New playbook: The Transmitter

Hi everybody, I've been playing for a few months, but only just joined the forum. It seems somebody had a similar idea in The Radio; instead of body snatching, it's more like a kind of hivemind effect. Input is very welcome.

Concept: A living, infectious antenna for the psychic maelstrom, who has implanted psychokinetic weapons.

NAME:
Shadow, Spider, T, Key, Zero, Chivo, Carrie, Brainlord, Channel, Zobat, or Master.

Mindfang, Hunter, Receiver, Antennae, Fox, Ozma, Fire, Captor, or Witch.

HX: Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.

List the other character's names.

Go around again for Hx. On your turn:
*Tell everyone who has BROADCAST SIGNAL Hx+2. They know what drives you, as it drives them.
*Tell everyone else Hx-2. You're really freaky and unnatural, and it's hard to relate or understand you if you're not tuned in.

On the others' turns:
*Choose the character you think would benefit the most to having their mind opened. Whatever number that player tells you, ignore it; write Hx+2 next the character's name instead.
*Everyone who has BROADCAST SIGNAL are people you really get, you know? Whatever number they tell you, give it +1 and write it next to their character's name.
*Everyone else, you're not really in touch with. Whatever number they tell you, give it -1 and write it next to their character's name.

At the end, find the character with the highest Hx on your sheet. Ask that player which of your stats is most interesting, and highlight it. The MC will have you highlight a second stat too.

LOOKS:
Man, woman, ambiguous, transgressing.

Casual wear, utility wear, scrounged wear, fetish wear, or archaic wear.

Scarred face, weathered face, serene face, blasted face, or focused face.

Spooky eyes, spinning eyes, glowing eyes, crackling eyes, blank eyes, or dilated eyes.

Fat body, thin body, clentched body, strange body, levitating body, or possessed body.

STATS:
Choose one set:

*Cool-1 Hard=0 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird+3
*Cool-1 Hard-1 Hot=0 Sharp+2 Weird+3
*Cool-2 Hard+1 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird+3
*Cool=0 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird+3

MOVES:
You get all the basic moves except for open your brain, instead you get BROADCAST SIGNAL. Choose 2 other transmitter moves.

GEAR:
You get:
* 3 psychic powers.
* oddments worth 1 barter.
* fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth +1armor (you detail)

IMPROVEMENT
Whenever you roll a highlighted stat, and whenever you reset your Hx with someone, mark an experience circle. When you mark the 5th, improve and erase.

Each time you improve, choose one of the options. Check it off; you can't choose it again.

IMPROVEMENT
__get +1hard(max+2)
__get +1hot(max+2)
__get +1sharp(max+2)
__get a new psychic power
__get a new transmitter move
__get a new transmitter move
__get a gang(detail) and leadership
__get followers(detail) and fortunes
__get a move from another playbook
__get a move from another playbook

TRANSMITTER SPECIAL:
If you and another character have sex, you may use BROADCAST SIGNAL as if they were opening their brains; make a roll as normal.

Moves:
* BROADCAST SIGNAL: Your brain has been tuned open to the psychic maelstrom. You no longer need roll to look into the psychic maelstrom, and may ask the MC about it any time; if someone in your prescence opens their brain, you may see what they see without rolling. Additionally, if you are touching someone while they're opening their brain, you may attempt to tune them it. Roll +weird, and on a hit, you've propped open their third eye. On a 10+, they should now cross out open your brain and replace it with BROADCAST SIGNAL. On a 7-9, their moves stay the same, but their brain will stay open for the rest of the session; the MC should keep this in mind while describing situations.
o We all saw what you did: When you want to look through the eyes of another character with BROADCAST SIGNAL, roll +weird. On a 10+, you can look through their eyes and hear through their ears. On a 7-9, you can see what is happening in the psychic maelstrom around them, but not the real world. On a miss, they look/listen/tune in to you instead.
o Group mindlink: You can read a person on any character with BROADCAST SIGNAL at any time, regardless of distance or other circumstances.
o Psionic battlemage: When you go aggro or seize by force with one of your psychic powers, roll +weird instead of +hard.
o Focus the transmission/Open the door: When their is at least one other character with BROADCAST SIGNAL present, you may use augury.
o Internal Reconfiguration: At the beginning of the session, roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. At any time, you can spend your hold to temporarily use a psychic power you don't have (i.e. for one task or one tick of a battle). On a miss, the MC will tell you how your brain is changed.

PSYCHIC POWERS:
During character creation, choose from among the following choices. Psychic powers count as gear, but they're implanted; they're a part of your body. Additional mutations can be gained via advanced or through the move Internal Reconfiguration.
o crown of prostate submission (implanted s-harm close)
o gaze of burning rage (implanted 2-harm close area burning messy)
o call forth the psychic storm (implanted 1-harm close area ap messy)
o lifting the telekinetic projectile (implanted +1harm reload close/far loud)
o grasp of madness (implanted psi-harm hand loud)
o lightning leaps from the fingertips (implanted 3-harm close loud)
o forcefield breastplate (implanted 1-armor)
o legs astride the mindcrafted hellsteed (implanted Power+2 looks+2 0-armor weakness+1)

Hey eeyore!

I like the idea of an infectious playbook, and hey a psychic horse that's pretty zef

I think it drinks the Brainers milkshake a little too much though.

Brainer: A weird (+2) person that can use their brain as a subtle, but weak and specialized weapon, plus read you deeply or implant commands under inconvienant circumstances, and a hand full of weird gear.

Transmitter: THE WEIRDIST (+3) person that has powerful, flexible psychic weapons, can make everyone into freaky psychic radios and read them anytime, and has a psychic horse.

Way, way too much. A weird-substitution move for go aggro AND seize by force is not something I would want to include in my AW; making it immediately-available to a +3 weird playbook is almost a secondary concern. The Battlebabe's +3 cool/go-aggro-with-cool power combo is already one of the most powerful in the game, but it at least leaves them with a crucial vulnerability (relatively speaking) for Seize by Force. And high Weird is vastly, vastly more available to PCs than high Cool.

A character who with one advance will literally never or almost never fail on 3 of the basic moves -- arguably the 3 most potentially volatile and high-risk/MC-opportunity basic moves, at that -- is going to create a very different sort of game, pacing-wise. I am generally pretty firmly in the 'there is no such thing as an overpowered AW character' camp -- the game is not as dependent on PC-failure as many people seem to think -- but this just seems excessive, and more importantly the move seems actively superfluous to the core character concept. This guy is about broadcasting/receiving -- why does he also need to be an enormous psychic combat badass?

Edit: and I hadn't even looked at the Psychic Weapons yet. Yikes. It's like an Ultra-Brainer, a Gunlugger, and a new playbook all in one.

Thanks for your input! I agree that the Brainer was an inspiration, as well as the Broodmother, though I thought the focus on psychokinetic effects versus telepathic influencing/controlling of the Brainer still made it a bit more distinct. And I did use the Gunlugger for some inspiration on the psychic powers, though I tried to make them weaker than the Gunlugger's choices. Oh, and of course the Grotesque for how implanted weapons can work.

As for the move you're referencing, Daniel, I guess I was using the Maestro D's blade move as an example to base it on, but in hindsight, it is too powerful. I'll change it to just seize by force, as well as change how the powers are arranged a bit. As for how it would effect the balance of power in a game by boosting multiple basic moves, well, this playbook doesn't have open your brain; BROADCAST SIGNAL replaces it entirely. And since that move is infectious, I figure that would tend to be a more disruptive effect than the dice bonus.

Well what badness happens when your brain to the maelstorm is always open? The playbook itself doesn't really give us a clue. If I am to MC the maelstorm like I usually do, Broadcast signal would pretty much mean that this and all of the other playbooks that get 'infected' are unplayable at all. Am I to pull my punches? What does always keeping my mind open to the maelstorm even mean - as MC I know what to do when a player flubbs a open your brain roll. On this thing that's happening here, I need guidance.

It seems like you went around the playbooks and took every cool thing you could find. Which is neat, but you could fill several playbooks with this stuff!

Weird+3 - the usual way to go about this is to put a move or an advance for this. Not a problem in itself, though. Only gets eyebrows raised when we see some of the moves the dude could be getting.

Psionic battlemage - It leaps out at you, doesn't it? I could do without Weird being turned into a direct violence stat. You kind of need it so all of your psychic weapons could be useful instead of just clutter, though. Which makes me think that you maybe need to rethink the way you use your psychic weapons in the first place.

Focus the Transmission/Open the door - oh my god. You know what a failed augury roll does to the 'workspace'? And here you have a move that not only takes away the Savvyhead's and Hocus's little thing (which is thematically appropriate for the playbook, at least), but, instead of being a move that threatens the one thing that makes a playbook special (Savvyhead's workspace, Hocus's followers), threatens other player characters instead.

S-harm - serious deal, Angel/Quarantine lose being special, just a bit. S-harm is supposed to be rare, and goes to the playbooks that care about people not dying. I sincerely dount this dude is one of them.

Implanted - serious deal, how is anyone supposed to disarm you? Kinda cool on its lonesome, but kind of exacerbates some of the problems already present.

Lifting the telekinetic projectile - weaponized telekinesis! Cool, unique and maybe what the whole playbook should have been about. Slips in the whole "I can move objects with my mind" thing way too silently, though.

Psi-harm - okay, maybe, I don't know. Aren't those rules, fictionally, only for people who haven't experienced the maelstorm before?

Hellsteed - okay, so, conceivably, this guy could take a move from another playbook in one advance and go +2 on all of his basic stats.

So, this is how many playbooks this one is better than or equal to in one of their "I am a special snowflake" areas:

Brainer, Gunlugger, Savvyhead, Hocus, Angel, Quarantine, Grotesque, Driver.

If you pull out the offending bits, what you're left with is pretty cool:

Infectious maelstorm that maybe changes around your basic moves (still needs clearer direction for the MC on how to react to it, as well as a NPC version).

Telekinesis - I would *love* to play a telekinetic character in AW. But maybe the way to go is a bunch of moves that put a different spin on it (like the Brainer's moves put a new spin on telepathy powers) instead of gear?

Focus the maelstorm/Open the door - I like one implication of that move, and that is the fact that you can use *your own body* as a basis for augury rolls. That's the same kind of risk the savvyhead or hocus face, amped up to 11! The move would be one of the coolest I've ever seen if that was the only thing it did.


So you've got cool ideas and you know your way around the existing playbooks. What you haven't done, as far as I can tell, is think how the kind of person represented in your playbook fits into the world - the Brainer is an outcast creep, the Gunlugger is a grenade launcher for hire, the Battlebabe is a violent person everybody's drooling over. The Transmitter, though? It'd seem weird if this guy had stopped at anything short of world domination before chargen even begins (Not that Psychic Overlord isn't a legit fictional position to occupy - there just need to be ways to challenge that position later).

I think the best way to begin my response, DWeird, is to start with your point at the end, and state the role this playbook is meant to serve.

The Transmitter is, firstly, my attempt to create a playbook for playing Carrie, Charlie from Firestarter, and other similar psychokinetic powers-turn-man-into-force-of-nature type of stories. I noticed that nearly every PC in the group had a custom move that was some kind of psychic ability(beyond the standard open your brain, but there were no move that corresponded to setting things on fire with your brain. I felt this was an absence that needed filling. Additionally, I've been thinking about the psychic maelstrom's role as a character in the game, what kind of motivations it might have, and somehow that led into making a character who had learned how to stop worrying and love the hate, and who wanted to share their message with the world. Finally, after reading some comments on the Marmot, I idly wondered what type of playbook might actually be game-breaking, and I thought up an infectious move that replaces a basic move. Alone, none of these ideas is enough to hang a playbook on, in my opinion. But married together, they create something that can serve a role in the game that is distinct from what the other playbooks offer. That role of course being running around and trying to spread the network.

Your point that the wording of BROADCAST TRANSMISSION is vague is a good one, and I've rewritten it a bit. Now, the transmitter can't access the psychic maelstrom on their own, they can only get the effects of opening their brain by being around someone else who is using the move, which allows them to receive the same effect as the character making the move. Which, of course, creates the opportunity for BROADCAST TRANSMISSION to be spread! This means that a transmitter who wants info from the psychic maelstrom may have to work out deals with other characters to get what they want.

As for your point about picking out "every cool thing" from other playbooks, well, I guess I'm a bit confused, since the moves I choose were all about tying into the central concept of an infectious psychic maelstrom antennae with dangerous psychokinetic powers. I used other playbooks as a guide for how to represent things mechanically; no need to try and reinvent the game just to make a neat playbook. But the choices of what moves to use were always dictated by the concept first and foremost. I adapted hivemind and always in your heart from the Broodmother into We all saw what you did and Group mindlink. The Broodmother seemed like a good starting point, and tying these moves into the infectious move that everyone in the collective has still makes it distinct from the Broodmother, where only the broodmother has the power to add to or influence the brood. Psionic battlemage is so that the transmitter can attack people with the psychic powers by rolling+weird. Leaving it out would totally undermine the concept, though in its original form it is too powerful; I plan to nerf it by having it only apply toseize by force.

Sorry if you think augury is some kind of special magical thing that takes away from The Savvyhead and The Hocus by giving it another playbook. Setting aside that you're ignoring its prescence in The Grotesque and The Fallen, the fact is it's an optional move in the playbooks it's found in, that can be taken by any other playbook as an advance. Like a custom move tying attacking with the psychic powers to weird, this playbook would've been undermined by an absence of a move that can access augury.

And the final move is meant to do for the psychic powers what The Grotesque's Unstable Mutation does for, uh, mutations, that is, give access to them to other playbooks as an advance, without having to fully switch playbooks, or even get infected with the BROADCAST SIGNAL.

Finally, I'd like to address the choice of having the character start with a +3 in Weird. Well, the character is kind of literal psychic maelstrom zombie, with how zombie-ish they function as being pretty much entirely up to the playgroup. And they're so full of psychic energy that they can blow things up with their powers. Totally a candidate for being Weirder than the Brainer, the Hocus, and the Savvyhead. I also want to say that I find the concept of on exemplar of a stat, where all members of that playbook are the best they will ever be at that stat, to be an interesting concept, and I plan to explore ideas for other playbooks that are tied to the other stats.

I'm going to post an updated version of The Transmitter after this, and I welcome future comments, especially ones on the parts of the character nobody has commented on, like the Names and Looks choices. I had a pretty hard time coming up with them, and feel like the ones I choose are still kind of weak compared with the rest. Comments on the moves and stuff is fine too though.

Concept: A living, infectious antenna for the psychic maelstrom, who has implanted psychokinetic weapons.

NAME:
Shadow, Spider, T, Key, Zero, Chivo, Carrie, Brainlord, Channel, Zobat, or Master.

Mindfang, Hunter, Receiver, Antennae, Fox, Ozma, Fire, Captor, or Witch.

HX: Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.

List the other character's names.

Go around again for Hx. On your turn:
*Tell everyone who has BROADCAST SIGNAL Hx+2. They know what drives you, as it drives them.
*Tell everyone else Hx-2. You're really freaky and unnatural, and it's hard to relate or understand you if you're not tuned in.

On the others' turns:
*Choose the character you think would benefit the most to having their mind opened. Whatever number that player tells you, ignore it; write Hx+2 next the character's name instead.
*Everyone who has BROADCAST SIGNAL are people you really get, you know? Whatever number they tell you, give it +1 and write it next to their character's name.
*Everyone else, you're not really in touch with. Whatever number they tell you, give it -1 and write it next to their character's name.

At the end, find the character with the highest Hx on your sheet. Ask that player which of your stats is most interesting, and highlight it. The MC will have you highlight a second stat too.

LOOKS:
Man, woman, ambiguous, transgressing.

Casual wear, utility wear, scrounged wear, fetish wear, or archaic wear.

Scarred face, weathered face, serene face, blasted face, or focused face.

Spooky eyes, spinning eyes, glowing eyes, crackling eyes, blank eyes, or dilated eyes.

Fat body, thin body, clentched body, strange body, levitating body, or possessed body.

STATS:
Choose one set:

*Cool-1 Hard=0 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird+3
*Cool-1 Hard-1 Hot=0 Sharp+2 Weird+3
*Cool-2 Hard+1 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird+3
*Cool=0 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird+3

MOVES:
You get all the basic moves except for open your brain, instead you get BROADCAST SIGNAL. Choose 2 other transmitter moves.

GEAR:
You get:
* 3 psychic powers.
* oddments worth 1 barter.
* fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth +1armor (you detail)

IMPROVEMENT
Whenever you roll a highlighted stat, and whenever you reset your Hx with someone, mark an experience circle. When you mark the 5th, improve and erase.

Each time you improve, choose one of the options. Check it off; you can't choose it again.

IMPROVEMENT
__get +1hard(max+2)
__get +1hot(max+2)
__get +1sharp(max+2)
__get a new psychic power
__get a new transmitter move
__get a new transmitter move
__get a gang(detail) and leadership
__get followers(detail) and fortunes
__get a move from another playbook
__get a move from another playbook

TRANSMITTER SPECIAL:
If you and another character have sex, you may use BROADCAST SIGNAL as if they were opening their brains; make a roll as normal.

Moves:
* BROADCAST SIGNAL: Your brain has been tuned open to the psychic maelstrom. You can no longer roll to open your brain to the psychic maelstrom; instead, if someone in your prescence opens their brain, you may see what they see, feel what they feel, and other experience the results their roll without rolling anything yourself. You must be present when they make the roll. Additionally, if you touch someone after they've opened their brain, you may attempt to tune them in. Roll +weird, and on a hit, you've propped open their third eye. On a 10+, they should now cross out open your brain and replace it with BROADCAST SIGNAL. On a 7-9, their moves stay the same, but their brain will stay open for the rest of the session; the MC should keep this in mind while describing situations.
o We all saw what you did: When you want to look through the eyes of another character with BROADCAST SIGNAL, roll +weird. On a 10+, you can look through their eyes and hear through their ears. On a 7-9, you can see what is happening in the psychic maelstrom around them, but not the real world. On a miss, they look/listen/tune in to you instead.
o Group mindlink: You can read a person on any character with BROADCAST SIGNAL at any time, regardless of distance or other circumstances.
o Psionic battlemage: When you seize by force with one of your psychic powers, roll +weird instead of +hard.
o Focus the transmission/Open the door: When their is at least one other character with BROADCAST SIGNAL present, you may use augury.
o Internal Reconfiguration: At the beginning of the session, roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. At any time, you can spend your hold to temporarily use a psychic power you don't have (i.e. for one task or one tick of a battle). On a miss, the MC will tell you how your brain is changed.

PSYCHIC POWERS:
During character creation, choose from among the following choices. Psychic powers count as gear, but they're implanted; they're a part of your body. Additional mutations can be gained via advanced or through the move Internal Reconfiguration.
First, choose an offensive power:
o gaze of burning rage (implanted 2-harm close area burning messy)
o call forth the psychic storm (implanted 1-harm close area ap messy)
o grasp of madness (implanted psi-harm hand loud)
o lightning leaps from the fingertips (implanted 3-harm close loud)
Then, choose a support power:
o lifting the telekinetic projectile (implanted +1harm reload close/far loud)
o crown of prostate submission (implanted s-harm close)
o forcefield breastplate (implanted 1-armor)
o legs astride the mindcrafted hellsteed (implanted Power+2 looks+2 0-armor weakness+1)
Finally, choose one more power from either list.

Hmm. I would tend to agree with previous commenters that the psychic powers are over the top. Maybe if you had them as an alternative move to the other Transmitter moves, instead of in addition to. Right now the character would seem to pwn many of the starting characters from other playbooks. That's a pretty basic balance issue, IMHO. 

Also, if you're going for a body horror/Cronenberg vibe (something I wholeheartedly approve of), I think maybe some of the moves should have nasty things happening on misses.  Remember the dad in Firestarter who started having nosebleeds whenever he used his psychic attack?   

Is it really overpowered? The powers are basically just weapons, and are for the most part worse than weapon choices for other aggressive playbooks, like the Gunlugger and Battlebabe. "Lifting the telekinetic projectile" could be exploited by combining it with other weapons, but otherwise, how are the other powers more potent (or even as potent) than a Gunlugger's gun choices?

Is it really overpowered?

Yes. Literally everybody is telling you so.

I can start out the game with +3 to seizing by force, the ability to turn people into my camera drones, and the ability to do augury (the antennae isn't clear here, with the possible interpretation that they are they at-risk antenna). In addition, I can have an implanted area weapon and/or an implanted 3-harm weapon, oh, and also I count as a vehicle whenever I want to.

How to fix this playbook's power level: File the Weird stat to +2 so that their stats balance with other characters; remove Psionic Battlemage; Have them start with Broadcast Signal and 1 other move; Have them start with 2 psychic weapons.

For contrast, look at The Grotesque.

They get a single implanted weapon, and most of their implanted weapons are considerably less powerful than The Transmitter's. (Transmitter gets 3.) Their stats balance to the typical +3. (Transmitter typically balances to +4.) They have two starting moves. (Transmitter gets 3.) Their augury move specifies that they act as their own antenna, meaning they suffer any damages. (Transmitter doesn't have any such stipulation.)

The Transmitter has many of the benefits that The Grotesque has (including the fact that Internal Reconfiguration is a re-skin of Unstable Mutation), but it is roundly better at doing all the stuff that The Grotesque does. And also is a combat tank. And also can infect people with open-brain hivemind.

No, for contrast, look at the 11 original playbooks.

Each of them gets stats to +3, and approximately 3 special things.

Some get 3 moves (Gunlugger and Hocus). Most get 2 moves and then a non-move special thing, like an angel kit, brainer gear, +1 cool, gigs, a workspace, or skinner gear.

Some get 2 moves and then bikes, a gang, and a holding all count for a half each. You might say brainer and skinner gear should count for a half each, in which case the fact that they have better moves than others should count for half. The driver's car counts for 2, so they get a stat penalty.

The Transmitter has stats to +3 and then 5 special things: +1 weird, 3 moves, and psychic powers (which are definitely on par with or better than brainer gear).

If you want this playbook balanced with the others, give it weird+2 (not+3), broadcast signal, 1 other move (not 2), and the psychic powers. I would even say limit it to 2 psychic powers from the full list (not two sub-lists). At that point you have a playbook comparable to the 11 original, and Vincent's limited edition extras.

Guns are disposable. They break easily, you run out of ammo. Adding the implanted tag is a serious advantage. Implanted 1-armour is almost as good as the Hocus' armour move, which is a whole move. If the brainer has to settle for only 2 moves and brainer gear, the psychic powers here should not be freebies like the guns that some playbooks get.

Secondly, and this may be a matter of tatse, but you'll notice that the brainer and skinner are the ones who get only 2 moves and what you might consider less-good gear. That's because their moves are the most invasive, they give you the most amount of power over other players' characters. Broadcast Signal goes above and beyond that, screwing with other PCs to an almost ridiculous level, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it polarizes other players--some will love it and others will want to murder the shit of of the transmitter. You might consider instead of disallowing open your brain, the transmitter simply collects hold on other PCs and spends that hold in order to use the same powers. While not being able to use open your brain may look like a weakness, it's not one that makes the game more interesting, like the Faceless' weakness, or simply impairs the character's probabilities, like the driver's (both of which are only in effect at certain times). By removing open your brain, you're removing one of the options MC and players have for making the game more interesting, which is usually a bad idea.

Anyway, that's already a lot to consider. Hope it helps.

Also, I don't understand the vehicle psychic power. Is this so the driver can ride you around? You can't use a vehicle's stats unless you have the No Shit Driver move.