New Playbook: The Blisser

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New Playbook: The Blisser
« on: August 29, 2010, 12:15:22 PM »
This is my attempt at a playbook that revolves around drug use.  I do not have a copy of the main book yet.  I am doing this based solely on the playbook .pdfs and what I've seen others doing here with custom playbooks.  So if you notice something wrong feel free to point it out.

Obviously this is not complete but I wanted to post what I had so far.  I'll be working on the rest as soon as possible.  

The central ideas I'm working with here is that though the Blisser's drugs are powerful they have a cost.  The Blisser can become an unstoppable monster but it will take a lot out of him to do it.

Here are the things I'm wondering about:

Are the basic dose effects reasonable?  I'm talking about both the table you roll on first thing and the stat bonuses a dose gives you.  

Does refusing to take a dose have an appropriate penalty?  Is it too harsh or not harsh enough?  

Does it make sense to exclude weird from the stat bonuses the dose gives?  It is a weird playbook but if you rolled well on a dose you could theoretically get +3 weird if you so chose. With the base +2 weird for the playbook that would give you a +5 to weird.  That would ensure that any weird roll you made could not fail.  That seems too powerful to me.

I like the idea of being able to push things by taking more doses of your drug.  I want there to be consequences to that but again I'm not certain of the balance for those consequences.  

Finally I want there to be a way in which you can involuntarily come down from a dose during play.  Right now what I have seems really messy to me.  I'm not sure exactly how to work this yet.  

As for the reason I chose a weird playbook, I didn't think any other stat fit.  I know there doesn't seem to be a lot to do with weird in the drug section, but the moves in the playbook will be weird based.  

Any other general feedback is greatly appreciated on this.  


Playbook: The Blisser

The world is dead and most people have forgotten what to live for.  Not you.  You have your pills and your vials and your liquid gold that you pump through your body.  When that hits you're a fucking god and no one in this shithole is going to stop you.

To create your Blisser choose name, look, stats, moves, gear and hx.

Names:
Bubs, Waylon, Booth, Sid, Junk, Kite, Brady, Narc, Toker, Trip, Acid

Look:
Man, woman, transgressive, ambiguous, concealed

Filthy wear, luxe wear, scrounged wear, vintage wear  
Drawn face, tired face, relaxed face or twitchy face
Vacant eyes, glassy eyes, wild eyes, intelligent eyes, or shameful eyes
Gaunt body, broken body, scarred body, or neglected body.

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

The Drugs:
You have a concoction of drugs which you take to make you function better in the reality of the world around you.  Give it a name.  You are addicted to these drugs and must take them at the beginning of each session or act under fire until you do.
Whenever you take the drug roll +weird.  On a 10+ hold two, on a 7-9 hold one, on anything else the dose is not enough and you must either dose again immediately and risk overdosing or be under fire for the rest of the session.
* This dose is intense you will not come down from this dose until the session ends.
* The dose is more potent than usual boost your stats one more than normal.
* The dose opens your mind to new possibilities get +1 weird for the duration of the dose.
* The dose makes you feel invincible get +1 AR for the duration of the dose.
* The dose isn't as large as you thought, your stash does not decrease due to this dose.

You start with a stash of six doses worth 1 barter each.  If your stash gets depleted you must barter for more at a cost of 1 barter per 1 stash replaced.

In addition to the effects listed above each dose you take gives you a +1 bump to two stats of your choice or a +2 bump to one stat of your choice except weird.  If you get the bonus stat bump from the table above you can add a further +1 to your stats in any way you choose except weird.

At any time you may dose another time to push your stats up by +1 again.  You can choose the same two stats or two different stats.  Each time you take another dose on top of the dose you just took you automatically suffer 1 harm.  Roll again for the dose effects but this time subtract one from the roll.
Each dose you take in addition to the primary dose cumulatively subtracts one from each further dose effect roll you make.  I.E. Two doses equal -2 to the dose roll.

You can take as many doses as your body can handle.  

Coming Down:
Anytime you suffer more than one harm, fail two act under fire rolls, or fail a roll to open your mind to the psychic maelstrom you come down from your dose.  When you come down you lose all bonuses you currently have immediately.  You must dose up again as if the session just started or act under fire for the rest of the session.  

*

Bret

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Re: New Playbook: The Blisser
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2010, 12:25:37 PM »
I like this a lot already. Your third attribute line needs a -1 in it but I don't see anything else immediately wrong. Also I think the coming down could be a bit less fiddly. I was first thinking that it should just be a beginning of session roll and that's that, but I like the urgency that coming down creates. I also like the idea of acting under fire when you run out.

I'm interested in seeing what sort of moves you come up with for this, or is that the only move the Blisser gets?

Honestly, I don't think it really needs any more.
Tupacalypse World

Re: New Playbook: The Blisser
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2010, 03:49:17 PM »
Maybe make doses explicitly linked to Angels' stock? I just see the potential for some awesome interaction if the Blisser is inclined to bargain with/steal from/et cetera the angel (and vice versa :) )

*

Orion

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Re: New Playbook: The Blisser
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2010, 06:44:05 PM »
An angel with an Infirmary could use the workspace rules to gin up the drugs...as could a savvyhead, naturally. 

Re: New Playbook: The Blisser
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2010, 09:33:30 PM »
Not going to have much time to work on it tonight, but the third stat line should read

Cool+1, Hard+0, Hot-1, Sharp+0, Weird+2 to correct the lack of a -1 in there. 

Also I forgot to state it and it should be obvious but in the table listing dose effects you spend one hold per each effect you want. 

As for coming down I need to think about what exactly triggers you coming down.  I like the idea that you could be riding a high and kicking ass then suddenly things go South and your high just gets killed.  Then you can either dose up immediately or add more suckiness to an already bad situation.

As for the moves I haven't really sorted those out yet.  Bret you say it doesn't need anything else in your opinion besides the drug.  I kind of like that idea but won't this playbook be a little bland and underpowered compared to the other playbooks if it has no moves?  I mean it certainly isn't as powerful right now as a Hardholder in my opinion and they still get two moves. 

Also just the ability to modify your base stats seems a little bland to me.  I don't plan on loading this playbook up with moves but I think a few are in order. 

I'm thinking the special move is going to be something along the lines of:  If you and another character have sex then you can choose one of the following:
*You may ignore the effects of refusing a dose until the end of this session.
*You may give the other character a dose of your drugs.  If they accept they gain an increase to stats like you would but they don't make a dose effect roll.  If they refuse they act under fire in the next scene they're in with you until such time as they accept your drugs or the scene ends.

As for the Angel/Blisser tie, I like it.  I could see the Blisser being able to raid an Angel kit to get doses of their drugs and an Angel being able to raid a Blisser's stash to refill their kit.  I will probably put that in somewhere.   Also an Angel with a workspace should definitely be able to make drugs.  I guess a Savvyhead could too. 

That brings up the next idea.  Should one of the Blisser moves give them a workspace to make up their own doses of the drug?  I was thinking it would be a possibility. 

Also, I was thinking that having a Blisser be completely out of doses in their stash should be bad.  I'm not sure how to make that work mechanically though.