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Messages - NickDoyle

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Apocalypse World / Moves for barter and debt
« on: May 02, 2012, 08:44:28 PM »
I've put together a handful of moves for when your PCs are short of funds, and just have to scrape up some jingle. I could really use some feedback!

When you offer promises instead of payment, roll +hot: On a 10+, they're down with it, you gain 1-debt for each point of barter you're short, and you're on your merry way. On a 7-9, same thing, only they want something more: a favor, a little something something, or a bigger debt than the value you're receiving. On a miss, no dice, and you've pissed them off.

When somebody owes you, you are always considered to have leverage when you manipulate them, and you may choose to roll +debt against them instead of +hot.

When you're in debt, at the start of each session roll +debt (if you owe more than one person then just roll the highest, you deadbeat). On a 10+, they're looking for the full value, right now, and they'll do whatever they can to extract it from you. On a 7-9, they're willing to let it slide for a bit longer, but they're going to want something for their trouble: a favor, a little something something, or maybe a down payment. On a miss, they've got other things on their mind, but they'll get around to you eventually.

You know I'm good for it: (Operator playbook move) whenever you offer promises instead of payment, you always succeed as though you had rolled a 10+. If you attempt to use this move on somebody you already owe a debt, you are acting under fire.

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Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Turncoat
« on: May 02, 2012, 07:06:20 PM »
I just take one of the original trifold play books (whichever is closest to what I want layout-wise) and edit it using Adobe Acrobat Pro. It's probably about the least efficient way of doing it, but I haven't taken the time to learn InDesign or anything else.  There are threads out there that discuss the various fonts used by the play books, but you can get them from the document properties in Acrobat. There's also a good explanation of the technique for making the cool B&W images somewhere, but I'm on my tablet right now and don't have the links handy...

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Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Turncoat
« on: April 05, 2012, 02:26:35 PM »
It seems to me the playbook is better without "In The Wind". It's just a reworded "Eye On The Door", and it's far more interesting for this playbook to get into something or somewhere and need help getting out.

Yeah, there's some definite overlap with these two.  If I were going to sub in a whole new move, In The Wind is what would probably get dropped.

The current frontrunners for replacement moves are:
a) something that covers sabotage for messing with a hold's equipment and infrastructure
b) something that lets the turncoat retroactively declare some kind of contingency plan or arrangement, similar to this bit from the (IIRC) Advanced Fuckery chapter:
Quote
When you declare retroactively that you’ve already set
something up, roll+sharp. On a 10+, it’s just as you say. On a
7–9, you set it up, yes, but here at the crucial moment the MC
can introduce some hitch or delay. On a miss, you set it up,
yes, but since then things you don’t know about have seriously
changed.

Personally I'm leaning towards sabotage, but I haven't come up with any details for what it would look like.

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Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Turncoat
« on: April 04, 2012, 12:22:45 PM »
Maybe:
- Tell someone they work with the cabal, possibly without knowing they're a -cabal-. Tell them Hx+1.
- If one person is a member of the cabal, they get Hx+3, and an interesting life.
- Somebody is someone the cabal -wants-, add +1 Hx to your number.
I like these.  One result of allowing the turncoat to wrap a number of other PCs into the cabal's story is that the turncoat playbook becomes a very defining force in the campaign.  Similar to having someone play a hardholder (where most of the other PCs live under her rule) or the hocus (if many of the PCs are members of her cult).  There's nothing wrong with giving that much narrative weight to the turncoat playbook, but I think you'd want to be aware of the implications before adding one to your game.

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Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Turncoat
« on: April 04, 2012, 12:19:33 AM »
I kind of wish that the Hx options were a bit more robust, maybe including other player-involvement with the cabal.
Oh!  For some reason that didn't occur to me.  That's a great idea.  Do you have any specific examples?

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Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Turncoat
« on: April 03, 2012, 10:49:26 PM »
There is some overlap between In the wind and Break and enter as well as the 9mm you can chose as weapon and as covert gear.
Yeah, the silencer was kind of the point for the covert gear choice and I almost made it just the silencer, not the silencer & gun combo.  I might also ditch one of the enter/exit moves and replace it with something else entirely.  You're right about the overlap.

(mind if I rob it for my Shadowrun hack ? It would be the perfect Convert Ops Agent :D )
Please do!  Everybody is welcome to do anything they want with it!

I am curious why you would lose 2 trust on a risky task? I mean they know its risky, so should't you get by with no loss on something risky if you fail... instead maybe there should be something that would measures how sensitive the task is to the Cabal's agenda?
Maybe the -2trust is too much for botching a risky job.  I suppose the fact that you just botched a risky job is already rife with ugly consequences, so that the standard -1trust is enough.

Twisting the Screws is nice... but there should be a Countdown for being Burned.
I think so too.  With all the Cabal stuff and the task stuff I was worried that the playbook brought too many brand new elements into play already (not to mention that there's only so much space on those darn trifolds)

I am also curious about the Sex move, what was the reasoning behind it? I like it (its one of the only -1Hx I have seen), but I would like more explaination in the design thought process.
Sex has always been a part of tradecraft, as far as I know, and so I was looking for a sex move that let the turncoat get close to somebody in order to manipulate them.  Since there are some moves that require rolling +Hx against folks, I thought it would be fun to throw in something that put the turncoat's sexual dupes in a tight spot, where they're thinking all this time we've spent together, and I just don't know this person at all...  At least, that's what I think I was going for.  It was one of the first bits I wrote for the playbook, which was quite a while ago.

Pants on Fire is awesome!
Yes!  It's pure Michael Pfaff; name, effect, everything.  I'm more than a little jealous that it's my favourite thing on the whole playbook!

Could I steal ambition/cabal as an advancement option for the playbook? I tried to do much the same thing you did with it, but yours is perfect where mine is thrown together haphazardly.
Steal away!  As far as I'm concerned I practically stole it from the Hoarder playbook anyways... A cabal and a hoard are mechanically the exact same thing: something that exists externally to the character thats got it's claws into them. A cabal/hoard has demands but can be mollified, and can be generous with its resources if it's happy.

Oh, and a slight worry of mine is that some of the moves are very dependant on other players taking action in regards to the Turncoat. Which is cool in a lot of cases, since the Turncoat is by default situated so that other players will want to interact with her if they want to stop her from blowing shit up. But what if they don't, what if they want to be fellow agents? Just as cool a game to be played fiction-wise, but then it narrows down the mechanical advancement options a Turncoat gets by quite a bit.
Well, I think a quick look around the table would tell the turncoat's player if the PC-on-PC moves are going to be useful.  If another player is taking a hardholder and you're playing a spy who's working for somebody other than them, you might well want slippery or pants on fire.  Let's face it, you're gonna be lying to them and facing their scrutiny, or even harder moves.

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Apocalypse World / New Playbook: The Turncoat
« on: April 03, 2012, 12:17:50 AM »
I've had this playbook on the back burner for quite a while and finally put the finishing touches on it...

Introducing the Turncoat:

In a world filled with concrete compounds and gangs of gunluggers, hardholders war upon each other with abandon, making moves as hard and direct as they like.  It's just that sometimes hard and direct won't get the job done.  Sometimes they need a watchful eye, a deft hand, a knife in the dark.  Sometimes they need somebody like you.

Who knows?  If you keep your target in sight, your employers happy, and the locals in the dark, you just might get out alive.


https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_XJtVbYj_jjcS10RjRzZURTTktTUjYtdGJhdDNwdw

It hasn't been playtested, and comments/feedback would be most welcome.  Also, thanks go to Michael Pfaff for his pants on fire move!

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blood & guts / Re: Feedback please on Custom Move
« on: March 23, 2012, 07:58:04 PM »
I'm not sure if the versatility of the move is its strength or its weakness.

It looks like you could belly up to the bar and declare your intention to be whatever lets you roll your best (or highlighted) stat, and then just pick results that are meant to match up with a different intention.

Frex: Dogman wants to get his Fuck-on, but he's Hot -2.  But that's okay, because he can just belly up to the bar and declare that he's looking for trouble and roll his Hard +2 instead.  On either a 10+ or a 7-9 he can choose to get his fuck-on, as well as picking another option that's a bit more in keeping with his stated intention.

Fictionally, this isn't the end of the world.  Dogman knows he's nothing much to look at, and never has the right words to sweet-talk the ladies.  But he does know that if he bellies up to the bar looking for trouble, he can choose to beat the crap out of somebody, showing off how tough he is, and probably get laid by a gal who gets off on that kind of thing.

Actually, having written out that example, I kinda like it.  The move lets you get what you want using a wide variety of tactics.

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blood & guts / Re: XP as a Commodity?
« on: March 19, 2012, 03:19:03 PM »
A solid in-fiction explanation of what this mechanic represents would go a fair way towards selling the concept.  If the XP is being bartered between two players, what are their characters talking about?  What would it look like?

"I spent three days beneath the Monolith, hiding from the cannibals that killed my friends.  Three days of fear and loss.  They can be yours, for the right price.  I know I don't want them anymore..."

Maybe a Weird move that allows the transfer?  If it carries some risk of the MC making a hard move, the players might think twice before engaging in casual use of the mechanic.

Also, if it's established that the PCs can trade this sort of thing like a commodity, what about NPCs?  If they can as well, is there a concern that a relatively rich PC can start to buy XP by bartering their oddments in the marketplace?  Fiction-side, the NPCs are out there learning, surviving, getting by.  Rules-side, NPCs don't accumulate XP.  You might need guidelines for how many "loose" XP any given NPC might have lying around.

I think it's a neat idea.  It would really affect the fiction of the game, I'd imagine.

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blood & guts / Re: Playing in a setting with just one playbook?
« on: March 13, 2012, 10:30:06 PM »
Niche protection could be created (to some degree) through a couple other methods:

1) If there were a nice big list of moves and no character could choose a move already taken by another.  Mini-specializations, as it were.

2) The setting lets players differentiate their characters through the Secrets that they know.  Suppose three characters are fairly similar in general aptitude and skill, but one of them knows about dealing with mutants, one of them knows a safe path through a particular deadly location, and the third knows how to bypass the Brain Scorcher.  The three of them together are capable of slipping past the mutant nests, through the dangerous location, and past the Brain Scorcher to find the treasure beyond.  They're each vital to the success of the expedition, because they know Secrets the others do not.  It's a degree of niche-protection, though not as concrete as discrete playbooks.

Something else I've thought about is voluntarily surrendering your niche-protection.  Suppose your character knows some Secret that the crew will need to deal with some hazard.  Do you keep it to yourself, pissing them off but ensuring that they need to keep you safe until your knowledge is required?  Or do you share that Secret, improving the odds of the crew's success but making you personally less necessary and degrading the value of your hard-won Secret by spreading it around?

TL;DR Niche protection could be maintained by emplasizing what you know instead of what you can do.

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blood & guts / Playing in a setting with just one playbook?
« on: March 13, 2012, 04:57:16 PM »
I've been working on a hack for the Stalker/Roadside Picnic setting and I've been thinking about making just one playbook for all the players to use.

The characters will all be Stalkers, who will have different areas of specialty and expertise, but perhaps not enough to make a whole handful of separate playbooks appropriate.

If anyone has some familiarity with this setting from the novel/film/videogames, I could use some suggestions on what separate playbooks would be useful beyond the generic 'Stalker'...

If the playbook had significantly more moves to choose from, it would be possible to have three or four players make characters with no duplication of moves.

Is this a terrible idea?  Anyone see serious problems with it?  My enthusiasm might be blinding me to the downside of this.

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brainstorming & development / Re: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. hack
« on: March 12, 2012, 05:36:54 PM »
You should mostly be looking at i) what different kind of threats you want to add;

I agree that there's work to be done putting the dangers of the Zone together as Threats and their respective MC Threat Moves. The stuff I've done so far doesn't address this sort of thing yet.

ii) how the PCs interface with these threats

What I'm trying to do with Secrets is create a player-side mechanic to help represent their characters' level of familiarity with specific poorly-understood dangers within the Zone.  Since learning these secrets is the core activity of the setting, I think it needs player-accessible mechanics. 

(maybe they get XP for discovering them instead of through stat highlights,

Good idea!  Nothing like marking experience to underscore the core activity!

or use figured-out secrets as some kind of a barter mechanic).

A very setting-appropriate activity.  I think some of the moves I've made include this notion, but perhaps something a bit more concrete is called for.

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brainstorming & development / Re: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. hack
« on: March 12, 2012, 02:12:55 PM »
I have considered a new set of stats, but I think the standard Cool, Hard, Hot, etc still really work for the feel of the Zone.  Even Weird is kind of perfect for a stalker's relationship with the Zone itself.

The only thing I was looking for that the standard stats don't cover are Secrets.  When I think about the the core activity for a Stalker game it always comes down to 'determined outlaws teasing out the Zone's secrets'.  I think it needs a mechanic to reinforce things like They say Red found a safe path through the playground.  Nobody else ever has or maybe Nobody knows more about psy-dogs than Billy.  If you need to get around that pack, you need to talk to him.

Since the Secrets are so narrow in focus (eg I know how to get through the Brain Scorcher) I didn't think that an entire stat would work.

I've used a handful of moves for learning and using Secrets, but I'm wondering if it's a bit clumsy.  I'm not sure how I would make it run off a new stat.

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Apocalypse World / Radiation countdown clock?
« on: March 08, 2012, 06:57:10 PM »
I'm trying to put together some rules for radiation and the countdown clock seems like a very obvious choice for tracking how much radiation a character has been exposed to.  It's so obvious that I'm sure somebody has already made one, although a search of the forum hasn't turned anything up.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

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brainstorming & development / Re: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. hack
« on: March 08, 2012, 04:11:12 PM »
This thing, rolling without adding stats...
Do you want to keep these moves really mean, or you just moving away from the established stats?

I was having trouble coming up with a decent stat other than Sharp for rifle a dead man's pockets and poke through a stalker's hidden cache, and I think Sharp is already looking like the go-to stat choice for this game.  So mostly I'm looking for an alternative to making Sharp too heavily weighted...

I didn't think of stretch your supplies to the limit as a punishing move, because it dictates the state of your supplies after you use the hell out of them.  I does nothing to prohibit you from going crazy with your supplies and feeding a whole camp (or whatever) that first time.

Maybe there's room for a "roll +number of days since your last resupply" in there somewhere.

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