New AW Playbooks!

Um, so Bulwark is kinda on hold until I get my shit together. By that I mean, Ima write four* new AW playbooks. And when the .pdf's are all hot and shit, I'll start working on other stuff. Baby steps. I mean, the way I'm thinking about Bulwark is to not even have playbooks and just make everything real modular. Because, honestly, that way I can tailor the 'playbooks' to the people sitting at my table. So, really all I need is three of them for Bulwark.

The thing is if I can write good playbooks for AW then I can probably hack shit for something else. I don't know.

Here's the list of titles at the moment:

The Ghost
The Big Juju (cough*faceless*cough)
The Lovers (two starting characters! omfg!)
The Doll

Ima do the thing Bret did x4 maybe tomorrow morning or something.

Love and kisses,
Orly.

The Lovers (two starting characters! omfg!)

Hot!

I know, right!

They'll be the most challenging. Coming up with Moves/Kit for them has left my creative juices dry.

Anyone have any suggestions / ideas?

The Lovers (two starting characters! omfg!)

Yesssssss!

I think you can get a lot of mileage out of the "follow up on someone else's move" with this. Maybe that would slow things down, because that's two rolls per player, but still. Or maybe you can handle them as one character, totally inseparable?

Hmmm, the more I think about it, the more their moves should be roll-less. Give them only the basic roll moves and the rest are just bonuses and stuff.

Here are a few quick ones:
Twin ears and eyes if The Lovers are in close proximity, whenever one of them reads a person or a charged situation, she gets +1 forward to the roll.

Until death do us part... can't be Separated.

Synergy... when you fight side by side, you count as a small gang instead of a couple of people.

Like lovers do... As long as they can see each other, The Lovers get all the benefits of intimacy and can understand each other as if they had time to speak.

Also, the "when you have some time an intimacy with each other" could be a good clause for their moves.

Or, oh, make the Relationship itself a thing, like a Driver's car and then they give them an equivalent of the No Shit Driver move, like: when you're together... ...if you're acting under fire add your Relationship's Trust to your roll...
...if you're going aggro, add your Relationship's Passion to your roll...
etc.

Hmmmm.

Your One, Your Only: Each of you starts with hx+3 with your lover (in direct violation of the rules that say normally characters played by the same player don't have hx with eachother). In addition, whenever you help or are helped by your lover, take +2 instead of +1.

You DARE?: Whenever your lover is harmed, take +their-harm-taken forward.

Forever Linked: If you have less experience than the other lover, fill an experience circle.

Maybe it's because of fond memories of reading The Scar, but I kind of want the Lovers to maybe have the option of starting off with a small holding, gang, or maybe 2 gigs and a crew? (Perhaps only if there's no hardholder, chopper, or operator, respectively? Definitely using the "smaller" options for holding and gangs in the book.)

I feel kind of awkward about "Like Lovers Do..." because it kind of just justifies something that the characters get automatically, by virtue of being played by the same player.

Still, awesome concept!

Some things:

They'll get Until death do us part and Like lovers do for free. Explicitly or implicitly.

One of them will be mute. I'm not big on ever talking to yourself in characters.

This sounds kinda a cheap but maybe it's like: Pick (one or two?) moves out of any other Playbooks. This includes a small Holding, Gang, Followers, Crew + gigs, and/or a small Angel kit (stock-4). If that Playbook is in play, ask nicely; it's subject to player veto. Split the moves between the two of you evenly. This stuff is already covered by improvement so maybe it's not really that great to start with it.

I think you have one set of stats (including Hx and Harm) like everyone else.

Other Moves:

Bait and Switch Use your +sharp instead of +hot to Seduce and/or Manipulate.

Pillow Talk when you're on or off screen fucking, you get a hit for Open your Brain, no roll. The MC will let you in on some secrets but ask some hard questions.

Conspire when you Interfere with other PCs, roll +sharp not +Hx.

Jealousy when other PCs Interfere with you or when Helping you puts them in harms way, mark improvement.

Better half one of you is +augury.

Nah man, I think you should go the opposite way on some of this with the lovers. Maybe you all have different kinds of lovers in mind than I do, but when I think of The Lovers, I think a couple that's all about trying to be together but having to fight all hell for it, again and again. It's not being a dynamic duo that defines them.

So I'd give them bonuses not for being together but for being separated, especially when they're trying to get back together. The times when they're actually in each others arms should only come intermittently, though not never, I suppose. But those times are not where the drama is.

Way cooler, I think. And you wouldn't have to make one mute.

Orly, I think it's a really good idea to make some 'basic AW' playbooks to really get down and dirty with the system before trying a hack. Such a good idea that I'm totally stealing it :)

I think I'll have a rough draft ready later today.

The Lovers in my mind is all about the dynamic duo. Best friends in world where everyone is a threat: Lovers, sniper team, siblings, best friends, a boy and his dog.

I think it would be difficult to play a character(s) separated all the time without hogging all the spotlight from the other players. Three PC have a hard enough time sticking together, I don't think there's a need to split a single PC further.

Although, I may make the relationship anti-gear. I need to think about it some more

To me, The Lovers is all about The Lovers from China Mieville's The Scar. Not exactly a dynamic duo, but the kind of couple whose obsession with each other reaches the levels of ritualistic depravity. For them, forget separation, being two people is already too much for them. They want to be one body, one soul.

Good, then you know what you're doing and all's well.

Well, it's all about what Nathan wants to do with them in the end. But we obviously have different ideas.

Um, yeah, Gregor, that's the kind shit I'm talking about: reckless, obsessive and ritualistic. That's what's hot about the Lovers. I am picking up what you're putting down. I just need moves for it!

And hey! It's what we want to do with them! It's collaborative! We help refine each others hot but stupid ideas. I wanna make this baby sing and I can't do it alone.

@Gregor: Tell me more about how the Lovers from Scar would work for AW, with the other Playbooks in mind.

@Simon: I like your idea I just can think of a way to implement it effectively. Can you? Tell me about it.

Well, in The Scar they're basically hardholders. They rule a part of the ship-city, plot and scheme. They cut each other with intricate designs of scars, I forget to whatever end, I think to feel and mirror each other or something. In the book they also have a bodyguard that does all the actual violent stuff for them.

If I were to do a straight conversion from the book I'd use the Hardholder playbook and maybe toss some "weird" moves in the mix, but I suspect that's not exactly what you're after.

Here's another possible source of inspiration:

Or this: