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brainstorming & development / A quick-and-dirty colonial America hack
« on: July 05, 2015, 12:53:16 AM »
Not sure if this goes here or in the "Apocalypse World" section. I guess I'm putting it here.
I'm not making a full-fledged hack. Rather, on the bus to Game Night today, it struck me that we could throw together some rules for playing a colonial America revolutionaries-themed game in honor of the 4th of July, and that the simplest way to do it would be to start with AW and go from there.
So it's got mostly the same stats, the same MC moves and principles (aside from the obvious exceptions), most of the same basic moves, and none of the gear or peripheral stuff save harm.
Instead of playbooks, I said "Pick stats that add up to +3, and make up two custom moves apiece, and that's your character." For Hx, I asked them a couple of questions: "Who saved someone else's life? Who owes someone else a debt?" Then once all three players had some kind of relationship, I told them to identify who (if anyone) in each relationship had power over the other one. Then I said to put down +1 for anyone who had power over them, -1 for anyone they had power over, and 0 if it was even.
So we got a nice little triangle: The general saved the native woman's life, the salt baron is negotiating with the native's tribes over land use, and the salt baron used money and political power to get the general his rank. (As an aside, it's not actually America, it's an alternate setting... where the America-analogue continent rose from the sea a hundred years ago, and is populated by indigenous frog-people. No relevance, I just wanted to say it somewhere.)
I also replaced two basic moves. Seduce or manipulate is now:
When you make an impassioned plea or heartfelt speech to an audience with some shred of sympathy, roll +hot. For NPCs: On a 10+, they believe you without reservation. On a 7-9, the MC chooses 1:
-They go along for now, but with doubts and reservations.
-In the long run, you've swayed them, but they'll carry out their immediate intentions anyway.
-They'll listen, but only if you offer something tangible
-Some of them believe you and are swayed, but some of them don't.
For PCs: On a 10+, both. On a 7-9, choose 1:
-If they act in accordance with your desires, they take +1 forward.
-If they contradict your plans, or act against them, they take -2 forward.
(For NPCs, the first two options, I'm dividing what might happen up into two things: Do they do what you want now, and do they change their beliefs in the long run. On a 7-9, the player might get one or the other, but not both. For PCs... I guess this essentially lets them help or interfere with hot instead of Hx under some situations. Do I want that? All of a sudden, I'm not sure.)
And instead of opening their brains, they get to do this:
When you take a moment to consider an environment familiar to you, tell us about some feature or attribute of the landscape and roll +attuned [replaces weird]. On a 10+, it's as you say. On a 7-9, you're mostly right, but the MC will add or change some significant detail.
(Sharp might have made more sense. I guess I was going for some sort of possibly-not-entirely-PC Native American knowing the lay of the land in a slightly mystic way sort of thing. Except I also envision for instance farmers being attuned to their farms, or urchins being attuned to their cities and knowing where all the hidey-holes are. Also still not sure about does it have to be a place that they've actually been, or can they do it in, say, a forest, if forests in general are familiar to them, never mind that this particular forest isn't anywhere they've been before. Maybe not a big issue in practice.)
And for the characters' moves:
The native frog-woman has one move that lets her roll +attuned to summon an army of ghosts on a 10+ and a vague, creepy fog on a 7-9. She also has a move that lets her take strange drugs to have visions, where on a 10+ I guess it's like she opened her brain, and on a 7-9 I still tell her something but she takes -1 ongoing for the rest of the day. On a miss, -1 ongoing and she gets weird hallucinations instead of useful visions.
The general can roll +attuned to let the spirit of War possess him, which gives him 3 hold (10+) or 1 hold (7-9) to get +1s on rolls during battle. He also straight-up took the hardholder's Leadership move for leading his army.
The salt baron can roll +sharp to buy things he needs, which have flaws or strings attached on a 7-9. (We're not using the barter rules.) He can also roll +hot to find useful people, but on 7-9 he owes them a debt.
So that's what I've got so far. Any feedback or suggestions would be most welcome. We'll probably play our first real session next weekend, so I have some time to decide what else we need or don't need and make changes accordingly. (Any media I should consume? What happens in stories about revolutionary America, anyway? Not usually my genre. Nor am I much of a history buff.)
I'm not making a full-fledged hack. Rather, on the bus to Game Night today, it struck me that we could throw together some rules for playing a colonial America revolutionaries-themed game in honor of the 4th of July, and that the simplest way to do it would be to start with AW and go from there.
So it's got mostly the same stats, the same MC moves and principles (aside from the obvious exceptions), most of the same basic moves, and none of the gear or peripheral stuff save harm.
Instead of playbooks, I said "Pick stats that add up to +3, and make up two custom moves apiece, and that's your character." For Hx, I asked them a couple of questions: "Who saved someone else's life? Who owes someone else a debt?" Then once all three players had some kind of relationship, I told them to identify who (if anyone) in each relationship had power over the other one. Then I said to put down +1 for anyone who had power over them, -1 for anyone they had power over, and 0 if it was even.
So we got a nice little triangle: The general saved the native woman's life, the salt baron is negotiating with the native's tribes over land use, and the salt baron used money and political power to get the general his rank. (As an aside, it's not actually America, it's an alternate setting... where the America-analogue continent rose from the sea a hundred years ago, and is populated by indigenous frog-people. No relevance, I just wanted to say it somewhere.)
I also replaced two basic moves. Seduce or manipulate is now:
When you make an impassioned plea or heartfelt speech to an audience with some shred of sympathy, roll +hot. For NPCs: On a 10+, they believe you without reservation. On a 7-9, the MC chooses 1:
-They go along for now, but with doubts and reservations.
-In the long run, you've swayed them, but they'll carry out their immediate intentions anyway.
-They'll listen, but only if you offer something tangible
-Some of them believe you and are swayed, but some of them don't.
For PCs: On a 10+, both. On a 7-9, choose 1:
-If they act in accordance with your desires, they take +1 forward.
-If they contradict your plans, or act against them, they take -2 forward.
(For NPCs, the first two options, I'm dividing what might happen up into two things: Do they do what you want now, and do they change their beliefs in the long run. On a 7-9, the player might get one or the other, but not both. For PCs... I guess this essentially lets them help or interfere with hot instead of Hx under some situations. Do I want that? All of a sudden, I'm not sure.)
And instead of opening their brains, they get to do this:
When you take a moment to consider an environment familiar to you, tell us about some feature or attribute of the landscape and roll +attuned [replaces weird]. On a 10+, it's as you say. On a 7-9, you're mostly right, but the MC will add or change some significant detail.
(Sharp might have made more sense. I guess I was going for some sort of possibly-not-entirely-PC Native American knowing the lay of the land in a slightly mystic way sort of thing. Except I also envision for instance farmers being attuned to their farms, or urchins being attuned to their cities and knowing where all the hidey-holes are. Also still not sure about does it have to be a place that they've actually been, or can they do it in, say, a forest, if forests in general are familiar to them, never mind that this particular forest isn't anywhere they've been before. Maybe not a big issue in practice.)
And for the characters' moves:
The native frog-woman has one move that lets her roll +attuned to summon an army of ghosts on a 10+ and a vague, creepy fog on a 7-9. She also has a move that lets her take strange drugs to have visions, where on a 10+ I guess it's like she opened her brain, and on a 7-9 I still tell her something but she takes -1 ongoing for the rest of the day. On a miss, -1 ongoing and she gets weird hallucinations instead of useful visions.
The general can roll +attuned to let the spirit of War possess him, which gives him 3 hold (10+) or 1 hold (7-9) to get +1s on rolls during battle. He also straight-up took the hardholder's Leadership move for leading his army.
The salt baron can roll +sharp to buy things he needs, which have flaws or strings attached on a 7-9. (We're not using the barter rules.) He can also roll +hot to find useful people, but on 7-9 he owes them a debt.
So that's what I've got so far. Any feedback or suggestions would be most welcome. We'll probably play our first real session next weekend, so I have some time to decide what else we need or don't need and make changes accordingly. (Any media I should consume? What happens in stories about revolutionary America, anyway? Not usually my genre. Nor am I much of a history buff.)