Gigs and how they work

So I decided to try out AW after an extended stint with Dungeon World. There are a few concepts I'm having trouble with, but the biggest one right now is the idea of Gigs.

Perhaps I just didn't read the rules well enough, but I couldn't seem to find any information as to what Gigs are; the rules text seems to assume I already know. Is there a section that lays out how they're supposed to be used, how long they take, etc? And/Or would anyone have an example of how a Gig being used would look in play?

Much appreciated!

Check the Gigs move in the Operator playbook.

Actually the Character Improvement chapter has "Gigs and moonlighting are in the operator’s playbook, page 70, in the character moves chapter, page 229, and in the crap chapter, page 262."

Ah I see so gigs are specific to the Operator. Good to know!

To follow up on that; Operator mentions "your crew" in crew/contacts. Does the Operator get a crew automatically? How many people?

(Sorry if these questions seem obvious, it's just that reading through the playsets and rules seems to assume I already know the terminology like Juggle and such.)

Most other playbooks can take gigs with advancements, and an MC may give moonlighting/gigs as a love-letter when the fiction calls for it (Harholder hires you to guard his holding...)

Think of them as jobs/missions the pc and or crew does in down time for barter or obligations.

Example; Player works bodyguarding and doing murders for the gigs.
Now, you talk with the player about how they work them, then work out the outcome...

depending on the Moonlighting roll Player rolls 7-9 on the above 2 gigs; picks success on body gaurding, fails at do'in murders;

"So Bishop, who are you bodygaurding, then who you killing?" player; "Well, Five-alive is going to bigtown and needs my protection... but his rival Stumps wants him dead... after we get him there, I'm going to take him out!"

2 ways to work this out in game;

1. After the fact... "well you got him there, and as you snuck up behind him to kill him later that day, you get caught right before the act... You kill em real good, but in the skirmish you suffered 3 harm!(embattled), fin.

2. Play it out; "well you get there with Five-alive... you sneak up on him that night like you planned, but... he's ready! - he and his goons appear in the alley, knives out... what do you do? (embattled).

as you can see #2 can take a bit longer, but can give more story opportunities

Hope that helps.
 
Hankle : )

To follow up on that; Operator mentions "your crew" in crew/contacts. Does the Operator get a crew automatically? How many people?

(Sorry if these questions seem obvious, it's just that reading through the playsets and rules seems to assume I already know the terminology like Juggle and such.)

They're good questions. Juggling isn't terminology. It just describes what the Operator is doing. Juggling a bunch of jobs, trying not to drop one.

Yes, the Operator gets a crew, made up of either PCs or NPCs. How many? How many makes sense?

Awesome, thank you both for your replies.

Hankle, thanks for the example, gives me a solid idea of how to run things.

Juggling is rules terminology, since there's a value called 'juggling'. It's simple, yes, it represents pretty much what it sounds like – how many gigs you can juggle – but writing it like 'You get 2-juggling' and 'choose no more than your juggling' implies it's this whole secondary stat, at least if you come from more rules-complex games.

But yeah, it doesn't do anything else, just caps how many gigs you can choose to work on at the same time (juggle).

I feel like there's a sort of art to reading the AW rules. If you read all the rules and all the (core, anyway) playbooks, a couple of times, you can get a good sense of when Vx is implying something (when a move asks a player to pick options and one is "you take little harm" it implies that if you don't choose that, you'll take normal harm) and when he's not (Juggling is a good example; it's mentioned twice in a row or whatever and those two mentions are all that it's for).

I think the latter can be confusing coming from, say, GURPS (where I'm from) because you expect there to be a whole big section on each stat or kind of stat and for everything to be equally available to everyone. The way AW works, stuff like Juggling and gigs are only available to someone if their playbook says they are. And since the operator is only playbook with gigs out of the gate, the rules for them are in that playbook. It might be tempting to think, "This is the gigs system," but it's more like, "This is the operator's gig system." IMO, anyway.

Juggling is rules terminology, since there's a value called 'juggling'. It's simple, yes, it represents pretty much what it sounds like – how many gigs you can juggle – but writing it like 'You get 2-juggling' and 'choose no more than your juggling' implies it's this whole secondary stat, at least if you come from more rules-complex games.

But yeah, it doesn't do anything else, just caps how many gigs you can choose to work on at the same time (juggle).

Yeah I finally clued into that... I have no idea why it isn't just written like "You can perform up to 2 gigs at once". The way it's written does feel like it was intended as a stat or deep system. Funnily enough, as Benhamill mentions, other "tighter" rules systems have had an effect on me, but in my case, it's Magic the Gathering. ("Juggling" feels like a keyword, yet it only appears once).

Well you can get extra Juggling. From the Operator Special Move or just from fiction things.

Well you can get extra Juggling. From the Operator Special Move or just from fiction things.

Don't miss that the Moonlighting move itself gives you +1juggling whenever you get an additional gig, of any kind.

Hey, saw this thread and thought I would just add my question about gigs here.  My friends and I are starting a game of AW soon and I am looking at being a Operator.  Now as per the text, some of my crew can be other PC's, and at the moment I know two other players that are going to be part of my crew.  My question is how do you deal with the barter gained from gigs if the other PC's are involved?

I can see if the crew was all NPC's you could just kind of hand wave their payment or whatever, but for missions where the other PCs are put in danger, I don't think they would be doing it for free.  But then if you are doing a gig for 1-barter, and have to pay the Gunlugger for his help in bodyguarding, whats the point of doing the gig in the first place.  Is this barter supposed to mean the Operator's profit from the gigs?  For example, would the whole job be a 4-barter job, but 2 goes for supplies, 1 for the Operator and 1 for the Gunlugger's help?  But then it seems like its not even that great of a playbook feature if the other people helping you are gaining just as much profit from your hard work in setting up the gigs.  Or are you supposed to roleplay it out, maybe calling in favors, or owing favors back to the player?

How do you guys deal with this?

We roleplayed it out. But, I wouldn't assume that the Operator always should make more money from the Gunlugger's work than the Gunlugger does. The trick with being an operator is your making your skim from several deals at once. Plus, you remain free to set up your own paying work as well.

1-barter will also cover your crew’s cut of a couple three four profitable gigs.

PLEASE EXACT VALUE OF THE CUT!

I mean, there are gigs from 1 barter to 3 barter (with upgoing risk), so the cut could be appropriate, noot?

HOW MANY GIGS (and how "hard" in mean of barter value - see above) can be reasonably done IN ONE MONTH (aproximately or / and average)?

DOES THE OPERATOR HAVE TO PARTICIPATE IN ALL GIGS and if not in some, than in what can be out and why. RULES say just CREW PINNED DOWN (noot the operator), but EXAMPLE in MC section say that the operator can be buckwashed.

CHANGE OOF THE CREW cann also mean MORE members, or just one out for one in?

Can CREW WITH OPERATOR BE A PART OF A GANG or whole gang (see above)?


The above questions, especially THE BARTER one, are CRUCIAL, not?