New Work in Progress Playbook - The Handler

Heyja

so this is the handler. It's a guy with a big hulking monster. A dragon, godzilla, a buelette, a siege mammoth

Something like that. It's also about beeing unable to perceive people as people.
It's a hot playbook.

Choose a basic kind of body (i think i can drop the instincts here)
* Lizard I instinct : to hoard
* Mammal I instinct : to mate
* Mutated mess I instinct: to shatter sanity
* humanoid I instinct : to get away
* insectoid I instinct : to mate

In battle it counts as a 2 harm small gang
Give it two additional abilities

* Fire breath 3 harm close, area, fire I impulse: To destroy
* Immens strengh and claws 3 harm hand, messy I instinct : to show power
* More than animal cunning I instinct : to corrupt
* It’s heavily armored 2 armor I instinct : to rest
* It’s gigantic +1 armor I instinct : to destroy whole buildings
* It has wings/can burrow or has other unique movement modes I instinct : to get away
* It can carnouflage itself I instinct : to scare
* Uses psychic powers to destroy your mind 2 harm ap quiet I instinct :
* Is grows strange diseases ridden fungus on his skin *mechanical stuff* I instinct : to infest
* It’s extremy sleek and agile I instinct : to get away
* Can carry a ton of stuff I instinct : to rest


How do you control it
* With whip, threats and constant oversight I instinct : to get revenge
* A psychic link I instinct : to follow the will of the maelstorm
* Bribes of special food I instinct : to eat
* Sheer luck, you have no idea why it listens to you, and only to you  I instinct : to protect
* You have a team that controls  I instinct : to mate
* ITS APOCALYPSE ELECTRONICS, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THING DOESNT WORK I instinct: to do random shit

Moves.
A lot of these moves are about seeing people not as people but as animals or make you a bit more animalistic. That's why you don't get read a person. I was thinking of removing manipulate and give the handler Pack Alpha with hot.

Maybe this playbook right now is a bit much about packs and gangs and groups and too less about the monster. I am not sure but i like it.
The advancement doesn't give you the option to get a gang right now... If he get's pack alpha with hot a gang would be cool. He then would have the possibility to pick manipulate up with a move.

A Handler get’s all the basic moves but read a person
He get’s "Monster Control", "A beast in battle" and "Pack Order"
(not sure if A beast in battle should be mandatory. It's based on the Juggernaut. Maybe it is okay to make this something you can pick up)



* When you control your monster roll+hot
On a hit it does as you want to but you still have to control it the whole time
On a 7-9 it also follows one of it’s instincts during the time and there is nothing you can do against it
On a miss it will follow all of it’s instincts with little control from you


* A beast in battle
When you are in battle with you monster you can go aggro and seize by force using hot


* Pack order
When you read a group of people roll+hot
* Who is the pack omega
* Who is the pack omega here
* How can I damage this pack
* Who in this pack is easiest to manipulate
* Who is fighting with the pack alpha for power



Primal Howl
When you howl like a wolf to scare your enemies roll+hot
On a 10+ they get away in fear
On a 7-9 choose one
* They freeze up for a moment
* One of them looses his cool, the others don’t fall for it

Animal Speak
You can talk to animals and can use moves on them like on humans

Homo homini lupus
Get the “read a person” move

name
When someone does something with his gang you can help or interfere with hot
(is this to weak)

Special
If you have sex with somebody they get +1 hold. They can spend this hold to make your monster loose interest in them for a moment.
(Even in his special, the Handler is still about the monster, not the people)


Advancement
- get +1 hot (+3)
- get +1 sharp (+2)
- get +1 hard (+2)  (i have no stat array so treat these as placeholders)
- take another Handler move
- take another Handler move
- take a move from another playbook
- take a move from another playbook
- remove one instinct from your monster
- get a breeding pit (workspace, detail) where you can work on animals?

No looks, Hx or stats right now.

This is really cool! Building monsters is so much fun and I love how you can make anything from a friendly docile beast that just wants to protect you to a horny house destroying beast that wants revenge on you. I could see an entire hack being stuff like this.

Removing read a person (and then giving it back) seems heavy handed. Maybe just give a shitty sharp stat and that sweet alternate read move?

I think the insect body should have the instinct "to spawn" to differentiate it from mammal. Mammals just like to fuck, insects care about laying thousands of eggs.

Another body type: a flock (instinct: to grow out of control or maybe to leave thing s behind (puppies, feces, disease, memories)). Maybe it makes the relationship too impersonal?

The howl and read a pack move are both very hot! To make howl usable against a PC a rewrite could look like this:

When you howl you get the effects of going aggro on all enemies within earshot with the demand being "flee in terror". If they suck it up they take s-harm.

I replaced the gang helping move with this one to promote more inappropriate behaviour from the Handler.

Law of the Jungle
When your monster threatens someone you care about and you let it continue without infereing mark experience

This is really cool! Building monsters is so much fun and I love how you can make anything from a friendly docile beast that just wants to protect you to a horny house destroying beast that wants revenge on you. I could see an entire hack being stuff like this.

Thank you

Removing read a person (and then giving it back) seems heavy handed. Maybe just give a shitty sharp stat and that sweet alternate read move?

That's a good way to do it and i will do so.

I think the insect body should have the instinct "to spawn" to differentiate it from mammal. Mammals just like to fuck, insects care about laying thousands of eggs.

done and done

Another body type: a flock (instinct: to grow out of control or maybe to leave thing s behind (puppies, feces, disease, memories)). Maybe it makes the relationship too impersonal?

A flock is to impersonal and i don't really want to put "avian body" in there because it implies that it would come with wings.
But i am thinking of making expansive playbooks for someone with an animal companion or a flock/pack/rott of something. 

The howl and read a pack move are both very hot! To make howl usable against a PC a rewrite could look like this:

When you howl you get the effects of going aggro on all enemies within earshot with the demand being "flee in terror". If they suck it up they take s-harm.

thank you and, done and done

I am also rethinking the control move. I think there should allways be a risk.
I was thinking

10 you choose an instinct
7-9 you and the gm both choose an instinct
6- naah, it's bad

Would that be to harsh on the playbook?

So i sat down and did the whole rest but names. I could use some advince on the stat blocks and Hx stuff. The statblock is a copy of the Maestro'D i think. Seems like the only playbook that does suck at sharp. He has a bit of custom weapons so you might want to check that out. Also, what about the special move?

Look

man, woman, ambiguous, transgressing

fur clothes, shredded clothes, leather clothes,
circus animal trainer clothes, showy clothes

Scarred face, animalistic face, tattooed face, ?rugged face, busted face,

hawklike eyes, squinting eyes, weary eyes, mad eyes
hounded eyes

hard body, overbuilt body, scarred body, crooked body



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

Tell everyone else Hx -1, you don‘t really get people individually.

On the others‘ turns:

Everyone, if they belong to a gang, have followers or something similar, whatever number they tell you, give it +1 and write it next to the character‘s name

*Choose one of them who was with you, when you tamed your monster whatever number  this player tells you, give it +1 and write it next to the character‘s name

*Choose one player who helped you when you lost control of your monster recently, whatever number this player tells you, give it +1 and write it next to the character‘s name

Gear

You get:
* oddments worth 2 barter
one animal control weapon

animal control weapon, choose 1
Tranquilizer Gun (s-harm far  reload)
.38 Revolver (2 harm close reload loud)
A whip (1 harm hand  close)
A heavy chain (2 harm hand area)
Machete (3 harm hand messy)
Sawed-off (3 harm close reload messy)


I will wait for imput a bit and work on the monster list. It can live with a few more possible abilities i think and will then repost everything (everywhere). I have a friend (and player that want's to playtest it) and will release a beta trifold then.

Have a wonderfull new year everyone.

The sex move should allow them to spend a hold to get your monster to do something for them, not ignore them. After all, you fucked them, doesn't that mean they're kind of like you, in the monster's eyes? If nothing else they smell like you, for awhile.

There are a lot of instincts, and they weren't super exciting to me. My eyes started to kind of glass over. Also 'destroy whole buildings' was remarkably specific, given how general most of the other instincts were.

Finally, most of the playbook moves are about pack vs. individual, as much as human vs. animal -- but the Handler has a single, giant monster? That doesn't sound like a pack to me, that sounds like a pair-bond or friendship or the like. Maybe include some options for the Handler to have a group of animals, as well as a monster? I like the pack-mentality stuff (in the Hx, for example), but it seems to run counter to the basic premise.

The same goes to a lesser degree for the animal/human stuff, btw, because monsters are not really animals either. Possibly just renaming 'monster' to 'beast' would help -- but fictionally there is a big difference between a guy who has some unique ultra-weird/magical 'monster' and a guy who has tamed/befriended a strange but naturally-occuring animal of the Apocalypse.

Perhaps the Handler would have a choice between two moves, one which gave them a "gang" of pets, and one which gave them a single bond, between Master Blaster and Kaiju.

And then there can be additional Moves which can upgrade the strength/size of the pack/lone monster chosen.

Maybe they could eventually have both a pack and a lone monster?