Loveletter advice please?

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Loveletter advice please?
« on: December 06, 2012, 02:13:27 PM »
Greetings,

in my game the Savyhead had just decided to form a gang to work for Balls (local food shop owner) to rebel against the tyranny of the SWAT tribe lead by Jackabacka. Smith the brainer is still working for him (Jackabacka wants to kill Balls). The Angel Key and Killer the Gunlugger are still undecided.

Actually Killer has mist the last two sessions (session 2 and 3) so i will have to prepare a loveletter for him anyway. To get some time moving and slow down the action our next session will pick up 1 month later. This gives Oz the Savy enough time to put his gang together and work on the old factory building where they will be housed.

I want a bit of advice on the moves in the loveletters i will put out. Also, should i give my players the letters today/tomorrow or just when we start gaming? I love the feeling of printing them out and handing them to them but some of them will require a bit of thought beforehand so i am not sure if this will slow the game to much, what are your experiences?

This i have for the Savy right now:

yadadada yadaddada yaddaada GANG.
I will put the gang creation list on the letter and make him create his gang. I will also create a namelist of like 12 people that are in his gang.
Then there are a lot of quesions about them.
Who is your second in command?
Who do you trust the most and why isn't he in command?
Who hates you the most? Why?
There is someone you are really happy to have in your gang, who is it and why is he valuable to you?
There was also someone you didn't get, who is it and what else does s/he has to care for? Is she still loyale to the SWAT? Is it about his daughter?
Who here is actually working more for balls then for you?
With whom did you sleep? (he should get his sexmove for this right?)
Who here finds your pet creepy and want's to get rid of it?

You had a first advance against the SWAT 2 weeks ago, tell us about it and roll+hard.
On a 10+ choose 3, 7-9 choose 2. On a Miss it went downhill but choose 1
You made a show of force
You only got slightly injured (tell us who took a bullet)
You definitely reached your objective
You yourself came out okay

Angel

Not sure about this one. I think i should ask where her loyalties lie and why. She also went to 9:00 so she has to do something about it.

You really are in need of a doc and you are the only one here so get a mirror and get to work. (also roll+sharp)
On a 10+ everything fine. Go back to 3:00
On a 7-9 choose 1 (or 2?) On a miss choose 2 (or 3?)
* you used up ALL of your angel kit (or maybe just 2?)
* it wasn't as easy as you thought so just heal back to 6:00
* You had to open your brain to the psychic maelstorm about it and Shazza took control for a bit*

*Shazza is the Not-Skinner of the hardhold that Key failed to save last lession (she rolled A LOT of 3s that session) and that now lives in her head (5 on healing hands)

I want to do something with this possesion of her in the loveletter too.
This is a new beginning of session move she has to take:

When you try to get rid of Shazza roll +Weird
10+ everything is fine, for now
7-9 the MC holds 1
Miss: The MC holds 3
The MC can spend hold to have you act under fire if it goes against Shazza's wishes and plans

Is this okay?

She cared about a streetkid named Tao and said she want's him to work for her. Should there be a +hot move for this? I have actually no idea - manipulate doesn't seem right...

Brainer

He made an enemy out of Barker. I think i want to resolve this, or give him the chance to do it with this letter. (Barker also has his Brainwave projector stashed away) 
You got confronted by Barker so roll +hard
10+ you killed that fucker
7-9 choose 1
* You gave him a good beating but he is still alive
* The SWAT is pissed at you
* His family (Martini and Goldie) knows you did it

You also had a chance to put some in-brain-puppet strings on 2 people. Tell us who it is and how you did it. Roll you move normaly and use your result for both cases. Tell us the command you gave them.

Gunlugger,

this is hard. I have to ask what he did for two months. I will give him 3 options i think.
* Raiding with the target gang (why? They are fuckers and they killed your father)
* Cruising arround with Dany, the driver from a nearby hardhold
* A secret mission for Jackabacka (tell us about it!)

Both Jackabacka and Balls then tried to get him to work for him so i will ask how he decideds (not choosing is an answer)
He is also a mercenary/hitman for hire so he will get a move for that.
You went out to kill someone for money. Tell us who it was (and who ordered you to kill him) and roll+hard
On a 10+ fuckers'dead and you get +1 barter
On a 7-9 choose 1
* You thought he is dead but he isn't
* You caused problem for your client and now he is pissed at you AND he didn't pay
* You got hefty injured, Set you'r harmclock to 9:00
On a miss - oh you poor poor soul... *evil grin*



This is what i have right now? Seems okay? I think the question stuff is okay but i need 1 or 2 more for the Savys gang. It could also use a bit more scarcity i think, water is actually hard to get...

Re: Loveletter advice please?
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2012, 09:27:17 PM »

There's way too much under the Savvyhead to put in one love letter. All those questions are good questions, but you can't ask 6+ questions all at once -- pick a few of them, maybe, then ask the rest in play. Or, even better, figure out a love-letter move that will answer some of the questions implicitly.

Also, instead of having the 'first advance against the SWAT' be 2 weeks ago, I would suggest just starting the session with it: either don't use the move at all and start in the middle of the fight, or modify the move so that it provides a starting situation, then immediately go to that scene. And use that scene as a way to incorporate some of the questions you didn't ask outright, as well.

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For the Angel, don't just 'ask her where her loyalties lie and why' -- make a move about it! That's something you want to answer in an interesting way, not just through abstract conversation.

The point of moves in love-letters (and love letters in general) is mostly to generate exciting new situations for the PCs, not just to find out what they did in the downtime. The Angel's move to heal herself does not really do that -- I'd just let the Angel spend their kit supply to heal themselves in a straightforward manner -- except for the Shazza consequence. But it seems way better to have an interesting move devoted entirely to the Shazza possession -- and I mean a love-letter move, not a custom move (though you could have both.) Again, something that will both establish something about how the PC is dealing with the situation (i.e. give them choices as much as possible) and also create an interesting starting point for the session.

The Shazza move is a bit weird. What happens if the Angel doesn't try to get rid of Shazza? Also, it's kind of boring -- very generic results -- but that could be okay if Shazza is a well-fleshed-out NPC with not-boring desires. As long as Shazza getting that Hold seems exciting/interesting to the players.

Generally speaking, you don't need to have a rolled move for everything. Maybe this Tao kid just started working for her, full stop, no problem. Or maybe there are some problems, and the Angel has noticed them, but hasn't done anything yet. Maybe the move you want is just a simple choice about what she has been teaching Tao (pick one: first aid, rudimentary literacy, not to hang out with [bad people X], etc.)

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Your Brainer move doesn't 'give him a chance' to resolve anything: it forces him to resolve it in a particular way. On a 10+ he kills the guy... what if he doesn't want to kill the guy? The 7-9 results don't feel like very interesting choices, either, or at least not very Brainer-y choices. Where's the 10+ option to turn Barker into his psychic slave, or cut out his eyes, or do whatever other crazy apocalyptic thing the player might find interesting?

--

The Gunlugger moves seem ok, but having both seems excessive. Having more than one important thing happen in a love letter seems like a bad idea to me, in general. If there's that much interesting stuff happening, you should be playing it out -- and again, the goal is to use the love letter to start something, not finish it.

I like the second move, but I would expand the list of choices and give them more options, for example:

'On a 7-9 choose 2:
* The target is definitely dead.
* You got paid.
* Whoever hired you is not pissed off.
* You didn't get hurt.
* The target/the target's friends don't know it was you.'

Or something like that. Don't just make them pick between 3 preset situations, let them mix and match a bit if possible. And in any case, make sure to start right after this went down, with the consequences still fresh and active.


Re: Loveletter advice please?
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2012, 04:40:44 AM »
The point of moves in love-letters (and love letters in general) is mostly to generate exciting new situations for the PCs, not just to find out what they did in the downtime.

Okay thank you, this helps a lot.
Shazza is not really so fleshed out, she is a big black women that sang Rammstein Songs at Rose's. She was killed in an struggle as Balls send his lackey to "persuade" Rose to give the establishment to him. It ended in Shazza having a big knifewound on her throat, left getting stabbed repeadetly in the chest and Rose getting a load of shotgun in her belly. As the angel came to the scene she fixed up Rose so she wouldn't die instantly and send a few people to bring Rose to the angels place.
She then tried to cure Shazza (and missed) and i told her she could try again (but this would leave her not enough time to care for Left), abandon her or use healing hands (she picked up like a second ago when she read the situation) to save Shazza for now. She used healing hands, failed and the spirit/soul of Shazza was sucked into her.

I am not certain what happend then. I think she succeeded to act under fire under the screams of Shazza to not help her killer. Something like this...

She then went to help Left, failed, tried to lay on hands and failed again. Shazza took control of her mind and all went black. I described to the Brainer how he saw the Angel punching Left to death and was then taking captive by the SWAT (capture someone move + announce future badass).

The Angel later failed to open her brain and was thrown into a vision of Shazza's past. She saw a happy day where her uncle taught her a new song. He then send her to hide as the sound of motorcicles was heard. Shazza hid in a barrel for 2-3 hours and heard how the target gang shot her parents and uncle.

This is all that is established about Shazza. How do i turn this into an intersting loveletter or generall move?

Someone on here wrote about a time where the angel failed to use healing hands and open the two brains to the psychic maelstorm that was all about love. He instantly gave the player the following move: "When you put Angies live and desires about your own and do something for her, mark experience".
Something like this would be really cool, maybe revenge on the target gang as the trigger?
Also should i just give this to her or make this an option for advancement (replacing an angel move?) ?

Re: Loveletter advice please?
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2012, 05:47:12 AM »
(The example in your last paragraph is directly out of the Apocalypse World book, by the way! Funny how that happens...)

Re: Loveletter advice please?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2012, 06:30:49 AM »
I thought i read that on the forum...

Re: Loveletter advice please?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2012, 01:16:42 PM »
I wrote this new move for the Savyhead

Your guys and gals are eager to finaly get into a fight with the SWAT Tribe and they want to do it right fucking now. If this is okay with you then yeah... go for it.
If you establish your rule and force them to keep still roll +hard
10+ everything okay, they will follow you and keep their heads down
7-9 choose 1
* They don't want to charge right now but soon you won't be able to control them (basically it will happen this session but you have a bit of time to prepare)
* They keep still but someone challenges your rule, go deal with it
6- tough luck. They are charging the SWAT Tribe bunker, what do you do?

Re: Loveletter advice please?
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2012, 10:27:42 AM »
For the Brainer i know have this:

For the thing with barker (not the actual text ^^) roll+weird

On a 10+ choose from this list
* You brooke his mind, he is your slave now
* You got one of his eyes and can consume it to get control over his senses and actions
* His mind is gone, a total wreck, a vegetable has more going on in the mind depratment than this poor guy

On a 7-9 choose 2
* Nobody knows you did it
* It went great, take no harm
* Your pain wave projector got lost in the whole thing (Barker still has it)
* You didn't miss another danger while this was going on

The Angel can spend stock to heal herself and choose one thing for Tao
* rudimentary reading and writing
* first aid
* Staying clear of [person X]
* Getting her secrets of Fauna

And she gains the beginning of session move
Dancer in your head

Roll +weird at the beginning of each session to deal with Shazza in your head
10+ everything is fine and you can ask her a question from the read a person move
7-9 you still get a question and the MC holds 1
6- The MC holds 3
Hold can be spend to make her act under fire


I think/hope this is much better.

Oh.


Nouvelle Cuisine cuisine

When you eat someones eyeball roll+weird
10+ you hold 3 and see through their eyes for as long as you want
7-9 you hold 1 and see through their eyes for as long as you want
6- you and he both hold 1
You can spend hold to make the NPC fullfill a simple command within his or her ability.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2012, 10:32:28 AM by Praion »