Changing playbooks in play: How did it change the advancement options?

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I've read a thread about what happens to the advancement options when a character changes playbooks, and I'm going to assume Vincent's answer would be 'Ask the fiction', which is both satisfying and frustrating because sometimes the fiction's answer is "I don't know about advancements dude, I'm mostly composed of fetish-outfit descriptions and morbid vignettes because that's the way you like me"

So what I would like to hear is: How did you handle it in play? What did the fiction tell you that made you handle it that way? Did the fiction tell you 'He just made THE transition. (Switch your character's type) is marked off.' or 'He just made A transition. (Switch your character's type) isn't marked off.' How did you feel about the result?

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Chroma

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Re: Changing playbooks in play: How did it change the advancement options?
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2011, 02:57:00 PM »
So what I would like to hear is: How did you handle it in play? What did the fiction tell you that made you handle it that way? Did the fiction tell you 'He just made THE transition. (Switch your character's type) is marked off.' or 'He just made A transition. (Switch your character's type) isn't marked off.' How did you feel about the result?

In my games, the "change playbooks" advance has been such a radical change for the character it has completely reset their "ungiven future" count, so the players have had to gain another "base" five advances as their new playbook before being able to swap again, so none of those higher advances were "marked off" anymore... seemed to work fine and was a significant point in the various characters' lives.

Chopper -> Hardholder - putting down roots, disbanding his old gang, and having to be concerned over a lot of people

Faceless -> Brainer - turns out the Brainer had been trapped by the Faceless's personality so was now a completely new person

Hocus -> Gunlugger - transformed from a talkative philosopher to an angel of thunderous vengeance
"If you get shot enough times, your body will actually build up immunity to bullets. The real trick lies in surviving the first dozen or so..."
-- Pope Nag, RPG.net - UNKNOWN ARMIES

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lumpley

  • 1293
Re: Changing playbooks in play: How did it change the advancement options?
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2011, 01:57:02 PM »
When my hardholder switched over to touchstone, I didn't consult with my MC about his new advances. I knew she'd be fine with whatever I thought was right. I crossed out 4 of them, I think, because I'd essentially already taken them as a hardholder - I already had Hard+3 and Sharp+2 for instance, or whatever. I already had some advanced moves too.

The way I figure it, I can take the ungiven future improvements freely. I don't want to yet because I still have some touchstone territory to explore.

-Vincent

Re: Changing playbooks in play: How did it change the advancement options?
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2011, 02:22:52 PM »
I will say one thing that bugs me is that at some point, you have to change classes if you want to continue advancing rather than change characters--you just kind of run out of improvements (in some cases, entirely, or in others you just run out of improvements that fit the character). And that has its own issues, as you may have a lot to give up (and that's wildly uneven: characters heavily focused on intrinsics, like the gunlugger or skinner, are going to lose a few toys at most; characters heavily focused on extrinsics lose a shitload) just to keep advancing.

What didn't occur to me, however, is automatically crossing off advancements you are unable to take due to already being "maxed" in some regard (well, it did, but the implications didn't). Can you really do that, and does it count towards getting to (or back to) the ungiven future advancements?

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lumpley

  • 1293
Re: Changing playbooks in play: How did it change the advancement options?
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2011, 04:01:01 PM »
Maybe you can, and maybe it does. By the rules, quite strictly, that's for the player and the MC to work out between them, case by particular case.

In my particular case, between me and my MC, I was allowed to take ungiven future improvements from the moment I switched, same as before I switched. Switching didn't reset my improvements like that.

I haven't taken any yet because I've wanted touchstone improvements instead, but I could have.

Re: Changing playbooks in play: How did it change the advancement options?
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2011, 04:37:54 PM »
Does changing playbooks wipe any of your ungiven future improvement slots for re-use, like +1 any stat, or is that strictly a One Time Only deal?