I know!

That first conversation between <... checks Wikipedia ...> Shinzaemon and Hanbei (the mad Lord's samurai) is amazing.

And there's stuff like 'When you travel by stealth' and 'When you engage in battle, first say if you are conducting an ambush or fighting on an open field'.

Paul, you might want to look at Simon's 'World of Conan' hack. It's got a neat move in it - I think it's something like 'When you go to war' or 'When you lead your armies into battle'.

Paul, I really like this idea.

When we talked in the weekend, I asked you whether you would bake a starting situation into this hack, and you mentioned that you might set in the middle of a war between two kingdoms or imperial families. Is that still the plan?

The creation of 'Situation' is definitely one thing I'm still not clear on when it comes to AW hacks. With Monsterhearts, it seems to come from the backstory between characters and the origins of their monstrous sides. With Monster of the Week and Dungeon World, it's inherent in their premises ('kill monsters'; 'go into dungeons'). With AW, I think the situation comes from scarcity and the aggressive destablisation of status quos.

I'm looking forward to seeing your basic moves. One thing that might help you with that: what sorts of conflicts (both the obvious ones and the subtle) do you see happening in the movies that are inspiring you?

Here's something I realised about the story tensions that you can develop in a game of Companions.

Initially, I think characters are going to be driven (at an interpersonal level) by dealing with the loss of the Doctor, forming their own version of a team, and finding their feet as heroes on their own.

The need for revenge against whoever or whatever killed the Doctor may also provide a motivation for some Companions. And you could provide advice in the game about how to devise and reveal the truth about the Doctor's death - treating it as a mystery for the Companions to uncover.

Another tension is the TARDIS’ plan for the Companions, which I think would play best as being a different objective than 'Revenge'. The inspiration here could be the 7th Doctor, and his elaborate millennium spanning schemes where he's set up different pieces in different time-periods. If you go down this route, with the TARDIS helping the Doctor pay off some of his plans, you might want to treat this like an Arc in Monster of the Week, letting the MC figure it out slowly and having this plot develop/count down over quite a few sessions. 
 

History and Experience

You might need to be a bit clearer about the procedure for creating characters in the playbooks.

I think it'd help to add the following step before assigning Bonds and History: "Go around the group once, describing your Companion's look and what the group would know about them."

Then you could move the "Once you are finished" sentence to after the descriptions of the bonds. By the way: everyone thought the Bonds with the other companions were awesome!

History was actually a bit complicated to figure out, and the language here feels like it needs to be more specific. Do you determine starting Hx by going round the table and asking each player how many bonds they have with you? (And then that total number of bonds the other player has with you is your Hx score?)
 
Also, I think I missed this bit: Are there rules for helping? Do they use Hx? Do you just use the standard AW rules for helping and interfering?
 
I also think I missed how you gain Hx.
 
Experience seems a little problematic. I didn’t observe the players referring to the xp charts that much. Oh, and do you highlight stats?

 
Playbook suggestions

The group suggested another couple of playbooks:
- The Part timelord?
- The Soldier (ala The Brigadier)
- The Kid

All those changes sound good, Jerry. I look forward to reading the new and revised playbooks.

I had a think about principles and MC moves today. When I was playing the game, here are some of the moves I think I was making:

- illustrate the wonder of the universe
- give an individual a chance to make a huge difference
- hint at things happening behind the scenes
- capture a companion (or take her into your power)
- reveal your master plan
- show them a glimpse of what will happen soon
- show them a hint of the consequences of inaction
- demonstrate a good or bad consequence of the Doctor's influence
- present them with a mystery
- acknowledge the loss of the Doctor
- reveal an historical detail
- have a conversation with a companion


Another thing I noticed is that the Basic Moves might need to be unpacked a little bit. I found myself suggesting they use Act Under Pressure *a lot* (which got a little boring), and that Control a Dire Situation didn't always fit (because of its harm options).

I would suggest splitting Control a Dire Situation into two things: i) highly charged situations that could go (or are in the process of going) bad, and ii) fights.

Examples of (i) include the Doctor or Rory negotiating with the Silurians in Cold Earth, the Doctor speaking to the assembled troops on Demon's Run, or any point where a villain is explaining and executing their master plan. Examples of (ii) include hand to hand fights (uncommon) or gunfights (Unit vs Daleks in Day of the Daleks, or Mickey and Martha vs a Sontaran in The End of Time).

When you Try to Control a Dire Situation, then, might go something like this:

On a 10+ hold 2, on a 7-9, hold 1. Spend your hold to:
- make them listen or talk to you
- make them stop what they're doing and focus their full attention on you
- spot something that's previously been unnoticed (or realise something)
- give someone an opening
- assess a piece of technology (surreptiously)


I also felt that operating the TARDIS needed to have a little something extra aside from Acting under Pressure or Use Unfamiliar Tech. I felt that operating the TARDIS should be *cool*, and perhaps have a move all of its own. The following move is definitely not cool but it's a start:

When you pilot the TARDIS or use an aspect of its technology, roll+vortex. Gain a bonus for each +vortex individual who is helping you pilot (up to 5)

On a 10+, you land at the right time and palce, or achieve your desired effect
On a 7-9, choose 1
- right place
- right time
- the TARDIS takes you where it thinks you should be
- the effect works temporarily.

Thanks mease19. The hack plus basic playbooks approach sounds good to me. I've studied them a little bit and done a little of looking around the threads here, so it should be do-able.

Looking forward to it!

Awesome to see a Regiment forum up here, guys.

I think I heard you had plans to release a playtest draft this week? If that's true, I'll try to run it at a house-con I'm at next weekend.

FYI: I'm probably about a week away from taking a closer look at this. Really looking forward to it!