Custom Move: Red Rover

SPOILERS: Those who are signed up for the "Red Rover" scenario @ Origins 2011 (as per http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1627.0) LOOK AWAY!
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Okay, so Red Rover is an AW convention scenario based loosely on Needful Things, Faust, and all the other myriad "devil's bargain" fiction out there.  Effectively, I'm having the players generate a holding – against which I already have a few general Fronts – that then meets the lone individual Red Rover who seems to have everything they need (and who cannot just be murdered and looted).

Anyways, here's how it works:

• Every time a character fails a Move roll, they get 1-temptation.  A point of temptation means they cross paths Red Rover somehow in their next scene, and each point subtracts one from the Devil's Bargain move below.

• If a character calls Red Rover by his true name in dealing with him, they get +1 on the Devil's Bargain move.

• Devil's Bargain
When you make a devil's bargain, roll+weird-temptation.  On a 10+, you get whatever it is you want from the devil and the devil gets 1-hold on you (as per the Touchstone playbook), which you can get rid of by exposing one of the other characters in the holding to harm/cost or doing what the devil suggests in a future scene to mark 1-experience.  On a 7-9, you get what you want, but only over a hard bargain AND the devil gets 2-hold on you (see above).  And if you fail...

(BTW, the scenario largely centers around playbooks with low weird scores...)

Why can't you just murder and loot this guy?

What, and advance the Front?

(Actually, there's nothing forbidding them from doing so.  But flesh is, y'know, flesh, so they'd have to start BELIEVING in something if they want to really exorcise the Devil from town...)

I'm not sure I understand. Run me through it. Someone meets this dude, and they're like "Looks like this guy is rich and also an asshole. The solution is obvious. I take out my shotgun and blow him away."

What happens next?

Also: "Temptation" makes it less tempting to make a Devil's bargain. Is that on purpose?

The higher the temptation, the more chance of a fail result and more holdmover you. So the more tempted you are, the less likely you are to make a wise bargain.

Regards,

Shane

I'm not sure I understand. Run me through it. Someone meets this dude, and they're like "Looks like this guy is rich and also an asshole. The solution is obvious. I take out my shotgun and blow him away."

What happens next?

Glad you asked!

• He's not immediately rich, but he seems to inexplicably have what people need.  If no PCs visit him, NPCs in the holding will be visiting him to get what THEY want.

• He's also kind of a nice guy notwithstanding, leading us to...

• Someone blows him away.  The holding discovers that he didn't have as much stuff as it seemed, BUT at least he had something the murdering PC wanted. So it was a good idea, right?  Depending on the Fronts situation, I'm going to either push on the internal angle of a new person in the holding (maybe an NPC, or a PC if the devil has a lot of hold on them) becoming possessed and gaining wealth, or the external angle of him supplying their enemies with information and supplies needed to take them out.  Either way...

• The showdown with the devil will require more creative opening of brains to solve, and will involve past temptations and such.

The higher the temptation, the more chance of a fail result and more hold over you. So the more tempted you are, the less likely you are to make a wise bargain.

Yeah, the stuff he can provide (food, shelter, liquor, lost relatives, etc.) I figured was temptation enough in AW, so the more mechanically tempted you are, the less likely dealing with the devil is a good idea... but the more wants he could likely fulfill.

Or...

If you kill the devil, roll+weird.  On a 10+ you now have the power to make devil's bargains if you'd like.  On a 7-9, you are empowered with the ability to make devil's bargains as above, but the spirit of the previous devil incarnation now has 2-hold on you.  If you fail, the old devil subsumes you, in whatever form that takes.

So what's the thing that you as an MC are curious about, here? Like, the question you're hoping to find an answer to by bringing in the Devil and introducing these bargains?

And what does the Devil want? What is he going to do with that hold? Is he going to use the PCs to fulfill each other's bargains, maybe? Or does he have a more general agenda?

I mean, I am a fan of selling souls and making bargains in general -- I just started writing a playbook the other day called 'the Crossroads', about just that thing -- but currently this feels a little gimmicky to me. Like once you get past everyone enjoying the dramatic irony of the situation (we know it's Lucifer, but the characters totally don't!), I am not sure what will make this an interesting thing for the rest of the session. I guess it is a one-shot and all, but it sounds like literally the entire game is going to be just about how everyone interacts with this one thing?

Daniel:

Like in Apocalypse World, I'm just making this shit up as I go along.

So what's the thing that you as an MC are curious about, here? Like, the question you're hoping to find an answer to by bringing in the Devil and introducing these bargains?

It's along the lines of: parasitism often looks like symbiosis. In a world of penury, what do the PCs do when someone shows up who can provide for the individual at some cost, but not for the group?  Similarly: what would an AW party do differently than in your typical sell-your-soul fiction?

And what does the Devil want? What is he going to do with that hold? Is he going to use the PCs to fulfill each other's bargains, maybe? Or does he have a more general agenda?

The Devil doesn't like the PCs' independence. He wants the things he gives them to own them, rather than the other way around.  He also hates the PCs community, such that people can grow their own food or scavenge and make do rather than asking him for things.

So I guess the whole deal comes back to a typical villain, finance capital, in post-apocalyptic form.

Nothin' new under the sun.

I guess it is a one-shot and all, but it sounds like literally the entire game is going to be just about how everyone interacts with this one thing?

This is explicitly a "convention scenario," conceived as a one-shot and intended to let the PCs explore AW.  If you're tapped into the convention scene at all, you know that so-called "gimmicks" are part of the trade (the event pre-reg sold out in a half-hour, btw).  At the same time, the devil's bargain is an easy meme I can expose to the PCs within the one-shot, that then they can do clever and interesting things with or ignore as they see fit.

Also, your tetchy statement

I just started writing a playbook the other day called 'the Crossroads', about just that thing -- but currently this feels a little gimmicky to me.

signals to me that you're patrolling some kind of IP territory here.

Care to elaborate on your playbook?

This move actually worked brilliantly in play.  Several characters made fairly untenable bargains with the mysterious stranger, because they were caught off-guard with apparent NPC benevolence in AW.

My favorite moment:

Gunlugger (Duke): *holds his gun in the Devil's face* We're going to take your Range Rover, see?
Red Rover: And here are the keys. *tosses them to him*
Me: Roll+weird...
Duke: Snake-eyes.
Me: Gotcha.

Gunlugger (Duke): *holds his gun in the Devil's face* We're going to take your Range Rover, see?
Red Rover: And here are the keys. *tosses them to him*
Me: Roll+weird...
Duke: Snake-eyes.
Me: Gotcha.

That's beautiful. (c:

Someone shoots the Devil - why not?

“Shee-it – I coulda sworn I hit him plumb on with my shotgun blast. How come he’s just looking P-O’d and patting the lead off his fancy-pants suit. And why’s he looking at me like I’m now his bitch, and golly isn’t it hot all of a sudden, and why are those hands dragging me down into the bowels of AARRGGHHH……….” <plop>