Most and least popular playbooks?

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Most and least popular playbooks?
« on: June 15, 2011, 01:34:01 AM »
This thread is to gather the experiences of most of us, to see which playbooks are picked the most/least by rookies (to the game), which ones by veterans (of this game only, again), or see another useful pattern. In particular, I recognise some playbooks nobody tends to pick, and would like to see if that tendence is common, to think about some new ways to "sell" those playbooks and make them interesting.

My experience:
Battlebabes & Brainers are the ones mostly picked.
Other playbooks that rely on their own are favoured: gunlugger, skinner, driver, etc.
Playbooks like the angel or operator aren´t picked by newcomers, they´re often seen as boring or uninteresting (in my experience, obviously).
Playbooks that rely on other people (this depends on the player´s profile, I think) in general aren´t picked a lot.
In general, players pick a playbook that at least has a special orientation or good tools to apply in combat situations.

Your experiences? Do you see any tendence among the groups you MC to? Do you think the profile of a RPer, the games he´s played or run, his overall experience with the hobby have sth to do with the playbooks he chooses (maybe even his life experiences or his knowledge of the postapoc. genre)?
Is there any playbook you think people don´t often come to appreciate? Which, and why do you think that? How would you make it more crowd-pleaser (just talking about the way you offer it to people, not about tweaking the playbook)?
In my case, I´d like to adequately show the awesomeness of the operator, and I often don´t know how. Since my players don´t speak english in general, I have to explain playbooks to them, so selling a playbook is my responsibility. They often don´t see the advantages of a mainly social character that tends to have a lot of money (I´d say he´s the richest character).
Other curious cases. It takes time for a player to see why having an Angel would be useful or awesome, compared to a brainer. Only after they´ve played AW they recognise healing means an awful lot of power over people, as much as a skill greatly demanded.
Maybe players that come from traditional RPGs think that a character whose power relies on people is less powerful than one whose power comes from his own. Not always: I have a case of a player coming from a 3.5/vampire experience, picking a chopper without hesitating much.
Also, in an environment as violent as AW, some players think that a skinner might be too bland.
Battlebabes enjoy so much popularity due to their versatility, and also to how easily their concept is understood (sexy assasin!). They are cool, dangerous if not in a real fight, and also are quite manipulative and hot. Winwinwin.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2011, 01:54:59 AM by Khimus »

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2011, 05:29:25 AM »
As an MC I'm always secretly relieved when nobody chooses The Driver. And I've only once seen someone choose The Driver.

I should probably get over that at some point.

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Chris

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Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2011, 08:49:21 AM »
Other curious cases. It takes time for a player to see why having an Angel would be useful or awesome, compared to a brainer. Only after they´ve played AW they recognise healing means an awful lot of power over people, as much as a skill greatly demanded.
Maybe players that come from traditional RPGs think that a character whose power relies on people is less powerful than one whose power comes from his own.

Running for a DnD-oriented group has always always always resulted in someone playing an Angel. In fact, it's usually the first off the table.

"Who's playing the Healer?"

In general, someone almost always plays a Hardholder, but I've never seen anyone enjoy it. The Hardholder gets blamed for everything.

In my games, almost no one ever plays a Battlebabe, besides me. The playbook's seemingly female nature means that some men dismiss it out of hand. This happens to the Skinner as well, as the short hand that seems to stick is "Oh, this is the whore".
A player of mine playing a gunlugger - "So now that I took infinite knives, I'm setting up a knife store." Me - "....what?" Him - "Yeah, I figure with no overhead, I'm gonna make a pretty nice profit." Me - "......"

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2011, 08:56:09 AM »
My group started out with Brainer, Battlebabe, Skinner, Gunlugger, Driver, and Operator.  The Operator dropped out in the middle of the first session because he decided the stakes weren't high enough for him.  The Driver's having issues with the MC, so he's gone too.  The Skinner's player added a Savvyhead; the Gunlugger is thinking of switching to Hardholder; we've recently picked up a Quarantine.

Everyone who sees the Quarantine, by the way, thinks it's awesome, and a couple of people have liked the Touchstone too.  No one in my group seems compelled by the Faceless or Hoarder.

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Arvid

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Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2011, 09:04:00 AM »
After two games:

Battlebabe and Hardholder seems to be the core playbooks in our group. Brainer is hot too. If I were to pick out three iconic playbooks for AW, it would be Battlebabe, Hardholder and Brainer.

Gunlugger, everyone keeps talking about, but it hasn't shown up yet.

I think Hocus is the only playbook no-one has played, or talked about how awesome it seems. Yeah, and Touchstone, but only I have read that one.

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noofy

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Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2011, 09:25:31 AM »
I just ran a first session with first timers (and I mean like 2 of them had NEVER played a role playing game before, and the other three had limited experience of old school D&D, Traveller and CoC. No AW experience at all.

The only one with any indie experience (BW), chose the Savvyhead, the newbies chose the Chopper and the Battlebabe. The remaining two loved both the hocus and after a squabble, one chose the Touchstone instead. Made for a pretty awesome game!

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elkin

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Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2011, 10:55:15 AM »
When I introduced the playbook, plus faceless and sans skinner, to my PG-13 group (teens aged 13-15, most with some experience in D&D, with occasional single-session games of Paranoia and Godlike), the first reaction was "don't choose the ones with the followers, the GM will use them to screw you up".

So initial cast was Gunlugger (guns are cool!), Driver (cars are cool!), Savvyhead (you mean I get to make an anti-matter cannon?), Battlebabe (guns and giant blades are cool!). The Brainer and the Hardholder were taken more reluctantly, and there was lots of group pressure for someone to play the Angel.

In my regular group, which has a varied background, and most recently played Shadowrun, WoD and Exalted, we decided beforehand that the PCs will be rovers, living outside the bounds of what remained from society. The driver was chosen in a heartbeat, followed by the Gunlugger and the Chopper.

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2011, 01:18:53 PM »
Quote
If I were to pick out three iconic playbooks for AW, it would be Battlebabe, Hardholder and Brainer.

Yup. If I had to write a script to an AW movie tomorrow, they'd be all present and accounted for.

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2011, 04:34:31 PM »
Since I got the playbook, every game somebody has chosen the Maistro'D.
Which always really surprises me, even though it's a great playbook and is always really involved.

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2011, 07:55:20 PM »
Someone always plays: Skinner, Brainer, Hardholder

Least Played: Driver, Hocus

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2011, 02:06:26 AM »
I have never seen anyone play a Skinner. Aside from that I think I've seen all the "core" playbooks once or twice, with none of them getting way more play than others. Savvyheads might be slightly more popular than the others, now that I think about it.

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2011, 02:34:02 AM »
I've run 2 games and played in a third.

Chicago gangster post-apocalypse: Gunlugger, Brainer, Angel, Driver (all new to the game).

Urban post-superheroic apocalypse: Chopper, Brainer, Hocus, Savvyhead, Battlebabe (male, FWIW), all of these folks were new to the game.

Appalachian Windmills Game: Chopper (me), Brainer, Skinner, and Hardholder. 3 of us were new to the game, the Hardholder has literally been playing it longer than anyone else.

So, yeah, something about the Brainer seems to really compel. Beyond that, I do find that the specifics of the setting the group comes up with does have some influence over the playbooks that get used. I wasn't thinking about a Chopper until the MC presented us with the setting in the Windmills game, and the Chicago gangster setting made a tommygun-lugger, a getaway driver and a back-alley sawbones all really flavorful choices, while a world where there's a bunch of superhero tech lying around makes the idea of a Savvyhead way more appealing.

-JC

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2011, 08:14:45 AM »
I have never seen anyone play a Skinner. Aside from that I think I've seen all the "core" playbooks once or twice, with none of them getting way more play than others. Savvyheads might be slightly more popular than the others, now that I think about it.

Weird! For me none of the playbooks turn me on except the Skinner and slightly the Hocus. I think I tried to play a savvyhead once and actually bored myself.

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2011, 09:27:40 PM »
Yeah, Shreyas, that was odd :)
 I like Jim's break-down so here goes with that:
Alison's Alley - Hardholder, Angel, Brainer, Battlebabe, Skinner

Luxor - Hardholder, Gunlugger, Maestro'D, Operator, with brief appearances by a Savvyhead and a Hocus. Oh, and one PC death which lead to a new Savvyhead showing up.

Silo 29 - Skinner, Quarantine, Angel

Windmills - Hardholder turned Touchstone, Chopper turned Hardholder, Brainer turned Angel, Skinner turned Maestro'D.

I think if folks discount Skinners as "oh, that's the whore", they are missing a whole bunch of cool stuff. Frost was my second favorite PC to date - he was a tattoo artist who had a high weird. Some of his tattoos moved. Some spoke to him. He was awesome.

Re: Most and least popular playbooks?
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2011, 01:53:42 AM »

Windmills - Hardholder turned Touchstone, Chopper turned Hardholder, Brainer turned Angel, Skinner turned Maestro'D.

The Chopper is actually still a Chopper, he just has a Holding. : )

-JC