Barf Forth Apocalyptica
barf forth apocalyptica => brainstorming & development => Topic started by: James Mullen on November 05, 2013, 04:36:59 PM
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An idea I've been playing around with for a few years, playing giant monsters who battle it out in human cities around the world but might just be saving it in the process, took a big leap forward today. I've begun a very basic AW hack with some stripped down rules: there's still a lot more to be done, but see what you think.
Monster Force Terra pdf. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iTjRUomaBXbjkwNW4ta3YxNGs/edit?usp=sharing)
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Love it!
Had the same kind of idea when reading through Dungeon World but your work carries the mere idea through. Excellent work. Just wow. (And more monsters.)
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As you wish...
Monster Force Terra with More Monsters pdf. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iTjRUomaBXR0M4R2JHendneVk/edit?usp=sharing)
:-D
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The Third Draft of Monster Force Terra (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iTjRUomaBXSDlUdW0yVHpkbm8/edit?usp=sharing) is now up: following a quick playtest at Indiecon, I decided to remodel the rage triggers.
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Fourth Draft (https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/101512333025636255671) now up, with 12 monster playbooks in total, some new rules and added MC guidance.
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For crying out loud! I promised my playing group we would be playing this next Wednesday and finish of the night with a little King of Tokio. Now I cannot find the fourth draft!
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My bad i was rearranging things on the Groundhoggoth community: here's a direct link (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iTjRUomaBXSDlUdW0yVHpkbm8/edit?usp=sharing) to the Fourth Draft on Google drive.
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Awesome idea. I'm now thinking about a hack of your hack in which the monsters aren't heroes (except to themselves), and the main enemy is the human world. King Kong, or Cloverfield, for instance. Players vs the MC's fronts (which are mostly human combatants) and someone's probably gonna get killed, or driven back to their lair to await the sequel. (ETA: Or PvP - monsters vs humans - with the MC functioning as Referee.)
Cloverfield is a Lizard (nervous, territorial, amphibious), and the Parasites are a Swarm (speedy, spread out, toxic). But they are not working together, their goals are entirely self-centered (at the beginning of the movie the big monster shakes off a bunch of parasites which had been burrowing into its skin, thus freeing them to ravage the city of New York, and after that scene they pay no attention to each other at all).
FYI: The first RPG I ever bought and GMd was "Monsters! Monsters!". :-)
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Ooh, nice idea! I keep thinking about going back to MFT and fleshing it out with more content to support deeper, richer play but I never quite seem to get around to it. :-(
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To be fair I never though that MFT would be something else than what As If said. I'll most likely run it as such anyway.
edit: Also I can make a "most likely" prediction of our game: RAW reads "If you are killed, you can save or destroy one other thing: narrate how you do so, that narration cannot be overturned by any other narration, action or moves during this session." I can totally see someone destroying the world as their dying action... :D
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Is there any other way to heal damage than Face Defeat? Can't find any.
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Yes, on every playbook there is a statement about what that Monster wants:
- It rages when denied what it wants
- It heals 1 damage when it gets what it wants
Follow the 'cat & mouse' advice to keep the Monsters in a cycle of raging, taking harm, healing, raging again, etc.
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Ah. Somehow missed the healing when getting what it wants. Thanks!
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So I laid up MFT v4 as a two-column 9-page PDF, just to save toner and paper...
http://asifproductions.com/sites/default/files/Monster%20Force%20Terra%20version%204.pdf
I may be a dork, but I'm a CHEAP dork!
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Sweet!
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This looks hilarious and awesome!
But... how does the "get a bonus die" mechanic work? Could find several ways to get those, but no explanation on the actual rule?
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Under Advances and Full Damage: When a move is powered up, it gains a bonus die: roll 3d6 and pick any two results to add together with your size when making that move. Penalty dice will cancel out bonus dice; when you roll only with penalty dice, the MC chooses which two of your dice you get to keep and add.
The one thing which I did miss out, because it's actually a rule I ported in from my incomplete Just Heroes hack, is the 'Take 10', which means you take the result of that move as if it were a 10+, without rolling.
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Ah thanks - thought it might be just that, but couldn't locate that exact passage before.
It's actually a fun ramification that a player won't always automatically choose the two highest dice, because of how the different basic moves work.
It does seem mighty effective though. Wonder how it pans out with regard to probabilities, spontaneously it feels like an almost garantueed success (regardless of whether you are aiming for a high or a low result)?
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Well, if we forget the Size modifier for now and focus on a standard hit of 7+, then there's a 15 out of 36 chance of rolling less than 7; if you extend that to 3 dice, there's a 20 out 216 chance that you won't be able to get 7+ on at least 2 of those dice (though someone might want to check my maths). So, very approximately, the odds of a miss drop from 4 in 10 to 1 in 10: the bonus dice is very effective as an extra ability, but it's still not an absolute guarantee of success.
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yep, that sounds about how I felt it might crunch out :)
I'm sure it's a fun mechanic though, and to hell with concerns about "balance", (whatever that may even be ;) ) right?
Heck, I may have to give this hack a try sometime in my weekly "constantly trying out new and different games and one-shots" group!
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Great! Have fun with it! :-D
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looks like fun, mean to run it for my group some time soon.
few things leap out for balance (mostly the Mecha class running so differently), but it's not a real concern.
only major thing is some terms being mixed up.
Avian Moves
Choose two:
Wing Clap: you can Stomp all nearby targets simultaneously.
I assume that was supposed to be Smash.
also rules weren't totally clear, but assume that base Damage dealt by monsters is 1?
and the Mecha starts with 4 Energy (all his markers full)?
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Ah, thanks for spotting that in the Avian playbook: I was undecided between the terms 'smash' and 'stomp' when I started writing, so this must have survived from a prior draft.
As to the other points, yes to both: there's an answer to the damage question I gave on the storygames forum that I might rewrite and add to the pdf, but I should also make it clear that the Mecha starts with 4 energy.
Hope you enjoy the game if you get a chance to play it :-)
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if that's helpful, stumbled over a few more possible errors
under Avian moves:
Sonic Boom: when you get 6- when you stride, all targets at the points where you take off and land are
also assume that the Mecha and Glob only pick 1 Trigger to rage where it says 2?
Choose two:
Curious: rage if something gets destroyed before you can sniff it.
Clumsy: rage if you destroy something you value.
Logical: rage when you try to understand nonsense.
also The Swarm move Cloud Formation (you are immune to damage from hand) is meant to mean that normal physical attacks can't hurt it? They can be set on fire or blown up, but not punched, smashed, or tail-whipped?
the Mecha has 2 unique advances to start with, Indestructable and one of their choice (but that sounds more likely to be correct).
just checking up on things the players may pop up on me
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and while I'm on a roll of ruining things, the Critter ability:
Good Nose: you can sniff out targets at a greater range; take a bonus die forward when you get 6- while
while acting on information from your Sniff?
and for Lizard moves/triggers, should these be swapped?
Triggers:
Choose two:
Lizard Moves
Choose one:
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It should be two moves and one trigger for every playbook: I'll make the necessary corrections soon, along with adding a piece on damage.
The other errors, as far as as I can tell, must be to do with your download or printout and seem to occur where the last word of the sentence appears on the next line: my original doc and the pdf made from it have complete sentences for the moves you mention. I even opened the version uploaded to my Google drive and it doesn't have these errors, so possibly its the way you're viewing it.
Thanks again! :D
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Monster Force Terra (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/159873/Monster-Force-Terra) is now available on Drivethru!
You take on the roles of the kaiju in this game, going about your own business of seeking food, shelter and a mate, when disaster strikes! In getting back to the normal order of your lives, you inadvertently find yourselves becoming the heroes, though you may never be aware of what you've done. Play your monster as a pawn in the story, using them to achieve the goals that you want, by using them to stomp, steal or investigate the story's obstacles.
The download includes twelve different monster playsheets:
The Avian: a giant flying creature.
The Bug: a giant insect.
The Critter: a giant mammal.
The Crustacean: a giant crab or lobster.
The Digger: a giant burrower.
The Glob: a giant mess.
The Lizard: a giant scaly creature.
The Mech: a giant robot.
The Plant: a giant vegetable.
The Simian: a giant ape-like creature.
The Swarm: a giant colony life-form.
The Unspeakable: a giant horror.
There are also two other files:
Monster Force Terra: the core rule booklet, a mere 10 pages long, including tips for the MC on running the game.
Reference Sheet: print this on the back of the playsheets.
It's on the Pay What You Want model, so please download and enjoy!