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Topics - Robert Bohl

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1
AW:Dark Age / Thoughts while reading
« on: March 16, 2014, 02:26:04 PM »
  • I love Go Into Battle move. I can't wait to see it in action.
  • It's interesting to me that Draw Someone Out puts some perceptual power in Hot. I'm guessing it's so Sharp isn't so much of a double dip, and the name of the move suggests a way to color the outcomes so it doesn't just feel like perception, but there's unavoidably a perceptual element to it.
  • I feel like the names of the moves in this version are much clearer in indicating what triggers them.
  • If you get the middling result for praying, the gods tell you whether they will or will not accept your offering. I interpret that to mean that they might accept your offering but you won't know whether or not they'll tell you anything for it, or they'll reject and maybe if you try a different offering you might get lucky and get what you want. I'm comfortable with the latter interpretation, but the latter makes me uncomfortable. So basically, what do you think a middling result means here?
  • I really like the helping rules, how they bump you up a success category. Very satisfying design. Same with damage / Fates. I can' twait to see this in play. It's so much more engaging than the harm clock for me.
  • I love the way the world's history has been included throughout but not in a very aggressive way. It kinda reminds me of the way the world is suggested in Burning Wheel, only more directed and important. Great shit. In fact, the two Common Knowledge pages have me all geeking out and shit. I love the Ranks, the different Genealogies, etc. And, of course, there's a huge section on fashion!
  • I appreciate his making a world where he explicitly states that girls can be warriors and non-"white" people are present. I suspect Vincent had in his mind cutting short the hundreds of people who will see "Dark Age" in the title and get all shitty about what's "historically accurate." Good move!
  • I love, love, love the monster creator.
  • The new XP system is neat too. Eager to see how it plays out. I think I like it more. I definitely have the tendency in AW to try to achieve everything through my highlighted stats. This thing where you're pushed to use your whole sheet is cool and I think I'll like it more.
  • I sound like a broken record, but Oaths are really cool and I can't wait to see them in play.
  • I think I want to play every one of these playbooks, but I'm MCing! Alack and alas!
  • Interesting that, with the focus gender got in AW there isn't even a place to put it on the sheets I've read so far (again, unless I missed it).
  • It seems like having everything but one thing in want will be a pain in the ass for the MC to track, especially if more than one person gets it. I suppose the directive is to focus on the things that interest you.
  • Is there any benefit to having a lower Rank?
  • Cool, Hot, and Weird (and maybe Sharp), as names for stats, feel anachronistic to me in this game.
  • The equipment / magic item list for the Troll-Hunter is super-fun too. Lots of grist there.
  • Does use of the Wolfpack move by a character mean that the MC must introduce someone who doesn't want to follow the order? I really like the loyalty system inside of this move.
  • Interesting (and in keeping with Vincent's design style) that PCs can't be forced to love anyone by a Charm. Of course, the ceremonial equivalent is predictably badass.
  • Now I feel the need to design a Sharp-focused playbook. Maybe that jester archetype I wanted to play? Sharp goes well with a general courtier sort of concept. Especially in these stories, having a non-noble schemer who cannot be noble is fun.

2
Apocalypse World / Treepocalypse Fronts (spoilers for the series)
« on: April 06, 2011, 02:46:19 PM »
NOTE: If you're playing in this game, reading this thread will make you sad. I recommend against it.

So, I wrote up my first Front for the Treepocalypse game. I'd welcome any comments or ideas.

The customers

* Expresses: Hunger
* Dark future/agenda: If the Rout's cast and crew don't cope with the ravening needs of its customers, Dickson is going to be merely managing something he used to own. That is, if the Rout is left standing.
* Description & cast: The customers (past, present, and future) of the Route. Includes Rolfball, Toyota, Ba, and the blacklist of former clients and those who wish to be.
* Stakes questions
  • Will the protagonists have to kill Ba?
  • What did Rolfball do to Balls & Absinthe's sister
  • Will the blacklisters crack open the Rout?

Threat 1: Rolfball
Kind: Warlord (alpha wolf)
Impulse: hunt and dominate
Description & cast: 7' tall, missing most of his teath, gravelly voice. Leads a biker gang of "plant zombies," who are based out of the Gorge. There are about a dozen hard, well-armed thugs. Rolfball himself carries a sawed-off (3-harm, close, reload, messy) and armor-1.
Custom move: none yet
Countdown:
  • 12-3: Subtle threats
  • 3-6: Indirect moves against the Rout: supplies disrupted, ill-will raised
  • 6-9: Direct threats
  • 9-10: Seizing and murdering customers
  • 10-11: The Rout under siege
  • 11-12: Direct assault and takeover of the Rout

Threat 2: Toyota
Kind: Grotesque (pain addict)
Impulse: craves pain, its own or others'
Description & cast: Slim, 30s, friendly/slick, hidden knives (2-harm hand infinite)
Custom move: none yet
Countdown:
  • 12-3: Rothschild, a working girl, complains about him again.
  • 3-6: Toyota flirts with a PC
  • 6-9: Propositions a PC for sex
  • 9-10: Murder an NPC
  • 10-11: Spread lies and disinformation about the Rout
  • 11-12: Murder a PC in their sleep


Threat 3: Ba
Kind: Grotesque (disease vector)
Impulse: craves contact, intimate and/or anonymous
Description & cast: A kind, friendly, old, white-haired, dark-skinned man. He travels the world collecting little bits of treasure from before the trees. He trades these in to feed his compulsive sexual appetite with prostitutes, and as a result now has syphilis (though he doesn't know it). He's always got 2 oddments of 1-barter each to trade with.
Custom move: none yet
Countdown:
  • 12-3: Ba starts frequenting the Rout more than usual
  • 3-6: The workers are turning up sick
  • 6-9: The clients are turning up sick
  • 9-10: A PC gets sick
  • 10-11: Ba knows about his illness and is hiding it
  • 11-12: Ba betrays the Rout to save himself


Threat 4: The blacklist
Kind: Brutes (sybarites)
Impulse: to consume someone's resources
Description & cast: Assorted former clients who have been blackmailed, as well as people who want to be clients but haven't been let in.
Custom move: none yet
Countdown:
  • 12-3: Supplies are interrupted
  • 3-6: A rowdy gang shows up late at night demanding entrance
  • 6-9: The people who know how to invite people to the Rout are showing up dead
  • 9-10: Ula, who was definitively banned, returns and demands entrance
  • 10-11: Total blockade of supplies
  • 11-12: The blacklist is invited in as the Rout loses its exclusivity and secrecy.

3
Apocalypse World / [AP] Treepocalypse
« on: April 03, 2011, 08:55:52 PM »
The setting: The Rout, a secret brothel whose atmosphere offers its clients the finest remnants of the pre-apocalypse. The brothel is the ruin of Risley Residential College in Ithaca, NY. This was where (at least) one of the players ("Spiral Jacobs," aka Paula) lived when she went to Cornell University.

The apocalypse: All we know is that at some point, the trees decided to grow everywhere, grow virulently, aggressively, and quickly. Roads have to be constantly maintained and there are rumors of plant zombies roving the wilds. This rumor may grow out of the fact that if you sit still for 20 minutes or so, you've got plants growing on you, or it may be real.

(It's probably real.)

The cast:

Dickson, the Maestro'D, played by Paula, owns and operates the Rout. He inherited it from his dad within the past 5 years or so, when he died of syphilis.

Dickson is the only character I have the stats for: A man in vintage wear, with an expressive face, frank eyes, lean body, and playful hands. Looks like a Thin-White-Duke-era David Bowie. He's most attracted to Absinthe (see below).

Cool 0, Hard +1, Hot +2, Sharp +1, Weird -1, Moves: Fingers in every pie, everybody's got to eat

The Rout: offers sex as well as drinks and music, features intimacy, fantasy, luxury, and nostalgia. Its protection is everybody’s packing and secrecy, passwords, codes & signals, invites-only, vouching,
etc. Dickson takes care of his boys and girls.

Doc Margrave, the Angel, played by Matt, is a disturbing, advantage-taking, grinning maniac of a doctor. He's deeply weird and doesn't seem to understand fear. He makes his scratch by taking care of Dickson's employees and clients. He arrived in the Rout when Dickson's father was in charge, and he and Dickson worked together on the road a lot before Dickson took over the Rout.

Absinthe, the Battlebabe, played by Colleen, is the Rout's main muscle, and Dickson's right-hand girl. She arrived at the Rout after Dickson took over, looking for her sister. She got the prior bouncer fired and took his job over, and, if I remember correctly, gave up on finding her sister again. She dresses like a bygone-era prom queen, albeit one that brandishes a gigantic fuck-off magnum revolver with alarming casualness. And in case she wants to be subtle, there's a horrible spiked chain disguised as the dress's sash.

Other dramatis personae to come.

4
Apocalypse World / The "twinky" battlebabe
« on: March 28, 2011, 02:51:51 PM »
Hey folks,

I'm about to start a game on Skype set in a brothel after the world suffered a treepocalypse. My sense of the group's gaming experience is that it largely consists of White Wolf games, though there's a great deal of experience with other games, including some indie games.

One of the players said this:

Quote
Battlebabes are at +4, while everyone else is +3,  except Drivers and someone else who are +2.  Stuff like that irritates me.

My response was that I think that Battlebabes are of the hyperfocus type, and Drivers (et al.) are more of the generalist type. My sense is that this is right, but how do I respond to it?

5
Exodus / Open notes thread (or, Rob "reads" BSG)
« on: June 19, 2010, 08:55:48 AM »
Purposes of this thread:

* For me:To write any notes that occur to me as I watch Battlestar.
* For you: Chat with me (so, kinda for me, too) about my observations. I.e., feel free to participate.

EDIT: 6/19, I am posting VERY raw ideas, here. This is first-draft shit. It comes from my eyes to my fingers as I watch the discs. I don't mind discussion on these side-points, but please respect that these are exceedingly raw ideas. Some of them might be stupid.

6
the nerve core / Site suggestion
« on: June 09, 2010, 11:13:08 AM »
Vincent,

As it stands, the account creation tool sends the forum password "in the clear" in email. Is there any way to have it not send passwords?

7
The Dragon Killer / Where is the Dragon Killer?
« on: June 09, 2010, 11:12:15 AM »
I really want to play this.

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