Adventshire, a Steampunk Adventure Hack

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Adventshire, a Steampunk Adventure Hack
« on: August 06, 2013, 01:57:59 AM »
Alright, here I go. I caught the hacking bug and dreamt up a bright and shiny world, full of zeppelins and brass, adventure and waistcoats, clockwork automatons and dashing grins: Adventshire. In it, the characters are a bunch of dashing, debonair, well-dressed, and moxie-filled professionals in a utopian (or dystopian) society of the group's design, where technology, culture, fashion and imagination are all intertwined. Men and women can succeed by their Charm, Class, Vigor, Logic, and Dream (replacing the standard stats).

The first session starts with everyone contributing to the world creation, deciding on the structure of the society they'll all be playing in. Players can then decide if their characters will be pro or anti-establishment, which affects how they gain experience. Separately, they can act honorably or dishonorably in battle, each with its own triggers and bonuses. Lastly, each character has a certain amount of Moxie, which can be used to affect moves and even the narrative. The full description of the setting and rules is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lNc3wYdAk0zwlgfThTdjnubVvGvkjmwhrzPXD2WPMDw/pub

The Professions in progress:
The Magician, charming and with a bag or tricks or a lovely assistant.
The Clockworker, with a tinkering shop and the ability to build robotic helpers.
The Dandy, classiest son of a gun around, and a clique following his every word.
The Pugilist, vigorous man's (or woman's) man (or woman), strongest when wielding only fists, or in front of a crowd.
The Urchin, charming street rat and keeper of secrets in the city's underground.
The Alchemist, cold and logical. Just as likely to heal you as slip a homemade potion in your drink.
The Rocketeer, Found a jetpack and think you're a hero? Prove it.
The Ringmaster, ultimate hype man and owner of the city's hottest entertainment establishment.
The Automaton, machine built for good? Evil? Earn your sentience and find out.
The Archaeologist Professor by day, adventurer by night. Does it really belong in a museum?
The Duelist Honorable master of single combat by gun or sword. Eventually both.
The Investigator, The Operative, The Surgeon, The Anarchist, The Ogre, The Safecracker, The Phonomancer...

Have at it folks, all feedback is welcome. Thanks!
« Last Edit: August 06, 2013, 02:03:44 AM by nevver »

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Jeremy

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Re: Adventshire, a Steampunk Adventure Hack
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2013, 08:41:57 PM »
Fun!

Regarding Trust, a couple thoughts:
- "Tx" seems awkward and unnecessary.  "Trust" is short and sweet enough.
- It seems more intuitive to me that your Trust with someone is how much you trust them, and when you help/interfere you roll +their Trust in you.
- There don't seem to be any rules about increasing/decreasing trust, other than what happens when you roll over.  How will that work?  Same as AW and Hx?
- In AW, you can increase or decrease another PCs' Hx with you by 1 at the end of each session.  That makes sense based on what Hx represents (how well you know/work with someone, how in tune you are to them).  But that doesn't make as much sense with "Trust." 

How much I trust you seems like something that's a decision I make about you.  What about baking changes into the help/interfere move?  So that when you help someone, roll +their Trust in you and they have the option to increase or decrease their Trust in you by 1? Or they can just flat-out change their Trust in you, ala The Mountain Witch?  That brings betrayal (and the threat of it) much more into focus, which I'm not sure you want the game to be about.

Re: Adventshire, a Steampunk Adventure Hack
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2013, 03:31:24 PM »
Hey Jeremy, thanks for the feedback!

I think you're right, just "Trust" is a bit neater, not sure why I stuck by the clunkier "Tx." As for gaining and losing Trust, it's in there (I should probably format the doc a little better, haha) and is indeed gained and lost like Hx: for each point of harm dealt or healed, you lose or gain Trust respectively. However, you can also gain Trust with someone by taking harm meant for them (an option for the "throw yourself into the fray" move) or putting their Ideology ahead of yours. Vague, I know, still tinkering with that concept.

I also like the thought of maybe baking Trust advancement into the help/interfere move. Adding something like, "On a 10+, the character you helped/interfered with gives you +1 or -1Trust with them." so that the helped/betrayed can repay the favor with mechanical consequences.

The idea of Trust is, if I have Trust+3 with you, you really Trust me, so I'll be better at affecting whatever you're trying to do (i.e. roll+Trust). Because you Trust me, you'll accept my help freely, or I'll be really good at betraying you and interfering, since you won't see it coming. If my Trust+3 number represented how much I trust you, it doesn't make as much sense in the fiction to roll that number when helping/interfering, since how much I trust you doesn't really change whether or not you'll accept my help.

The game is not specifically about betrayal, but with the option of characters having competing ideologies from the start, I want there to be room for it.

Re: Adventshire, a Steampunk Adventure Hack
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2013, 10:08:54 PM »
The professions are now available here!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wglEvP2xWgDiNUGq_a-ovswq1414ispMQnRLOqAhfr0/pub

This is version 1.0, so not all of the professions are fully statted out, have gear, or any full details really! But each at least has its own set of custom moves, so there's enough to get a good idea of the flavor of each profession. Sorry for the wall-of-text formatting. Version 1.0!

Re: Adventshire, a Steampunk Adventure Hack
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2014, 06:32:53 PM »
I know there's a bit of thread necromancy here, but this setting really intrigues me.  Enough so that I've started a PbP group that will try it out.  So if you're still looking for feedback on it, I'll do my best to post some findings and observations here.  Maybe it can help you continue with such a fantastic concept!