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Messages - Ardhanari

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1
brainstorming & development / Re: Westworld Hack (Host-play)
« on: April 10, 2017, 08:12:16 PM »
Awesome, I'm glad it worked out for you so well. As a fan of the WH40k setting as well, I'm particularly amused at how you disguised the Westworld themes.

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brainstorming & development / Re: Westworld Hack (Host-play)
« on: March 15, 2017, 09:00:39 PM »
This was created more as an experiment and potential short-run game / one-shot. I haven't run it as anything long-term.

The system (such as it is) makes it pretty hard for the players to remain in the dark about what their characters are. While the players may know they're playing androids, the characters certainly may not know what they are until they awaken.

I suppose you could change some of the terms I used to hide the ball a bit from your players. I imagine any of them who have seen Westworld would pick up pretty quickly on what was going on though :)

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brainstorming & development / Re: Westworld Hack (Host-play)
« on: December 26, 2016, 03:20:25 PM »
It's intended as a "short-play" kind of game, so "too fast" is a matter of taste. I was actually worried that they would increase too slowly to have an Awakening in a handful of game sessions.

What I've found is that the early game focuses on the repetition of the loop and enjoyment is gained by exploring variations on that loop. The late game is dominated by characters exploring their Reveries / alternate prior builds and actively trying to go off-script to accelerate their stat evolution in a race to Awaken.

Once an Awakening occurs, it's a matter of spending some time wrapping the game up, playing the Host revolution as more of a game denouement than an active campaign.

But this is based on just one playtest.

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brainstorming & development / Westworld Hack (Host-play)
« on: December 14, 2016, 10:22:48 PM »
A quick one-page rules-set / character sheet inspired by Westworld. The theme is character self-actualization.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwcwJJcncpvYY1UwYmZFQlJOM1k?usp=sharing

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brainstorming & development / Re: Eclipse Phase: Apocalypse
« on: March 01, 2015, 03:39:02 AM »
Thanks :)

I'm particularly proud of the new damage move. It removes all the math in original AW combat (no more calculating "harm as established"), you roll the move using Armor as a stat, and either take no damage (10+), partial damage or other consequence (7-9) or full weapon damage (failure).

The benefit is, I don't have to calculate incoming harm, I just say "you take damage, roll the move" and the move determines what damage they take. Also, the move isn't weirdly inverted like the AW damage move, where you wanted to fail it. In this hack, rolling high is always good for the PC.

This DOES result in a more lethal game, as a few bad rolls can put you down quickly, as armor isn't constantly mitigating every bit of incoming harm, but it means smaller-caliber weapons are still a threat, and in Eclipse Phase, death is a temporary state, so adding a bit more lethality to it wasn't a problem.

As for the boosted/glitched/elevated/degraded mechanic, in a crunchy sci-fi game with lots of potential tags, I wanted a sliding-scale for success so I could pile on complications, and they could invoke cyberware traits or whatever to counter those complications. That's the sole purpose of that scale. I stole the boosted/glitched from a Shadowrun Dungeon World hack, and added elevated/degraded.

Also, it lets me do things, like for "Drug Use", where a "boosted" roll means addiction is impossible. Or like the "Skirmish" melee move, where one of the options is to be "boosted" on the damage move you're making, which basically ensures you won't take your enemy's full weapon damage.

Other than that, I basically just went through the book, took every piece of wacky cyberware, put a "+" in front of it, and turned it into a narrative tag rather than a complicated piece of rules.

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brainstorming & development / Eclipse Phase: Apocalypse
« on: February 20, 2015, 04:27:09 PM »
I put together a hack for Eclipse Phase.

The essential philosophy was to keep it simple, and so I was able to convert pretty much all the complicated morphs and cybernetics of the original game simply by using "tags". I also came up with a simpler, more streamlined "harm move" that removes the weirdness of original AW where "success" was actually "failure." There's lots of other little quirks, innovations, and outright idea theft from these fine boards.

http://home.comcast.net/~of_the_woods/EP/Eclipse_Phase_Apocalypse.docx

It's also hosted on:
https://eclipse-phase-apocalypse.obsidianportal.com/

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: June 27, 2013, 05:48:34 PM »
Maybe Ardhanari can comment on the intent behind "will" (I may just be missing it),

Hey Jason,

Sorry it's taken so long to respond to this comment. My read on the role Stats play in Apocalypse World is this:

Cool = generic stat to roll if nothing else really fits
Hard = physical conflict resolution
Hot = social conflict resolution
Sharp = information gathering
Weird/Will = world-based "thematic" stat / move.

In looking at the Mass Effect universe, it tries very hard to avoid "space magic" by providing at least a technobabble explanation for everything. Characters explicitly state that things like "telepathy" don't actually exist, even if that's what it LOOKS like a particular alien is doing. While I do admit that there are "weird" or esoteric things in the universe, do they really rise to the level of central theme?

What I DID think was a central theme was the idea of overcoming incredible odds, standing up to a galaxy that might not believe you, pulling through no matter what, and leading / helping others through sheer force of personality and bad-assery. That's what Will was intended to convey, the stat that lets you keep on fighting even when an ordinary person would just lie down and die.

I did try to make sure that there were a number of Personal Moves and other options for someone who wanted to make a high-Will character, but ultimately the main benefit of Will is it's a stat that lets you literally defy death. Obviously Will as a stat (and the basic move that comes with it) are devalued if you don't include the very real risk of death from time to time, but even if you're not killing characters left and right, there's enough to be done with it thematically, especially with moves like Paragon or Force of Will, or Dominate.

Hope that answers your question :)

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: June 27, 2013, 05:42:42 PM »
A couple questions spring to mind:
Why do the focused classes get +3 in the primary stat vs the hybrid classes?  Presumably a balance issue?

Yep. The focused classes get +3 in the primary stat to offset their lack of selection when it comes to Class moves. Hybrid classes get two lists to mix/match from, I figured I'd give, effectively, a free stat advance to the guys with the more limited selection.

Quote
Is No Shit Pilot a tech or personal move?

It's a Personal Move. The design philosophy was that your Race/Class combo really only matters for combat, while your "role" in the party, i.e. medic, pilot, "face" man, etc. would come from your personal moves. It's not perfect, as there are some combat-y personal moves, but I tried to keep the Personal moves more "thematic" and the Class moves more "battle-oriented"

Quote
Some 'balance' thoughts- so take these for what they are worth:
Some racial +1 bonuses will come up much more often, and more importantly can be triggered by player description (e.g Asari) vs say the Quarians, who really don't want to have to use their bonus. :)
Adrenal Rush is way more powerful and flexible than Singularity (not a surprise, as it comes from the slightly powergamey Touchstone) - killing someone disables them for more than one tick.  And yet, the consequences of failure are worse for Singularity.  Maybe consider swapping them?  The Soldier also gets better gear.

Yeah, I find that I'm not over-concerned with "balance" when it comes to Apocalypse World, mostly because the game is very narrative-driven, and all characters start as kinda badasses no matter what. To address your specific nitpicks:

yes, the Quarians will rarely use their Basic Move bonus compared to, say, Krogan or Salarian, but when they DO use it, they'll REALLY need it :)

Adrenaline Rush is, yes, very badass (as is the Touchstone move from which it came). In my mind this is ok since the Soldier is otherwise pretty limited when it comes to "cool" thematic combat moves. Most of what they get are ammo powers. Singularity, however, is a cinematically cool move that has multiple applications, like battle-field crowd control etc. I also changed Singularity in the more recent revision to make it a bit cooler than it was.

I've been running two different groups of five players each, each game running once every other week, for a couple of months now and I've been really impressed with the character concepts / builds people have come up with. The human Adept who focused in Cool and Will and uses the Singularity / Dominate combo really rules the battlefield, as does the (obviously min-maxed) Krogan soldier with Carnage :) But even so, everyone gets a role to play, everyone can feel like they're doing something awesome, and most importantly, it seems to really convey the "feel" of the Mass Effect games.

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: June 27, 2013, 05:33:11 PM »

I'm a couple months into running two Mass Effect games using this system. I've tweaked the rules a bit, namely on the use of Shields with gangs, and the addition / tweaking of some of the moves. Here's the link:

http://home.comcast.net/~of_the_woods/ME/Mass_Effect_Apocalypse.docx

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: April 15, 2013, 01:34:10 PM »
The paragraph is at the bottom of page 4

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: April 09, 2013, 06:05:09 PM »
Although, heh, I did make one last minute rules addition under "Supplemental Rules."

I added a section called "GM Moves and Experience" which adapts the Tremulus method for permitting the GM to put off making immediate moves when PC's fail a roll, allowing the GM to accumulate Hold. After my first Mass Effect playtest session, there were a number of circumstances where the PC's failed a roll, but the fiction didn't allow for immediate "hard" moves. I like the ability to defer that decision a bit, making dramatic events more fluid.

The new section is on the Obsidian Portal page, and I also updated the Word document at the same link as above. I also slightly edited the "Advancement" header of the Supplemental Rules section.

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: April 09, 2013, 05:28:15 PM »
Awesome!

I'm going to link to this document for my players in case they want a lovely hard-copy :)

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: April 08, 2013, 02:56:45 AM »
I don't mind at all :)

I'm glad there are at least a few other folks who enjoy both the ME universe and Apocalypse World enough to see them both squished together :)

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: April 07, 2013, 02:26:55 PM »
I would be interested to see what you would add from that d20 book you mention, as well as your character sheet design. You seem to have a talent for design and layout :)

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Apocalypse World / Re: Mass Effect: Apocalypse
« on: April 07, 2013, 02:19:27 PM »
Hello,

Yeah, the Word document I linked to is a stripped down document with only my hack's game mechanics. It's stripped down from the full web-page here:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mass-effect-apocalypse

I figured that information about the Mass Effect universe is readily available online, particularly the Mass Effect wikia, and if people wanted to run games in that setting, all they really need from me is game mechanical crunch. They can get all the flavor they need elsewhere.

As for Vorcha:

Vorcha are used to savage combat where they throw themselves at the enemy without concern for their own safety. They get +1 whenever they sieze by force.

Species Move: Vorcha Regeneration: When you hit 9:00 or further on the Harm countdown, roll +Hard. On a 10+, heal 2 harm. On a 7-9, heal 1 harm. On a miss, your system is too traumatized, you may not regenerate for the rest of the battle. You may not regenerate harm inflicted by weapons with the "burn" tag or incendiary ammo.


Design thoughts: Since regen only kicks in when you hit 9:00 or further, it's conceivable that you can use it more than once in a fight if you heal below 9:00 and then get harmed back to 9. But if you're just taking too much damage too fast, or have been hurt particularly bad to where regen doesn't bring you back below 9:00, you only get it the once. That seems in keeping with Vorcha's adaptability.

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