they can put a command in your head, and hold 3, under the same conditions as in-brain puppet strings. Or they can ask you 3 questions off the Deep Brain Scan list.

If they're wearing a violation glove, merest skin contact counts as time and intimacy. If they use the implant syringe or receptivity drugs, modify the "moves" appropriately.

Ta da! NPC brainers.

(If you want to be nice, you could hack up a roll to resist, maybe cool or weird? On a 10+, they take 1 harm, on a 7-9, it's just one hold, on a miss, 3 hold. Just invert the brainer move, basically. It's a trick that's worked for me before on other moves.)
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: FigureFour on July 15, 2010, 08:22:14 AM
Custom Move: When (insert Brainer name here) has time and intimacy with you, they can put a command in your head, and hold 3, under the same conditions as in-brain puppet strings. Or they can ask you 3 questions off the Deep Brain Scan list.

If they're wearing a violation glove, merest skin contact counts as time and intimacy. If they use the implant syringe or receptivity drugs, modify the "moves" appropriately.

Ta da! NPC brainers.

(If you want to be nice, you could hack up a roll to resist, maybe cool or weird? On a 10+, they take 1 harm, on a 7-9, it's just one hold, on a miss, 3 hold. Just invert the brainer move, basically. It's a trick that's worked for me before on other moves.)
Yeah, I did this when I wanted an NPC brainer in my game. I believe the way I wrote it up was "When you try to resist a command that Rothschild put in your head with time and intimacy, roll+weird. On a 10+ you resist, on a 7-9 you either resist and take 2 harm (ap) or you obey. On a miss you either obey or take 4 harm (ap) from a messy brain hemmorage."

You know, just to keep it focused on the players.

It only ever got used once, but the player (angel) it was used on decided to murder his employer (who had showed up to rescue him from Rothschild)  under the cover of treating his wounds instead of taking 2 harm.

I suppose, to be fair, he was already pretty hurting from all the torturing Rothschild had done.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: fnord3125 on July 15, 2010, 01:49:56 PM
I'm glad I started this thread!  There's been a lot of awesome ideas in here, but I have to say...
Change an NPC's personality radically, overnight! When someone notices, make them read the situation and tell them something scary.
This may be almost too awesome.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Daniel Wood on July 16, 2010, 01:46:02 AM

It's also worth pointing out that Brainers aren't particularly tied to the weirdness of Apocalypse World, or even the psychic maelstrom -- I mean sure, a very small number of their moves reference it (usually on a miss), but most of them are just a particular flavour of social manipulation that can operate on a completely different level than the Open Your Brain stuff.

Or maybe put another way, Open Your Brain is such an overwhelmingly powerful/important move that all you need to get weirdness in your game is have players/character who are willing to use it. Brainers, with their high +weird, may have slightly more incentive than others, but I mean... who doesn't want to commune with bizarre mysterious mojo? In our game I think the Chopper ended up with the highest frequency of Open-His-Braining, and the other two PCs were an actual-Brainer and an Angel whose character concept included the words 'psychic prostitute.'
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: mcdaldno on July 16, 2010, 03:18:34 PM
So, I MC'ed a pretty sweet, 4 session game a little while ago. There was a Brainer and an Operator - they were scheming outcasts.

They encountered a dead body about 15 minutes into the game. The brainer's first question, "Can I read dead people?" Of course you can read dead people. That's a brilliant idea.

And in pretty short order, they realize that this corpse died at the hands of another brainer. A super violent psychotic biker brainer.

So, here's where I took that:

1.) I made the biker brainer way more intense and vicious than the PC brainer, and much more primal. And then I implied that his powers were much more direct & powerful, as kind of a dark avenue of temptation.

2.) I put this biker brainer's dirty little fingerprints on lots of people's brains, and suddenly there was a new risk in reading someone.

3.) When the two brainers met, the PC brainer wanted a truce, and the biker brainer wanted to brand her and scan her. Not as a violent thing, as a security.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Margolotte on July 16, 2010, 04:00:16 PM
^ Nice!
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Orion on July 22, 2010, 05:33:36 PM
As noted Above, Brainers certainly don't have any kind of monopoly on the Maelstrom.  In fact, the class you probably want if the Maelstrom is your deal is Hocus, followed closely by Angel or Skinner. 

But there are good options for anyone to get involved.  Here's all you need to do to get people thinking about it

1: Start highlighting people's Weird
2: introduce some threat moves that forcibly open brains, so you can dump some interesting info in their heads.  Something they'll want to follow up on, which will get them interested in more explanation. 

Then, subtly steer them toward Improvement options that lead in a Weird direction.  Basically every character type has at least one move that relates to the Maelstrom.  Particularly impressive are the Savvyhead's Augury, the Skinner's Lost, and the Angel's Healing Touch (which can end up opening her and her partner's brain). 

Finally, remember that you can take 2 moves from other playbooks.  This means you can get a Brainer going as something tacked on to anyone with decent Weird, but it also means you can build up a no-shit psychic from any chassis. Say you're a Skinner.  Get Lost and Hypnotic, then pick up Followers/Augury, Oftener Right, and Healing Touch.  3 Advances from chargen and you have a creepy prophet who can call you to his temple, heal you, and dispense oracular insight. 



Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Chris on July 23, 2010, 07:16:39 AM
Say you're a Skinner.  Get Lost and Hypnotic, then pick up Followers/Augury, Oftener Right, and Healing Touch.  3 Advances from chargen and you have a creepy prophet who can call you to his temple, heal you, and dispense oracular insight.

Whose doing all this with a Weird of +1 (if they're willing to crap out the rest of their stats), missing weird rolls left and right.

If you want a creepy prophet, just take a Hocus. I see Lost as almost exclusively being taking by other, weirder classes. It's just not worth it as a Skinner to put that much into getting a +1 weird.

And hypnotic is the most useless move in the game. It's the only one I don't like. So I'm a skinner and I've got someone alone. I can: waste a move on Hypnotic and roll+hot to put hypnotic on them, or I can just roll+hot to sleep with them to do the same thing (hypnotic).
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Orion on July 23, 2010, 09:02:40 AM
Well, Oftener Right doesn't make you roll.  Lost IS weird based but gives you everythig you want on a 7, so Weird +1 is fine as far as I'm concerned.  And sure, a Hocus does it better, but the point was that even if nobody started out as a Brainer or Hocus that plenty of Weird stuff can still happen.   

A Failed Lost roll is also interesting without being particularly bad news. 

Another idea: Put Fraying Edge of Reality on anyone with decent weird, especially a Hardholder.  Officially it affects "part of your workspace" but mechanically it's unrelated to the workspace rules.  Let the Hardholder have something in his court be the antenna, and you get Denethor clutching his palantir and gaving into the eye of darkness...
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: lumpley on July 23, 2010, 09:14:02 AM
So I'm a skinner and I've got someone alone. I can: waste a move on Hypnotic and roll+hot to put hypnotic on them, or I can just roll+hot to sleep with them to do the same thing (hypnotic).
Oh my god, ew.

If I'm a skinner, I use hypnotic on people I DON'T want to have sex with. I mean, what if I'm straight? Or what it it's Tum Tum? I'm not sleeping with THEM. Ew.

-Vincent
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Chris on July 23, 2010, 11:29:17 AM
So I'm a skinner and I've got someone alone. I can: waste a move on Hypnotic and roll+hot to put hypnotic on them, or I can just roll+hot to sleep with them to do the same thing (hypnotic).
Oh my god, ew.

If I'm a skinner, I use hypnotic on people I DON'T want to have sex with. I mean, what if I'm straight? Or what it it's Tum Tum? I'm not sleeping with THEM. Ew.

-Vincent

True. Ha ha. To me, Hypnotic has an.. intimate feel regardless. It's just how I see the skinner, where sex isn't a negative thing, it's just a thing. Not a whole lotta EW in the AW, gnome saying? It would be interesting to play a skinner with sexual hangups, though. :)

Plus, I always forget that the skinner isn't ALWAYS sexual. It's just as easy to play an old man who plays the last remaining cello. I need to broaden my skinner horizons, clearly.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Orion on July 23, 2010, 11:36:07 AM
Yeah, my Skinner concept is a martial artist/dancer who thinks of himself as a warrior, but is just a little more effective at the show than the fight. 
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Chris on July 23, 2010, 11:46:55 AM
Yeah, my Skinner concept is a martial artist/dancer who thinks of himself as a warrior, but is just a little more effective at the show than the fight. 

Yeah, I wrote up one, but haven't yet played him, a skinner named Sword who was like a wuxia movie/ ballet dancer.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: fnord3125 on July 26, 2010, 10:16:52 AM
Plus, I always forget that the skinner isn't ALWAYS sexual. It's just as easy to play an old man who plays the last remaining cello. I need to broaden my skinner horizons, clearly.
That's true... except then you run into that (optional, granted) move that makes people only pay attention to you when you remove clothing (of yourself or someone else, granted) which is a weird one to try to make work with most non-sexual skinner takes.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Orion on July 26, 2010, 02:07:21 PM
So, don't take it.  Starting with Breathtaking and Artful/Gracious makes perfect sense.  After that, well, it gets a little weird, literally.  You either have to pick up Lost and Hypnotic or ignore the "new skinner move" options.  (Though hypnotic music makes sense to me).  If you don't like that psychic angel, your best best bet is to take all the +1stats and change type to Operator as soon as you hit ungiven future. 

Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: Chris on July 26, 2010, 03:09:24 PM
So, don't take it.  Starting with Breathtaking and Artful/Gracious makes perfect sense.  After that, well, it gets a little weird, literally.  You either have to pick up Lost and Hypnotic or ignore the "new skinner move" options.  (Though hypnotic music makes sense to me).  If you don't like that psychic angel, your best best bet is to take all the +1stats and change type to Operator as soon as you hit ungiven future. 



Yeah. "You can make some headscratchers. I don't recommend it."

If you're going for a non-sexual skinner, you'll probably be dipping your toes into other playbooks and such.
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: zornwil on August 17, 2010, 12:55:45 AM
I think it wouldn't take more than reskinning (so to speak) of the Skinner playbook as is.  The moves remind me of the "Artist" class I had in my early (and not good) attempt at a post-apocalyptic game some 25 years ago.  Removing clothes could be looked at as the exchange of clothes into a dramatic new persona, some acting job thing, just as an example.  Or substitute a paint brush swiping or some-such.  But it would take, to the point stated above, some reworking in cases like that, granted the Skinner move as stated is more pushing towards a sex-attractant nature. 
Title: Re: NPC "brainers"
Post by: eggdropsoap on August 17, 2010, 02:06:46 AM
Y'know, the skinner doesn't have to be removing things in a sexy way, either, to be arresting in a sensible way in the fiction.

Picture a dapper violin-cello player whipping his battered top-hat off with a flourish; the last lounge singer removing and hanging up her shawl with an "I own this place" attitude; the skinner whipping off his trademark ankle-length leather coat and flinging it over the back of the chair as he enters/interrupts the meeting. Consider that such non-sexy uses of the move might be the only way these skinners ever invoke it.

You can have lots of fun with this interpretation of An Arresting Skinner if you fully embrace the colour-first ethos of the game. Go ahead and make a skinner that isn't about the sexy; don't worry about restricting the move with your character's colour. Leading with the colour is way more interesting than leaving every mechanical use of the move open.

Moving slightly back on topic: Imagine an NPC brainer starting from the Skinner as a template. They command attention where-ever they go, everyone does what they want, and they can just call people to them like nothing. And everyone will swear up and down that there's no psychic mucking about going on… they just happen to want to do whatever this NPC suggests. That's almost creepier, standing on the outside looking in, than if they were an obvious brainer analogue running roughshod over people's brains.