Barf Forth Apocalyptica

barf forth apocalyptica => Apocalypse World => Topic started by: rqshades on October 04, 2011, 01:04:40 PM

Title: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: rqshades on October 04, 2011, 01:04:40 PM
I've seen a few posts about this before, but unfortunately they're all pretty muddled and never really concisely answer anything.  I'm wondering how changing character type affects Improvements on your new sheet.  So, I pose to you all the following scenario:

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Let's say that I'm playing an Angel, and I've marked the following Improvements on The Angel sheet.

X get +1sharp (max sharp +3)
_ get +1cool (max cool +2)
X get +1hard (max hard +2)
_ get +1hard (max hard +2)
_ get +1weird (max weird +2)
X get a new angel move
_ get a new angel move
_ get 2 gigs (detail) and moonlighting
X get a move from another playbook
X get a move from another playbook
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_ get +1 to any stat (max stat +3)
_ retire your character to safety
_ create a second character to play
_ change your character to a new type
_ choose 3 basic moves and advance them
_ advance the other 4 basic moves

Then for my sixth Improvement, let's say I mark "change your character to a new type" and I choose The Driver for my new playbook.

Can anyone show to me what the new Improvement box on The Driver sheet should have marked on it?

_ get +1cool (max cool +2)
_ get +1hard (max hard +2)
_ get +1hot (max hot +2)
_ get +1weird (max weird +2)
_ get a new driver move
_ get a new driver move
_ get 2 gigs (detail) and moonlighting
_ get a garage (workspace, detail) and crew
_ get a move from another playbook
_ get a move from another playbook
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_ get +1 to any stat (max stat +3)
_ retire your character to safety
_ create a second character to play
_ change your character to a new type
_ choose 3 basic moves and advance them
_ advance the other 4 basic moves
Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: lumpley on October 04, 2011, 01:18:03 PM
It's very strictly for you to work out with your MC. We can tell you how we've done it in our games, between ourselves and our MCs, but we can't tell you what you and your MC should decide.
Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: lumpley on October 04, 2011, 01:20:14 PM
When I'm the MC, unless circumstances lead me to decide something different, my answer is: none of the new improvements are marked, and the player can choose ungiven future improvements if she wants to (because her character's already improved 5 times, obviously).
Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: rqshades on October 04, 2011, 01:23:09 PM
It's very strictly for you to work out with your MC. We can tell you how we've done it in our games, between ourselves and our MCs, but we can't tell you what you and your MC should decide.
When I'm the MC, unless circumstances lead me to decide something different, my answer is: none of the new improvements are marked, and the player can choose ungiven future improvements if she wants to (because her character's already improved 5 times, obviously).

Ah, thank you very much for the quick reply, Vincent!

That would explain why the other threads touching on this never really gave an explicit conclusion. :-p
Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: kevin_gamer on October 04, 2011, 04:28:37 PM
Do people usually let PC's have access to all 5 of the bottom advances, or just the ones they haven't used already?

Meaning, in the example given above the Angel already switched to a Driver so cannot later choose "change to another playbook" again.

Limiting the bottom advances to single-use would "keep" players from switching playbooks to gain access to the "+1 to any stat" multiple times.
Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: Ariel on October 04, 2011, 11:25:07 PM
Don't worry if the players all have +3 in every stat. It's not an issue like having all you're players have 20 in every stat is an issue in D&D.

They can still miss and get partials, and like in Dogs, 'powerful' PCs aren't a problem because you're not against the PCs as an MC. You want your players to make moves and you want them to deal with the Fronts in the fiction.

If the Angel is all: man, I don't wanna be a Driver anymore, instead I want to be a Hardholder. That is they went from being an ambulance Driver to a hospital-Hardholder. I'd be okay with that. They'd probably lose No Shit Driver, but maybe not even. They lose the stuff that makes sense fiction-wise, not balance-wise.

Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: evilseanbot on October 05, 2011, 02:08:49 AM
As a MC in my game, I'd be inclined to say 'All advancements are unchecked after changing to a new type and the ungiven future is still open. But you need 5 more advancements before changing to a different character type again.'

I think my decision is motivated by:

A) That I want to encourage but not force the characters to gradually wind down and retire.

B) I think rapidly cycling through different playbooks would cause weird stuff to happen (Every other advancement could be a +1 to stat max 3, you could add a whole bunch of other characters, etc)

I think A is a better reason for my decision than B.
Title: Re: Improvements/Change Your Character To A New Type
Post by: Daniel Wood on October 07, 2011, 12:56:12 AM

Do what makes sense to you, I'd say. I don't think mechanical concerns are worth considering, as Nathan so aptly described. This one falls squarely under 'make Apocalypse World seem real' to me.

In most cases it probably won't make sense to have someone leap between playbooks like a scared jackrabbit -- but the degree to which they need to 'settle in' to their new role, the degree to which this is going to keep them from advancing new moves or getting harder like whoa or whatever, all of that is up to the fiction, to what kind of world it is and who they are inside of it.