S.T.A.L.K.E.R. hack

I've been working on an AW hack for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. videogames.  I don't have any playbooks yet, just a collection of moves that work to reinforce the flavour of the setting.  Some of them are right from AW and Dungeon World, some are swiped from friends, and others are all mine.  Some of them are clearly incomplete.

Feedback of any kind would be super helpful.  I guess a basic familiarity with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games would be useful but not necessary.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gh6H9CgXG2qj_MmR83rD2rJE_ksHxPsH81kPGA0TlMI/edit

What happens if you miss when rolling for searching through a stalker's stash? Extra relevant since you roll+nothing!

I guess there are a few hard moves that the MC could make. 
 -Maybe you're not the only one out looking for the stash. 
 -Maybe the supplies you find there are tainted in some way. 
 -Maybe some mutants have caught the scent of the backpack or container or whatever and are lingering around the area. 
 -Maybe you set off a booby-trap.  I suppose the 7-9 result about the booby-trap should be more clear that you discover one, not that you trip it.  You still have to deal with it on a 7-9.  On a miss, you could just set it off.  I'll change that right now.

Cool!

This thing, rolling without adding stats...
Do you want to keep these moves really mean, or you just moving away from the established stats? 'Cause you could definitely experiment with adding other modifiers. In our Nobilis hack, one of the playbooks has access to a hold a party-move, where you roll+numbers of days passed since you sent out invitations (max 3)

If you're inclined, you could, say, ask the player to roll and add +1 for each of these conditions:
+1 if you knew the guy
+1 if you're not in a hurry
+1 if you've been in the area before

For instance.

This thing, rolling without adding stats...
Do you want to keep these moves really mean, or you just moving away from the established stats?

I was having trouble coming up with a decent stat other than Sharp for rifle a dead man's pockets and poke through a stalker's hidden cache, and I think Sharp is already looking like the go-to stat choice for this game.  So mostly I'm looking for an alternative to making Sharp too heavily weighted...

I didn't think of stretch your supplies to the limit as a punishing move, because it dictates the state of your supplies after you use the hell out of them.  I does nothing to prohibit you from going crazy with your supplies and feeding a whole camp (or whatever) that first time.

Maybe there's room for a "roll +number of days since your last resupply" in there somewhere.

extremely promising :D

Quote from: Arvid on March 08, 2012, 03:06:14 PM

This thing, rolling without adding stats...
Do you want to keep these moves really mean, or you just moving away from the established stats?

I was having trouble coming up with a decent stat other than Sharp for rifle a dead man's pockets and poke through a stalker's hidden cache, and I think Sharp is already looking like the go-to stat choice for this game.  So mostly I'm looking for an alternative to making Sharp too heavily weighted...

I didn't think of stretch your supplies to the limit as a punishing move, because it dictates the state of your supplies after you use the hell out of them.  I does nothing to prohibit you from going crazy with your supplies and feeding a whole camp (or whatever) that first time.

Maybe there's room for a "roll +number of days since your last resupply" in there somewhere.

Well, have you considered doing your own set of stats? Deftness, survival, intuition, or luck could be the words your looking for to do these things, and more.

I have considered a new set of stats, but I think the standard Cool, Hard, Hot, etc still really work for the feel of the Zone.  Even Weird is kind of perfect for a stalker's relationship with the Zone itself.

The only thing I was looking for that the standard stats don't cover are Secrets.  When I think about the the core activity for a Stalker game it always comes down to 'determined outlaws teasing out the Zone's secrets'.  I think it needs a mechanic to reinforce things like They say Red found a safe path through the playground.  Nobody else ever has or maybe Nobody knows more about psy-dogs than Billy.  If you need to get around that pack, you need to talk to him.

Since the Secrets are so narrow in focus (eg I know how to get through the Brain Scorcher) I didn't think that an entire stat would work.

I've used a handful of moves for learning and using Secrets, but I'm wondering if it's a bit clumsy.  I'm not sure how I would make it run off a new stat.

Secrets in the form of weird surroundings aren't a player-side thing, they're a MC-side thing, and thus moves aren't the best way to interpret them, because AW-style moves are possibly the most player-centric mechanic, ever.

You should mostly be looking at i) what different kind of threats you want to add; ii) how the PCs interface with these threats (maybe they get XP for discovering them instead of through stat highlights, maybe they get some threat-like move when they figure the place out (Burning bridge: deceive or entrap someone), or use figured-out secrets as some kind of a barter mechanic).

You should mostly be looking at i) what different kind of threats you want to add;

I agree that there's work to be done putting the dangers of the Zone together as Threats and their respective MC Threat Moves. The stuff I've done so far doesn't address this sort of thing yet.

ii) how the PCs interface with these threats

What I'm trying to do with Secrets is create a player-side mechanic to help represent their characters' level of familiarity with specific poorly-understood dangers within the Zone.  Since learning these secrets is the core activity of the setting, I think it needs player-accessible mechanics. 

(maybe they get XP for discovering them instead of through stat highlights,

Good idea!  Nothing like marking experience to underscore the core activity!

or use figured-out secrets as some kind of a barter mechanic).

A very setting-appropriate activity.  I think some of the moves I've made include this notion, but perhaps something a bit more concrete is called for.

Maybe Secrets can be the trigger to access custom moves related to the nature of the secret. By this I mean, when I learn the Secret of the Playground Passageway I get to use that move instead of the usually Acting under Fire. If you go this route, you can still have Secrets act as a barter, but you would want to include "No one saw you enter the Passageway" kind of  clause so you can keep the tension up on keeping things secret. Then it's a hard move to reveal the Secret to the populace at large later, so fuck giving up Secrets. But man, using a Secret is a hold 1 on a Seduce / Manipulate roll so...

And yes, learning a Secret == Xp is a great idea.

Wow NickDoyle, that's a cool hack!
I've never played the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games but this hack makes me want to try them out.

(I have seen the 1979 Russian film based on the book that inspired the video game series... whew! That was a mouthful.)