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Messages - bignose

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1
Apocalypse World / Re: Play Aids Index
« on: May 10, 2015, 07:01:47 PM »
Really good, Kalle! You have a distinct style that isn't just a copy of the Apocalypse World books, but complements it very well.

I look forward to pushing some of these across the table as we argue excitedly about who gets what :-)

2
Apocalypse World / Re: What is a move?
« on: July 29, 2014, 12:35:14 AM »
I think the advanced fuckery chapter sort of addresses this.

Right. For those finding this thread later, the Advanced Fuckery chapter explores “Moves' Architecture” on p.281.

There are many “when …” possibilities described explicitly:

  • When the character acts
  • When the character acts, and circumstances dictate
  • When circumstances dictate, no action required
  • When the character uses a thing
  • From now on
  • Right now and done

Quote from: sully the raptor
The Angel move Infirmary's trigger is […]

The Infirmary move is an example of “right now and done” on p.281.

3
brainstorming & development / Re: Hyborian Saga (Gavinwulf's Conan Hack)
« on: August 07, 2012, 06:36:33 AM »
As my group and I are currently playing straight-up Apocalypse World. I'm looking to re-vamp my Conan Hack.
The one posted is basically a reskin of AW […] My goal is to make it more original.

Anyone wanting to make playbooks with more control over the content can use LibreOffice https://www.libreoffice.org/ to edit the templates I used for my A4-sized playbooks:


4
Apocalypse World / Re: How do you use these character traits?
« on: August 05, 2012, 09:07:34 PM »
What did you think you would be doing with this character from the past?

If I played a quarantine I'd expect to be exploring the "man out of time" theme.  A "civilized" person thrust into a savage world with no way back.

A fun theme. This ignores the fact that Quarantine isn't the only person here though. They have boatloads of the past ready to crash into the story, in the form of the other people from Stasis.

They have the tragedy of Specialist Jackson, Tammy M. How are they dealing with that? What's their history, and how is it messing with Quarantine's head?

They have the rest of their military unit still in stasis, and they get to choose whether and when to revive them. What military unit? What mission? What ulterior motives? What still applies about the mission, and who disagrees with that?

They have {friends,family, colleagues,superiors} still in stasis, and they get to choose whether and when to revive them. Whom do they most want to revive? Who else will that person want revived, but Quarantine really doesn't want to revive? What grudges or rivalries or faint hope or doomed plans will be brought into Apocalypse World by reviving these people?

Quote
Bignose, what kind of stories would you expect the quarantine to make?  Have you played one, or GMed for one?

I've not been in any game with Quarantine, but the people from Stasis are obvious complex hooks to my MC eye. The player gets a whole mess of difficult choices about whom to revive, when, in what sequence, and how to prepare for the baggage of the past they'll be awakening by doing so.

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Apocalypse World / Re: How do you use these character traits?
« on: August 05, 2012, 09:20:37 AM »
Yeah, I guess.  Maybe my problem with it is that I don't perceive the past as being the story.

I have to wonder, then, why you put the Quarantine playbook on the table for any of your players to pick up. Quarantine is a character *all about* the past meeting the present of Apocalypse World.

What did you think you would be doing with this character from the past?

6
Apocalypse World / Re: Making Sense of Brainer Moves
« on: August 03, 2012, 01:42:31 AM »
Unfortunately, it sounds like Pellet is dead, so you won't get to make him squirm about his little brother.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity, though, for the MC to introduce Pellet's younger sister Kip, who was there, unbenknownst to Pellet, and watched in silent heartache as their little brother was bullied and worse.

And Pellet's lover, Cheyenne, who always thought he was the nicest guy on earth and would be devastated if she got mental images of what Pellet did.

Now the Brainer has something on *both* of them – before even doing a brain scan on either of them. Whether she chooses to tell them Pellet felt remorse for that, or holds that in reserve too, is up to her.

7
brainstorming & development / Re: In Nomine hack
« on: August 03, 2012, 01:35:47 AM »
I don't feel qualified to comment on the mechanics; I have never seen In Nomine, except as GURPS In Nomine, and never played it.

But the premise and flavour of In Nomine (from what I read in the GURPS edition) certainly seems a good fit for the Apocalypse World system, so I am looking forward to seeing this hack progress.

8
I have transcribed the Moves index to worldwide A4 paper size.


This contains all moves from the main rulebook Moves index, plus all moves from limited edition playbooks to date, consolidated into the one index.

Vincent, please consider hosting these with the official material; I can't host them at the above location indefinitely.

9
Apocalypse World / Re: An Antisocial bunch
« on: July 30, 2012, 01:32:57 AM »
Thank you very much. While I was asking plenty of provocative questions, most of them focussed around places and things rather than people and relationships. I was able to extract some very nice Threats from the questions, but not many NPC's.

Great! So now you've extracted a place – you put some named, human NPCs who want to live/raid/rule/work there. You've extracted a thing – you put named, human NPCs with an interest in getting/keeping/destroying/using/changing that thing. You have Threats – every Threat has a cast of named, human NPCs.

If you haven't got those already, you missed a direct instruction in the 1st Session rules:

  • Leap forward with named, human NPCs.

Quote
The key thing I was missing was the aspect of scarcity.

It's good that you're thinking about that now. But I think the key thing you missed is more specific.

The key I think you're missing is: it's your job, always but especially in the 1st Session, to leap forward with named, human NPCs.

When the players come up with an NPC, great! But it sounds like that hasn't been happening, and that's probably normal with a lot of gaming groups in the 1st session.

Which is why the rules say it's your job as MC to always fill those gaps with named, human NPCs. Anywhere a person might be? It's your job to immediately have someone there with a name and a human motivation to interact. Anywhere a person probably would not be? Hell, put a named person there anyway and play on to figure out why.

During the 1st Session, keep popping in with new NPCs, every one of them with a name and a direct motivation to interact, and see which ones the PCs respond to.

Those ones the PCs respond to? Build them into PC–NPC–PC triangles, to ensure that at least two players have different – sometimes conflicting, but always at least distinct – interests in that NPC.

See http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=2951.0 for a recent discussion of PC–NPC–PC triangles and how to build them directly in play.

Your main tool to get all this material? Ask questions to the PCs about the people around them. Provocative questions, leading questions, questions that assume an interesting answer and demand that the PC give you some detail.

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I forgot about the need for NPC's to supply the PC's with stock, guns and gears. That does seem like a rich vein to work from.

Yep. And that's true of just about everything in the setting! Anything the PCs want to do, put named human NPCs there that they need to deal with in some way.

Many NPCs will obviously be susceptible to violence; the PCs are good at that and need to have many opportunities to use it. But perhaps more often, present NPCs that it's obvious they'll give nothing useful from an arse-kicking, and only a more sociable approach can work.

When the players begin to complain there are too many names to remember, you will know you're doing that job right. Keep putting up more NPCs until the world is full of them; look at them through crosshairs of course, and they'll fall fairly often.

But keep bringing forth new named human NPCs whenever you let others fall, and make sure those PC–NPC–PC triangles are always thick between all PCs, so at least some players care whether an NPC falls.

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the nerve core / Getting PC–NPC–PC triangles
« on: July 30, 2012, 01:20:27 AM »
How do you actually get PC–NPC–PC triangles from what's happening in play? lin_fusan and Daniel Wood are bringing very different but entirely complementary methods in this thread http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=2951.0.

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Apocalypse World / Re: An Antisocial bunch
« on: July 29, 2012, 04:14:16 AM »
The rules tell you how. You need to be following your agenda throughout the first session, remember:

  • Make Apocalyse World seem real.
  • Make the players’ characters’ lives not boring.
  • Play to find out what happens.

It's your job to make the PCs's lives not boring; but you have principles to prompt the players to provide a lot of that during play. The principles include:

  • Address yourself to the characters, not  the players. (In other words, get answers from their characters, and don't accept answers from the players.)
  • Name everyone, make everyone human. (In other words, Apocalypse World is full of people, not faceless nobodies. Everyone they come in contact with is human, and if they have something to say, it's your task to ensure they come with a name and a simple, direct, human motivation to interact.)

But most especially:

  • Ask provocative questions and build on the answers.

You should be asking questions like crazy all through the first session, never accepting a “uh, nothing/nobody” answer. The asking of a provocative question involves presuming that there is an interesting answer already, and if the player shuts that down, they're cheating and you should call them on it.

Despite what they say, they may be trying to play it safe by not giving you any connections or complications on their characters. Be upbeat, but make it clear that unless they buy into the game by giving you this dirt on their characters, the game will be really dull.

Use the scarcity of the setting. They *can't* be loners, or they'll run out of everything pretty quickly.

Whom do they trade with for food, water, condoms, ammo, somethin somethin? In the places where those people live, who has come to trust them? Who resents them? Who has an interest in seeing them stay a while, or go now?

Use the nature of each character type to find out who they have connections with already.

Where does the Angel re-stock their kit? Who repairs the infirmary? Who owes them for that one time they both remember? Whom did they upset because they weren't able to save a beloved's life?

What routes does the Driver prefer, and who makes them feel welcome? What routes do they avoid, and who is there that has something that means they have to go anyway? Whose life did they save by driving? Whose did they fuck up?

Who relies on the Gunlugger to bring the heat, and why are they needing to regain their trust? Who were they working for before, and what did they do to end it badly? Which gang is looking for them now? Who wants them to settle down, and what is the Gunlugger waiting for?

What project is the Savyhead being pressured to deliver right now, and who wants it? What project went so badly that some people were lost, and who wants payback? Who provides most of the basic material, and why does the Savvyhead have such a sweet deal with them?

For all of these questions that you like, ask them to the characters; expect “yes, and” style answers, and don't accept “no” answers from the players. If they actually *do* want to seek out relationships and collaboration and complications, these are the prompts you need to provide, and build in layers on their answers.

12
Apocalypse World / Core character playbooks, A4 size
« on: July 27, 2012, 01:36:55 AM »
I have transcribed the core character playbooks to worldwide A4 paper size.


This contains most of the content from the US-only sized core character playbooks; some of the “additional rules” or other things didn't quite fit.

Also included (as the final two pages) is the template I used for each playbook; you can use it to make your own from a running start.

Vincent, please consider hosting these with the official playbooks; I can't host them at the above location indefinitely.

13
Apocalypse World / Re: Moves with nothing interesting on a miss
« on: July 14, 2012, 07:58:47 PM »
Artful and gracious is an exception. Nothing bad allowed! The move's broken otherwise.

Can you expand on this? You're implying that the breakage would be somehow worse than “nothing interesting happens”, but that already seems pretty bad in a game.

14
Apocalypse World / Re: An idea for Hardholds
« on: July 12, 2012, 11:47:03 PM »
I love the idea, Pheylorn.

Some critique on the implementation though:

The clocks should be countdown clocks, i.e. counting down to midnight, like all the others in Apocalypse World. That means 0:00 is “no problems so far”, and movement clockwise is a bad thing. The last three segments, from 9:00 to 12:00, are where the harmful shit happens, and it's all over by 12:00.

So, “Food” for example becomes a “Hunger” countdown clock:

0:00 ? year of plenty! Treat want: hunger as no effect, or treat want: famine as want: hunger.
3:00 ? food is in good supply. +1 to wealth/fortune/moonlighting rolls.
6:00 ? you have some extra food to throw around.
9:00 ? there's just enough to go around.
10:00 ? food is getting scarce, if you don't start to ration you're all dead in days. Move the despair clock one tick forward.
11:00 ? your stores are empty, whatever is out there is all that's left. Move the desertion clock one tick forward.
12:00 ? your hardhold is wracked with starvation and desertion. Move the morale and desertion clocks one tick forward; if either is before 9:00, they're at 9:00 now.

Similar changes for the other clocks, which become countdowns to bad shit. “Morale” becomes “Despair”; “Water” becomes “Thirst”; “Population” becomes “Desertion”.

The moves by PCs to improve the clocks become “remove a marked segment from the countdown”, just as with other countdown clocks in Apocalypse World.

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Apocalypse World / Rules playbooks, A4 size
« on: July 10, 2012, 09:04:11 AM »
I have transcribed the core rulebooks to worldwide A4 paper size.


This contains all the content from the US-only sized rules playbooks, plus a little more where it made sense.

Vincent, please consider hosting these with the official playbooks; I can't host them at the above location indefinitely.

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