New Playbook: The Seeker

Well, I've criticised other people's playbooks a fair amount before, guess it's time to put my barter where my mouth is.

Inspiration is partly the Spectacle's excellent 'moment of clarity' move, partly the Touchstone, and partly the 'wandering loner' archetype, such as seen in the old 'Kung Fu' TV series.  Apologies if anyone's trod similar ground before.

Some bits of this, I really like.  Others, I just couldn't think of anything better.

The Seeker

Violence.  Everywhere you go, it's nothing more than a tool for the strong to oppress the weak.

But it's more than that.  Much more.  You don't know what it is.  But you intend to find out.

One fight at a time.


Name
Windy, Ichi, Knuckles, Bear, Lee, Combo Breaker, Roy, Jet, Chuck, Laughing Chan, Stripes, Cassius, Thumper, Dempsey, Mr. One-Two, Slugger.

Stats
Cool: +0   Hard: +2   Hot: -1      Sharp: +2   Weird: -1
Cool: +1   Hard: +2   Hot: -1      Sharp: +0   Weird: +1
Cool: -1   Hard: +2   Hot: +0      Sharp: +1   Weird: +1
Cool: +2   Hard: +2   Hot: -1      Sharp: -1   Weird: +0


Moves
You get all the basic moves.
You take 'My game, my rules' and 2 other seeker moves


Hx
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.
List the other characters’ names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn:
One of the other characters is relying on you to help them.  Tell them Hx +3.
One of them views violence as a mere tool.  Tell them Hx -2.
One of them has helped you out before, against their better judgement.  Tell them Hx +1.
On the others' turns:
One of them doesn't understand violence, and you're going to teach them.  Ignore what they say and write Hx +3.


Look
Man, woman, transgressing.

Ragged wear, showy wear, robes, leathers.

Kind face, naïve face, worn face, angry face, determined face.

Serene eyes, piercing eyes, blind eyes, tired eyes.

Strong back, tattooed back, heavily muscled back, weathered back.


Seeker Special
When you have sex with someone else, they mark XP, but are subsequently targeted by enemies.  You have +1 ongoing in attempts to protect/rescue/avenge them.

Advancements
Get +1 Cool (max +2)
Get +1 Hard (max +3)
Get +1 Sharp (max +2)
Get +1 Weird (max +2)
Get a new seeker move
Get a new seeker move
Get a move from another playbook
Get a move from another playbook
-----
Get +1 to any stat (max +3)
Walk off into the sunset
Create a second character to play
Change your character to a new type
Choose 3 basic moves and advance them
Advance the other 4 basic moves.

Moves

My game, my rules
When unarmed and unarmoured, you count as a large gang when defending against gunfire and a medium gang against melee weapons (except bare fists).  This goes down to medium and small respectively if you're wielding a melee weapon.  In addition, your bare fists do area AP damage.

The Truth in these two fists of mine
When you go aggro on someone in melee, you can not only change what people do, but also what they believe.  This needs to be a fundamental truth, such as 'it's better to be loved than feared', and  you need to believe it to be true yourself.

Physical communication
When studying someone fight using their full strength and cunning (i.e. not a gunfight), against you or someone else, you can roll +Hard to Read a Person and ask questions without any verbal interaction.  In addition to the usual questions, you may also ask 'Why do you fight?'.

At one with the world
When meditating peacefully, you gain augury with your own body as an antenna.

A new beginning
When improving one or more people's lot in life in a significant manner, or giving someone a new start, perspective or direction in life, in a significant and fundamental way, mark XP.

Finishing old business
When your harm clock goes to 12:00, instead of dying, clear the clock back to 0:00 (ignoring any remaining damage), but when the current confrontation is over (which may or may not be more than just the current fight), you walk off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Unbreakable
You gain XP when you take a debility.  In addition, once per session, for one scene, you may ignore the effect of any debilities you have.


Honestly, I'm more than half tempted to move 'Finishing old business' and 'Unbreakable' to the 'cool stuff inherent to the character' area, equivalent to the Touchstone's 'go among the people' stuff, but I'll leave them where they are for now.

Fundamentally, this character is designed to appear, get up in everyone's business, destroy all the status quos, then wander off into the sunset.  Let me know your thoughts.

Hooray I'm inspiring I think

This really makes me think of fist of the north-star, which really makes me think you should have some "My fists make people's head explode" move, maybe adding additional harm to "The Truth"? Accept the truth or your head explodes?

Well, if you notice, 'My game, my rules' is automatically chosen, so bare fists are already area AP harm, so there is literally no way to defend against it (sure, it's a base of at most 1-harm, but there needed to be some balancing here).

Considering the small amount of harm NPCs can take before dying, to my mind, you first inflict 1-2 harm normally (the fight) before using 'The Truth' as the 'evolve or die' climax of the fight.  If they choose to die, head asplode is just MC colour.  If I remember FotNS correctly (I probably don't, it's been a long time), there was always a fight before the big finish.

But yes, that is totally the kind of genre this is trying to emulate.

This playbook reminded me of a lot of the Kungfu Flicks I grew up with.

Names options I'm just tossing around:
Windy, Ichi, Knuckles, Bear, Lee,Combo Breaker, Roy, Jet, Chuck, Laughing Chan, Stripes, Cassius, Thumper, Dempsey, Mr. One-Two, Slugger.

A New Beginning bothers me as a way to farm experience. It could be built like Oftener Right saying you can help and advise someone to go down another path and  if they turn a new leaf mark experience.

I personally like the Finishing Old Business as a forced retirement move. It reminds of those movies where the guy surpasses all human limits until the end of the conflict and he dies a tragic heroes death.

Interesting concept and I dig the unarmed approach.

Like those names.  Copied them in.  Will whittle down if more are suggested.  Thanks.

I understand where you're coming from with your comments about 'A New Beginning', that is something I have considered, but so far, I've decided to go with it.  Reason being to do with XP flow.

What do I mean?  Well, take the Gunlugger, I reckon they get 80% of their XP during 20% of their playtime - short, intense bursts of action, followed by winding springs for the next bout of violence.

Skinner's XP gain is, I feel, more spread out.  A bit of hot here, an act under fire there.  Pretty steady and consistent.

I wanted to try and encourage this playbook to be like the Gunlugger's 20% all the time.  That's why I've got the moves to ignore debilities, ignore dying.  If the MC sees this playbook, he should see it as the player holding out his hands and yelling 'come at me, bro.  Gimme your best shot.'

The point I am trying to make, in my typically obfuscatory way, is I *want* this move to be farmed.  Because every time the Seeker does so, it should be because they've just massively rocked the boat, which brings consequences down on their head.

Basically, they get XP when they rock the boat.  They get XP when they take debilities because of the consequences of that.  All that is aimed at making this candle burn twice as brightly for half as long.  And when it goes out, nothing will ever be the same.

Does it work?  I don't know.  Haven't playtested it.  I've adjusted the language slightly to make it clearer what my intentions are, but I am open to ideas on improving this.

I Like it in general

First a small comment:
HX on your turn, should it have a "choose 1, 2 or all 3"?
And what is the HX for the other players after the first 3?

Second:
My game, my rules - I like the concept behind the move, but is it a little overpowered? Currently if you stumble upon a lone gun lugger Large gang vs lone opponent gives -3 harm. Unless he shoots you with grenades there is no way to harm you. Or is this intentional.

I Like it in general

First a small comment:
HX on your turn, should it have a "choose 1, 2 or all 3"?
And what is the HX for the other players after the first 3?

Second:
My game, my rules - I like the concept behind the move, but is it a little overpowered? Currently if you stumble upon a lone gun lugger Large gang vs lone opponent gives -3 harm. Unless he shoots you with grenades there is no way to harm you. Or is this intentional.

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

Yes, technically it should have "choose 1, 2 or all 3", I just took that as assumed.
But you are right, I forgot subsequent Hx.  Let's see:
Tell everyone else Hx+1.  You give everyone a chance.

I also realised subsequently that I forgot gear:
You start off with the clothes on your back and a fistful of oddments equal to 1 barter.  Use it wisely, grasshopper.

You've missed a couple of things the gunlugger can do.
Firstly, autofire weapons (which the gunlugger would have to be trying to not even have one of) cut right through the defences.
Secondly, if the gunlugger ditches their weapons and just goes fist-to-fist, they'd be on equal footing.
Machetes or area melee weapons (like some Battlebabe custom weapons, for example) also can do harm.
So, you claim it's overpowered, but in the situation the seeker should be trying to get into (hand to hand), he's only on equal footing, not even at an advantage, vs hard-centric characters like Gunluggers.