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Messages - TormentedDragon

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Gravitas / New Basic Moves
« on: June 29, 2010, 01:21:48 PM »
We've only got one so far, but any more we think of will go here!

When you navigate the Lanes, roll+weird. On a hit, choose options. On a 10+, you get all of them. On a 7-9, choose one:
1) You get there
2) the trip took half as long as you thought it would
3) your trip remains incident-free


This one is used when anyone, pilot or no, guides a ship through FTL travel. No-Shit-Pilot will add the ship's Power to the roll, and Weather Eye (barring further changes) will let you use Sharp instead of Weird.

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Gravitas / Re: Quick intro/general discussion
« on: June 28, 2010, 12:34:04 AM »
That is, essentially, what we're doing. Renaming things, reworking the fiction.

Apocalypse World, as it stands, has a particular fiction going on, and that is a post-apocalyptic setting on what is, essentially, Earth, 50 or so years after the maelstrom ended the Golden Age, or whatever ended the Golden Age created the maelstrom. The setting is flexible, sure, but still limited to planetside.

To take it into space, you need a few things: ships, rules for ships, a different setting history, a definite change to the fiction of each class. "Angel" works in the vanilla AW setting, because of the kind of culture that arises in an "After The End" situation. It doesn't work quite as well in the Space Age, though you could use it if you wanted to. In our group, we wanted a different fiction, but the core of the game works just as well within the new setting, with a few minor changes, and we didn't want a different game, we just wanted a different fiction surrounding it.

Consider it like a campaign module for any tabletop RPG. We aren't mucking with the core mechanics, we're putting up a new setting with a few setting specific things, and anyone can play with it as they please.


In addition, you can consider this the foundation. This is the quick and dirty hack, the rough draft. More stuff will be added as we get around to it, and maybe more/different moves will put to the classes as we figure out what still works and what can be changed.

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Gravitas / Privateer (Operator)
« on: June 25, 2010, 04:02:24 PM »
THE PRIVATEER
Empty space and raging seas, pirates and raiders comin' in from all sides, and then there's the Privateer. A death trap, a nightmare, that's what the galaxy is now. But the credits are still around, and there's lots of 'em to be made in a galaxy where everyone's afraid of everyone else, and nobody so much as trusts
their mother. There's money to be made, and few know how to really make it.

(or)

Time was a merchant could run the lanes with nothing more than a glorified tug and make it from Salzeider to Corrican without waking up. That ain't work no more. You wanna run the lanes these days, you best be a smooth, sneaky sumbitch or the hardest fucker in the skies, and pray to whatever god you worship your crew's up to the task.
One wrong step, and you're space dust.

STATS
Choose one set:
• Cool+2 Hard=0 Hot-1 Sharp+2 Weird-1
• Cool+2 Hard+1 Hot+1 Sharp=0 Weird-1
• Cool+2 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird=0
• Cool+2 Hard=0 Hot=0 Sharp+1 Weird-1
(unchanged from vanilla)

MOVES:
You get:
Moonlighting
and choose 1:
Easy to trust
Eye on the door
Opportunistic
Reputation

(no change to the class moves)

GIGS
(Profit / catastrophe)
Choose 3 paying gigs:
• Bodyguarding (100 credits / embattled)
• Surveillance (100 credits / deceived)
• Raiding (100 credits / embattled)
• Enforcement (100 credits / overthrown)
• Honest work (100 credits / impoverished)
• Companionship (100 credits / entangled)
• Deliveries (100 credits / bushwacked)
• Infiltration (100 credits / discovered)
• Scavenging (100 credits / impoverished)
• Brokering deals (100 credits / shut out)
• Technical work (200 credits / shut out)
• Fucking (200 credits / entangled)
• Ship/System Security (200 credits / infiltrated)
• Doing murders (300 credits / embattled)

And choose 1 obligation gig:
• Avoiding someone (you keep well clear / they catch you in a bad spot)
• Paying debts (you keep up with them / they come due)
• Revenge (you victimize someone / they humilate you)
• Protecting someone (nothing bad happens to them / they’re gone)
• Pursuing luxury (beauty in your life / you wind up in a bad spot)
• Maintaining your honor (you keep your word and your name / you cross a line)
• Seeking answers (you get a clue / you chase a red herring)
(main change is barters to credits, and Compound Security to Ship/System security)

CREW/CONTACTS
(remains unchanged)

GEAR
9mm (2-harm close loud kinetic), or a signature weapon (detail with the MC)
• oddments worth 100 credits
• fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth 1-armor (you detail)
• at your option, and with MC approval, a starship (detail with the MC)
(big change)

Hx, the Special, and the Improvement list remain untouched.

4
Gravitas / Re: Pilot (Driver)
« on: June 25, 2010, 01:29:04 AM »
Examples of Pilot ships seen so far in games we've run:

The Sunrunner
power+2; looks+1; 1-armor; weakness+1
Weapons: Medium lasers (2-harm close loud energy fighter)
Frame: Modified Long-hauler Bulk Freighter
Strengths: long-range and huge
Looks: quirky
Weakness: unreliable

Description: The Sunrunner is essentially an enormous rectangular box, with a ship-spanning mural of the Yggdrasill painted on its hull (quirky). Due to the Huge attribute, it was ruled that it had a forward laser battery, under the control of the pilot, and two turrets on the port and starboard sides of the hull, which require individual gunners to operate.

Largely, the dual-turret option was included to allow the Privateer (Operator) and Marine (Gunlugger), who were the other participants in the game, the option of being useful in space combat. One of the flaws of the game, perhaps, but there are ways around it for the inventive MC/player.

An example of a craft acquired through Warmachine:
The Void Hawk
The Void Hawk
power+2; looks+1; 3-armor; weakness+2
Weapons: Assault Package:
Top-mounted turret: (3-harm close/far energy fighter) heavily armored ball-turret with a huge coverage arc
Nose-mounted Gaussian Sequencer: (3-harm close/far reload-optional kinetic fighter capship-optional) six fighter grade gauss rifle barrels arranged in a hexagon, covers a wide arc in the forward direction. Each barrel fires sequentially, eliminating reload times, though the sequence can be altered. If all 6 barrels are fired at once, its a capship grade weapon, but needs a reload time.
Frame: two-man superiority gunship
Strengths: Fast and Responsive
Look: powerful
Weaknesses: cramped and short-range

fighter grade and capital ship grade weaponry mucks about with how much harm is done against what type of armor: general rule is that fighter grade weaponry does full harm against fighter grade armor, +1 harm against personal armor, and -1 harm against capital ship armor. This'll be treated with more attention once we get the weapon mechanics thread up.


The Sunrunner is essentially a mobile base for the group; the long-range tag means that it can make almost any journey you want it to, eliminating the danger of running out of fuel in the midst of space. Fictionally, its drive is essentially a self-sustaining energy source, possibly a fusion engine. We haven't concerned ourselves too much with those details.

Worth noting that, due to amazing seize and under fire rolls, the Sunrunner disabled a frigate (a vessel actually designed for combat), and killed four fighters, in the same battle.

The Void Hawk belongs to the same pilot as the Sunrunner, and fits into that pilot's hangar. So long as it sticks with the Sunrunner, the short-range (i.e. guzzler) doesn't matter that much. Fast, on a ship like this, means speeds more like Mach 5 and up: you ramp things up when you go flight capable.


In general, all space-capable vessels are VTOL capable, though you can always fiction them differently, if you wish.

5
Gravitas / Re: Pilot (Driver)
« on: June 24, 2010, 11:09:14 PM »
Okay. So I'm focusing on what we've changed from the vanilla. First, the flavor of the class has changed slightly, since when you put things into the space age with FTL travel being common, you get a lot more vehicles than usual.

The stat arrays are included, as we performed a minor change to it, in the third set: increased hot from -1 to 0, since as we played, we found the driver's stat arrays lacking. This set is what my group uses, but if you're comfortable with the old set, feel free to keep to that one.

In terms of the moves, No Shit Driver becomes No Shit Pilot, and the wording was changed to indicate the wider array of crafts that can be piloted. As for My other car is a tank, well, that gets changed up rather significantly in what it can provide, becoming My other craft is a warmachine. More on this later.

For the gear, note that Barter gets replaced with Credits: the Galactic Empire's currency remains valid by dint of having been in place for centuries, though if more centuries were to pass after its collapse, they might get replaced with something else. If you liked the old barter system, feel free to go back to it: credits just make more sense for the fiction, here. We've currently got a straight conversion of 1-barter = 100 credits, and this applies to everything.

Also, note the gear change up. We included energy weapons, which currently don't have clear rules to distinguish them from Kinetic. Right now, it's purely fictional; that may change later.

Now for the Crafts: You'll note, first of all, that they have the option to be armed at the start. This is combined player and MC's choice, but keep in mind that in the depths of space, you can't exactly fire your handgun out the window. Vehicle mounted weaponry can also come in the form of a turret, which can be operated by someone who is not the Pilot.

Also note that these are weapon packages. Again, between Player and MC, you detail exactly where the weapons are placed and whether there's a turret AND pilot-operated weapon system, or just one or the other. The Fighter tag is something we came up with to differentiate between vehicle mounted weapons and personal weapons, which will be explored more once I get the weapons related topic up.

As for the frames, there's planetside and spacefaring: in general, all spacefaring craft are also capable of atmospheric flight, while planetside craft don't fly.

Really, the long and the short of it is, Driver to Pilot means the class got a major power boost. Thoughts, questions, complaints?

6
Gravitas / Pilot (Driver)
« on: June 24, 2010, 10:43:21 PM »
THE PILOT
There was a time, way back when, that pilots were dime-a-dozen. Back when it was 'safe'. Send the galaxy to hell and back, though, and the ones that survived either gave it up or got real good real quick.

And those are the ones the galaxy wants. The kind that can navigate a raging storm of Gravitas in a rustbucket, and come back to tell the tale.

STATS:
• Cool=0 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp+2 Weird=0
• Cool+1 Hard=0 Hot=0 Sharp+2 Weird-1
• Cool=0 Hard+1 Hot=0 Sharp+2 Weird-1
• Cool+1 Hard-2 Hot=0 Sharp+2 Weird+1

MOVES:
you get this
A no shit pilot: when behind the controls... (etc.)
and pick one:
Good in the Clinch
Weather Eye
Daredevil
My other craft is a warmachine:
you get an additional craft. Give it an assault package (3-harm close/far) or bomber payload (3-harm area loud) and +1 armor.

GEAR
You get:
• 1 handy weapon
• oddments worth 200 credits
• fashion suitable to your look (you detail)

• Handy weapons (choose 1):
• Hand blaster (2-harm close cooldown loud energy)
• 9mm (2-harm close loud kinetic)
• big knife (2-harm hand kinetic)
• spreader (3-harm close cooldown messy energy)
• naval sword (3-harm hand kinetic)
• heavy blaster (3-harm close cooldown loud energy)

SHIP
Choose one of these profiles:
Power+2 looks+1 1-armor weakness+1
Weapons (optional): Medium lasers (2-harm loud energy close fighter)
or missiles (2-harm loud kinetic far fighter)

Power+2 looks+2 0-armor weakness+1
Weapons (optional): Medium lasers (2-harm loud energy close fighter) or missiles (2-harm loud kinetic far fighter)

Power+1 looks+2 1-armor weakness+1
Weapons (optional): Light lasers (1-harm loud energy close fighter)

Power+2 looks+1 2-armor weakness+2
Weapons (optional): Medium lasers (2-harm loud energy close fighter) or missiles (2-harm loud kinetic far fighter)

Choose its type:
Planetside
Spacefaring


Choose its frame:
Spacefaring: One-man fighter, two-man fighter, shuttle, freighter, frigate, yacht, dropship, scout ship
Planetside: Speeder, walker, tank, car, truck

Choose its strength or strengths:
Fast, rugged, aggressive, tight, huge, long-range(ship), all-terrain(land), responsive, uncomplaining, capacious, workhorse, easily repaired. Choose as many as its power.

Choose its look or looks:
Sleek, vintage, pristine, powerful, luxe, flashy, muscular, quirky, pretty, vicious, shiny, garish, handcrafted. Choose as many as its looks.

Choose its weakness or weaknesses:
Slow, fragile, sloppy, lazy, cramped, picky, guzzler, unreliable, loud, jumpy. Choose as many as its weakness.

Hx, the special move, and the improvement list remain unchanged.

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Gravitas / Re: Quick intro/general discussion
« on: June 24, 2010, 10:29:55 PM »
The overall setting:

There was a golden age, once, when the empire still existed. A time when the lanes were safe and well-traveled, when new ones were opened with each passing day,when Captains belonged to fleets, when the stations were waystations, not bastions, when Semper Fi still meant something.

But then it all went to hell in a handbasket. For one reason or another, the empire fell. Its military fell to infighting. Warlords claimed entire systems for themselves, pirates took over the lanes and killed the merchant business, and the keys to the Gravitas got lost in the chaos.

These days, it's all a guy can do to get by. The empire is done, and it won't be comin' back. But at least the lanes are still workable. The Gravitas never went away, after all. And for the enterprising spacer, there's always a niche to be filled.

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Gravitas / Quick intro/general discussion
« on: June 20, 2010, 10:00:59 PM »
Gravitas is, put simply, a space opera hack of the regular Apocalypse World game. In terms of changes, we've reflavored and renamed the classes, and come up with a few minor mechanics changes to incorporate spaceflight and space combat.

For the most part, the classes remain unchanged. The Driver, Hardholder, and Chopper got the most changes, but at their core, they remain the same. As we go, we may expand on these.

We don't have the classes quite ready to post for this forum, so those will be forthcoming as we get them reorganized.

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Apocalypse World / Custom move: Brainer
« on: June 12, 2010, 04:59:03 AM »
Something like two months after we got into Apocalypse World, my fellow player and I started work on a space-age hack for it, which we will eventually post in the appropriate section.

HOWEVER, this particular move is applicable outside of the hack, and (I think) is a cool little addition to the Brainer's toolbox:

Mindspeak: You can speak into the mind of someone you know, from a reasonable distance. They know it's you speaking to them, and if you're close, they can tell where you are.

In the hack, the Brainer gets this move by default. They don't have to sacrifice any of the other cool Brainer stuff to get it. This is also why it does not require a roll (a Brainer with Weird highlighted can easily progress at a frighteningly fast pace... they don't need any help in that area), and why it specifically states that the recipient of the message knows who and where you are. The advantage it has is that nobody except the recipient can hear the message, and I don't think I really need to point out the benefits of being able to send a completely private message.

Obviously an MC can tweak it as they please. I just thought this was cool and wanted to share it for people to use however they want.

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