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Messages - Simon C

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1
brainstorming & development / Re: Samurai World
« on: March 06, 2012, 10:16:03 PM »
That duelling move is cool but for something that epic, why not make a move that's a bit more detailed and dramatic?

Like:

When two characters are duelling to the death,

Answer the following questions for your character. The MC will answer for NPCs.

Are you ready to die? If yes, hold 1.
If any player doubts your word on this, say what you will to convince them. If they still doubt you, don't hold 1.

Are you free of remorse or hesitation to kill? If yes, hold 1.
If any player doubts your word on this, say what you will to convince them. If they still doubt you, don't hold 1.

Are you completely calm within yourself, free from self-doubt? If yes, hold 1.
If any player doubts your word on this, say what you will to convince them. If they still doubt you, don't hold 1.

At the moment of the clash, spend your hold. Whoever spends the most holds wins, and the loser is killed. If you spend the same amount of hold, roll a die to determine who wins, and the loser is given a terrible scar.

That's how I'd do it, anyhow. You could do a similar thing for archery.

2
Monster of the Week / Re: New Harm Rules
« on: June 22, 2011, 12:19:03 AM »
The way it should work (I'm not super sure how it does work) is that the rules require the Keeper to know (and therefore the players to say) exactly how the monster is injured. The harm done, what the character is doing, specifically, and the kind of monster they're fighting all inform what moves the Keeper chooses for the monster's wounds.

You keep doing 2-harm with your handgun, and the Keeper can keep saying "You blow another hole through the Vampire, but it doesn't seem to care" But if you describe your character swinging for the neck with your 4-harm axe, and you roll 10+, the Keeper, making the world seem real, needs to describe something quite different.

3
Interesting!

I've been fiddling with a police procedural hack, where "Juice" as in how much suction you have with the higher-ups is represented by a stat. A floating stat like Hx would be an interesting way of doing it too.

I'd make gains a bit more nebulous, like "At the end of each session, decide if the gods of the police are smiling down upon you (take Juice+1) or if they wax wrath (Juice stays the same).

4
Apocalypse World / Re: The part of the secret
« on: June 14, 2011, 12:22:45 AM »
Apocalypse World does have a cooperative element in creating the setting, but it's not an equal relationship around the table. The players don't get to say what's real in the world except as it relates to a question the MC has asked them, yeah? Or as it relates to their character.

It would be weird if a player was all like "There's a big holding just over the hill from here, where they've got lots of water"

Usually it would be like

"Hey, where are we gonna get water from, is there anywhere around here?" and the MC says "I don't know, <i>is</i> there anywhere around here?"

and they reply

"Oh yeah, how about there's a big holding with lots of water over the next hill?"

and the MC gets their fingerprints all over it, and says

"Yeah, absolutely. It's called "Watertown" and it's survived this long because it's water-rich, and has a fuck-off big gang defending it, with big walls and fixed guns on the walls, and ruthless security. There's a dude hung by his neck off one of the walls, and a sign on him which says 'WORTA FEEF'."

So it's collaborative but not equally collaborative.

Secrets: Secrets are plans that haven't come to fruition yet. Everyone should make plans but be prepared to change them.

As MC, you can do fun things with custom moves and secrets, like have everyone roll and choose from a list at the same time, without knowing what the others have chosen.

5
brainstorming & development / Re: Threat Level: A '24' hack
« on: June 02, 2011, 06:47:42 PM »
Steve,

That looks good! I like how it gets around the "crappy leverage" problem. If the threat is weak, they'll just suck it up. What do you do when the PC is bluffing?


6
brainstorming & development / Re: Threat Level: A '24' hack
« on: May 31, 2011, 12:07:56 AM »
Rolling Go Aggro and Manipulate together makes sense, I think. What are they "sucking up" though, when they force your hand?

7
Johnstone, I like that! I'm thinking about how to make that happen with the rules.

8
brainstorming & development / Re: Threat Level: A '24' hack
« on: May 30, 2011, 05:21:34 AM »
By "last bit" I meant the bit about Operatives just winning against all but the best opposition.

Maybe you could check out Ghost Opera? I'm thinking about a hierarchy that tells you who is at an advantage in a fight, or if you're evenly matched. I did a similar thing in Dungeonfuckers.

Something like:

Are you outnumbered more than 3 to 1?
Are you caught off guard, ambushed, or compromised?
Are they highly-trained, specially equipped, or very well prepared?

If you answered no to all questions above, you succeed as if you'd rolled a 10+. Otherwise, roll the dice.


9
brainstorming & development / Re: Threat Level: A '24' hack
« on: May 30, 2011, 12:56:00 AM »
That last bit is very interesting! I want to see the moves that make that true in the game. Maybe some no-roll moves?

10
Oh! There should definitely be a "It's worse than you thought" move for wounds. So you want to get them checked out as soon as possible.

11
brainstorming & development / Re: Threat Level: A '24' hack
« on: May 29, 2011, 11:53:38 PM »
Hey Steve,

What are gunfights like in 24? I've never seen the show. It would be super cool to make gunfighting moves that reinforce what the show is about. Here's what I did for my police procedural hack, which is all about how it's easier to be a bad cop than a good one:

When someone goes for a gun, roll +street
10+ hold 3
7-9 hold 2
miss, hold 1
spend hold, 1 for 1, to:
- draw your gun
- aim your gun
- shoot someone you're aiming at
- get a good look at someone or something
- get the hell out of the way
- get someone else into cover

I have a feeling 24 is more heroic though, yeah?

12
Ideally, the rules are compelling enough, and the expectation is powerfull enough, that if you don't tell the player their character is a paraplegic now, they'll say "hey! why aren't you following the rules?"

That's maybe not an easy place to get to though, and I don't know if these rules create that expectation well enough.

13
Oh yeah, for sure it requires trust and a strong shared vision. Also maybe access to healing which makes such things not so irrevocable.

Remember though, that taking 4-harm in one hit is very rare. If that happens to a person, it's probably because something serious is going down. I can't imagine that someone would be in a situation where they're taking 4-harm without expecting it.

The way the system is designed to work though, is that if some guy is swinging his gigantic 4-harm sword at your dude's neck, and you say "I block with my teaspoon" and fuck up the roll, the MC will have to work pretty hard not to tell you you're decapitated. The rules create an expectation.

I think I'll need to write up some healing rules too, which will be something like:

Roll +stock spent

10+ choose 3

7-9 choose 1

- Bring someone back from recent death
- Stop serious bleeding (harm 3+)
- Put someone's outsides back inside
- Stave off infection and death
etc.

As well as: Spend one stock to:
- Set a broken bone
- Stop minor bleeding (harm 1-2)
- Prevent infection
etc.

14
brainstorming & development / Blood and Guts: Alternate Harm Rules
« on: May 29, 2011, 04:20:44 AM »
One of the things I've noticed about the harm rules is that, while they're functional and do what they're designed to do, they're quite different from the rest of the game's rules, in that they're quite abstract and "mechanics first" rather than being specific and "fiction first".

One of the effects of this is that even when a character has taken a bunch of harm, it's quite easy to forget about that in practice, and have them walking around chatting and fighting and chilling out like they're just fine.

There's also the whole thing with the harm move where I always forget about it.

So I made some different rules. They need some work though! Please help me! I originally made them for my dungeon exploration/alien sex game "Dungeonfuckers", so I know they work more or less, but I'm not sure the effect they'll have in Apocalypse World.

Here's the pdf: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1164498/Blood%20and%20Guts.pdf

The basic idea is that when you get injured, the MC chooses an injury for you from a list. The injury changes our expectations of what the character is capable of, and what may require an "Acting Under Fire" roll. The injury also acts as a Threat, with a set of moves the MC can make for the move.

Let me know what you think!

15
Apocalypse World / Re: Custom Move: Red Rover
« on: May 24, 2011, 10:51:36 PM »
Also: "Temptation" makes it less tempting to make a Devil's bargain. Is that on purpose?

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