Whilst it's not identical to your idea - I did make a few mini-games based on this premise: -
http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1488.0

It might give you a few ideas.

So, uh, I've not done much work on Beneath a More Auspicious Star recently. I've posted even less of that work here.

Actually, that's not *entirely* true - I have been working on my hack, just not directly. I realised that I wanted to explore how various things might interact, what interesting ways and things might be done with mechanics. Of course, Beneath a More Auspicious Star is not the right place to tinker with mechanics in that sense - it's a place where the mechanics should all be polished and sharp.

So I wrote a mini-hack called Escape from Thanatos! to see what would happen if you stripped out basic moves and replaced harm with conditions. And writing and playing it was pretty fun so I wrote a couple more.

At the moment I'm still exploring this format and still enjoying it. I've already decided to use conditions and custom moves instead of harm in BaMAS.

So I've not forgotten about this, or abandoned it, or anything like that. But progress is slow. I don't know how many of you are paying attention or still awaiting this eagerly but the game is still close to my heart and I'm still determined to make it a thing worth of play and enjoyment.

Stuart.

Something along the lines of: "Trendsetter: When you introduce a new Fashion to the Court, you may take this move, you need not spend an Advance to take it. When you enter court, you are both scrutinised on your appearance and consulted by those courtiers interested in your take on the latest trends."

Interesting. I like it.

It's somewhere in the middle. Part of scale includes organisation - so that a gang or rabble - no matter the size - never reaches the higher scales.

Essentially, the Personal scale works as vanilla AW. Tactical Scale "resets" that to a degree - a small Unit at Tactical Scale is like a Huge Gang. This happens again at Strategic scale where Units are treated as individuals.

Of course, the equivalents of Not To Be Fucked With let's you act as a Small Unit - around 500 Soldiers. Then, the General gets to do Strategic Scale things on the Personal Scale - declaring War on you as an individual.

(I am hoping for at least a degree of the Dynasty Warriors thing going on).

Unlike vanilla AW, BaMAS is huge in scale. Estimates/census put the population of China at something like 50,000,000 before the Three Kingdoms Period (the period in question) began.

In BaMAS there are People and then there are Pawns. Pawns are like stuff - they have separate moves for manipulating them. Pawns don't have names - not really. Pawns can't hurt you any more than a bowl or a knife. People have names. People can hurt you - with a knife, or a Pawn, or an Army. Name someone and they're a Person - not a Pawn.

In AW, gangs, large gangs, are still a sensible number of people. You could fit a gang into a large hall. In BaMAS the halls are that much bigger to fit everyone in. It has three scales - Personal, Tactical and Strategic for dealing with large numbers. It has War Moves for dealing with Armies.

What needs work, and fiddling, are the exact numbers. At the moment the Governor and the General are still using AW numbers (and tags) with a few more zeroes. This is high on the list to be sorted.

Tactical and Strategic are not just terms for Warriors, Tacticians and Generals. Courtiers, Governors and Ministers use the same scale for dealing with politics.

So, scale, think BIG.

Here are the classes as they currently stand in their variety of completednesses. Still to be written are the Tactician, Minister, Philosopher and Scholar (or maybe Philosopher or Scholar).

I'd like those interested parties to opine on the various contents, point out obvious spelling mistakes and balance issues. Additionally, if anyone has any ideas for any of the handbooks still to be written or glaring omissions from existing handbooks put them here. Some ideas I may have already considered and dismissed or put into operation elsewhere - others I may just have neglected to think on. Whichever it is, it's all good for discussion!

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B73tJPBL4QX8OWEwNmI0YmItYjFjZC00YzZiLTk2NjAtMWUyM2FlNzJlMTI1&hl=en_GB

If anyone's interested in seeing the full work in progress, there it is.

As for the name, I think I'll put it to one side for the moment and see what comes to me.

At the urgings of those enthused by such things, and inspired heavily by the mythology and tales surrounding the Romance of the Three Kingdoms I'm designing a AW Hack for playing the Movers and Shakers of pseudo-Dynastic China.

Whether a proud Warrior from a Small Independent House who follows the Way of the Clouds or a Governor for the Ambitious Wei House who believes in the Way of the Law, Beneath a More Auspicious Star deals with the passions and personal prides of those who shaped a new Order from the Chaos.

I thought I'd introduce it here. It's still very much a work in progress, as I try design moves that embody the scope and spirit of the actions taken by these all-too-human titans. I guess this is also an open call to here the kinds of people you'd want to see and be, and the actions you'd want to perform. I'd also like to know how close to history you would want a hack like this to adhere.

Thanks,
Shadowmourne

EDIT - It occurs to me, a glance at the (somewhat messy) bones of the Hack might help people grasp what I'm going for - https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1BApzKeweJICnSPaGEnWqybjQZwABkP3c3cDGdRrTHbc&hl=en_GB&authkey=CK2Bk4AD