Barf Forth Apocalyptica

hacks => blood & guts => Topic started by: caitlynn on June 10, 2010, 04:51:27 PM

Title: Basic move restriction, and what shouldn't be changed
Post by: caitlynn on June 10, 2010, 04:51:27 PM

Two questions!

Is there anything in the given Apocalypse World ruleset - all in your opinion, of course, not for gospel - shouldn't be altered, removed, or heavily touched, if one's going in tinkering with things to create a hack? And the opposite, anything you think definitely should be changed?

The character playbooks all say "you get all of the basic moves," but what about restricting a character from having one of the basic moves, what impact do you think that would have on balance? Maybe you can't read a person, for example, but you get some other cool move in your special playbook. Or are the basic moves strictly untouchable?

Title: Re: Basic move restriction, and what shouldn't be changed
Post by: lumpley on June 10, 2010, 09:13:51 PM

Oh, I don't think there's anything untouchable. A character who doesn't get all the basic moves? Sure, if that's what your vision calls for. Balancing it is just a matter of balancing it, just a practical concern.

One thing you should examine very carefully when you make a hack is the idea that every character has a special sex move. Keep it only if sex really is a big part of your vision for your game.

For instance, in the Knives & Candles hack that John and I are working on, we're definitely going to want sex moves, but I think we'll probably want sex moves that work just as well, or better, with NPCs than with your fellow PCs. In the Dragon Killer, I don't expect there to be sex moves at all. I'll replace them with something quite else, just as challenging but in their own way.

-Vincent

Title: Re: Basic move restriction, and what shouldn't be changed
Post by: Jeff Russell on June 12, 2010, 07:23:56 AM

I had a question that seemed related enough to this to put in this thread:

To what degree is it important to keep the number of stats and/or basic moves the same? The two main effects I can envision from sticking to the same number of stats and basic moves are a) focus on the game's tropes and themes, and b) being a de facto limit to the number of things you can try on one person in a scene (even though the fiction will have more to do with that)

Would a game break if you had, say, 2 or 3 more stats? Or would that just be a hell of a lot more moves to remember?