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Topics - nerdwerds

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1
Apocalypse World / new threat type: Horrors
« on: October 17, 2021, 02:38:28 PM »
A horror is an unnatural creature - something inherently inhuman or inhumane. It either exists on the periphery of reality, barely understood, or its presence suggests profane and aberrant mutation, and more horrors to come.
- Beast (impulse: to hunt and feed)
- Progenitor (impulse: to breed)
- Butcher (impulse: to slaughter)
- Mockery (impulse: to sow turmoil/bedlam)
- Magpie (impulse: to steal and hoard valuables)
- Flood (impulse: to spread and claim territory)

Threat moves for horrors:
- push opening your brain
- display evidence of its inhuman nature
- attack suddenly, during a moment of calm or rest
- attack silently and/or without emotion
- leave behind evidence of brutality/savagery
- defy someone?s expectations
- snatch someone into it?s clutches
- seize space/something/someone and hold it
- maim or cripple someone
- destroy someone, transforming their nature

A horror threat should always be foreshadowed. Foreshadowing should be simple and easy to follow, but doesn't have to be believable.
I wrote this because I have often wanted to include monsters in some of my games. We played a campaign that included a zombie apocalypse and the regular threat types in the rulebook didn't always seem appropriate for what we were doing. I'll probably expand upon this more later.

2
Urban Shadows - A Modern Dark Fantasy game / What's your game like?
« on: February 03, 2020, 07:04:54 PM »
I'm interested in hearing some stories about groups that have played Urban Shadows. Please share some here!

3
Apocalypse World / the Driver has lost their "thing"
« on: July 26, 2017, 10:34:43 AM »
In 1st ed, the Driver was a badass behind the wheel of a vehicle and outside was subpar in stats and weaker in effectiveness.

In 2nd ed, the Driver seems to be Cool, but that's about it. Especially since a lot of playbooks can potentially start with vehicles now, there seems to be no incentive for playing the Driver except that they can possibly build a fleet of vehicles.

Every playbook has a THING, a gimmick that makes them special. The Angel has their kit, the Brainer is a psychic, the Chopper has a gang, etc. What does the Driver have that the other playbooks don't? I can't see it. The Driver has been neutered.

4
Apocalypse World / 2nd edition trifolds
« on: June 02, 2017, 06:05:35 PM »
Good morning friends!
Every so often I see somebody comment that they miss the old trifold style playbooks and I just wanted to let anyone who's interested know that I've made trifold playbooks for the 2nd edition playbooks and the links are up on my blog post hosting all of the 1st edition playbooks. I'm slowly getting around to making 2nd edition extras and trifolds for the basic 11 playbooks were my first project. Cheers!

5
Apocalypse World / introducing the Red Shirt
« on: November 28, 2014, 07:08:13 AM »
I had this idea in the middle of the last game I played - when one of my characters got killed while I was retiring another character and suddenly had nothing to play
consider this a rough draft, comments and criticism welcome



CREATING A RED SHIRT
To create your Red Shirt, choose name, look, stats, moves, gear and Hx.

NAME
Branson, Carlisle, Chilton, Dern, Haskell, Hawk, Hendorff, Kaplan, Leslie, Mallory, Marple, Monroe, Nell, Rizzo, Tasha, Thompson

LOOK
Male, Female, Ambiguous, Hidden, or Transgressing
Display wear, scrounge biker wear, showy wear, casual wear, or vintage wear
Rugged face, sweet face, severe face, weathered face, or strong face
Dazed eyes, cold eyes, calm eyes, narrow eyes, or wide eyes
Compact body, wiry body, sturdy body, stout body, or fir body

STATS
Choose one set:
? 0=Cool, +1 Hard, +1 Hot, +1 Sharp, -1 Weird
? +1 Cool, +1 Hard, 0=Hot, +1 Sharp, -1 Weird
? 0=Cool, +1 Hard, 0=Hot, +1 Sharp, 0=Weird
? 0=Cool, +1 Hard, -1 Hot, +1 Sharp, +1 Weird

MOVES
You get all the basic moves. You get Follower and Respawn, then choose another Red Shirt move.

GEAR
You get:
? oddments worth 1-barter
? one common firearm (see list on p.421)
? fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth 1-armor (you detail)

HX
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look, and outlook. Take your turn.
List the other character's names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn, choose both:
? You follow one of them. Tell that player Hx+3 and their HX with you will never rise or fall from that number.
? You don't trust one of them. Tell that player Hx-1.
Tell everybody else Hx+1, everybody knows who you work for.

On the other players's turns:
? Ignore the number the one you follow tells you and write Hx+3 next to the character’s name instead.
? For everybody else, write whatever number they tell you next to their character’s name.

RED SHIRT MOVES
Follower: you start as a member of another character's gang or crew, subject to their approval. Your role within the gang or crew should be defined between you and the other player. They are your leader. At the start of the session you can declare one of the gang's vulnerable tags as inactive, and the MC is not allowed to use that tag during a hard move unless you fail a roll and it makes sense to use the tag against you. The player you follow can make any start of session moves at +1forward as if you rolled HX and hit 10+, only your presence as a follower is needed for this. If there are no gangs or crews for you to join at the start of a game, then you can join the first gang or crew that another player gets without needing to justify how or why.

Respawn: your Harm clock only has 4 segments and you can't take debilities, but if you die you can return as part of the same gang or crew with a new Name, Look, Outlook and all of the same Stats and Moves. You respawn with zero barter and one common weapon, NOT a firearm (p.241) If you were not part of another player's gang or crew, you cannot Respawn.

Pack Beta: when your leader misses a Pack Alpha roll, you can intercept the bid to replace them. Roll+hard. On a hit, you can take the brunt of whatever attack might be coming at them. On a 10+, take +1forward or -1 to your harm move, whichever is more appropriate.

Number One: when your leader makes a roll+hard move that involves hold, they hold +1.

Miracle Worker: if your leader has a workspace, you count as a crew all by yourself. Any time they use their workspace, the MC can't pick more than 3 requirements for a project but can still string all 3 together with "and."

I am the cavalry: when your leader goes to 10 o'clock harm or higher you can arrive on the scene immediately, without any clear explanation why, by their side or in an advantageous position, your choice.

Backup planning: when your leader rolls moonlighting, they get +1juggling. If they don't have moonlighting then you give it to them, pick a job from the list and tell them they have +1juggling with it, if they pick up up moonlighting later then they get +2juggling instead.

The Burdens We Carry: when you read a situation, you can always ask "who is going to move against _*_ next?" even on a miss.
_*_ is always the name of your leader.

6
AW:Dark Age / Playtest Report: Eagles End
« on: September 09, 2014, 06:38:49 AM »
We began the session with a brief overview of a description of the setting to help everybody get into the mood. My players decided very quickly that they didn't want to include Christianity into the game and wanted to focus on mysticism and the fantastic. We ended up with a Dark Age that sounds-like-it-could-be-Earth but clearly isn't.

Because we ran out of time all we got to do was create everything and perform a single season move.

Creating the stronghold
Going through the options, right away somebody wanted the stronghold to have a library and another player wanted a shrine. They're both under the same option so I said their village has both a shrine and a library, the library is closer to the center of the village because they want it well-protected.

The enemies were quickly defined as people who want to destroy knowledge and hate the Empire of Eagles influence. I marked 'hostile clans' here and asked why these enemies would hate the old knowledge, the two ideas that were proposed were that either these enemies couldn't understand much of what was left behind and so they simply wanted to remove its influence, or that some of the knowledge was actually quite powerful stuff like details on how to smelt and build medieval era war machines. This created the idea that the Empire might have been very technologically advanced compared to the locals despite the Empire's decline. But there was also a consensus that anybody who still embraced the old Empire would be enemies to the revival of the Old Gods, and at that I marked 'remnants of the former crown's rule' and decided that the advanced Empire is still revered by some locals. This makes a lot less work for me because anybody who embraces the Old ways and anybody who still clings to the Empire will hate the PCs' stronghold since they gather and study lore left behind by both cultural groups!

When we began discussing fortifications and somebody suggested that their be some kind structure surrounding the stronghold where enemies could be crucified, but describing the brutality of crucifixion made everybody balk at being so ruthless (Here I made a note that their enemies could do this.) I finally passed the Stronghold sheet around the table rather than read off the options. As it passed from each player's hands they all had different options they felt were appropriate. A palisade outer wall and archers' overlooks were both selected, to help defend the village itself and keep their stronghold formidable for small bands. A hilltop position was selected right away after that, to help keep the library off of a flood plain and to make the archers' overlooks justified. Finally, an unusually rich treasury was selected, because gathering knowledge from the countryside also meant that they were gathering jewelry and riches left behind by the Empire's recession.

Detailing the armory became a sticking point because nobody could decide if they should have gear for 10, 20 or 60 warriors. Ultimately they chose the "for 20" option and with "bows and a supply of arrows" selected to compliment the archers' overlooks they added spears and round shields to compliment their hilltop village.

First issue: The selection of the armory was troubled because it wasn't clear what the choices meant (as others have stated) but also it wasn't clear how the improvements and wants fit in, so we ignored them.


you can click on the picture to see it bigger!

Creating Peoples
I insisted we create two Peoples and draw our characters from them, but really I wanted another way to draw conflicts by having two Peoples living together, and that decision fell apart during character creation. I also made creating a household part of character creation, because I view households as families, either through genetic relationships or adopted family members. I left the option open for players to make more if they wanted. Only one player took a People sheet but he left it mostly blank and handed it back to me (this became the Spider Clan).

Second issue: At the end of this process of creating Peoples I felt that creating a People should come before creating a Stronghold, because I think creating the Stronghold first informed how the Peoples were defined and I think it would have made more sense to create Peoples and explain how they came to be living within the Stronghold. But there also needed to be some good choices starting out for how many People should be created.

The first people created were the lore keepers and seekers of knowledge. As we negotiated the details of these Peoples these are the notes I was left with.

the Aetosians
Defined by their desire to gather and collect knowledge left behind by the Empire of Eagles, and consolidate it with the lore of the Old Ways that survived the Empire's reign. Most revere book keeping and historical record, they wish to found a school and are the stewards of a library, the keep Eagle shrines maintained. Cynical scholars, getting greedy as they collect more treasure and artifacts
They look fat and stocky, with pale skin and curly brown hair. They often wear gaudy, bright clothing.
Known for their obsessiveness over the traditions and customs passed down from the Empire of Eagles. Their sorcery, gaudy fashions, strategy & tactics, far-reaching trade routes.
They hold sacred any knowledge that can be acquired.
Numbers:  19 souls in 4 households with 5 warriors
+1 Rites
+0 War
+1 Wealth

the Aetosians were meant to be a people who had descended from pagans that had mixed with the people of the Empire

the Ferdigen
Defined by their ancestral ties to the land. They were once subjugated and enslaved by the Empire of Eagles, but now they speak of themselves as a people reborn.
They look athletic and muscular. With straight blonde hair and tan or tawny skin, they are simple people, but the loud coloring of clothing that the Empire wore, and that the Aetosians wear, has begun to creep into their fashion.
Known for their archers, craftsmanship, and skill at arms. They are a loyal people and consider themselves benevolent protectors of the Aetosians. Their celebrations where they venerate the uprising of the Old Gods sometimes last for days.
They hold sacred their ties to the land and the Aetosians' search for their lost heritage and traditions.
Numbers: 301 souls in 40 households with 40 warriors
-1 Rites
+2 War
+0 Wealth

the Ferdigen were meant to be pagans that didn't mix genetically with the Empire but served the Empire and had been influenced by it, they hold a long standing alliance with the Aetosians because of their direct connection to the Empire

behind the scenes: the names for our Peoples came from entering words that symbolized the People into google translate and switching up the languages until something sounded kinda cool with little modification, Ferdigen came from ferdighet (Hungarian for skill I think) and Aetosian came from aetos (Greek for lore I think).

there were more People to be made but a this point we began Creating Characters & Households
I announced that I would be designing a troll and pushed the players to select Trollkiller, War Captain and War Champion. I also announced that I would make a character along with everybody but I would pick my playbook once I everybody knew what they wanted to play. I also pointed out that the Court Wizard basically has the right to take the day off, in other words "I DON'T WORK ON SHABBAS!"
During this process I talked about a People I created called the Munii and several players were very taken with this People so several characters ended up as Munii. Early on I instructed players to make their character's Household during character creation, but if two or more players wanted to be part of the same Household they should negotiate that and make it together. I also ended up making some Peoples during this time based on my note taking (see below) and somebody joked the MC should have the right to railroad.

the Munii
Defined by their displacement from their homeland by the Empire of Eagles and scattered to many areas.
They look tall and fair-skinned, with muddy-brown hair that they keep loosely cut or tie back with simple ribbons, and typically wear simple clothes without ornamentation or unnecessary coloring.
Known for one prominent and large family who settled along the river in this region and built a village where their descendants now fish and hunt and only trade with those who prove themselves worthy. They are ever vigilant against monsters, their ruthlessness is matched by their great beauty, their sorcery and enchantments as well as their marvelous feasts are envied.
They speak the Nymenian language and hold the brutal cycle of nature sacred by worshipping spirit animals, especially predatory beasts such as wolves and bears.
Numbers: 50 souls in 6 households with 8 warriors.
+1 Rites
+0 War
+1 Wealth

We ended up with a Wicker-wise, Outranger, Dragon-Herald, Court Wizard, Troll-Killer, and a War Champion; and then I made a Keep-Liege.

Third issue: Households seemed extra and almost unnecessary. I explained Households to my players as families, so the characters of one Household might be related or some characters might have been adopted into those Households. It wasn't clear what the default starting equipment was for each character and I told players just to use their own best judgment based on how they wrote up their Households.
Somebody also mentioned that with HX no longer part of the game there was no decent place on the character sheet to list other characters' names. I told him his character sheet has a backside and he was amazed at how blank it was - I'm assuming the Household details should be on the back but I didn't print my sheets 2-sided.

7
AW:Dark Age / Created Peoples
« on: September 04, 2014, 09:58:29 PM »
I'm curious to see what other Peoples playtest groups have created so this thread is for posting People Creation details.

I'll start, this is my attempt at making some stereotypically old school D&D druid villagers:
the Munii
Defined by their displacement from their homeland by the Empire of Eagles and scattered to many areas.
They look tall and fair-skinned, with muddy-brown hair that they keep loosely cut or tie back with simple ribbons, and typically wear simple clothes without ornamentation or unnecessary coloring.
Known for one prominent and large family who settled along the river in this region and built a village where their descendants now fish and hunt and only trade with those who prove themselves worthy. They are ever vigilant against monsters, their ruthlessness is matched by their great beauty, their sorcery and enchantments as well as their marvelous feasts are envied.
They speak the Nymenian language and hold the brutal cycle of nature sacred by worshipping spirit animals, especially predatory beasts such as wolves and bears.
Numbers: 50 souls in 6 households with 8 warriors.
+1 Rites
+0 War
+1 Wealth
Notables:
Etzial, 3 in single combat, Aspires to hospitality and loyalty, Conscience allows her brutality, armed with bow & arrow (4 harm at range) and a hide coat (+1 armor)
Ataun, 2 in single combat, Aspires to honor, Conscience allows him brutality and vainglory, armed with axe (3 harm) and a hide coat (+1 armor)
Rast, 1 in single combat, Aspires to courage, Conscience allows him lying and robbery, armed with knife (2 harm) and a leather helmet (+1 armor)

8
the nerve core / Mad Max + The Road Warrior
« on: March 05, 2013, 04:40:21 AM »
Our gaming group didn't play last Sunday because half of us were out of town, which meant the other half of us got together to watch a double feature of Mad Max and The Road Warrior. All throughout the movies we kept pointing out things that could be interpreted through Apocalypse World

Mad Max
  • Max is a Driver with a garage and a mechanic who improves his car for him
  • Toecutter is obviously a Weird Chopper, but he seems to have a couple of other PCs in his gang
  • society hasn't completely collapsed yet, or whatever people are using for money hasn't run out yet
  • The Courts is a conceptual hardholder with the threat impulse: to maintain civility (they let one of Toecutter's gang go free)
  • a restaurant has a sign saying "BYO food" which is a little detail that's easy to miss but is totally suitable for "barfing forth apocalyptica"

The Road Warrior
  • Humungus is either a Faceless whose taken Lightning Reflexes, or he's a Battlebabe that has moved onto a Faceless playbook (I like to think that Johnny survives from the first film and becomes Humungus)
  • Wez is likely a Hocus, as he makes predictions and seems to perform "blessings" on people, some of Humungus'es gang seem more loyal to him as well, which means...
  • Humungus'es gang is actually made up of members of two gangs, probably in order to get a +large bonus
  • Max totally manipulates the Feral Kid into leaving him alone by giving him oddments worth 1-barter (the miniature hurdy gurdy), later Max goes aggro on the Feral Kid to leave him alone
  • Pappagallo is clearly a hardholder
  • the Warrior Woman is probably a gunlugger despite her fondness for crossbows, or maybe because of since...
  • bullets are scarce, so this is probably something the MC is constantly using against their players to make them buy
  • the mechanic in the oil refinery is probably a Savvyhead
  • we decided the Gyro Captain needs a new playbook but with a cooler name than Gyro Captain: the Gyrocat

The Gyro Captain also appears in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but doesn't seem to recognize Max. I suggested that this was because the same character is being played by a new player.

All in all, Mad Max hasn't aged very well but it's got some great ideas and it's filled with lots of interesting little details about a modern civilization on decline. The Road Warrior is a better film because the story is tighter and the stakes are higher. I'd recommend anybody who plays Apocalypse World to watch them if you haven't, and if you haven't seen them in a while revisit them and see how you might view them differently.

9
Apocalypse World / introducing the Beast Master
« on: February 11, 2013, 01:56:48 AM »
Tim Franzke and I spent the last week making this playbook together. He thinks it has more of my writing in it than his, and I think it has more of his ideas in it than of mine. Either way, we both hope you download it and enjoy using it. Cheers!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtidXdrTEhGelRCQms/edit

10
Apocalypse World / introducing the Damned (a Heralds of Hell playbook)
« on: February 08, 2013, 03:20:00 AM »
The talented and insightful Johnstone Metzger was kind enough to give me a copy of the Heralds of Hell playbooks, and he's given me permission to turn them into trifolds and make them available on my playbook page. This is my first effort to create the remaining three into playbooks: the Damned.
Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtiNEpuRHkzWG02N1k/edit

11
Apocalypse World / Introducing the Wrangler (a new playbook)
« on: February 04, 2013, 07:38:19 PM »
After I made my own playbook, I scrubbed all of the text and created a generic playbook template that I could easily drop in new text or new graphics into. Because Tim Franzke has been really active in the google+ AW community I promised him I would make his "Master of Hounds" playbook after I finished my own. His notes have gone through quite a few changes since he first posted the "Master of Hounds" and now it's simply called the Wrangler. Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtiMEZ4QUtNMjZodDQ/edit

12
Apocalypse World / Introducing the Wolf (a new playbook)
« on: February 04, 2013, 07:34:24 PM »
I finally got my hands on a program to make pdfs. I spent a few days messing around with it and it's not 100% perfect, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This playbook was inspired by the Solace's Hx question "Are you a wolf of the maelstrom?"
It hasn't been playtested yet, so let me know if you use it and run into any issues with one of the moves.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtiSFV1SldzQWRlZEk/edit

13
brainstorming & development / ALL of the Playbooks in one place
« on: December 14, 2012, 09:43:45 PM »
Many of these player-created playbooks are hard to track down, and that's kind of annoying. I'm actually surprised at how many comments I've seen online from people saying "I don't have that one" or "I only have these."
It looks like about a year ago there was this trading community happening with a handful of people on these and a few other forums, probably because there was no single place to upload files to, but as somebody who is relatively new to Apocalypse World it feels like there are players hoarding playbooks and not sharing them with the rest of us who are late to the party, and that attitude seems really childish.
When I do searches for playbooks the first page almost always links back to multiple forums where one person is spam-asking for the same playbooks over and over again yet he refuses to share what he's acquired unless somebody else trades him something new. Just now he offered to sell me all of the playbooks he's accumulated for $15. So, you know, if you wrote a playbook that you intended to share with other players there's one guy out there trying to profit from your work without sharing the profit with you. In contrast, the stuff that I spent the last few weeks working on I make publicly available on my blog for anybody to use.
I feel that this whole trading and keeping it hard to find attitude also runs counter to the spirit of encouragement D. Vincent Baker wrote into the game by asking people to hack the game and make it their own. I think there needs to be a unified place for those who've contributed to AW, even in a small way, to share their work and get recognition for it. The forums here are difficult to navigate at times, there isn't a list of links to others' work, and there isn't a single sticky-ed thread that lists all of the great work that's come out of this community.

I'm making this post in the hopes that other people with player-made custom playbooks will upload their work to the internet and share their work with the rest of us. It seems like there are a lot of socially conscious gamers in this community which I think is really awesome. In the spirit of paying it forward and sharing, if you send me a playbook, or share a link that has it, I'm missing from this list I'll give $5 worth of canned food to my local homeless shelter. For now all I can share is this, here are links or instructions for getting all of the playbooks I've managed to find online. (If I know who wrote it, I also list their name next to it.)

This 1st list is links to tri-fold pdfs of playbooks that can be downloaded

the LE Playbooks (the Faceless, the Marmot, etc.) - if you bought Apocalypse World then you should already have these, plus they were written by D. Vincent Baker so they're official and stuff

the Coot, by Dan Hull - http://www.mediafire.com/?7rzq6gsk7n9qntm

the Grotesque, by Joe Mcdaldno - follow instructions at http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/14869/x&page=1#Item_1

the Rat-Pack, by Gerald C. - http://www.mediafire.com/?dd4ipfpkexrvc1a

the Last Child, by Johnstone Metzger - http://johnstone.wikispaces.com/file/view/AW-TheLastChild-Trifold.pdf/352379416/AW-TheLastChild-Trifold.pdf

the Horseman, by Johnstone Metzger - http://redboxvancouver.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/aw-thehorseman-trifold.pdf

the Agent - broken pdf, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13772998/agent_v1_2_sm.pdf

the Juggernaut - free to print but have to pay $6 to download despite the fact that it says it's "free," http://www.scribd.com/doc/74072939/Apocalypse-World-Juggernaut

This 2nd list is links to downloads or forums where the information for a new playbook is listed, but no tri-fold pdf exists (as far as I know)

the Boy and his Dog - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=389.0

the Orphan - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jryb1Y6Q-uGM_Oq_E1F9TzBAiKZI8lzaLkBSxoRpo68/edit?hl=en#

the Firebug - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=4192.0

the Man in the Box - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1547.0

the Wildcard - apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1712.msg10042

the Swashbuckler - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1709.0;wap2

the Traveller - email aedsoftware at gmail for a non-trifold copy

the Spectacle - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1938.0;wap2 (there's a trifold version mentioned but not linked)

the Transmitter - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=2270.0;wap2

the Feral Kid - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=391.0;wap2

the Kid - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_XJtVbYj_jjMTUzYWQwMWItZGI0MC00ZGQ0LTljZjEtNThiYjYxNzYyNDYw/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMS52MMK

the Scholar - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1723.0

the Tribal - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=438.0

This 3rd list is simply a list of playbooks I've seen referenced in forums that appear to have no other information or download links

the Infiltrator
the Creep
the Battlemaiden
the Poison Flower
the Flesh Circus
the Ruin Runner
the Witch
the Broodmother
the Catalyst
the Fallen
the Loner
the Valkyrie
the Wurm
the Witch King
the Devoted
the Living God


14
brainstorming & development / ALL of the Playbooks in one place
« on: December 14, 2012, 09:42:46 PM »
Many of these player-created playbooks are hard to track down, and that's kind of annoying. I'm actually surprised at how many comments I've seen online from people saying "I don't have that one" or "I only have these."
It looks like about a year ago there was this trading community happening with a handful of people on these and a few other forums, probably because there was no single place to upload files to, but as somebody who is relatively new to Apocalypse World it feels like there are players hoarding playbooks and not sharing them with the rest of us who are late to the party, and that attitude seems really childish.
When I do searches for playbooks the first page almost always links back to multiple forums where one person is spam-asking for the same playbooks over and over again yet he refuses to share what he's acquired unless somebody else trades him something new. Just now he offered to sell me all of the playbooks he's accumulated for $15. So, you know, if you wrote a playbook that you intended to share with other players there's one guy out there trying to profit from your work without sharing the profit with you. In contrast, the stuff that I spent the last few weeks working on I make publicly available on my blog for anybody to use.
I feel that this whole trading and keeping it hard to find attitude also runs counter to the spirit of encouragement D. Vincent Baker wrote into the game by asking people to hack the game and make it their own. I think there needs to be a unified place for those who've contributed to AW, even in a small way, to share their work and get recognition for it. The forums here are difficult to navigate at times, there isn't a list of links to others' work, and there isn't a single sticky-ed thread that lists all of the great work that's come out of this community.

I'm making this post in the hopes that other people with player-made custom playbooks will upload their work to the internet and share their work with the rest of us. It seems like there are a lot of socially conscious gamers in this community which I think is really awesome. In the spirit of paying it forward and sharing, if you send me a playbook, or share a link that has it, I'm missing from this list I'll give $5 worth of canned food to my local homeless shelter. For now all I can share is this, here are links or instructions for getting all of the playbooks I've managed to find online. (If I know who wrote it, I also list their name next to it.)

This 1st list is links to tri-fold pdfs of playbooks that can be downloaded

the LE Playbooks (the Faceless, the Marmot, etc.) - if you bought Apocalypse World then you should already have these, plus they were written by D. Vincent Baker so they're official and stuff

the Coot, by Dan Hull - http://www.mediafire.com/?7rzq6gsk7n9qntm

the Grotesque, by Joe Mcdaldno - follow instructions at http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/14869/x&page=1#Item_1

the Rat-Pack, by Gerald C. - http://www.mediafire.com/?dd4ipfpkexrvc1a

the Last Child, by Johnstone Metzger - http://johnstone.wikispaces.com/file/view/AW-TheLastChild-Trifold.pdf/352379416/AW-TheLastChild-Trifold.pdf

the Horseman, by Johnstone Metzger - http://redboxvancouver.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/aw-thehorseman-trifold.pdf

the Agent - broken pdf, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13772998/agent_v1_2_sm.pdf

the Juggernaut - free to print but have to pay $6 to download despite the fact that it says it's "free," http://www.scribd.com/doc/74072939/Apocalypse-World-Juggernaut

This 2nd list is links to downloads or forums where the information for a new playbook is listed, but no tri-fold pdf exists (as far as I know)

the Boy and his Dog - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=389.0

the Orphan - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jryb1Y6Q-uGM_Oq_E1F9TzBAiKZI8lzaLkBSxoRpo68/edit?hl=en#

the Firebug - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=4192.0

the Man in the Box - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1547.0

the Wildcard - apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1712.msg10042

the Swashbuckler - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1709.0;wap2

the Traveller - email aedsoftware at gmail for a non-trifold copy

the Spectacle - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1938.0;wap2 (there's a trifold version mentioned but not linked)

the Transmitter - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=2270.0;wap2

the Feral Kid - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=391.0;wap2

the Kid - https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_XJtVbYj_jjMTUzYWQwMWItZGI0MC00ZGQ0LTljZjEtNThiYjYxNzYyNDYw/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMS52MMK

the Scholar - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1723.0

the Tribal - http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=438.0

This 3rd list is simply a list of playbooks I've seen referenced in forums that appear to have no other information or download links

the Infiltrator
the Creep
the Battlemaiden
the Poison Flower
the Flesh Circus
the Ruin Runner
the Witch
the Broodmother
the Catalyst
the Fallen
the Loner
the Valkyrie
the Wurm
the Witch King
the Devoted
the Living God


15
brainstorming & development / my fantasy hack - Adventure World
« on: December 14, 2012, 05:24:48 AM »
I've been fairly unimpressed with the work of Dungeon World. To me, it just feels like the creators took some D&D concepts and applied the AW philosophy of GMing to the game. Which is fine, actually it's brilliant! But I personally dislike level-based RPGs. I never have enjoyed them despite the many years I've played some version of D&D. It's just easier, you know, to find gamers who know D&D and want to play that but aren't necessarilly interested in playing in some wild west horror, or samurai intrigue, or post-singularity sci-fi space opera game.

There are a lot of great things in Dungeon World, but I wanted to see a fantasy hack that bore a closer resemblance to Apocalypse World than to Dungeons & Dragons. So I decided to make my own. I've been posting what I've been writing (playbooks that I consider first drafts) for the past couple of weeks, and it only just occurred to me a few days ago that "Hey, I should probably join the AW forums and share some of my ideas there."

What can I say? I'm not too Sharp.

Anyway, here's a link to my blog that shows all the work I've done =
http://nerdwerds.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventure%20World

There's a lot there, or else I would just copy and paste it to the forums here. Cheers!

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