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Messages - john anderson

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1
Apocalypse World / Re: Playbook: The Tribal
« on: September 13, 2010, 12:49:08 PM »
Quote
Somewhere Out There:  Name a person, place or thing out in the Wastelands that you want to find.  It exists.  Roll +Sharp.  On a success, you know where it is, but the MC chooses 1.  On a 7-9, the MC chooses 2.  A fail, the GM chooses 4.
•   It's far off;
•   In hostile territory;
•    it's in the vicinity;
•   You can't go back the same way you came;
•   it's been claimed;
•    it's not what you expected;
•   it's in danger.
This is fantastic. Do you mind if I borrow it?
John

2
Apocalypse World / Re: Playing cards for AW? Genius.
« on: September 12, 2010, 03:09:41 PM »
I can see Judd's point after having a thin about the cards. If I'm getting your point Judd (and it's been a long day at work), it could be stifling in that players may stick quite rigidly to the cards rather than playing their character.
John

3
Apocalypse World / Re: Experience Stat
« on: September 09, 2010, 09:26:55 AM »
I got confused. Yeah, as per experience, rolling that stat gains you an experience check and doesn't change the stat. And yes, I got the fact that characters choose the highlighted stat as well. 1 by another player & 1 from the MC.

Why? Partly to reinforce the fact that that stat is the most important for that type of character, and secondly to focus their experience gain to that stat.

John

4
Apocalypse World / Experience Stat
« on: September 09, 2010, 08:50:06 AM »
In the A|State hack we're looking at slightly changing one aspect of experience. In vanilla AW, one other player and the MC choose a stat each and when rolled you gain experience. In A|S we're going to try the following...

One player (and this includes the MC) can highlight 1 stat. The other highlighted stat is the defining stat for that character (Mapmaker is smarts etc). The player does not choose a stat to highlight. Other than that highlighting stats works exactly the same way.

Issue that may arise...
A single stat that max's out quite quickly.
The player loses the ability to highlight one of their own stats.

Any other thoughts?

John

5
Apocalypse|State / [A|S] Mapmaker
« on: September 09, 2010, 08:40:47 AM »
The Mapmake

Commerce and criminality with The City are often one and the same. Companies, gangs, and guilds work in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and borderline paranoia. To bridge the gaps and facilitate deals, the mapmakers exist. With staunchly maintained independence and a carefully constructed reputation, they broker, arrange, and communicate. They take a small percentage or a flat fee for their troubles, walking away once the deal has been struck. A|State page 161

Creating a Mapmaker
To create your mapmaker, choose name, look, stats, moves, gear and Hx.

Name
Choose a first name, a family name and/or street name from the list of names in The City.

Look
Male, female, obscured
Smart business attire, street clothes, 
Open face, rugged face, inscrutable face, calm and measured look
Calm green eyes, intense blue eyes, nervous brown eyes, scary grey eyes
Body

Stats
Stats (Cool, Hard, Rep, Smarts and Hope) range from -1 to +2, distribute stats so that the total equals +3.
Experience Stat: Cool (you gain experience when you roll cool)

Basic Moves:
You get all the basic moves

Mapmaker Moves
You get:
Skilled negotiator: When negotiating between two or more individuals, parties or groups, roll+smarts. The art of skillful negotiation is difficult at the best of times, within The City it can be brutal. Each party will provide a stake which is the primary single result they wish to see emerge from the negotiations. These two or more stakes are inherent to the process of negotiation. You are attempting to smooth the process and try to make everyone happy.
Between NPCs,
  • On a 10+, you are able to smooth egos and move the discussions beyond “I kill you!”, both parties get what they want with only a minor compromise.
  • On 7-9, positions are entrenched and making headway is like swimming in The Green canal. After much debate, neither party gets what they want due to the massive compromise required.
  • On  6-, negotiations totally collapse and all parties leave vowing bloody vengeance.
Between PCs,
  • If the both PCs agree to your compromise and carry out what agreed, they both gain experience. If one or both do not stick to the agreement, neither gains experience.
Note: The MC needs to make sure the stakes of each party are clear and achievable prior to the roll.

Choose 1: 
Criminal culture: When you need to contact an NPC from within the criminal world roll, roll+rep.
  • On a 10+, you are able to track down your contact and he is willing and able to help. Name the NPC.
  • On 7-9, you can locate the NPC (name him/her), but there’s no way they can help right now as they have a little problem. Perhaps its something you can assist with?
  • On  6-, the MC should make as hard a move as possible or offer a difficult choice.

Mapmakers walk a quaking tightrope between violently aggressive organisations, maintaining a careful balancing act, to ever avoid dropping into the abyss.  A|State page 161
People person: When you read a situation, roll+cool.

Mapmakers know many things, much of which must remain forever hidden. To betray secrets is the mark of death for a mapmaker. A|State page177
Keeper of secrets: When you wish to declare a secret about an important individual (NPC) or group, roll+rep,
  • On a 10+, write down the secret about a person (NPC) or organisation. Let the other players and MC know as It is now a fact within the setting.
  • On 7-9, you discover a secret about a person (NPC) or organisation you are interested in, but they know that you know...
  • On  6- you’ve been set up and word on the street is that people are after you. Your address where you can be found? Very large men with guns are watching it...
The MC can also offer a hard choice or go straight for dealing harm.

Note: the player should declare the fact prior to the roll, and the table as a whole has the right to call foul or to offer suggestions as to how the fact could be changed to be more appropriate.

Once trust is lost, then life finishes; either dying by slow inches as work dries up, or ending up as a cooling corpse slumped in an alley. A|State page177
Of course you can trust me!: when trying to seduce or manipulate an NPC roll+cool, if a PC, roll+Hx.

Gear
You get:
  • Oddments worth 1-barter
  • Clothes suitable to your look, including a piece worth 1-armour
  • An address you can be found and contacted at - player describes
  • A big list of names. Persons that can be contacted without difficulty (+valuable)

HX
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn. List the other characters’ names. Go around again for Hx. On your turn, choose 1, 2, or all 3:
  • One of them screwed up one of your gigs and nearly got you killed. Tell that player Hx-1.
  • One of them came to your aid in the past and got you out of a tricky situation. Tell that player Hx+2.
  • One of them has proved a valuable ally in the past. Tell that player Hx+1.
  • Tell everyone else Hx+2. You're well known in the burgh.

Improvement
Each time you improve, choose one of the following. Check it off; you can’t choose it again.
  • get +1cool (max cool+2)
  • get +1smarts (max sharp+2)
  • get +1hard (max hard+2)
  • get +1hope (max hard+2)
  • get a new mapmaker move
  • get a new mapmaker move
  • add another name to your address book (name and detail the NPC)
  • get a move from another playbook
  • get a move from another playbook

Barter
  • When you charge for your negotiating and arbitration services, you services cost...
  • 1-barter if dealing with the ordinary people of your burgh
  • 2-barter if dealing with criminal organisations
  • 1-credit if dealing with macrocorps

6
Apocalypse World / Re: Acting under fire?
« on: September 08, 2010, 09:05:06 AM »
Cheers guys,
Nope, no example just trying to get my head around things. However, your replies have given me that 'lightbulb over head' moment. It escalates the conflict and gives the MC a cue to hit em hard. In effect it shifts the focus from the patient onto the healer.
Much appreciated.
John

7
Apocalypse World / Re: Acting under fire?
« on: September 08, 2010, 08:47:19 AM »
Hmm. The problem I have with this is that acting under fire is a specific outcome for a heal roll that is 7-9. In effect, if you made the pc roll for acting under fire prior to the heal roll, the result could be acting under fire. I know I'm being pedantic here, but I am honestly confused by this.
John

8
Apocalypse World / Acting under fire?
« on: September 08, 2010, 08:36:27 AM »
So, as per pages 172-173, using an Angel kit to heal Uncle (hurt to 10:00), you roll+stock spent. On a 7-9, Uncle is stabilised and heals to 06:00. Now, let's assume the MC also decides you're acting under fire, describing how Uncle is delirious and thrashing out.

The problem I can't get my head around is the roll for acting under fire. The PC has already stabilised Uncle, but does acting under fire mean that the PC has to roll again? If so, how do the results of the acting under fire roll relate to the event that's already occurred? Uncle's already been stabilised. Do we retroactively deny that successful heal roll?

John

9
Apocalypse|State / Re: [Apocalypse|State] - The Ghostfighter
« on: September 08, 2010, 04:54:03 AM »
Cheers Gregor, I'm enjoying re-reading all the A|State stuff I've got, trawling the CGS forum for obscure questions not covered in the books and generally trying to do justice to both AW & A|S. 
John


10
Apocalypse|State / Re: [Apocalypse|State] - The MC
« on: September 07, 2010, 11:20:09 AM »
Renamed, 'Respond with despair and a flickering of hope'.
John

11
Apocalypse World / Playing cards for AW? Genius.
« on: September 07, 2010, 11:07:50 AM »
Rob Donahue on AW and the utility of using cards as an element of play.

Quote from: Rob Donahue
I want to zero in on a particular element of the rules that really struck me as interesting, that is to say, how strongly the rules seem in keeping with those of a Collectible (or non-Collectible) card game.

I hadn't even thought of that approach, but I've got to say, it's very good. Now, who knows of any open source ccg card-making utility?

Secondly, Vincent, when you designed AW, was this ever a design consideration?

John

12
Apocalypse|State / [Apocalypse|State] - The MC
« on: September 06, 2010, 01:54:49 PM »
The MC chapter will remain essentially unchanged apart from where, thematically, it makes sense to rename principles and moves.

Quote
Respond with despair and intermittent rewards: When a player character sets out to achieve something, they are acting out of hope. Hope that what they want to happen in the fiction will happen. This is where you barf forth The City all over their hope. Give them what they want but twist it so that it becomes something darker and definitely not the result they really wanted. This is a great time to introduce the shifted, dark places, the shift and other generally unpleasant stuff that The City has to offer.

Example.
Wilbur Shivers, lostfinder of follygate project puts the word out on the streets that he wants to speak to a certain Flintwich Humbolt, a notorious local pedarast, over the disappearance of a number of children in the burgh.


The MC decides now is a great time to mess with the player's head. No roll is required, instead the MC says...

Three days later, three hagar enter Wilbur’s garret, a silent simil in tow. The hagar turn towards the simil, and it lifts it’s head and Flintwich’s terrified face, newly transplanted atop a simil’s wheezing and clanking mechanical body meets Wilbur’s. “Help me” he whispers imploringly. “Payment”, the hagar rasp in unison.

However, don’t overuse this. Occasionally give the character exactly what the player wanted, maybe even a bit more. Play with the players’ minds such that they will want to keep trying out of the belief that this time they will get what they actually want. How often do you make the ratio between despair and hope? You know your group best, just don’t make it predictable.

This replaces respond with "Respond with fuckery and intermittent rewards", and is an attempt to better hone in on giving the MC the thematic tools to bring in the decidedly weird stuff the setting has to offer.

John

13
Apocalypse|State / Re: [Apocalypse|State] - The Lost Places
« on: September 05, 2010, 08:59:13 AM »
So, first thoughts after mulling this over.

Peer into the Dark Places: When you really start to look around you during any particular situation, there’s a chance you may get a glimpse of just too much, peering into the shadows of the City. Roll+weird,
  • On a 10+, you will get two new facts that relate to the shift or the shifted that's tied to the situation or location.
  • On a 7-9, the MC will tell you 1 new fact as for 10+, but the fact dazes you, you are acting under fire.
  • On a 6-, you have attracted the attention of something from the Dark Places. The MC will no doubt be able to come up with something. See The Shift for ideas.

Not sure. Thoughts?

John

14
Apocalypse|State / Re: Apocalypse|State - Economy
« on: September 05, 2010, 08:50:21 AM »
Hmmm, there's no ...but clause in the barter move. How about?

Barter move: To buy what you want, you need to have as much barter as the price of the item you want. Roll+smarts,

  • On a 10+, you buy what you wanted for the agreed price, subtract that many barter items from your possessions.
  • On a 7-9, you can buy it, but it'll cost you 1 more barter than listed. The trader saw you coming, and has some large lads with sparklocks as his complaints department. Subtract 1 more barter from your barter items than the original price if you wish to buy it, otherwise walk away. Want it but don't have enough barter? Better find some more, or you'll be meeting the complaints department.
  • On a 1-6, the trader had what you wanted, but he just sold the last one not ten minutes ago. If you hurry you could catch him and his heavily armed friends.

This also means any prospective expert move would read...

  • On a 12+, you drive a hard bargain, you get the item and pay 1 less barter than the price given.

John

15
Apocalypse|State / Re: [Apocalypse|State] - The Ghostfighter
« on: September 05, 2010, 05:36:51 AM »
While most of this character will remain, it was more of a concept character. With the addition of origins and upbringing I'll need to redo the character.
John

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