Barf Forth Apocalyptica
barf forth apocalyptica => Apocalypse World => Topic started by: Bret on June 23, 2010, 11:56:11 AM
-
Tell me if this sucks. I noticed a lack of a playbook for huge monsters wearing masks like the Humungus or Blaster (of the hit duo Master Blaster), or any post-apocalyptic video game ever made.
It could use some tweaking. It doesn't speak to me yet.
The Faceless
Why does he wear a mask? Maybe it's because his fake face, the one underneath the mask, didn't do a good enough job showing how powerful, cold-hearted, and fucking monstrous he was. So he had to put on a new one. This one doesn't smile, doesn't wince. It's stone like his fists and his soul.
How did he get so goddamn big? Setting aside for a minute the fact that he's big enough to crush someone's skull in his palm, think about how he had to live so that he could get enough food to reach that size. He had to be tough, he had to be savage, or scariest of all he had to be fucking dead clever.
Creating a Faceless
To create your faceless, choose name, look, stats, moves, gear, and Hx.
Name
Hunk, Tor, Ork, Doule, Big Fucker, Blag, Mega, Dent, Crudhammer, Deg, Frog, Summint, Trench, Zuto, Kray, Momo, Gigg, Meat, Stomp, or Playboy.
Look
Man, woman, concealed, or transgressing.
Casual wear, fetish-bondage wear, showy armor, scrounged armor.
Hidden face. Reveal one of the following if the mask is ever removed: Rugged face, haggard face, deformed face, childlike face, scarred face, pretty face , or plump face.
Hard eyes, blank eyes, merciless eyes, dead eyes, or calculating eyes.
Huge body, muscular body, tall gangly body, or obese body.
Stats
Choose one set:
Cool+1, Hard+2, Hot-1, Sharp=+1, Weird=0
Cool=0, Hard+2, Hot+1, Sharp-1, Weird+1
Cool=0, Hard+2, Hot-1, Sharp+2, Weird-1
Cool+1, Hard+2, Hot-1, Sharp=0, Weird+1
Basic Moves
You get all the basic moves.
Faceless Moves
You get this one:
A masked psycho, when wearing your mask...
... if you do something under fire, add your mask's grim to your roll.
... if you try to do something by force, add your mask's grim to your roll.
... if you go aggro, add your mask's grim to your roll.
... if you try to seduce or manipulate someone, add your mask's glitz to your roll.
... if you try to open your mind to the psychic maelstrom, add your mask's totem to your roll.
... if you help or interfere with someone, add your mask's grim to the roll.
... if someone interferes with you, add your mask's awkward to their roll.
Then choose 1:
Pit Bull
When you take enough harm to die, you live long enough to take someone with you, messily. If this is a PC, their death can be avoided by suffering a debility per the standard rules. A little something to remember you by.
Bull
Shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being scary as fuck and coming at someone, you get +1-armor. You still get shot and stabbed, bleeding just doesn't bother you that much anymore.
Man Mountain
Use +hard to help or hinder instead of +Hx.
Oh yeah!
Use +hard to smash your way through scenery to get to or away from something. 10+, the scenery moved or smashed and you get what you want. On a 7-9 you get what you want and smash or move the scenery, but take 1-harm (ap), are disoriented and under fire in follow-up actions, leave something behind, or take something with you. Think smashing through walls or through burned out husks of cars
Scent of Blood
At the beginning of a session, roll +weird. On a 10+ hold 1+1. On a 7-9 hold 1. At any time, you or the MC can spend your hold to have you at the scene of a battle (a real battle, not intimate violence between a couple people). On a miss, the MC holds 1, and can spend it to have you there and pinned down.
Norman
You seek the advice of your mask. Roll +weird to see what it directs you to do. On a 10+ mark experience and take a +1 if you do as your mask wishes. On a 7-9, take a +1 if you do what it wants and act under fire if you don't. On a miss, it has its own agenda and act under fire if you don't follow it.
Gear
You get:
- 1 no-nonsense weapon
- 1 mask
- fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth 1 or 2-armor (you detail
- oddments worth 1 barter
No-nonsense weapons (choose 1):
- magnum (3-harm close reload loud)
- smg (2-harm close area loud)
- sawed off (3-harm close reload messy)
- crowbar or club or bat (2-harm hand messy)
- machete or axe (3-harm hand messy)
Mask
Choose one of these profiles:
Grim+1, Glitz+1, Totem=0, 0-armor, Awkward+1
Grim+1, Glitz=0, Totem=+1, 0-armor, Awkward+1
Grim+2, Glitz=0, Totem=0, 0-armor, Awkward+1
Grim+1, Glitz=0, Totem=0, 1-armor, Awkward+1
Choose its type: sports mask, gas mask, combat helmet, hood, balaclava, carved mask, fetish mask.
Hx
Everyone introduces their character by name, look, and outlook.
List the other character's names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn:
- One of the characters helped you do something terrible once. Tell that player Hx+2.
Tell everyone else Hx+1.
On the others' turns, choose one or both:
- One of them was once kind and unafraid towards you. Ignore what they tell you and write Hx+3.
- You think one of them is pretty. Add +1 to whatever number they tell you.
At the end, find the character with the highest Hx on your sheet. Ask that player which of your stats is most interesting and highlight it. The MC will have you highlight a second stat too.
Faceless Special
If you and another character have sex, you hold 1. If they get into shit, either you or they can spend it and you are there.
Faceless Improvement
Whenever you roll a highlighted stat, and whenever you reset your Hx with someone, mark an experience circle. When you mark the 5th, improve and erase.
Each time you improve, choose one of the following. Check it off, you can't choose it again.
__ get +1hot (max +2)
__ get +1sharp (max +2)
__ get +1weird (max +2)
__ get a new faceless move
__ get a new faceless move
__ get 2 gigs (detail) and moonlighting
__ get a gang (detail) and pack alpha
__ get a move from another playbook
__ get a move from another playbook
Barter
If you're charging someone wealthy for your services, 1-barter is the going rate for one act of murder, extortion, or other violence; one week's employment as bodyguard or gang leader; one month's employment as thug-on-hand; one threat delivered; one convoy guarded through hostile territory; one month's physical labor requiring your strength and size.
etc. etc.
-
Hmmm, looks like an interesting mix of Gunlugger and Driver. The moves look alright at first glance, the main sticking point for me is that pretty much all of the guys you listed as influences feel a lot more like threats than PCs. I like the direction you're going with the sensitive human underneath the mask, that seems to fit right in with the AW thing (the Hx instructions are especially good, there) but in terms of 'monstrous masked guy smashing stuff by himself' that sounds like an NPC threat usually. Have you had a chance to play with a character like this yet?
-
Your sticking point doesn't fly with me. Just because the inspirations were antagonists in the fiction doesn't mean they wouldn't make awesome protagonists. I watch and re-watch Road Warrior for the Humungus, not for Mad Max. Your same sticking point could be said apply to the Chopper. And I don't get your threat/PC dichotomy. They're a PC because a player plays them. They're a threat because the MC plays them.
I haven't played with a character like this, no. I made it because I want to play it. It needs some tuning, I think, before throwing it into play. I'm not sure I like the Mask mechanics.
-
Go play then do the tuning.
-
I dig it! The brainer is a similarly menace-based character, no probs there for me.
If I were making mask mechanics, I'd try something combining the mechanics of the battlebabe's custom weapon with the mechanics of brainer gear.
Norman rocks my world.
-Vincent
-
Nathan, I'm running a game starting this week but I'm not playing for the foreseeable future. So I'm posting it here to talk it over.
Vincent, so far that's my favorite part of him too. I was originally thinking of going brainer/battlebabe gear for the mask but really struggled. Battlebabe custom weapons are easy, since weapons are so easy to put together in Apocalypse World. Harm, tags, boom. With a mask I had a harder time. It's not a harm-inflicting thing, and it's not something you really actively use, but I want it to have a personality and an effect. If a Faceless becomes unmasked I want it to be a BIG DEAL.
And Brainer gear extends the Brainer's weird abilities. The Faceless is a big scary meathead whose moves aren't quite comparable to the Brainer's, so using the mask as, like, steroids with a personality seemed like the way to go. I'm gonna think about this though.
-
Bret, that's cool, I hope I didn't give off an offensive vibe or anything. Let me try to explain myself a little more clearly, with a big helping of "but you're probably right that this would be fun and interesting to play".
Where I was coming from above is that what unites the PC options is that they're looked at with a focus on who they are and what their relationships are. Sure, the NPCs are all real people with real, simple wants as well, but it's also more acceptable to have someone that's pure menace be an NPC than a PC, or at least it seems that way to me, but I might just be stuck on "PCs = Good Guys". I guess my worry is about the focus being on "faceless monster" and less on "human acting like faceless monster for interesting, compelling reasons", but looking through the playbook again, I think you get that human part across.
So yeah, I wasn't trying to be snarky or anything, just genuinely curious if he felt different than the other PC types in any significant way. When you do get to play with this guy, I'll be interested to hear about it.
-
Bret, this is cool. I don't have any ideas for tuning just now, but I wanted to give you a big thumbs up.
I heart Humungus.
-
Give it you one of your players then. That's even better.
I don't know that the Mask Mechanics really work out that well. Like, with the mask you could start with +4 hard and a cool of +3 or +2. So, you almost never miss at going aggro or taking by force (and never if Norman tells you to do it,) and you're pretty good or extremely good at acting under fire. That's a huge buff compared to the Battlebabe or the Gunlugger. Secondly, without the Mask, he's just brought back down into the realm of the rest of the playbooks; which isn't likely, unless the MC is pretty aggressive about taking it from them.
The rest of the Moves are fine though. Norman is pretty great. I think you should move the Mask (and other adornments) and its tags into the Brainer gear style. Then focus on making the Moves stronger and more unique rather than just outrageously buffing stats. Also Masks aren't the same as Cars.
Also, I'd like to be able to play an apocalyptic Princess Mononoke aka Sen with this playbook. I'm a really big guy isn't that interesting - but I'm a delusional savage with a creepy mask is pretty good.
-
Jeff, I hear you. When I made this Playbook it was "what would I find interesting to play?" I see all this post-apocalyptic fiction where there's killer nutjobs in masks - Fallout, Borderlands, the Mad Max movies - and I always wish there was a story that followed those guys around for awhile. What did the Humungus do before he got run over in the most anticlimactic moment ever? What was his deal? He was this testosterone-poisoned psycho in a hockey mask. You don't end up in that get-up, with that crew, without having some crazy stories. And even though I haven't seen it in 20 years, Beyond Thunderdome was ABOUT Master Blaster. He is the only part of that movie that stuck with me after watching it when I was like 10 years old. He was not a faceless monster, he was a heartbreaking tragedy. As a side note, have you ever noticed that the secondary characters in Mad Max are always ten times more interesting than Mad Max?
Anyway, I think the thing that prevents the Faceless from being a faceless monster instead of a human who wants/needs to be a faceless monster is the players doing their job and playing real people, as the rulebook commands!
John - thanks! The Humungus would probably fit better under Chopper than this Playbook, but this Playbook is how I WANTED the Humungus to be in that movie.
Nathan - For my first campaign ever, I'm gonna stick with rules-as-written. No inflicting weirdo, unbalanced, GM-written custom materials on them for the first go-round. Maybe some other time. And yeah, using the Car rules as a template isn't working I think. I mean, I think the style could be used for non-car things, but unlike the car there's not going to be points where you just can't have the mask. So like you said, it'll always be there.
Sen is not a Faceless. She wore that mask for, like, ten minutes of the movie. I'm talking about people where that mask is who they are. I get what you're saying though. Separating out the masked weirdo from the superstrong meathead would make this a bit easier. And I think I could do that while keeping what I want this character to embody - creepiness, power, and relentlessness.
-
Skinner who takes faceless as a new character type. I want that story to come true.
-
For those of you who don't know, Bret and I are horror flick pinkie twins.
Maybe make it anti-gear! When you create your faceless, you create him masked, moves and all, and then you choose options for what happens when he's not wearing the mask. Off the top of my head:
Unmasked, you are (choose 2):
- Vulnerable. Whenever you suffer harm, you suffer +1harm.
- Grotesque. Every PC who sees you goes immediately to Hx+3 with you.
- Afraid. You take -1 ongoing until you cover your face again.
- Irresolute. When you inflict harm, inflict -1harm.
- Ashamed. You can't make any character moves that call for a roll.
- etc.
With this option, I'd make the character 1 better than normal -- balance the stat options 1 higher, or choose 3 character moves instead of 2, or something like that. And for looks I'd do away with a face list, like some characters get a hands list and most don't. The details of the mask could be just a replacement looks list, or it could be a pick list like the maestro d's establishment's atmosphere.
-Vincent
-
That's perfect and totally obvious. I think I subconsciously needed your permission before doing things like balancing a character upwards. And I think that will do the trick. I'll tinker with this some and make some changes. With Nathan's feedback on the bonuses and mask as anti-gear I think I could tilt this playbook towards playable.
I have this game in my brain that is trying to work its way out where you play people with masks (holy shit I love masks). And you're actually playing two characters, one is the person wearing the mask and one is the mask itself. And this is some of that squirting out. But maybe that idea would be a good hack for AW.
-
Anti-gear!
/slaps forehead
-
Brett, awesome idea! Looking back over my rpging over the years, I've always been looking for stuff like this, but it usually didn't work that well in the olden-school days. So of this i approve!
Oh, and a comment on this:
As a side note, have you ever noticed that the secondary characters in Mad Max are always ten times more interesting than Mad Max?
This is an old and obvious observation about the difference between different storytelling activities, but still. In a film like Road Warrior, the protagonist is little more than a focus to give the audience a viewpoint on the world around him, which is why it is suitable to have him as neutral a character as possible. Just a bit of charm to make him likable. And a bit of heroism to make us cheer for him.
Since rpgs, on the other hand, puts the player-audience underneath the skin of the protagonist it doesn't hurt one bit that the character is exotic or extreme in ways that would be problematic in (mainstream) film. Hence, it is beautiful and right that we use RPGing to dig into and explore and enjoy completely different heroes than the movies usually give us (come on, how often isn't the bad guy waaay cooler than the hero!).
So, again, I totally approve of the Faceless!
-
Nice! I would have just said that, y'know, wearing a mask was something a Battlebabe or Gunlugger or Hardholder or whatever did, part of their fashion... but there's definitely some cool ideas here. My one quibble is... Pit Bull as a special move you only get to use once? On death, no less? I mean, yeah, it's a powerful deterrent up until then, but I don't know if I would ever take it. I guess it could appeal to some people, though. Some other ideas for moves!
As One: Attempts by other PCs to seize your mask by force, or to get you to remove or give away your mask by going aggro or seduction/manipulation, are at -2. NPCs will never succeed at unmasking you against your will unless you are completely at their mercy.
Juggernaut: Take -2 on all "when you suffer harm" rolls.
The Unexpected: When someone sees you unmasked for the first time, they take S-harm, in addition to any other effects.
-
Another idea that just came to me trying to "fix" Pit Bull in my head:
Pit Bull: Whenever you take a debility, name the person you hold most responsible. Take +1 ongoing to all rolls versus them, forever. (All rolls with them directly as a target count, of course. Rolls against their family and friends, minions, or property may count, in the MC's judgment. MCs, remember your job is to make Apocalypse World seem real and keep the characters' lives interesting, not deny the PCs bonuses.)
-
Those are cool, Ben. I really like The Unexpected and the new Pit Bull, especially.
Juggernaut is a move I can see being stolen for a lot of things.
-
Thanks! I was considering calling "The Unexpected" something like "Especially Horrifying", but then I thought that you could shock people by how ordinary you were behind the mask, too, after everyone was expecting something shocking and monstrous, so renamed it to as is. And S-harm is a mechanic that doesn't get enough love. (One of these days I have to play an Angel just for that stun gun. Although I guess an Operator, Savvyhead, or Hardholder could have one too? Hmm.)
And yeah, Juggernaut came to me the moment I say the "when you suffer harm" move. It'd work well as an optional Gunlugger move, or a Battlebabe one if you retweaked the color to "Roll With It" or "Flowing Defense" or something.
-
Bret, I'm sold! I am totally convinced this is a cool and interesting character type to bring into an AW game. Sorry for the initial skepticism :)
-
Thanks you guys. And thanks Ben for the moves. I'm definitely not in love with some of the ones I've written (I think Man Mountain is gonna go) and will swap them around.
I get that Pit Bull, as it exists, is a one-shot move. What I was trying to pack into it was moments like Darth Vader pitching the Emperor over the side of the bridge or Marv in Sin City crushing that priest guy with his bare hands before getting hauled off to the electric chair. Perhaps it'd be best, though, to leave moments like that to the rules as written.
I'll edit the initial post and swap things around when I have some time.
-
Looks like I can't edit the initial post! So here's this:
The Faceless
Why does he wear a mask? Maybe it's because his fake face, the one underneath the mask, didn't do a good enough job showing how powerful, cold-hearted, and fucking monstrous he was. So he had to put on a new one. This one doesn't smile, doesn't wince. It's stone like his fists and his soul.
Creating a Faceless
To create your faceless, choose name, look, stats, moves, gear, and Hx.
Name
Hunk, Tor, Ork, Doule, Big Fucker, Blag, Mega, Dent, Crudhammer, Deg, Frog, Summint, Trench, Zuto, Kray, Momo, Gigg, Meat, Stomp, or Playboy.
Look
Man, woman, concealed, or transgressing.
Casual wear, fetish-bondage wear, showy armor, scrounged armor.
Hard eyes, blank eyes, merciless eyes, dead eyes, or calculating eyes.
Huge body, muscular body, tall gangly body, wiry body, or obese body.
Stats
Choose one set:
Cool+1, Hard+2, Hot-1, Sharp=+1, Weird=0
Cool=0, Hard+2, Hot+1, Sharp-1, Weird+1
Cool=0, Hard+2, Hot-1, Sharp+2, Weird-1
Cool+1, Hard+2, Hot-1, Sharp=0, Weird+1
Basic Moves
You get all the basic moves.
Faceless Moves
Choose 3:
Pit Bull
Whenever you take a debility, name the person you hold most responsible. Take +1 ongoing to all rolls versus them, forever. (All rolls with them directly as a target count, of course. Rolls against their family and friends, minions, or property may count, in the MC's judgment. MCs, remember your job is to make Apocalypse World seem real and keep the characters' lives interesting, not deny the PCs bonuses.)
Rasputin
Shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being scary as fuck and coming at someone, you get +1-armor. You still get shot and stabbed, bleeding just doesn't bother you that much anymore.
Juggernaut
Take -2 on all "when you suffer harm" rolls.
Oh yeah!
Use +hard to smash your way through scenery to get to or away from something. 10+, the scenery moved or smashed and you get what you want. On a 7-9 you get what you want and smash or move the scenery, but take 1-harm (ap), are disoriented and under fire in follow-up actions, leave something behind, or take something with you. Think smashing through walls or pushing through burned out husks of cars.
Scent of Blood
At the beginning of a session, roll +weird. On a 10+ hold 1+1. On a 7-9 hold 1. At any time, you or the MC can spend your hold to have you at the scene of a battle (a real battle, not intimate violence between a couple people). On a miss, the MC holds 1, and can spend it to have you there and pinned down.
Norman
You seek the advice of your mask. Roll +weird to see what it directs you to do. On a 10+ mark experience and take a +1 if you do as your mask wishes. On a 7-9, take a +1 if you do what it wants and act under fire if you don't. On a miss, it has its own agenda and act under fire if you don't follow it.
As One
Attempts by other PCs to seize your mask by force, or to get you to remove or give away your mask by going aggro or seduction/manipulation, are at -2. NPCs will never succeed at unmasking you against your will unless you are completely at their mercy.
Gear
You get:
- 1 no-nonsense weapon
- fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth 1 or 2-armor (you detail
- oddments worth 1 barter
No-nonsense weapons (choose 1):
- magnum (3-harm close reload loud)
- smg (2-harm close area loud)
- sawed off (3-harm close reload messy)
- crowbar or club or bat (2-harm hand messy)
- machete or axe (3-harm hand messy)
Mask
Unmasked, you are (choose 2):
- Vulnerable. Whenever you suffer harm, you suffer +1harm.
- Grotesque. Every PC who sees you goes immediately to Hx+3 with you.
- Afraid. You take -1 ongoing until you cover your face again.
- Irresolute. When you inflict harm, inflict -1harm.
- Ashamed. You can't make any character moves that call for a roll.
- Powerless. Lose access to all your non-basic moves.
You also get:
The Unexpected. When someone sees you unmasked for the first time, they take S-harm, in addition to any other effects.
Choose its type: sports mask, gas mask, combat helmet, hood, balaclava, carved mask, fetish mask.
Choose its look: dusty, battered, painted, stained, or cracked.
Hx
Everyone introduces their character by name, look, and outlook.
List the other character's names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn:
- One of the characters helped you do something terrible once. Tell that player Hx+2.
Tell everyone else Hx+1.
On the others' turns, choose one or both:
- One of them was once kind and unafraid towards you. Ignore what they tell you and write Hx+3.
- You think one of them is pretty. Add +1 to whatever number they tell you.
At the end, find the character with the highest Hx on your sheet. Ask that player which of your stats is most interesting and highlight it. The MC will have you highlight a second stat too.
Faceless Special
If you and another character have sex, you hold 1. If they get into shit, either you or they can spend it and you are there.
Faceless Improvement
Whenever you roll a highlighted stat, and whenever you reset your Hx with someone, mark an experience circle. When you mark the 5th, improve and erase.
Each time you improve, choose one of the following. Check it off, you can't choose it again.
__ get +1hot (max +2)
__ get +1sharp (max +2)
__ get +1weird (max +2)
__ get a new faceless move
__ get a new faceless move
__ get 2 gigs (detail) and moonlighting
__ get a gang (detail) and pack alpha
__ get a move from another playbook
__ get a move from another playbook
Barter
If you're charging someone wealthy for your services, 1-barter is the going rate for one act of murder, extortion, or other violence; one week's employment as bodyguard or gang leader; one month's employment as thug-on-hand; one threat delivered; one convoy guarded through hostile territory; one month's physical labor requiring your strength and size.
-
I miss the original Pit Bull a bit, that was Darth Vader-cool. Couldn't it be a free move that doesn't take the place of any of the more useful ones? I don't think it's overpowered, since it only gets used when the character leaves play.
-
Maybe it could be an extra to go along with the new Pitbull? Like you get both. I don't think that would be ridiculously powerful since in both cases you're taking some serious bad for the bennies.
-
Well, the way I could see it going down would be:
"Okay, the emperor unleashes force lightning on you. That's, uh, 3-harm AP. What does that put you at?"
"Dead. Damn! I guess I'm taking broken to go along with my disfigured. And then seizing his ass by force! I lunge at him, full of hate and spite! And the need to save my son, I guess."
"You know that'll cause him to fight back, right? Even if you choose take little harm, that'll kill you. Again."
"Well, if I get definite hold, I can take him down the shaft with me, yeah?"
"Sweet, roll it, and don't forget your now +2 bonus."
-
Add:
Beastly +1hard (max +3)
And I think it's balanced and ready to go!
This is hot!
-
Oh, yes. He definitely needs a move like that. Thanks Nathan! I'll reassamble. Maybe eventually we can get an official-looking playbook together for him (or her) too.
-
Bret - IF YOU ARE THE SAME BRET AT NERDNYC
We should totally include this playbook as an option in the upcoming game.
If nobody picks it, then I will. And then you can dedicate a plaza to me or something.
-
I thought you knew it was me this whole time!
I would be tentatively willing to do that. Though I am virtually neurotic about playing games by-the-book, no hacks, etc. on my very first ever campaign of something.
-
Hey Bret, I'm looking for a limited-edition character playbook to bring to GenCon, like early adopters get the Maestro D'. Would you be willing to let me illustrate the faceless book, lay it out, print it, and give it away to people? You'd get full credit, of course, and I'd send you some copies, and you'd be in charge of distributing the PDFs or keeping them secret or whatever you choose.
What do you think?
-Vincent
-
That would be awesome. I just made this face. :O You and benhimself and Nathan should totally get credit too.
I will make some final edits and maybe try to write up a snazzier intro and email it to you!
-
HA HA IT'S CANON NOW
No excuse to keep Matt from playing it!
-
I have nowhere left to hide from my own creation.
-
This whole thread is super cool and I love you guys. And The Faceless.
I immediately imagine the character on the front of the Borderlands case. The guy in the sorta taunting pose holding a finger-gun to his head. So cool!
-
Borderlands disappointed me greatly when I found out that I did not play that guy.
-
Me too! I was hoping he was an option. I still love that game, though.
Looking forward to seeing the final playbook. It's really rad that Vx is gonna print it as a special limited-edition thing. This community is so neat.
-
Borderlands disappointed me greatly when I found out that I did not play that guy.
Wait, what? I'm downloading that game now, and I don't get to be that guy? Laaaaaaame. That's some sneaky marketing BS right there.
-
Never fear. Borderlands is still really good. Play with at least one other person, if you can.
-
I was just playing today with Christian. Yep, still fun. The Faceless looks really fun as well.
-
Never fear. Borderlands is still really good. Play with at least one other person, if you can.
I don't know anyone else who has it, sadly... :(
-
I realize I'm late to the party, since the Faceless is about to be playbooked, but I really dig it and want to play one or play with one ASAP.
-
Never fear. Borderlands is still really good. Play with at least one other person, if you can.
I don't know anyone else who has it, sadly... :(
I had it on the PS3, once. Now I want it on my shiny new 360...
Which do you have?
-
I had it on the PS3, once. Now I want it on my shiny new 360...
Which do you have?
PC. In fact, I didn't realize it was for the consoles (I don't pay a lot of attention to them since I don't have any... though I should have realized. Pretty much everything on the PC is also on a console or three these days). Can the different platforms play together?
-
Skinner who takes faceless as a new character type. I want that story to come true.
First character I played in Apocalypse World was a skinner who'd had her jaw smashed off. that was her back story: she used to be a warlord's mischief, and now she was wandering the world with a mess of pus and bandages where her pretty little mouth used to be.
If I'd had the Faceless playbook, at the time, the character might have been easier to play.
-
I just watched Book of Eli and early on is a fat guy with a chainsaw and a gas mask. He made me really excited.
Maybe a chainsaw can go in the gear here.
-
Chainsaw: done. It has autofire! This makes me happy, it's a funny use for the tag.
-Vincent
-
Did this get turned into A Thing?
-
Yeah, the Playbook is sitting right next to me. It got handed out at Gencon with Apocalypse World books purchased there.
-
I played it at GenCon! It was exactly right, violent and tragic. I'll tell the story in a bit.
-
May I have access to the pdf?
-
Bret Special
If you and another character have sex, you may give them the Faceless PDF.
-
Can I invoke the Maestro D' special move on that, as somebody who sort of contributed to the playbook? Travel expenses are a pain in the ass, and I've been kind of trying to cut back on casual hookups lately, regardless of the other party's tempting special moves.
-
This is great stuff, I really look forward to seeing the finished Faceless Playbook. Where, when, and how may it be obtained?
-
Vx said it was a GenCon exclusive, much like the Maestro D' was a preorder exclusive.
Alternatively, take everything from this thread, fire up your desktop publishing software of choice, and have at it. ;)
-
Vx said it was a GenCon exclusive, much like the Maestro D' was a preorder exclusive.
Ouch, too bad. Living in Sweden prohibited going to Gen Con for a new playbook.
Alternatively, take everything from this thread, fire up your desktop publishing software of choice, and have at it. ;)
Yeah, but I don't have mad skills like that. Too bad. I hope it will eventually see the light of day for all non Gen Con attendees.
Any chance that the Faceless Playbook will be found at other conventions, such as SPIEL 2010 in Essen?
-
For the Faceless, add to the list: I'm Right Here
I'm thinking about the way the Faceless rises out of the shadows when everyone's looking around for him and of course cannot find him or her.
Tweak mechanics to taste. My untested inclination is that on 10 or better, the player distributes 3 Harm among targets as he or she chooses. 7-9 might be 1 Harm to one target, maybe.
Best, Ron
I like this a lot. A very Jason Voorhees-esque teleportation thing. I think better than Harm might be a +1 forward to represent the 'holy shit' of your arrival.
-
Or s-harm!
-
Or s-harm!
Yeah! You could deal 1 s-harm to everyone present and hostile.
You could even make it a roll, +wierd, +sharp or +cool, I don't know. On a 7-9 you deal 1 s-harm to everyone present, and on a 10+ you both deal the s-harm and also make your entrance by killing an NPC of your choice.
-
Seems like a +weird roll to me.
-
Aww, are you really keeping it exclusive, Bret? Though I can't possibly deny it's yours to do with as you wish, I think that's a shame.
-
Um ... what is s-harm? I don't know the rulebook anywhere near as well as most of you. But I know what "forward" and "ongoing" are, and Vincent just explained "holding" to me too. What's the "s"?
Best, Ron
-
The "s" in s-harm stands for "stunned" or "stunning"; basically, the person can't act until the stunning effect is gone or wears out or whatever. PCs can act under fire to do something.
-
Aww, are you really keeping it exclusive, Bret? Though I can't possibly deny it's yours to do with as you wish, I think that's a shame.
Not Bret; Vincent put together the playbook in a proper foldable manner after asking Bret, et al.'s permission to use it as a GenCon exclusive.
-
You can find s-harm on page 240. (There's no such thing as "1 s-harm" or "2 s-harm," it's just s-harm.) Color to suit; if it were me, in this case, I'd write the color into the move.
-
My biggest problem with the Faceless is that I keep thinking of moves I want to give it. Like: Gore-fisted - your bare hands become 2-harm AP close messy(optional) loud(optional)
-
Hey Bret,
It's a long-standing thing in game design to make whatever would be cool narration or personal color for most character types into abilities for one's favorite type. I see this in fantasy games especially. One of the character races is almost always clearly the author's special favorite and receives about 200% the rules-depth compared to the others, as well as being so specific in personality and color that it might as well be a single character.
I expect that for Apocalypse World, one way this might manifest is that it's overwhelmingly tempting to pack the Moves section for any character type that strikes one's fancy. As the person who just proposed an additional Move (as in, right on the sheet, not eventually-invented for advanced play) for the Faceless, I may be guilty of it myself.
But it seems to me an important feature of game design to stay on the near side of the divide between "simple + elegant = emergent in play" vs. "make sure anything that can happen or be said is there as a rules option." This is clearly a very difficult divide to negotiate in Apocalypse World because the rules and narrations are so menu oriented.
If it turned out in play that the effect and ensuing carnage in I'm Right Here emerged from existing rules, without it being used as a Move, then I'd argue strongly for not including it as a Move. I don't know the game well enough, not by miles, to predict either way. To me, though, it seems that Gore-fisted would emerge from the existing rules and would effectively be a narration for an already-existing going-forward bonus in the right circumstances.
It all comes down to play itself, for sure. Without play, I find myself making up more and more that a character type "can do," only because I want to enjoy doing that in play myself, and since I'm not doing it, the only way I can enjoy it is to put it down on paper. With play, though, I can find out whether the coolest stuff I want is actually there to be generated already through the simpler mechanics I already have.
What do you think?
Best, Ron
-
I like what Ron says, and Bret don't forget you can take moves from other playbooks. The gunlugger and battlebabe will have a few very tempting ones.
That said, there might be a neat faceless equivalent to how the gunlugger chooses weapons. Less so, but maybe you choose one thing from a list that gives you ap harm or +1 harm when just using your fists, etc.
-
So I haven't gotten to play Apocalypse World yet and maybe I will soon but maybe I won't. And yeah, I love this character type so there is certainly some of what you're describing coming through. There's also this niggling sense that the Playbook isn't finished and it isn't perfectly what I want it to be. Like, maybe some of the moves I gave it aren't the best moves.
Also, I couldn't sleep and just decided to post an idea I had for a move after laying awake in bed thinking about the Faceless punching someone to death.
-
Not Bret; Vincent put together the playbook in a proper foldable manner after asking Bret, et al.'s permission to use it as a GenCon exclusive.
Ah, so I have Vincent to blame. I thought I remembered Vincent saying that he wanted to make it into a playbook to give out at GenCon but that after that it would be up to Bret what to do with it.
Oh well. In general, my opinion is that exclusives are kind of lame, though one of the reasons I feel that way may be pure selfishness. I'm sure it's valuable as a marketing technique.
-
I thought I remembered Vincent saying that he wanted to make it into a playbook to give out at GenCon but that after that it would be up to Bret what to do with it.
Well anyone could put together a playbook for personal use. I'm pretty sure I could lay one out, but having the time to muck with that is an entirely different question, and without the fonts and graphic elements it wouldn't look like the rest of the playbooks.
Y'know, a blank character sheet would be useful. Fill in the character type and improvement lines, and we wouldn't need playbooks for custom classes like this…
-
I want a pony.
-
I would love it if the Hx rules did a "final girl" kind of thing.
Choose the most innocent and pure soul. You both get +3Hx with each other.
-
So, for people interested in this Playbook, are the rules in this thread up-to-date? Is the "official" Faceless playbook just a compilation of the stuff in this thread?
-
As I just got Apocalypse World for Christmas, I'd be really interested in know the answer to the above as well...
Though a .pdf sure would be nice... we latecomers is always getting f*cked... :)
-
Just giving a thumbs up to someone I now have an obligation to. :)
-
So... for those of us curious about the Faceless now, what can we do?
Is there a "final" version somewhere?
-
There is a final version, but like the quarantine it's a limited edition.
-Vincent
-
Ah! Out of luck.
Well, ok.
-
*Smiles* Yes , yes there is and it is grand.... Msg me if you REALLY REALLY want to play like that.