Agenda, Principles and Moves in some AW hacks

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Agenda, Principles and Moves in some AW hacks
« on: November 20, 2014, 11:06:16 AM »
Hi there,

I was thinking about Agenda, Principles and Moves for a game where Greek Mythology is remotely real.
In that context I decided that it might be interesting to look at what different instance of games powered by the apocalypse give as Agenda, Principles and moves. You can find the result by following https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nFDjLfYRKwRuSdRuw3QvpBhv4TCBh9W9URXvSa5DB8o/edit?usp=sharing. I found some interesting patterns, but of course there are artefacts in how I decided to set some moves on the same row that are only remotely comparable, or only with some deep thought. But maybe it's interesting for someone.
Currently it contains AW, DW, Monsterhearts, Monster of the Week, AW:DA and SotI. Feel free to add more if you wish, and to move around associated moves/principles/… if you have a reason.

Use note: When sorting for another game (I left it sorted by AW:DA), select the whole table, including the first column, and then sort (with headers) by "G", then by the game that you want to take as focus, to not mix Agenda, Principles, Moves etc.

Curious patterns:
The split between Principles, Always say and Some more things is not always clear. Not all games have all three categories.
Many games have a Move that is somewhat good for the PCs, but can lead to problems.
A lot of the differences come from different wording and different focusing (splitting a short principle into two long ones, etc.), but that can lead to games feeling seriously different. (This is not surprising, but it's noteworthy that it works.)

Re: Agenda, Principles and Moves in some AW hacks
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2015, 12:45:45 PM »
I understand the point of an Agenda, but I don't see the point of an Always Say section.  I thought that's what MC Moves were for, anyway.  The Principles seem more like "general tips on running the game". 

I think you can get by with just Agenda and MC Moves without losing anything, and you may gains some additional focus/clarity.