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Messages - nerdwerds

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76
Apocalypse World / Re: Questions: Optional experience, retire to safety.
« on: March 20, 2013, 02:29:59 AM »
Quote from: phargle on March 18, 2013, 02:22:37 PM
The default of being required to mark experience and take advances seems like it'd create some interesting play near the end for people who don't want to advance -- instead of using marked stats to get experience, they use non-marked stats to avoid it. 

I thought the same thing and asked my MC to clarify this. She has her own house rules for the second series of improvements.

We play fast and loose with improvements. You can mark an improvement later on, if you're in the middle of a fight or a charged interaction you might not want to stop to consider whether to raise your weird or your hot, and marking an improvement follows the fiction.
One player has marked the "create a second character" improvement but hasn't made that second character because he just hasn't felt like investing into another character yet.

For something like retiring we interpret it as "the character is able to retire and may do so to safety now, whenever the player declares." But subverting the rules and making them your own is also in the spirit of the game (see the Advanced Fuckery chapter) and so our MC also gives us the option to retire our characters as a threat.

77
Apocalypse World / Re: Indomitable (Touchstone playbook) : overkill ?
« on: March 12, 2013, 07:02:21 AM »
You're right, it is a very powerful move. I rolled a miss in our last combat and we were still able to take out the most dangerous people rather quickly after I spent my hold to kill, disarm or disable their leader. We also decimated an entire motorcycle gang without taking a single hit and it all started with my first use of a hold from Indomitable (and I still had 2 hold left!).
But then, it's not an insta-kill move either. It just sets things up to be very favorable for the character who has it.

Quote from: Jeremy on March 07, 2013, 06:31:08 PM
Also, it's a conversation happening, right?  When the player spends that first hold to reach the gang leader: "cool, how do you do that?"

This.
I play a character in our game who has taken Indomitable (also a Hardholder but started as a Chopper) and whenever I use a hold the MC asks question about how I accomplish something.

I think our MC also treats spending a hold as an action, so in the middle of combat she goes around the table and finds out what everybody is doing in reaction to me spending a hold and doing the thing I want to do.

78
Apocalypse World / Re: New playbook: The Abacus (evil middlemanager edition)
« on: March 06, 2013, 09:06:23 PM »
Quote from: hobbesque on March 06, 2013, 09:00:30 PM
I still think dice need to come in or else you can create overly deterministic and/or steady states.

Deterministic does not equate to consistency.
Check out Undying, a diceless AW hack for Vampire role-playing: http://enigmamachinations.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/undying-beta-v3-0-play-sheets1.pdf

79
Apocalypse World / Re: New playbook: The Abacus (evil middlemanager edition)
« on: March 05, 2013, 07:21:26 PM »
Quote from: hobbesque on March 05, 2013, 06:04:41 PM
However, I don't think we should discard the dice mechanic just because other playbooks use it.

I really like the idea of having a playbook that feels totally unique yet fits in with the fiction perfectly. Dice are going to come out regardless, so I see no reason to force that onto it. However, you gave the perfect solution to keeping a diceless mechanic...

Quote from: hobbesque on March 05, 2013, 06:04:41 PM
I'd probably also change the Upkeep-to-trouble mechanic to be "For every Barter less than your upkeep you pay, gain 1-Arrears. Every session, the MC gets hold equal to your Arrears that they may spend, 1 for 1, to either make a vulnerability pressing or have one of your contacts come to you with (as) a problem. You can buy off Arrears with an equal amount of Barter."

That's perfect. Every option could have an Arrears (or a tag) along with the Barter they bring in, and instead of having negative Barter costs for option the move could just state that MC could gets 2 Hold at the start of every session to activate Arrears (or tags). If the MC doesn't use the hold it doesn't add up but goes away by the end of session.

So with gigs and Moonlighting the consequences are sometimes a job goes bad.
With a hold and Wealth the consequences are sometimes money isn't rolling in and the population is suffering.
With a network and Businessman the consequences are you're always getting paid but you have to constantly keep on top of things to keep that money flowing.

I think that works thematically a lot better than the usual roll+stat mechanic.

80
Apocalypse World / Re: New playbook: The Abacus (evil middlemanager edition)
« on: March 05, 2013, 07:59:38 AM »
Quote from: Hidersine on March 05, 2013, 07:43:26 AM
Secondly because then they would just be either rote and quickly become annoying if every session or would have to then incorporate a random element. I would rather provide a rich ground for the MC to pull problems from as merited rather than obligate the player or the MC to do it unnaturally.

Good point.
But maybe this idea could then be: Each option provide a threat impulse for the MC to work off of.

For example, Soap could have potentially killed somebody which will bring heat to the Abacus'es network OR Dust's supply is always in danger of running low so he might try to cut a deal with one of your rivals or undercut your own stock.

The idea being that the options of your organization not only reflect the character of your organization and what is being accomplished through the network, but the MC is given their own list of options to poke and prod at the character with.

81
Apocalypse World / Re: New playbook: The Abacus (evil middlemanager edition)
« on: March 05, 2013, 07:10:14 AM »
You're right. You shouldn't design from a "is this playbook going to picked second" viewpoint. I just immediately saw the +1 options and thought it was a little unbalanced.

I think you could get rid of the plurality of numbers. If you want to remove the roll you'd have to give a concrete number that the player (and the MC) knows the option is worth.

What if each +barter option gave an obligation that needed to be performed every session and every -barter option gave an accompanying thing that could be accomplished every session? Like, if you have Soap in your network he could whack one NPC but if you have Dust in your network than you have to keep them from getting killed by a rival or imprisoned by whatever passes as the local law.


82
the nerve core / Mad Max + The Road Warrior
« on: March 05, 2013, 04:40:21 AM »
Our gaming group didn't play last Sunday because half of us were out of town, which meant the other half of us got together to watch a double feature of Mad Max and The Road Warrior. All throughout the movies we kept pointing out things that could be interpreted through Apocalypse World

Mad Max
  • Max is a Driver with a garage and a mechanic who improves his car for him
  • Toecutter is obviously a Weird Chopper, but he seems to have a couple of other PCs in his gang
  • society hasn't completely collapsed yet, or whatever people are using for money hasn't run out yet
  • The Courts is a conceptual hardholder with the threat impulse: to maintain civility (they let one of Toecutter's gang go free)
  • a restaurant has a sign saying "BYO food" which is a little detail that's easy to miss but is totally suitable for "barfing forth apocalyptica"

The Road Warrior
  • Humungus is either a Faceless whose taken Lightning Reflexes, or he's a Battlebabe that has moved onto a Faceless playbook (I like to think that Johnny survives from the first film and becomes Humungus)
  • Wez is likely a Hocus, as he makes predictions and seems to perform "blessings" on people, some of Humungus'es gang seem more loyal to him as well, which means...
  • Humungus'es gang is actually made up of members of two gangs, probably in order to get a +large bonus
  • Max totally manipulates the Feral Kid into leaving him alone by giving him oddments worth 1-barter (the miniature hurdy gurdy), later Max goes aggro on the Feral Kid to leave him alone
  • Pappagallo is clearly a hardholder
  • the Warrior Woman is probably a gunlugger despite her fondness for crossbows, or maybe because of since...
  • bullets are scarce, so this is probably something the MC is constantly using against their players to make them buy
  • the mechanic in the oil refinery is probably a Savvyhead
  • we decided the Gyro Captain needs a new playbook but with a cooler name than Gyro Captain: the Gyrocat

The Gyro Captain also appears in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but doesn't seem to recognize Max. I suggested that this was because the same character is being played by a new player.

All in all, Mad Max hasn't aged very well but it's got some great ideas and it's filled with lots of interesting little details about a modern civilization on decline. The Road Warrior is a better film because the story is tighter and the stakes are higher. I'd recommend anybody who plays Apocalypse World to watch them if you haven't, and if you haven't seen them in a while revisit them and see how you might view them differently.

83
Apocalypse World / Re: New playbook: The Abacus (evil middlemanager edition)
« on: March 05, 2013, 01:50:12 AM »
Some more thoughts:
I had been thinking about this playbook yesterday and how I would change their core mechanic to avoid having a roll. Good job!

Quote from: Hidersine on March 04, 2013, 10:16:33 PM
Pick 4 [this number can change] options from the list below:

I would say you want to have more options that give barter than they are allowed to choose. Otherwise, what's stopping a player from taking their maxed out Gunlugger or Chopper and then switching to an Abacus and scooping up all the positives?

Also, I'm playing a hardholder right now and I managed to have 12 barter in three sessions. With +3 Hard and +2 Sharp I don't fail a lot of rolls and the MC hasn't been able to force my hand a lot. I'm down to 4 barter now but the only reason I'm down is because I've been spending it like crazy, every time I throw a party for my hold I spend 3 barter which means the population fucking loves me, and I just got an improvement last session which raised my 10+ result on Wealth to +4 barter.
Point is: Barter is not hard to come by for the right playbook, or the right combination of decent stat+moves.

You've got four options that give barter so I would think you should be able to pick 2 or 3 starting out. But I think there need to be more things that give +2 barter and the good things in the network need to cost more. In general.

You want good shit? Then you should be forced to pay! Soap (an awesome name for an assassin) needs to cost -2 or -3 barter, for instance. Because he's good. Like, really good!

You willing to take obligations? Then you should get paid for helping out. The warlord whom you have an understanding with, that should be +1 barter, but then you have to help out the warlord, who should also be the most unsavory kind of motherfucker. Think: Toecutter from Mad Max.

84
Apocalypse World / Re: New playbook: The Abacus (evil middlemanager edition)
« on: March 04, 2013, 11:02:09 PM »
I would change the name to "Legitimate Businessman"


85
Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Scholar
« on: March 01, 2013, 07:32:32 PM »
Quote from: Charles Perez on March 01, 2013, 06:13:58 PM
The third stat line from the tri-fold sheet would seem to add up to only +1.

Charles

Whoops!
Good catch. I changed it so Weird is +1 instead of -1.

86
Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Scholar
« on: March 01, 2013, 02:16:57 AM »
So, I made another trifold.

In general, I fixed everything to conform to the basic 11 playbooks, but in some cases I feel I should point out what I changed:
- fixed the Stat lines to add up to +3
- added both weapons to gear (instead of choosing between them), also added fashion
- changed the name of "Ten Barter Words" since there was dissent about the name
- expanded "Archaeologist" to be more broadly useful
- used elkin's version of the Special
- used elkin and krippler's suggestions for expanding the Librarian move and the Library feature

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtiVXVxRWg3dlB2cDQ/edit

87
Apocalypse World / Re: Custom Playbook: The Synthetic
« on: February 28, 2013, 07:03:31 PM »
Some notes:
- the Genetic Engineering and External Layer of Living Tissue became one Upgrade
- Recharging got defined more solidly
- Violating Your Programming became an active choice of the player (when it occurs)
- some of the Upgrades were tinkered with to fit the new Program paradigm
- added three moves to give the Synthetic broader capabilities in hot, cool, and sharp (since any non-Weird stat can be 'specialized'), and those are:

Not Very Good With People: when you attempt to seduce or manipulate and fail the roll, mark experience.

Precision Instrument: when you attempt to heal somebody without medicine or aid, roll+sharp. On a hit, you've stabilized them and they're going to be okay. On a 10+, somehow you've managed to heal 1 segment. On a miss, something's glitched and you actually inflict +1harm instead.

5 months, 6 days, 11 hours, 2 minutes and 57 seconds: when you find yourself cornered or trapped declare that you prepared for this inevitability and roll+cool. On a 10+, you are set up exactly the way you want to be. On a 7-9, the MC will introduce a complication or delay. On a miss, your predictions were off and you're not prepared at all.

88
Apocalypse World / Re: Custom Playbook: The Synthetic
« on: February 28, 2013, 06:53:04 PM »
So, here's the final version with trayburn's artwork.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtiVnExMmZKa29ORnc/edit

Enjoy!

89
Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Scholar
« on: February 28, 2013, 03:47:04 PM »
Quote from: Krippler on February 28, 2013, 10:27:15 AM
I think which move is better depends on how good the MC is to come up with either misinformation or true information than puts you in a spot.

It also depends upon the player being able to know they failed the roll and just running with the information as if they accept it as truth. I tend to play with sch players so I never worry about people "playing it correctly" when I write something.

I don't think it really needs a lot to put a player into a spot. You could even give half-truths as part of the answer so it doesn't feel like a complete botch. I like the ambiguous nature of it.

90
Apocalypse World / Re: New Playbook: The Scholar
« on: February 28, 2013, 09:06:59 AM »
How about this?

Ear to the Ground: when you meet someone important (your call), roll+sharp.  On a hit, you've heard about them, the MC will tell you one thing.  On a 10+, you get +1 Forward with them.  On a Miss, you describe what you've heard and the MC will (secretly) decide whether or not it's true.

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