Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?

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Suna

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Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« on: December 03, 2010, 04:06:08 AM »
Hi. I'm going to finally play Apocalypse World with some friends of mine (we'll be doing a three-days full immersion, playing the entire day), and I was thinking, since I'm a total prop geek and I like colorful cards, sheets, etc. and I've been doing modifier and condition cards for D&D4Ed. (like, a card saying "+1 AC" or "+1 damage", "stunned: description of the condition") and I was thinking of doing that for Apocalypse World, because it could be handy to remember that you've got that +1 ongoing or -1 ongoing, plus the forward bonuses.
With Poison'd, I've been creating the cruel fortune cards in the past.
I'm now thinking about it, and it probably would make sense to create the moves' cards too... but apart from ongoing and forward modifiers, are there any other modifiers you deem worth being created?
Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Oh and, Vincent. Know that my envy of your genius with game designing knows no limits :-P
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat

Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2010, 05:14:18 AM »
I sometimes use custom moves, like the MC letter-style session startup moves, that give things like "+1 to weird and -1 sharp when in your car until you fix the radio acting up". I think those could be made as specific or general as you like, although the most general is +1/-1 ongoing or forward. Debilities are marked on the sheet, but if you want to make a big deal of them, you could have cruel-looking cards for them too.

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Suna

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Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2010, 05:47:12 AM »
Hi, Jonatan.
That's wicked, I actually like your idea very much! I'll definitely do that :)
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat

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Suna

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Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2010, 07:31:37 PM »
In the meantime, I've done this:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vkgwj4pyc2af67r
Cards for +/-1 ongoing and forward. Everyone please feel free to use them if you think it could be of some help.
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat

Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2010, 04:06:31 PM »
Those look really nice.

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noofy

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Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2010, 06:57:56 PM »
Suna, that's very cool.

Now I'm just gonna throw my wishlist out there (since its xmas and all), possibly since I've really been enjoying playing WHFRP 3rd Ed with my nephew, with all of its cards, chits and pictorial represenational goodness! So please see these not as 'Please make these', but rather my daydreams for a fully pimped out AW.

Please understand that I am crap at making / graphically designing these sorts of paraphenalia, so there is no way I could make them myself!

*Standups for the Playbook characters, plus cool cardboard cutouts / standups for the options under Gear / Holdings / Gangs / Vehicles. Imagine as part of your Hardholders Character building session, you get to build a little cardboard model reflecting the shanty-town nature of your hold, and a little gang standup to much of a pack of fucking hyeanas! Or you created a Chopper and now you have these cool cardboard standups of you and your posse on their bikes! Cool.

*BIG cardboard countdown clocks, for Harm or Threats. Filling in the clocks with counters too. So like, if you get smashed by a spiky club, a contusion / broken bone counter covers that segment. Stabbed? Use a gaping wound counter. Fallen off your bike? Gravel rash counter for you ladie. Slammed by a shotgun? then use a bullet wound or buckshot counter to cover the segment. Likewise with the Countdown clock - Counters can be both prescriptive and descriptive: explosions, arguments, environmental effects, battles etc.

*Cards for all the existing weapons, with a suitable picture and icons for their various descriptive tags.

*Play 'mats' for the basic Hold / Bike / Vehicle / Gang / Followers / Workspace / Crew / Gig. Comprising of a sweet picture, basic description and flavour text from the book. Then the particulars are assigned via cards / counters / icons for things like Surplus & Want, descriptive tags, profit & catastrophe, cues and mechanical benefits.

Not so much to ask for is it? ;)

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Suna

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Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2010, 07:24:35 PM »
Er... "quite too much" and "such props would be perfectly useless in my experience" would be my only answers, no offense meant... I mean, what do you really need such things for? do you really need such props? Condition cards as I call them are always something I end up building (see Anima Prime, for instance) in games where I do need to remember what a condition makes or what bonuses last for how much time, but standups... I only think about them in board games or rpgs with board game elements like D&D4th Ed.
In Apocalypse World I could only imagine them calcifying the fluidity of narration and take away the attention from the moves snowball. But maybe it's just me.
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat

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noofy

  • 777
Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2010, 10:30:37 PM »
No worries Suna, of course you don't need such props! Please understand I was in no inferring that AW was a boardgame waiting to happen, far from it. I just seem to have regressed lately, after having never had or used such nicknacks in RPGs (or even Boardgames for that matter) until recently.

I'm sure its just a phase, along with my total fixation on maps and (actual) shell casings as barter. Immersionism strikes in very silly ways some times.

The props that work for our group at present are Maps Maps and more Maps. Of relationships, locations, and geography. The scrapbook of portraits gets a far peruse too. Mr. Harper's cheat sheets are indispensable, as too the individual playbooks.

All Kudos to you for your condition cards, they rock and will be very useful to me. Thanks for your efforts!

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Suna

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Re: Props: modifier cards, does it make sense?
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2010, 03:35:45 AM »
Now that you tell me! Actually maps make quite sense in AW. I might be creating hex map format sheets (why hex? Because they're cool!)
Cool hint indeed...

For condition cards, I'm also thinking of creating the "hold one" card... but I need to ask something to Vincent before that...
Let me know if the format is ok, they're supposed to be 6x8,8cm so make sure that you don't tell your printer to resize to fit page or anything ;)
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat