Another thing I need to think about is paring down some of the mechanics. The entire card-based NPC generation sounded fun on paper, but in practice it was clunky, hard to keep track of and didn't really add anything to the experience. This would mean rewriting some of the moves, the Gloom and Skinjacker in particular, but considering that we're considering adding more stuff for players to juggle, making some of the other stuff less cluttered might be a nice idea.

Spending Creep also might need less crunch to it - assigning limits to what's supposed to be weird ghost mojo feels a little stilted, whereas in-test last time, a situation came up where the Ripper's pet chainsaw gained a temporary supercharge by using the 'Drain Creep' aspect of the Traumatize move. It was a nice twist to the scene, it had a mechanical benefit (+1 to whatever Bert did next), and it was entirely organic without needing resource management.

Basically, I'm starting to think that rather than treating Creep like a resource that can be stockpiled, it could be simpler to treat it as a Surplus/Satisfied/Want balance.

You roll +Eerie at the start of the session. On a 10+ you've got Surplus. On a 7-9 you're okay, but you could be better. On a Miss you're going to start suffering if you don't feed.

Then, when you're in-game, you can declare 'I'm going to use my mojo to...' and then tell the MC what you want to do. The bigger the request, the more the player puts at stake, the more they have to gain and lose, so it's not a safe bet. That way Creep becomes a scarcer, but much more fluid and useful resource, without the need to stockpile it for future events.

Problem is, it winds up sounding a lot like the Influence move, which steps on another mechanic.

BLAAAAAAARGH this is hard.

Hi Vincent,

Due to the size of the thread and the amount of AP stuff now being done, could Snuffed get a hack subforum?

Merci beaucoup.

A key point that's been brought up in these playtests has been player motivation and bringing the group together, and now that I've had one 'mission' scenario and one 'sandbox' scenario played out, I've started to collate what needs fixing/fleshing out, so I'll keep a list here for keeping track:

* Give players more reasons to interact/team up with one another.
* Figure out how to make the playbooks more than inventive toolkits for causing pain.
* Collate moves into 'Public' and 'Specific' to help with cross-playbook move choices. Maybe alter/expand some playbooks to have viable selectable moves.

That being said, one thing I'm noticing right now is that this system lacks real long-term appeal. It's mechanically fine for one session, but I get the feeling that it's going to be hard for players to connect with, essentially, a bunch of antagonists whose only purpose is to hurt other people. It's essentially enforced murderhobo rules without the benefit of the cast being technically good guys. I'm kicking ideas around, and I'll come back to this in a few days ideally with a fresh perspective, but I'm getting this nagging feeling that this scenario and style would be better suited to a more intensive sit-down-and-play system than the more narrative-focused PBTA engine.

Blah. Here's hoping I can figure something out.

Aw Christ, I completely dropped the ball on this - I've found a group that can do 1AM EST Tuesday, and I can totally fork you in if you're free, but I got completely sidelined getting those guys set up that I didn't update you.

I am all kinds of freaking dumb, I swear to God. If you can't make it, I'll see if I can arrange a BFA-specific session.

Right! Wee update. I've found a couple of people over on the Drunk & Ugly forums who are also down for some shenanigans. I think a Saturday night is a good idea, maybe a Friday, depending, so if people could let me know what their timeslots/timezones are, I can start knocking stuff together.

You guys are neat.

Ah, that's all groovy. Dont worry about crediting unless it's wholesale.

I'll have a riot around the interwebs and see who I can find to try this out.

Also, minor update - a conversation with one of the previous testers brought up a good point. Gaining Creep for just straight-up killing kind of makes the brute force skins a little overpowered in comparison to the more thinky characters who have to manipulate NPCs. An alternative would be to play that side of things more softly on the MC, awarding Creep when the players do suitably horrible, macabre or disgusting things, or possibly only when mortal NPCs are actually scared or shaken.

Blah. Something.

pbp?

Well, Live would be preferable. I have Tabletop Simulator, but straight Skype would work fine.

If you want to take some ideas, by all means - if you wanted to draft over skins/etc if you could credit this system, I'd really appreciate it.