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Messages - Fniff

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1
Apocalypse World / Re: A Solitary Apocalypse World?
« on: April 18, 2018, 01:12:50 PM »
That is a solution, but I feel the NPC-rich playbooks are the most underused.
I feel there's a solution we're missing here.

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Apocalypse World / A Solitary Apocalypse World?
« on: April 18, 2018, 09:08:21 AM »
My friend and I were brainstorming a post-apocalyptic role-play. Something like Threads, Fallout Dust or Frost, or The Road: something that explored the solitude of the post-apocalypse.

The way we imagined it would be is that everyone apart from the other players would be either hostile or (rarely) indifferent to the players. Due to the trauma of the apocalypse, such a gap has developed between you and other people that it simply can't be bridged.

I said, hey, I think Apocalypse World would be perfect for that! All you have to do is exaggerate the threats, ask the right provocative questions, and barf forth the correct form of apocalyptica.

He said, no, Apocalypse World wouldn't really suit.
The problem is that AW, at its heart, is social. A lot of it is establishing how you exist in a post-apocalyptic. More directly, several playbooks (Chopper, Hardholder, Hocus, Maestro’d) specifically don't work in a solitary world.

I said, what if your subordinates were just as distant and strange? Then you have an army you can't quite trust.
He said, it's still your army. He used my Chopper Trouble in a Halfpint as an example: my gang are literally the worst people around, but they're still Trouble’s gang and they follow her.

Thinking on it, you could have your subordinates be also normal. After all, isn't it meant to be special you have this many people in such a lonely world?
But as my friend said, it screws the power dynamic and it's different feeling being along with 13 people than it is being along with 3 people.

Then again, you could just ban Hardholder et all from the game, but that seems cheap.

Is there a solution or am I barking up the wrong gaming system?

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Apocalypse World / Re: Descriptive NPC Harm
« on: January 29, 2018, 02:12:43 PM »
Perhaps the lightest option could be "they are overwhelmed, enraged, or terrified by the pain?". Not knocked unconscious or anything, but their behavior definitely changes.

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Apocalypse World / Re: Opening Your Brain in a Solo RP?
« on: September 18, 2017, 02:28:03 PM »
First of all, even if I don't personally respond to it, thank you all for your posts. They were all helpful.

To Munin, that is excellent. Seeing Tarot in action, I see it adding a lot to my games! I've already tried it on its own, and that was enough to make me excited for trying it out in-game (and maybe getting a tarot deck of my own...). So, thank you so much.

To Ebok, two things.
One, the reason why I play solo RPs is that I live in an isolated area and don't get to play certain games very often. I've tried setting up Apocalypse World games before and unfortunately they've all fallen apart before they got really interesting.
Solo RPs may lack that communal aspect and if I was only playing solo RPs that would be definitely miss. However, I can do a solo RP whenever I want, about whatever I want. That is incredibly convenient.

Two, I haven't played enough Apocalypse World to truly start defining what the maelstrom means to me. However, I think I have figured out what Opening Your Brain is. Seperate the psychic stuff from it. Open Your Brain is the mechanical version of...
Well, you know that scene in a film where the twist is revealed? The characters goggle in wonder and horror while shots from earlier in the movie are shown, which now take on a completely different meaning from their initial appearance? That's Opening Your Brain.
At least to me. Don't know about you guys.

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Apocalypse World / Re: Opening Your Brain in a Solo RP?
« on: September 15, 2017, 05:39:58 PM »
Thank you all so much for your responses!
*snip*
I see your point about AW being communal. Solo RPs always lack that element, by design. They make up for it by being much simpler to setup.
If you want the result of Open Your Brain to be a surprise, maybe try answering the question before looking at randomized pictures, then look at the pictures and then require yourself to come to a different conclusion than the initial one.
I like that! I'll try that next time I'm playing. That, and...

I'll tell you what, give me an example of a situation under which you're opening your brain, and I'll whip out some cards and give you an interpretation to show you how you can make it work in your game.
Well, this is a first. Someone wants me to relate my roleplaying stories. :P

Okay, let's take the story of my Gunlugger, John 2:14. She's in a hardhold in a swamp, it's basically post-apocalyptic Jonestown complete with charismatic cult leader (modelled off Nick Cave, natch) and Christian overtones. Funfact, my first thought for the game was "How about Outlast 2, except good?"

She's just decimated a rival family's gang by herself. They're after her for being in a relationship with a woman - a psychic one, no less. The cult leader is slack on punishing her since she's head of town security (being the biggest badass and has the only gun in town), so the family took matters into their own hands. After failing a seize by force to mop up the survivors, she gets clubbed in the back of the head.

She wakes up crucified (with rope, thank god) in a dank basement across from a woman named Veil holding an axe and wearing nothing but a cloak and about three layers of blood. This is a fairly small hardhold and John has never seen her before. They stare off for a while, saying nothing, before John bolts for the door and Veil bolts too. John manages to lock the door on her but Veil grabs her left arm and chops it off before she can.

So, John is in a dark, labyrinthine basement. A madwoman pounds on the door behind her, her guns are gone, she's missing an arm...
And there's something watching her.

Hopefully that should be enough material for your reading, Munin!

6
Apocalypse World / Opening Your Brain in a Solo RP?
« on: September 14, 2017, 09:56:58 AM »
I've been trying out solo roleplaying, where it's just yourself and a GM emulator like Conjectural Roleplaying GM Emulator. There's been a few examples on the forums, and I've had a very good time using it with Apocalypse World.

However!
I've noticed that, even when I'm playing a high weird character, I don't use Open Your Brain very much. You see, Going Aggro, Manipulating, Acting Under Fire, these moves have immediate effects in the fiction. Even Reading a Sitch/Person suggests questions I might not think of: if Keeler says he's gonna kill me, he might be lying.

The problem is, the point of Opening Your Brain (it seems to me) is for the MC to give the player a piece of information that they couldn't have learned otherwise. This works fine in a normal RP, but not in a solo one since I am the player AND the MC.

I've tried using randomized pictures to simulate trying to make sense of the psychic maelstrom, but that tends to lead to me piecing them together to form the most obvious conclusion, which doesn't seem fitting.

What do you guys think would be the solution?

7
Apocalypse World / Apocalypse World, Play By Post?
« on: April 27, 2017, 07:52:53 PM »
If you're playing on a forum or play-by-post, how do you use 'at the start of the session...'-style moves?

8
Apocalypse World / Re: Confused about Pack Alpha (Chopper)
« on: December 12, 2016, 01:04:20 PM »
I find this move makes a lot more sense if you interpret 'they do what you want' as 'they do it and don't half-ass it'.

So in the other two options, they do what you want but they don't put their backs into it. In battle, for instance, they'd take potshots from a distance and scatter as soon as they encounter resistance.

9
Apocalypse World / Re: Who's the average person of your apocalypse
« on: November 04, 2016, 01:54:13 PM »
When I think about average denizens, I generally think of that truck gang from The Road, The Wretched (the poor fuckers begging for water) from Mad Max: Fury Road or the children from the ending of the BBC drama Threads (Can't find any good links to that particular scene, but if you need inspiration for a particularly bleak Apocalypse World, give the whole thing a watch).

Like life in Apocalypse World, they are brutal, nasty, and full of surprises. Make them slightly alien. Not unknowable. Just every so often have them react to situations like no sane modern person would.
Example: a Gunlugger PC kills a troublemaker, then watches in horror as a dozen children descend on the poor bastard in a feeding frenzy. After all, he's dead anyway, and that's perfectly good meat.

I don't think how they live is as important; worldbuilding like that is fairly simple once you know the basics of societies. Playing up scarcity and barfing forth apocalyptica are easier to forget and much more important.

10
I have an idea on an improvement to the water tower based off Paul's criticisms. This is intended for three players, but it works for four or more if you double up on the roles.

You let people pick their playbooks, maybe their stats. Then you spring the situation on them and let them pick their moves as the game develops.

Pick a random player and tell them that they're tied up with jumper cables to the antenna on top of a radio tower, shaking in the howling wind like a skeleton tree.
Tell another player that they're interrogating them, and that Bluenote on the other end of a CB radio says 'Ask about Doghead's stash. Don't take no for an answer, we're running out of time."
Then tell the last player that they're approaching the radio tower. Panky, Tee-shot, and Driller are guarding the gate to the chain link fence that surrounds it. At the top, you're damn sure Bluenote's up there, and nothing's gonna stop you from getting a word in with that asshole.

Spice this up with some obvious and provoactive questions (How'd you get captured, how rough do you wanna get when you're interrogating, who the fuck is Bluenote and why do you wanna talk to him, what's up with Doghead's stash) and see where the hell this goes.
No need to do 'a day in the life': this is a one-shot so move as fast as possible into a crazy situation.
Remember to let your players develop and mess around with it: for instance, if the interrogator wants to free the captive, that's awesome because that adds in more conflict.

What do you guys think? I think I'll try this with my next game, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

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Apocalypse World / Re: Clarification On Landscape Threat Moves
« on: August 16, 2016, 10:21:48 AM »
Man, thank you all for the great advice on how to handle this. I definitely like the idea of a custom move for turning people's loyalties. Your input shall make the town of Salvation a more interesting place to live... If not a nicer place. :P

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Apocalypse World / Re: Clarification On Landscape Threat Moves
« on: August 14, 2016, 10:04:24 AM »
I see what you're saying. But I still want to make the town a threat. I suppose I could have a nearby wasteland be a landscape threat, but none of the options for that seem compelling. Perhaps it would be fairer to have the threat apply only to certain parts of the town, outside of their home turf.
Maybe I'm missing something; are landscape threats just so that players have trouble moving around or can it be extended to creating a Pathologic/Silent Hill/Dark City atmosphere?

Thanks for telling me about how Landscape moves operate. I did notice they were rather indirect and 'soft'; makes sense for what is essentially malevolent scenery, I suppose. I think chiseling out the personality of the town will do a lot of good to making this threat sing.

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Apocalypse World / Clarification On Landscape Threat Moves
« on: August 13, 2016, 03:23:43 PM »
Hey, I just started my first game of Apocalypse World. It has a Landscape threat in it, and I'm looking for some clarification on how they work.

The threat in question is the town the players are based in, Salvation. It's a Mirage, with the impulse of enticing and betraying people. I'm thinking the town itself promises to be a place of safety and warmth, but if you settle down there you get fucked over by politics.

However, the moves for landscapes are a little unclear to me. I can understand them being indirect, but I'm not sure how I would present them in the fiction. The 'Present a Guide/Guardian' and 'Open Another Path' confuse me the most; what would that mean in the context of a shantytown divided by cutthroat politics?

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Apocalypse World / Re: Custom Playbook: The Ditto
« on: July 22, 2016, 08:19:20 AM »
Thank you, Munin! Glad you like the look of it. Is there anything that might need improvement? I did notice that 'takepity.exe' would be better if it just increased Hx, not just marked experience.

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Apocalypse World / Re: Custom Playbook: The Ditto
« on: July 20, 2016, 08:21:48 PM »
Apologies about the radio silence, but I've done some revision and streamlining of the Ditto, based off Daniel and Munin's thoughts. Take a look; hopefully Ditto v2.0 has improved from the last version.
Quote
Back in the Golden Age, folks had time to think about stupid crap. Shit like, "What's a human?". That got too hard to ponder, so they asked this thing called a 'computer' to figure it out for them.
While the sky turned black and the firestorms raged, a computer the size of hardhold thought long and hard about what a human was.
In the end, it was boiled down to three rules: a human has to think. A human has to reproduce. A human has to die.
But then the computer had nothing to think about and no-one to give it orders. So it decided for itself: if I follow these rules, can I make a human?
As you know yourself, Ditto, the answer is 'kind of'.


Get these two and one more.
error: entropy
You are succumbing to entropy at a startling rate. At the start of every session, roll+cool.
On a 10+, all systems optimal.
On a 7-9, choose one bug. These are in play until you get repaired.
* Your body will malfunction at an inconvenient time.
* All harm you take is doubled.
* If you refuse an order from anybody, it's acting under fire.
* If it's not a highlighted stat, you can't use any moves that roll using it.
On a miss, the MC chooses two bugs.
If someone wants to repair you, roll+Hx. On a hit, they can operate on you like a Savvyhead making something with the goal of repairing you. On a miss, they just can't figure out what's wrong with you.
You cannot operate on yourself.

c+p: (consciousness)
If you have intimate access to a person, you can copy their brain and place it into a suitable body, creating a robotic clone. Roll+weird.
On a 10+, hold 2.
On a 7-9, hold 1.
Spend your hold one-for-one on the following:
* The soul survives the copying process. Otherwise, they're a 'flat person'; they cannot do anything of their own initiative.
* The mind is intact and healthy. Otherwise, they're prone to delusions and psychosis.
* The body is mobile and functions well. Otherwise, it's immobile and prone to breakdowns.
On a miss, your creation despises you and breaks out of captivity. Tell your MC that it's a mutant - they'll get what you mean.

take_pity.exe
When someone repairs you, they mark experience.

initiate.(grief)
When something you created is destroyed, mark experience.

(set: $everything to 'die')
When you Seize by Force, roll+weird instead of hard. When you make a battle move that calls for hard, you can roll+weird instead.

free.will: overruled
You can control your creations remotely. You use your stats and don't suffer any harm they take; however, while you control them, you are not aware of your surroundings.

return; favor
When you help or interfere with someone who repaired you, what you add to their roll is increased. +3 on a 10+, +2 on a 7-9.

Name
Simon, Sho, Sonny, Hal, Orsina, Caroline, Ash, David, Kyoko, Maria.

Look
Mechanical body, dead body, mix and match body, skeletal body, makeshift body, spiderlike body.
Red eyes, dead eyes, human eyes, glowing eyes, video eyes, no eyes.
Filtered voice, monotone voice, singsong voice, stuttering voice, glitched voice, child's voice.

Stats
Cool -1 Hot =0 Hard +1 Sharp +1 Weird +2
Cool -2 Hot +1 Hard =0 Sharp +2 Weird +2
Cool =0 Hot -2 Hard +2  Sharp +1 Weird +2
Cool +1 Hot -1 Hard =0 Sharp =0 Weird +2

- Get +1cool (max cool+2)
- Get +1hard (max hard+2)
- Get +1hot (max hot+2)
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a vehicle (You detail)
- Get a gang (and Pack Alpha)
- Get a move from another playbook
- Get a move from another playbook
****
— get +1 to any stat (max stat+3)
— retire your character to safety
— create a second character to play
— change your character to a new playbook
— choose 3 basic moves and advance them.
— advance the other 3 basic moves.

Hx:
Ask one of these questions; just one.
* Which one of you has me down as property?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Who was someone I knew before I became like this?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Which one of you had a hand in my creation?
For that character, write Hx+3.

For everyone else, write Hx-2.

Ditto Special
When you die, you can do one last move. Treat this move as if you had rolled a 12+ on an advanced move.

Do share your thoughts.

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