Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Widundret

Pages: [1]
1
Apocalypse World / Re: Custom Moves in the Eternal Winter
« on: December 04, 2011, 11:20:29 AM »
Two very good suggestions, thank you!

I want to keep the Freeze Clock, I think it's a nice way of reminding my players about the winter and the constant threat of hypothermia. But I agree that it takes too many rolls before anything "happens". Just rolling once per exposure should be enough.

I like your suggestion Johnstone, but I'm worried that it's too easy to heal yourself. If you're heading out in a snowstorm it should be a race against the clock. It's getting colder and colder and harder and harder to move. 1-harm for each segment on the clock is cool, but the character needs to head outside a lot before it starts getting dangerous.

I've been thinking about everything that's been said in this thread, and maybe this could be something:

You make this move (roll hard) when you're exposed to extreme cold under a longer period of time (snowstorm, spending the night outside etc.)

10+: Add nothing
7-9: Add 1 segment and 1 harm or 2 segments and no harm
Miss: It's worse than you thought - You're at 10 o'clock

The MC may also add segments to a characters Freeze Clock. He may do this if the character fails a move while out in the cold or if the fiction demands it in any way.

This makes the move a bit more dangerous, but I don't know how balanced it is.

2
Apocalypse World / Custom Moves in the Eternal Winter
« on: December 01, 2011, 02:32:28 PM »
Hiya

I'm working on Custom Moves for me and my group's ongoing campaign in a Gothenburg stuck in an eternal winter (read more about it Here if you want to). I want to make the ice and snow a real threat for my players, and I really think that Custom Moves is one good way to achieve that. I didn't find a thread were you could discuss Custom Moves, so I started this one in hopes of getting constructive critique (and maybe new ideas, or maybe that cool winter move that you've made up?)

Right now I'm working on a custom move for the risk of getting frostbitten right now. Please let me know what you think:


When you’re out in the snow for too long without proper clothing, roll+hard. On a 10+, you’re freezing like crazy but you don’t have to add segments on the Freeze Clock. On a 7-9, add 1 segment. On a miss, add 2.

The MC may ask players (as a move) to re-roll this move if they don’t find warmth in time.

Freeze Clock


    1- Exposed body parts are cold and feel numb.
    2- Exposed body parts are very cold and feel like they’re burning.
    3- Exposed body parts are fucking cold and it’s difficult to use them or think properly. Doing this anyways means acting under fire.
    4- Exposed body parts are suffering from frostnip and are turning white, red and yellow. 1-harm and acting under fire when straining yourself.
    5- Exposed body parts are suffering from frostbite and are turning blue with a marble-like appearance. 1-harm and acting under fire when straining under fire.
    6- Exposed body parts are suffering from deep frostbite and are turning purple and black. 2-harm and acting under fire to stay conscious.


You run a high risk of getting gangrene if not treated properly after 12 o’clock (on the Freeze Clock). This may, in turn, cold mean amputation or death.




3
Apocalypse World / Re: Our 1st Session (and some question marks)
« on: November 13, 2011, 04:38:18 PM »
Hi,

I've started making Fronts for our next session. One threat is a big, bad wolf pack that haunts the city. This is what I have so far:

The Wolf Pack
Warlord, Alpha Wolf

Cast:

- The Pack (3-harm gang medium savage 2-armor)
- Fenrir, the legendary alpha wolf (3-harm fangs alive messy)

I made the pack using the rules for creating new gangs, but it's hard to know if it's balanced or not. Any opinions, good or bad?

Oh, and I have a Countdown Clock where Fenrir awakens at 12. I want him to join his pack and go crazy if that's the case. What's the best (mechanical) way of showing that Fenrir's in the gang? Should I make a "new" gang with higher stats... Or should I make a custom move?

4
the nerve core / Re: Buying Apocalypse World in the EU?
« on: November 09, 2011, 01:02:10 PM »
Leisure Games is where I bought Apocalypse World (and much more). Fast deliveries, good service and reasonable prices - Perfect for us Scandinavians!

5
Apocalypse World / Re: Our 1st Session (and some question marks)
« on: November 09, 2011, 04:39:44 AM »
Those are some thorough answers, gregpogor! Thank you (and everyone else!) for your input so far; it will certainly help me and my group.

Regarding my questions about fighting and using the seize by force move: The answer seems to be to stay flexible and shape the rules around the fiction. I think that I'm a bit stuck in the old, traditional "I roll to hit, you roll to avoid etc"-kind of rules. If it seems logical that Glenn inflicts harm on both of his opponents, then that's what he does. If it seems logical that his opponents should hit him at the same time, then he will suffer harm from both of them and so on and so on. Yeah, that feels right according to the rules.

Please, continue to contribute if there's something you would handle differently. It's always nice to see more than one side of things :-)

6
Apocalypse World / Our 1st Session (and some question marks)
« on: November 08, 2011, 09:48:56 AM »
Hi!

So, we had our first Apocalypse World session ever last night. I've wanted to try this game for a long, long time and I was finally able to find time in my group’s schedule for some apocalyptic barfing. We met in a moose infested part of Sweden (mating season = moose armies everywhere) and jumped right into character creation and world ideas. We ended up with a shy, ugly Gunlugger called Lars; a blunt, tired Angel called Balder; a weak but quick-witted Operator by the name of Glenn and a hard as fuck, occult Chopper called Satan (of course). And the world they live in? A Swedish city frozen in ice, where wolfs walk the snow searching for pray and people live in smaller holds where the weather hasn’t devoured everything (the city is our beloved home town Gothenburg).

It was a very fun, exciting and creative 1st Session. Balder strangled a man badly hurt by a knife wound to end his suffering (the man’s son attacked Balder later on), Lars went to his secret love Lana and found her fucking the gang member Kebab, so he killed him and fled the hold (Kebab was the one who stabbed the man Balder took care of, Lana likes dangerous partners...), Satan and his gang searched for their lost gang member and found him beaten to death in Lana’s room (Satan opened his brain and saw Lars...) and Glenn, he came to the hold to meet a member of his crew but had to flee from both Captain Red and a crazy, rabbit loving maniac (unworked obligation gig and random apocalyptic).



It’s cool to see the rules "in action", especially the Hx-rules and how they really creates bonds and flavour between the PC:s before play. It's a fast-paced system and I had only a few problems MC:ing it; the 1st Session worksheet was one of those problems. I didn’t have time to take notes on the threat map or write down NPC:s motivations, that’s something I’ll rather do after the session. I forgot the Harm and Session end move too, but hey I’m human.

After the session we had a couple of question marks remaining, maybe someone can help us out with some of them:

- First of all, I don’t really get the Operator’s gigs and crew. What happens with a gig if you succeed, do they disappear or stay? Is Improvement the only way to get new gigs or can you get them any other way (other then, I guess, through the fiction)? And the crew... Is there anything mechanical about the crew? What do they do (as crew members), how do they influence the Operators work?

- The Chopper’s gang got a Vulnerability, do I get to activate it or is there a rule for when to do it?

- The Gunlugger counts as a gang... In what way?

- When shit’s going down and people are fighting, how is harm distributed? Say that Glenn is fighting against two others, he rolls to seize their lives by force and he succeeds with his roll - does he inflict his harm on both of his enemies, and do they both get to inflict their separate harm on him? And while we’re on the subject, if Glenn’s enemies survive and are still in the game, can Glenn roll another Seize by force to inflict more harm, and another and another - or should one roll solve the whole fight?

- When to PC:s fight, who rolls the Seize by force?

7
Apocalypse World / Re: Intermittent players
« on: June 16, 2011, 01:01:23 PM »
After reading this thread, I started thinking about a playbook that was based on the idea that the character went somewhere else now and then, like The Trader, The Eremite, The Vagabond or The Explorer  perhaps. These guys would have a reason to come and go, and the player would be able to skip sessions because of that.

The rules/moves in a playbook like that could be made in such a way that they helped the player get into the fun faster. The rules could maybe even be based upon what has happened in the sessions that the player has missed (don't ask me how it would work, but it could help the player by giving her/him reasons to be there).

I don't know if it's a good idea at all, but I thought it couldn't hurt writing it down atleast!

8
I think it should be very dangerous to meddle with the Maelstrom, and extremely dangerous to try to understand it. The Psychic Maelstrom is a product of the apocalypse; hell, it could even be the reason it happened in the first place! It's one of those elements that (I think) are better left a mystery. It's like a Lovecraftian monster: something so fucked up it makes you go mad if you stare at it for too long. Whatever the reason, it's here now and it's as real as gravity... And you don't fuck with gravity, because gravity will fuck you back.

Keeping the maelstrom a mystery will pay off, since it makes it so much more fun for your players to explore it. If the Savvyhead wants to head into the maelstrom to heal the environment, he should be able to do so because it's cool, but he should probably also get more than he bargained for (you'll burn your fingers if you play with fire!). Whatever happens, the true answer of the maelstrom should always be out there, just out of reach for the players. You should always say what honesty demands, and honestly, the Psychic Maelstrom is some sick shit.

9
Apocalypse World / Re: Questions from a rookie
« on: May 18, 2011, 09:14:50 AM »
Oh, the home front is just a name for all the threats that don't have a front, plus all the custom moves that don't, plus any countdown clocks that don't, plus whatever else doesn't, if there is anything else. "This NPC isn't in a front" and "this NPC is in the home front" mean the same thing - it's a threat, it's real, but it's not part of a front.

OK, that's cool. I'll try to write down (or make one of my players write down) our first session and share it with you all in an AP, so you can see how it went.

Thanks again!

10
Apocalypse World / Re: Questions from a rookie
« on: May 18, 2011, 07:37:42 AM »
Thanks everyone for some really useful answers! I think this made me get it, finally :-)

I'll need to have a 1st session soon and dive right into Front creation after that. It sounds like it's something that gets easier with practice. One question though (there's always something!):

It's a question about the Home Front and whether all established NPCs should be included in a Front, or if you can leave some of 'em just as they are. Let's take, umm... Shopaholic the Shopkeeper as an example! Assume that the PC:s needed to buy some crap during the 1st session and met this cranky old shopkeeper called Shopaholic. Ofcourse, the MC noted him down on the threat map and gave him some simple motivations. Afterwards, when the MC is preparing some cool Fronts, he remembers Shopaholic but doesn't feel that he fits in any of the Fronts. Is this why the Home Front exists, to be able to include everyone in a Front, or could you leave some of the NPCs "naked" if you wanted to? I mean, what's actually the reason of the Home Front?


Daniel Davis: Haven't heard about SoA before, but I'll give it a try. Thanks for the tip!

11
Apocalypse World / Questions from a rookie
« on: May 16, 2011, 06:26:58 PM »
Hi!

This is my first post in this forum and it's a bunch of questions... No cool and interesting thoughts/ideas, sorry. I'll try to contribute with such things in the future though, promise!

I have no prior experience with AW since I haven't played/MC:ed the game before (just read the book). My questions will therefore be pretty basic; some will probably be pure misunderstandings from my part and others will be more of a "how do you do" than "how's it meant to be done?". Enough of my mumblings, here goes:



1. Who creates the world?
I love how the "cog wheels" of AW work. Everything from the PC's moves to the MC's principles inspire and helps everyone too create a unique world together, but there's one thing that's been bugging me; who should create the basic idea of the world? I'm speaking about ideas like "the world is a big desert and the sun is boiling" or "earth is a piece of ice, it's cold as fuck and we live in igloos".  The book mentions that the MC should allow himself to daydream about apocalyptic imagery, but the basic idea should be something that the group invents together, right? How do you and your group do this?

2. Apocalyptic Roadtrip?

Well, I've read both the book and a healthy dose of Actual Play-threads by now, and it seems like the game depends on the PCs living in a rather small area (hardhold, city, camp etc.) to flow like it's meant to. The book gives an example of a travelling PC group, but I don't see how that would work since much is based around reoccurring NPCs and such. Hey, let's presume that the PC group consists of a driver, a chopper and a savvyhead who wants to do a roadtrip post-apoc style... what would you tell them?

3. Hold?
Hold. It's mentioned over and over again but I never seem to get the hang of it. You can get hold through moves and spend them to learn shit but you lose them if you lose the opportunity, am I right? Every playbook got this little Hold section too, what should the players write there?

4. 1st session worksheet
This is a really cool part of the game, but it feels like I'm not quite getting it all. The worksheet is used to show in which way the NPCs can be a threat to the players. Does that mean that every NPC the PCs meet is a threat and should be noted as such on the threat map? If not, who and what is it that should get a spot on the map?

5. Fronts
Okay, fronts are hard. I'm not sure why, maybe because I'm so used to the old "play a written adventure"-style of roleplaying. First of all, one front consists of several threats, linked by a single threatening situation. That's what it says in the book, but what I don't understand is how all these threats get connected in the first place? It seems like the 1st session threat map is meant to grow into the first front, but how do you link all these NPCs and places together? Should you only have one front in play every time (and then create a new when all of its stakes has been answered)?



Well, those are the questions that's been stuck in my head the last few days (I'm sure that more will pop up in due time). I know that it's probably a bit diffuse, and I'll be happy to clarify what I meant if there's something you don't understand.

Thanks!
/Widundret

Pages: [1]