Two New Playbooks: the Beat and the Protege

Hello, all! I have been playing the heck out of Monster of the Week lately, and, in the spirit of these things, started working on two playbooks of my own that I'm particularly proud of, so I thought I'd share and see if anyone had any critiques to make.

The Beat is cop trying to balance a life of mundane police work with the real threat of supernatural horrors. Based on Karin Murphy of the Dresden Files, the playbook is geared towards either Sharp or Tough characters (depending on whether you're more a Detective or Guardian type) and tends to become a bit Weirder over time. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WDTJgVzvhmq475ebtZhyyJdrk9fuY8XxXz6aryc0ohc/edit 

The Protege is the favored pupil of a legendary monster hunter who has now gone missing. Based on Dean Winchester as he appeared at the start of Season 1 of Supernatural, part of creating your Protege is describing your character's former mentor and mentor choice determines which stat your character focuses on.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kiH1NyJipHBM-xAWx4ifZuoNwxCymYQM58lJPaSBdsU/edit

Very cool!

I love what you've done with the improvements in particular, and the way the protege gets different moves depending on what their mentor was like.

Let me know if you'd like me to send you the hunter playbook template to make them look all official.

These both look fantastic. Looking forward to taking the Protege for a spin sometime soon.

Thank you, Mr. Sands! I certainly would like to make them look all official-like, please.


I'd be interested in hearing what sort of Protege appeals to you, sophmelc.

Thank you, Mr. Sands! I certainly would like to make them look all official-like, please.

I have emailed it to the address I have for you.

I'd be interested in hearing what sort of Protege appeals to you, sophmelc.

To be honest they're all pretty cool, but the Visionary and the Immortal would be interesting. The Crusader is a classic as well.

Those are very cool, I cant wait to see them all shiny and official looking.

These look really rad! I'm especially loving the Beat. I was wondering if these had gotten put into the MotW playbook format, cause I've got a player who looks like she's gearing up to play a detective character.

Looking forward to seeing these in playbook format too. I particularly like the Beat, reminds me of the WoD character I played last year. Had a lot of fun with that one.

The Beat would fit with the Unexplained Cases Team concept I'm gonna be using for my one-shot pretty well I imagine, and the Protege could work too. :)

Been putting together an 'official template' version of the Beat so that I can offer it as an option to my group, hope you don't mind Thnxbrvknight. Thing is, I just noticed it could use maybe three more History options.

One I thought of 'You've questioned them as a person of interest in a previous case. Ask them what the case was, and how they were involved.'

How does that sound, and does anyone have suggestions for other options?

(Hey guys, this is this the artist formerly known as Thnxbrvknight and generally known as Jake; I had to delete my email a while back, so I made a new account)

I would greatly appreciate your efforts in official-izing the Beat, LZ (Buffy reference?). I had intended to make them up and even draw an avatar of the Beaten path, but I never got around to it.

Some other History Options might include:
-Once, while working the beat before you realized the truth, you got them on a mundane charge (breaking and entering, parking ticket, possession of a lethal weapon without a permit, etc). Tell them what it was and ask them if they ever paid the damn fine.
-You used to be the nosy official interfering with their hunts and being a nuisance. Ask them if they still think of you that way, and if not, what made them realize you were an asset.
-They have seen or know part of a grander fate awaiting you than the mundane world you come from. Tell them the small clue they have and ask them whether they have told you about it or are hiding it on purpose.
-They used to work for your office, and you looked down on them when they left. Ask them how they feel now that you're starting along the same path.
-When you were still figuring things out, they told you a small fact or gave you a piece of advice about hunting. Ask them what it is.
-They know something integral to a larger mystery you've been trying to get to the bottom of. Tell them about the mystery. They'll tell the group what they know about it, but they haven't shared the information with you yet.

Yeah, it's sort of a combo reference of Buffy and a manga I used to read called Ranma Half.

Glad to help with officializing the Beat, the only other issue I've had so far is finding a decent image to use for the cover. For my own playbook (the Fugitive), I'm going to be commissioning an artist friend to draw up a cover for me, but I can't afford two commissions at the moment. :<

Also, those history options are so awesome it's going to be difficult to choose which ones to add to the book. :o

Anyway, I'll post again once I've got the initial draft of the playbook done. :D

Need a bit of clarification here. One of the rules gives the character's unarmed attacks a profile of (1 harm/S harm hand). What's the normal profile for unarmed attacks then?

That is a really good question. As far as I know, it is unstated in the book. I assumed that since a big knife is 1 Harm, punches are less than that. However, the main benefit to that move is that you can choose what harm you do case by case (like the Quarantine move that lets you do less harm than your full); sometimes you will want to knock out a bystander for their own safety, whereas sometimes you want to lay into a vamp with a brutal blow.

Default is on page 65, under "Unarmed Attacks and Improvised Weapons".

For unarmed attacks, 0-harm hand.