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Messages - simon_hibbs

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1
Apocalypse World / Re: The Battlebabe's gang
« on: May 09, 2013, 09:04:34 AM »
You’re the QUEEN BITCH!
When Hope has a Female gang, you may Roll +Cool instead Hard for Pack-Alpha or Leadership
Love & Kisses, your MC.

Oh, I like that!

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Apocalypse World / Re: Horses in the Wasteland?
« on: October 31, 2012, 07:12:17 AM »
I don't think of Apocalypse World as a setting, it's a game for creating your own Apocalypse World through play. If you think yours has horses, then go for it. After all if the world can support human life, if precariously and in dwindling numbers, then why not horses? There are predatory creatures after all, and they have to prey on something.

Simon Hibbs

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blood & guts / Re: Single Playbook Hacks?
« on: October 19, 2012, 03:11:31 AM »
I don't know UA, so can't directly comment on it, but I can see one way for a single playbook system to work.

One way to structure something like this could be through sub-playbooks. So you have a single core playbook, but then you choose one or more sub-playbooks, perhaps 'unlocking' more during play. For Amber you might have a sorcery sub-playbook, a Pattern powers sub-playbook, a Logres sub-playbook, etc. I suppose this would be similar to modular playbooks.

Simon Hibbs

4
Apocalypse World / Re: Into Darkness: AW setting (add on, not a hack)
« on: October 18, 2012, 08:22:33 AM »
Actually this would make an interesting actual Apocalypse World hack, where the World's Psychic Maelstrom manifests physically at night. You could mine the movie Pitch Black for ideas - not setting ideas, but scenes and NPC interactions in that kind of environment.

Simon Hibbs

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Apocalypse World / Re: Twisted: A Disturbed AW Hack
« on: October 18, 2012, 05:05:23 AM »
"My goal was that "hilariously dark debauchery meets technicolor vomit" would be enough to keep things moving in-game, but I could definitely see how this wouldn't work for anything longer than a session or two. Maybe this would be better as a single-session hack?"

Ok, but what kinds of goals would the characters have? What are they trying to protect or destroy, or where are they trying to get to?

Apocalypse World is pretty grim and it's clear that the world is dying. Long term the only way is down. But in the context of a game or campaign you can overcome hostile forces, protect the people and places you love, even make life better for a while.

It also comes down to the premise of the setting. I don't think unloved and forgotten directly implies filthy and corrupt. Lost or forgotten things can still be found again or remembered.

Simon Hibbs

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Apocalypse World / Re: Into Darkness: AW setting (add on, not a hack)
« on: October 17, 2012, 08:05:58 AM »
Very interesting.

I'd say "Aid of a spotlight" is overpowered, remember someone's got to track you with it because it doesn't move with you like e.g. a torch. Maybe following someone with a light could be a move?

Simon Hibbs



7
Apocalypse World / Re: Twisted: A Disturbed AW Hack
« on: October 17, 2012, 07:58:44 AM »
Amazing to read, but I don't think I'd ever want to play this. I think you need a reason for people to play other than wallowing in awfulness.

So I'd say it's potentially a nice start, but right now it's very monotone. You could take this as a starting point though and work out towards something more multidimensional.

Simon Hibbs

8
Apocalypse World / Re: Moves from another playbook question
« on: October 17, 2012, 07:49:34 AM »
In ApocalypseQuest one of the characters, an Imperial Officer, has this move:

For the Empire!: When you inflict harm against enemies of the Empire, inflict +1harm.

The player can use it any time, but it means that if the opponent wasn't actually an Enemy of the Empire before, they and likely their friends and allies certainly are now!

Simon Hibbs

9
Apocalypse World / Re: How would you handle Shields?
« on: October 17, 2012, 07:42:43 AM »
For ApocalypseQuest I'm currently going with regular melee weapons as 3-harm (like a machette) and 2-handed weapons such as greatswords at 4-harm.

Light armour is 1-armour, chain and plate are 2-armour and a shield gives +1armour against a single opponent. I suppose full gothic plate would be 3-armour, but that's not an issue.

Shields should be useless against modern firearms, as would the armour types above. I suppose you could have an AW setting where ammunition is extremely rare, so combat would be more like in a fantasy setting.

Simon Hibbs

10
brainstorming & development / Re: Hyborian Saga (Gavinwulf's Conan Hack)
« on: October 11, 2012, 08:58:28 AM »
Wow, I've got the excellent "World of Conan", but this really pushes it up to a whole other level. I only found out about it due to Simon JB's post pushing this thread up to the top.

If it's OK, I'll be ruthlessly strip-mining this for material for my Moonrise over Karse game. It's much closer to the feel I'm after than Dungeon World, which other than the material on Fronts has turned out not to be much use to me.

Simon Hibbs

11
blood & guts / Re: The lack of a "speed" stat
« on: October 04, 2012, 12:42:22 PM »
I've been taking a long hard look at the stats I'm using in my swords & sorcery hack, Moonrise Over Karse. I've decided I'm going back to the original Apocalypse World stats, at least for now.

Apocalypse World's stats are very different from the stats in most other games. None of them, even Hot or Hard, are directly physical in nature. They're not even really 'capability' based. Most games try to slice up all the different abilities characters have to do things and make those into stats, but AW stats are more like personality traits. It just looks wrong to see a stat like Quick alongside them. So the choice is either throw away the AW stats and substitute more traditional RPG stats, or stick with the AW stats.

I've chosen the latter course, with the minor exception of substituting Wyrd for Weird due to the different assumptions about pychic/magic stuff.

AW stats are things about your character that are always true. They are the universal truths about that character. That's why Quick doesn't fit. A character might be quick when moving in combat, but are they quick when filling in their tax forms? A hard character is always hard, a sharp character is always sharp, etc. Alternatively look at Bruce Willis' character in Die Hard. Is his character Strong or Agile? Yes, but not always, he gets beaten up and knocked about until he can barely walk, but is always, always as hard as nails. That never changes.

Thinking this through has also given me a better understanding about the relationship between stats and moves. E.g. just look at the Battlebabe's "Impossible reflexes" move. Clearly a battlebabe with this move is super-fast in combat, but in a particular context doing something specific.

So if I do go to a different set of stats I'll do it wholesale, no half measures, but right now I like the stats in AW. They do seem a bit 'modern' for a swords and sorcery game, but clearly a lot of thought has gone into them and it would be foolish to discard that without very good, well thought out reasons.

Simon Hibbs

12
Apocalypse World / Re: Another Go Aggro / Manipulate debate
« on: October 03, 2012, 06:50:41 AM »
The way I think abut this is that the characters aren't unemotional, unfeeling mechanical robots. When two different character raise a gun to another's head and makes a threat, those are not physically identical, indistinguishable situations.

Are you actually, fully committed to shooting this guy in the face? If yes and you have hard+2 your eyes are full of cold grim purpose. Everyone has seen you in battle, they've seen how you calmly dispatch your enemies in the heat of battle. They know that look, it's the last look some of your enemies ever saw.

If you're not ready to kill this guy, you're just not in that mood. You're physically more relaxed, your eyes are softer and your gaze isn't quite as fixed. You're trying to put on your grimace of determination, but really it looks more like your smile when you show your favourite guns to some of the hardhold's kids. You like to make out how big and tough you are, but everyone knows there's a human being somewhere inside that body armour.

So people aren't made of stone. You can read a person's commitment and mood from their stance, look, tone of voice and a thousand tell tale signs.

So no, making a threat and making a promise are not the same thing. They're really not the same physical act because there's more to it than raising an arm and speaking some words.

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brainstorming & development / Re: Moonrise Over Karse - Glorantha Hack
« on: September 25, 2012, 07:19:19 AM »
A custom move for a political character:

When you attempt to persuade an assembly or council in debate or judgement, roll+sharp. On 10+ hold 3, on a 7-9 hold 1. You may trade your hold 1 for 1 to achieve the following:
  • You win the main point of your case, but some may have been offended or embarrassed,  there are many dissenters and popular opinion may be against you
  • You didn't offend anyone or make any new enemies
  • You have a strong majority of support among members of the assembly
  • Popular opinion in general is on your side
  • You learned something useful about the functioning of the assembly or it's members, carry +1 forward in future dealings with the same body
On a 6- you lose the case, may suffer some or all of the ill effects above and carry -1 forward in future dealings with the same body.

Suggestions for any other effects, or modifications of these effects would be appreciated. Also, are the penalties on a miss a bit harsh? Perhaps I should list the ill effects on a miss and have the player pick 2.

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brainstorming & development / Re: Apocalypse Warrens (working title)
« on: September 20, 2012, 10:08:18 AM »
It's an interesting idea. My first thought for a title was "Apocalypse Down".

The AW system lends itself very well to small, tightly focused games so i think this could work well.

Simon Hibbs

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brainstorming & development / Moonrise Over Karse - Glorantha Hack
« on: September 20, 2012, 07:39:17 AM »
Link to Playbooks

I'd be very grateful for any comments, advice or suggestions on these playbooks. I've focused so far on working up interesting and fun moves for the characters, pic'n'mixing from the AW playbooks.

Character attribute balance should be OK, but I'm not sure how to handle the dancer of Crimson Light. She's a Battlebabe/Skinner hybrid. I've not yet considered how many moves each character should get, so far it just defaults to 3 for each character. Nor have I started on character advancement options yet.

Many of the moves are straightforward adaptations of moves from AW. In particular it's spooky how appropriate the Brainer moves are for a shaman of Jakaleel the Witch.

I've made a start on a rulebook as well, but as this is a fantasy hack I'll have a look at Dungeon World and see if there' much there that I can adapt. It seems very D&D/Dungeon focused though so that may be limited.

Simon Hibbs

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