Apps: Mates, Dates & Spooky Fates

This is a little backburner game I've been tinkering with for the past few years; I put it aside because there were so many other AW hacks paddling the same stream, I decided to prioritise other projects.

Recently though, I decided to resurrect it as something I could practice my design & presentation skills on, so here's what I've got so far: a set of nine playbooks for a game that's largely inspired by Misfits and The Fades but has other influences as well.

There's still an amount of work to be done on the rules and the other half of the playbooks, but I'll post updates as and when I complete the various parts.

James,

This is beautiful! The Jolt's "special" made me laugh, and lines like "when you take away someone's pain, roll+envy" have deep implications.

I'd love to see the rest of it!

Here are the other half of the playbooks, the mundanes: they are more than a supporting cast for the seer characters, they are intrinsic to the story, with the right combinations of playbooks creating very different settings with different assumptions.

I think I've figured out how frozen works. Do you roll+ anything when you hit 5 cold? I assume each roll gives you some amount of hold, and spending it to 0 "thaws" you. Do you then go to 4 cold or 0?

Either way, it's a nifty mechanic. Not sure how well some players would react to having their choices taken away from them, but it's a cool (geddit? Because cold?) part of the Playbooks. Really keen to see how the basic moves interact with the Playbooks, especially feel the pain.

Thanks for the interest Spwack!

Currently, when you hit 5 cold, you freeze: reset your cold to zero & hold 5. As long as you are frozen, take hold instead of cold; you thaw when hold=0. It's loosely inspired by the Darkest Self idea from Monsterhearts.

Feel the pain is an expansion of the suffer harm move from AW, so the more pain you're in, the more you can suffer.

I've got the basic & peripheral moves mostly laid out, but I'm still tweaking them from time to time: you'll find the name of most of them scattered throughout the playbooks.

I'm thinking of adding another Seer Playbook who would be a kind of urban sorcerer, using graffiti as the source of her magic; these are the moves I've got so far:

You get this one:
Tag:  when you tag a public space, roll+fear. On a 10+, both; on a 7-9, choose one; on a miss, neither. When you tag a public space for the first time, take -1 cold. Design your tag on another sheet of paper and tell the MC where your first three tags are located.
o   It doesn’t take you too long to get it just right.
o   You don’t draw attention while you work.

Then choose one:
Infamy: take +1 ongoing when you are in sight of one of your tags.

Portal: touch one of your tags and take +1 cold to move instantly to any other public space with your tag.

Eyes on the Streets: when you use your tags as your eyes, roll+sight. On a hit, you can see through them as if you were there; on a 7-9, take +1 cold.

Facade: take +1 armour when you are in sight of one of your tags.

Magic Image: when you tag a public space, choose a move from another seer’s playbook; you can make that move as long as you are touching that tag.

It doesn't feel like I've really hit the nail on the head though: are the moves powerful enough to compensate for the fact that making them is tied to the locations you've tagged? Do they say 'magic' to you?
 

Currently, when you hit 5 cold, you freeze: reset your cold to zero & hold 5. As long as you are frozen, take hold instead of cold; you thaw when hold=0. It's loosely inspired by the Darkest Self idea from Monsterhearts.

D'oh! Talk about needlessly over-complicating things: of course, you don't need to hold anything, you just switch to being frozen, so you suffer from that condition but you take -1 cold when you do what the condition tells you to and thaw when cold=0. Looks like I've got some text to change in the playbooks, but better I caught that now than later.

There's a basic move that I'm not sure about, so I thought I would ask you all what you think of it.

See Things
This is what you do when you’re a seer in the presence of an apparition; apps don’t like being seen and humans aren’t meant to see apps, so it’s bad all round. When you see things, roll+sight. On a hit, you don’t grow colder; on a 10+, the app doesn’t react to being seen.

Essentially, it's the default move for learning about the apparitions the PCs face in the game... only the move doesn't really say that. Also, it looks really passive: the character isn't doing anything except checking to see if the app reacts to being seen. Is this still a basic move? Or is it a peripheral move? I was thinking of re-modelling it around the read a person move, with the PC being allowed to ask specific questions, but then there are a couple of unique moves in the playbooks that sort of cover that ground.

Opinions?

I think I like the move in principle, but I'm not 100% sure what it is and what it's for.

Is it a sort of "act under fire" for when you see an app?

The 10+ clause hints that the character seeing app doesn't want to be seen in return... is that part of the implied action here? To observe without drawing attention?

An example from a hypothetical game might help us envision what you're going for.

(Oh, looks like we settled it over on G+! Well, well, my work is done here...)

Looking forward to seeing the Basic Moves for this game. (Mostly I'm curious how all this interesting interpersonal stuff interacts with the apparent focus on confronting ghosts all the time.)

As you will, so mote it be:

Avoid Conflict
This is what you do when you want to sneak past people, bluff your way through trouble or just try to defuse a potentially troublesome situation. When you avoid conflict, roll+fear. On a hit, you evade any trouble. On a 7-9, choose 1.
o   You only just make it; take +1 pain.
o   You’ve only delayed the inevitable; you can’t avoid this conflict the next time it comes up.
o   You leave in haste; leave behind anything you were carrying or anyone you were bringing with you.

Charge Through
This is what you do when you want to just push through obstacles, using physical force or strong language to overcome resistance. When you charge through, roll+anger. On a hit, you clear any obstacle; barriers are broken, characters are stunned. On a 7-9, choose 1.
o   You can’t control your temper; your target or someone near them takes +1 pain.
o   You destroy something in the process; smash a valuable object you are carrying or which is in the scene.
o   You’ve shown your dark side to your friends; take -1 Hx with another character who saw this.
o   You’ve made a scene; anyone nearby or searching for you is alerted to your presence.

Lash Out
This is what you do when you get in a fight and you want to hurt someone or at least stop them from hurting you. When you lash out, roll+anger. On a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, your target must choose one.
o   They take pain.
o   They’re rendered harmless.
o   They shut up.

Make Demands
This is what you do when you tell someone what you expect of them or try to secure their co-operation. When you make demands, roll+desire. On a 10+, hold 2 against them if they don’t give you what you want. On a 7-9, hold 1 against them if they don’t give you what you want, but if they do, they take +1Hx with you. You may spend hold 1-for-1 to give you +1 now when you make a move against or interfere with that character.

Stir Trouble
This is what you do when you tell someone what’s what or try to provoke them with the uncomfortable truth or a nasty lie. When you stir trouble, roll+envy. On a hit, they believe what you say for now, until they find out otherwise. On a 7-9, you’ve got no control over what happens next, take -1 ongoing against them until they’ve calmed down.

Stick Your Nose In
This is what you do when you want answers from someone and get all up in their business. When you stick your nose in, roll+envy. On a 10+, both. On a 7-9, choose 1 or they may take +1 Hx with you and you get both.
o   They have to tell you what’s on their mind.
o   They have to involve you in what they’re doing.

Hi, James!

Just wondering if anything ever came of this - I think it had a lot of promise!

It's still WiP: I have done some more work on it, but other projects (finalising my Blood & Water game, putting a couple of games out on DriveThruRPG, updating my blog, etc) have pushed it back a little bit. Rest assured, it is still something I want to complete and get out there, but the next stage is to playtest it and take feedback from that into the game's further development.