Custom Playbook: The Ditto

Hey folks! Long-time fan, first-time poster. I love the design of Powered By The Apocalypse and my hobby is homebrewing, so I decided to make a custom playbook for Apocalypse World. This is inspired primarily by SOMA but also has elements of Terminator and The Iron Giant.

I noticed that a common complaint with custom playbooks is that they are often take over the game and don't interact with other players. I hope my playbook avoids those pitfalls, adds to your game, and suits the world.

So, without further ado,
introducing...

THE DITTO
Back when computers weren't paperweights, you could move data around the place. But you weren't really moving anything; the computer just copied it and deleted the original. Same thing here, just replace the computer with the psychic maelstrom and the data with your brain.
You went from your boring pre-apocalyptic life to being a corpse stuffed with wires in a dying world. You're succumbing to entropy and you can't fix it. A few people claim they can repair you, but they're not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. Before you know it, you'll be their pet abomination.
But just because you're dying doesn't make you weak.

Dittos are tragic cyborg abominations. They have serious power at their fingertips, edging into terrifying if you're creative. However, they require regular maintenance or else they turn into a pile of malfunctioning junk. Warning: you're going to be in debt to either fellow players or the MC. Prepare to get fucked around with.

You get this one and another move of your choice.
Terminal Entropy Operator
At the end of every session, roll weird.
On a 10+, all systems optimal.
On a 7-9, choose two effects that apply for the next session.
* Your body will malfunction at an inconvenient time.
* You can't use your integral components.
* All harm you receive is doubled.
* If you refuse an order from anybody, it's acting under fire.
On a miss, mark a segment of your countdown clock with a symbol. These marked sections cannot be healed and effectively cap your health. This move does not inflict damage, you keep the health but cannot heal the segment when it goes. You can mark segments until 9:00.
If 9:00 is marked, the MC chooses one from the 7-9 results. It's in effect until you get a segment unmarked.
A PC can operate on you like a Savvyhead making something, but they have one goal; unmark every segment on your countdown. You cannot operate on yourself.

Vampiric Drain Protocol
You can rob psychic energy from people's brains to replenish your own. Roll weird for NPCs; for PCs, roll Hx and only if they're past 9:00 on their countdown clock.
On a hit, you unmark a section of your health. On a 10+, choose two from the list. On a 7-9, choose three;
* You'll never forgive yourself.
* Something beautiful is destroyed.
* There will be consequences for you.
* Something ugly is created.
* They will never forgive you.
The MC will interpret what they mean.

Predictive Analysis Software
When you Read a Person, add these questions to the list.
* How do I find you?
* How do I break you?
* Why do you __?

Efficient Algorithms
+1 Sharp(+3)

Maelstrom Dependency
You can leech off some energy from the psychic maelstrom, but it'll fuck with you first. Roll weird.
On a 10+, the maelstrom unmarks two segments of harm but shows you a vision that you must fulfil. Until you do, one of your highlights is erased.
On a 7-9, the maelstrom unmarks a segment of harm but gets inside your head. Treat this as having Opened your Brain and missed.

D.S. Al Coda
When you die on your own terms, choose three. You interpret what they mean.
* They forgive you.
* Something beautiful is created.
* This has changed things, big-time.
* Something ugly is destroyed.
* You forgive yourself.

Integral Components
Chameleon Module (Implanted)
You can imitate a human almost completely; PCs must Act under Fire to being fooled by it and roll Hx instead of Cool.

Consciousness Transfer Kit (Hi-Tech, Applied)
If you have a brain recording, including your own, you can create a new ditto from a suitable body. Roll sharp. On a 10+, choose two; On a 7-9, choose one.
* Their soul survived the transfer. Otherwise, they can't perform actions that their previous self didn't do.
* They're mentally sound. Otherwise, they are prone to murderous insanity.
* They can control multiple bodies and count as a gang. Otherwise, they're limited to one body.
* They're physically able. Otherwise, they're weak and prone to malfunctions.
* They obey your every order. Otherwise, they have free will.
A player can consider this a second character or an NPC: their call.

Noospheric Psychrometer (Implanted)
You can Read a Person on the psychic maelstrom.

Terminator Chassis (Implanted)
You have 2-armor (This doesn't stack) and a hidden sword (3-Harm, Hand, Implanted).

Growth Gel (Applied, Remote)
You can infect a building/area with Giger-esque tumors. You may Go Aggro on people near them. If they force your hand, they forcibly exit the area and can't come back for a day.

10 KILL 20 CRUSH 30 DESTROY 40 GOTO 10
Once a session, you can transform into a murdermachine for a scene. Roll weird. On a 10+, you get all six; on a 7-9, two; on a miss, you get one but mark one segment of your countdown clock.
* You're terrifying. Anyone with an ounce of self-preservation runs screaming from you, and rival players are Acting under Fire if they do anything except flee.
* You're huge. You're Massive-4, and your steel fists count as Using a Vehicle as a Weapon.
* You're heavily armored. You have 3-Armor.
* You're a one-robot-army. You count as a medium gang with harm and armor according to your weapons and armor.
* You've got mounted artillery (4-harm, far, area, messy).
* You can fucking fly.

Name
Simon, Sho, Sonny, Hal, Orsina, Caroline, Ash, David, Kyoko, Maria.

Look
Mechanical body, dead body, mix and match body, skeletal body, makeshift body, spiderlike body.
Red eyes, dead eyes, human eyes, glowing eyes, video eyes, no eyes.
Filtered voice, monotone voice, deep voice, stuttering voice, glitched voice, child's voice.

Stats
Cool =0 Hot =0 Hard +1 Sharp +2 Weird -1
Cool +1 Hot -1 Hard +1 Sharp +2 Weird =0
Cool +1 Hot -1 Hard =0 Sharp +2 Weird +1
Cool =0 Hot -1 Hard -1 Sharp +2 Weird +2

Improvement
- Get +1cool (max cool+2)
- Get +1hard (max hard+2)
- Get +1weird (max weird+2)
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a new Integral Component
- Get a vehicle (You detail)
- Get a gang (and Pack Alpha)
- Get a move from another playbook
- Unmark one countdown clock segment
****
— get +1 to any stat (max stat+3)
— retire your character to safety
— create a second character to play
— change your character to a new playbook (lose all your integral components and the terminal entropy operator move)
— choose 3 basic moves and advance them.
— advance the other 3 basic moves.

Gear
You get:
1 Integral Component
Oddments worth 1-Barter
Fashion suitable to your look (You describe)

Hx:
* Which one of you fixes me up on a regular basis?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Which one of you helped me and wanted no reward?
For that character, write Hx-1.

* Which one of you had a hand in my creation?
For that character, write Hx+1.

For everyone else, write Hx-2. You don't recognise anything in this place.

Ditto Special
If you've got unrestricted access to somebody's brain, you can record a copy for you and the psychic maelstrom. You jump to Hx+4 with them; if you're already there, reset to Hx+1 and mark experience. What the maelstrom does with the recorded soul, you don't know... Yet.

I am open to critique and happy to take suggestions. If you like the playbook and want to use it in your game, thank you so much and tell me how it goes so I know what to fix.
Also, it would be criminal not to mention Noofy's 'The Synthetic', who has a few parallels with the Ditto aside from both being robots.

There's some interesting stuff here, but structurally I'm against anything that is rolled for the next session. Why not turn this into a beginning of session move like wealth or luck or bonefeel? And given the nature of this move and its effects on the player, the +2 Weird stat-line is a no-brainer.

Also, was it your intent to make your stat lines add up to less than the normal playbooks (stats total to +3, unless it starts with two +2 stats, in which case it totals to +2)? Given the "infirm" nature of the body this may be intentional, but it's worth asking.

Can any PC operate on you to heal you? I get what you're going for here (make the Ditto beholden to the other players in some sense), but thematically this is missing something for me.

Also, what does it mean to "read someone on the Psychic Maelstrom?" Is this just reading a person using Weird instead of Sharp? Given that Sharp is your primary stat, why would you take this? Or is it simply reading someone who is "connected" to the Psychic Maelstrom in some way? If so, how does that work? What are the requirements? Do they need to be doing something specific, or is this a "read anyone, anywhere, at any time" kind of move? This needs more specificity.

In general, I'd be careful about making any assumptions about the Psychic Maelstrom (i.e. how it's used, what it can do, or how it works) because this is something that's going to change from game to game (or even from player to player within a game).

What does it mean to imitate a human almost completely? There is no apparent downside to being an obvious cyborg, so why does it matter how people perceive you? Or is it that you can imitate any human individual almost completely? If that's the case, there's no way for NPCs to resist this, which means you can pass into or out of places more or less at will without repercussions - which treads on the Macaluso's special abilities (only in a way that is infinitely better). If that kind of variable imitation is the intent behind the move, I'd restructure the move to be something more like, "you can almost perfectly imitate any individual human, though doing so is considered acting under fire." This implicitly allows PCs to interfere with you by rolling+Hx, which is what I think you were going for with the last part of the move (i.e. fooling PCs).

10 KILL 20 CRUSH 30 DESTROY 40 GOTO 10 is more than a little over-the-top. It makes the Ditto way better at wreaking havoc than the Gunlugger and Chopper combined. And while you may say, "yeah, but it's only for a single scene" just be aware that for a lot of peoples' games, massive physical violence may not be super common. This move definitely breaks down some of the carefully-constructed protections of playbook roles/strengths.

There's some interesting stuff here, but structurally I'm against anything that is rolled for the next session. Why not turn this into a beginning of session move like wealth or luck or bonefeel? And given the nature of this move and its effects on the player, the +2 Weird stat-line is a no-brainer.

Placing it at the start would be smarter, upon reflection. And the idea for that particular statline was that you get less malfunctions (but not no malfunctions) in exchange for lowered stats in other areas. I might change it to a +1 to make it a tougher call.

Also, was it your intent to make your stat lines add up to less than the normal playbooks (stats total to +3, unless it starts with two +2 stats, in which case it totals to +2)? Given the "infirm" nature of the body this may be intentional, but it's worth asking.

That was a mistake, but I like it because, as you said, it fits the Ditto. I think I'll keep it that way.

Can any PC operate on you to heal you? I get what you're going for here (make the Ditto beholden to the other players in some sense), but thematically this is missing something for me.

See, I didn't want to limit it to Savvyheads being able to fix you (Because what if there aren't any?) or allowing NPCs (Cos then the Ditto doesn't have much reason to interact with players).

It might seem weird that all playbooks share the ability to repair the Ditto, but my opinion is that they have their own spin on it. The Driver treats the Ditto like a broken-down car, the Skinner reintroduces the Ditto to an aspect of humanity and heals them emotionally, the Chopper has a biker who's good with her hands, etc.

Perhaps a better idea would be they have to roll Hx first? On a hit, you know what the Ditto needs, on a miss you haven't got a clue.

Also, what does it mean to "read someone on the Psychic Maelstrom?" Is this just reading a person using Weird instead of Sharp? Given that Sharp is your primary stat, why would you take this? Or is it simply reading someone who is "connected" to the Psychic Maelstrom in some way? If so, how does that work? What are the requirements? Do they need to be doing something specific, or is this a "read anyone, anywhere, at any time" kind of move? This needs more specificity.

For clarity, it means you ask the MC questions from the Read a Person list, except it's on the Psychic Maelstrom. So, if you ask 'What does the psychic maelstrom intend to do?', your MC has to say what the Maelstrom is about to do.

Now, this isn't quite Reading a Person, because the maelstrom very much isn't one. It represents that the Ditto is very connected to the maelstrom, because they're powered by it. Thus, this move means you know it a little better than most, though that doesn't mean you understand it.

If I were MCing and a player pulled this move to ask "What does the psychic maelstrom intend to do?", I'd put it in terms of the Ditto's body reacting to the maelstrom. You know how there's this weird pressure right before a storm? Well, when the Ditto feels their joints locking up and the whispers start crawling in, they know the maelstrom is going to raise hell on the brains of the unguarded.

I was intending it to be an 'anytime' sort of move, but I realize it might be better if it was more like 'If you get a hit on Opening your Brain, you can ask questions about the Psychic Maelstrom from the Read a Person list.'

In general, I'd be careful about making any assumptions about the Psychic Maelstrom (i.e. how it's used, what it can do, or how it works) because this is something that's going to change from game to game (or even from player to player within a game).

One of the things I love about Apocalypse World is the fact that one of its most interesting elements is left entirely up to the group. I tried to limit the assumptions made, but there are two big ones that I noticed.
A. the psychic maelstrom is recording people's brains and putting them in mechanical corpses for some reason
B. if you pick Maelstrom Dependent, the psychic maelstrom gives these corpses visions and wants (or seems to want them) turned into reality.
I'd be curious to hear what you think of these assumptions and any I missed. Plus, I plan to put a 'the assumptions about the maelstrom in this playbook do not apply if it isn't picked) warning on this like the Quarantine.

What does it mean to imitate a human almost completely? There is no apparent downside to being an obvious cyborg, so why does it matter how people perceive you? Or is it that you can imitate any human individual almost completely? If that's the case, there's no way for NPCs to resist this, which means you can pass into or out of places more or less at will without repercussions - which treads on the Macaluso's special abilities (only in a way that is infinitely better). If that kind of variable imitation is the intent behind the move, I'd restructure the move to be something more like, "you can almost perfectly imitate any individual human, though doing so is considered acting under fire." This implicitly allows PCs to interfere with you by rolling+Hx, which is what I think you were going for with the last part of the move (i.e. fooling PCs).

I intended that to mean you look like a person except for an uncanny valley-esque flaw: your movements are stiff, your smile is creepy, you don't blink, etc.

I'd say being an obvious cyborg, while not having mechanical downsides, does have fiction downsides. Let's take the appearance factor: look at Simon from SOMA (Video and Image). If he was outside the gates of a hold in the dead of night, would anyone invite him in? No, he's creepy. And he's the closest a ditto could get to 'normal looking'. Besides, the other playbooks, bar the Faceless and maybe the Skinner, can hide in a crowd. Dittos stick out like sore thumbs.

I really like the idea of having it that the Ditto has to Act under Fire, though. I'm definitely adding that.

10 KILL 20 CRUSH 30 DESTROY 40 GOTO 10 is more than a little over-the-top. It makes the Ditto way better at wreaking havoc than the Gunlugger and Chopper combined. And while you may say, "yeah, but it's only for a single scene" just be aware that for a lot of peoples' games, massive physical violence may not be super common. This move definitely breaks down some of the carefully-constructed protections of playbook roles/strengths.

Yeah, that was one of the last integral components I made. My idea was to make the integral components powerful but susceptible to a bad roll on entropy, hence why you lose them when you change to another playbook; they are all overpowered as shit if any other playbook uses them.

I'm not happy with the move. Can you think of what I could do to make it better or do you think I should replace it with something more fitting?

Thank you so much for reading my playbook, Munin, I really appreciate it.

Perhaps a better idea would be they have to roll Hx first? On a hit, you know what the Ditto needs, on a miss you haven't got a clue.

This is good. I like this better.

Quote

Also, what does it mean to "read someone on the Psychic Maelstrom?"

For clarity, it means you ask the MC questions from the Read a Person list, except it's on the Psychic Maelstrom. So, if you ask 'What does the psychic maelstrom intend to do?', your MC has to say what the Maelstrom is about to do.

This raises huge red flags for me, because it is based on the assumption that the Psychic Maelstrom is a definable thing with a specific intent, specific feelings, etc. In most of the games I've run or played, this is often NOT the case. In our current game, the Psychic Maelstrom is "I see dead people." The shades of the departed occasionally turn up, offering insight into the world - you dear, deceased granny is all, "I never liked Dremmer. And after she killed Twitch, it pretty much proved that she can't be trusted."

"Wait, Dremmer killed Twitch?"

"Well of course dear. And believe you me, Twitch was very angry about it."

So in this case, the Psychic Maelstrom isn't a "thing" that "wants" something. It's just people. The Maelstrom in general therefore lacks specific intent.

That's not to say that it has to be this way - you could certainly play it such that the Maelstrom could be treated like an entity in its own right, with motivations and intents and whatnot, and handle it like any other NPC Threat. But in some sense I think this is overly reductive, and actually lessens the mystery/wonder/uncertainty that dealing with the Psychic Maelstrom should entail, especially for games where different characters perceive or interact with the Psychic Maelstrom in very different ways.

One of the things I love about Apocalypse World is the fact that one of its most interesting elements is left entirely up to the group. I tried to limit the assumptions made, but there are two big ones that I noticed.
A. the psychic maelstrom is recording people's brains and putting them in mechanical corpses for some reason
B. if you pick Maelstrom Dependent, the psychic maelstrom gives these corpses visions and wants (or seems to want them) turned into reality.
I'd be curious to hear what you think of these assumptions and any I missed. Plus, I plan to put a 'the assumptions about the maelstrom in this playbook do not apply if it isn't picked) warning on this like the Quarantine.

To my thinking it's more like the assumptions built into the Macaluso, that there are entities native to the Maelstrom. Only moreso, because it ascribes some sort of "plan" to the Maelstrom itself.

You might be better off severing this link entirely, and having the Ditto be the product of a Golden Age technology gone horribly, horribly awry. It's unclear what the intent behind the project was, but it has somehow become co-opted or corrupted or was just flawed from the get-go and the Ditto is the end-stage creepy result. That way, you don't have to specify anything about the Maelstrom itself, and can leave it up to the player to decide how the Ditto fits into the world that was and the world that is.

I intended that to mean you look like a person except for an uncanny valley-esque flaw: your movements are stiff, your smile is creepy, you don't blink, etc.

I'd say being an obvious cyborg, while not having mechanical downsides, does have fiction downsides.

Sure, but is the character unique in appearance? Yes, there's only one "Ditto," but are there other cyborgs? In my current game, some people have neural interface jacks, the Savvyhead and Juggernaut chief among them. This fact sets them not slightly apart from the rest of the populace, but rather puts them above the rank-and-file peasantry. It is the mark of a "knight," which is how people view the oath-sworn pilots of Dreadnaught armor. This little fictional tidbit is completely the product of the collective world-building that happened during the first session, and not something I planned at all. It emerged from the results of the players' answers to my provocative questions.

So again, assuming that being an obvious cyborg puts people off is incorporating another built-in assumption to your playbook.

I really like the idea of having it that the Ditto has to Act under Fire, though. I'm definitely adding that.

Yeah, I think it puts the ball in the player's court and gives the MC a nice mechanical way to apply fictional consequences to the solution.

I'm not happy with the move. Can you think of what I could do to make it better or do you think I should replace it with something more fitting?

I'd say replace it. For reference, the Synthetic's fuck the laws of robotics move is one I'd use for better inspiration. It's just a flat +1 Harm when fighting humans, and represents the cold, hard, robotic killing potential of the playbook.

If I had to make a suggestion, I'd say maybe take a page from the Brainer's move that lets that playbook go aggro using Weird instead of Hard. So you could have it be something like:

10 KILL 20 CRUSH 30 DESTROY 40 GOTO 10 - When faced with a violent situation, the Ditto is adept at allocating processing resources to determining the optimum intercept and attack vectors. Roll +Sharp instead of +Hard when seizing by force.

This makes the Ditto good at a straight up fight, but not so good at threatening people (because it's bad at human psychology). You could place further limitations on it (for laughs I might tie it to a -1 Hot attribute penalty), but the fact that it fills one of the playbook's precious integral component slots might be drawback enough.

Thank you so much for reading my playbook, Munin, I really appreciate it.

No worries, happy to help!

Apologies for the last reply.

Quote from: Fniff on July 08, 2016, 01:18:11 PM

Perhaps a better idea would be they have to roll Hx first? On a hit, you know what the Ditto needs, on a miss you haven't got a clue.

This is good. I like this better.

Glad to hear it, I'll change it forthwith.

Quote

Quote

Also, what does it mean to "read someone on the Psychic Maelstrom?"

For clarity, it means you ask the MC questions from the Read a Person list, except it's on the Psychic Maelstrom. So, if you ask 'What does the psychic maelstrom intend to do?', your MC has to say what the Maelstrom is about to do.

This raises huge red flags for me, because it is based on the assumption that the Psychic Maelstrom is a definable thing with a specific intent, specific feelings, etc. In most of the games I've run or played, this is often NOT the case. In our current game, the Psychic Maelstrom is "I see dead people." The shades of the departed occasionally turn up, offering insight into the world - you dear, deceased granny is all, "I never liked Dremmer. And after she killed Twitch, it pretty much proved that she can't be trusted."

"Wait, Dremmer killed Twitch?"

"Well of course dear. And believe you me, Twitch was very angry about it."

So in this case, the Psychic Maelstrom isn't a "thing" that "wants" something. It's just people. The Maelstrom in general therefore lacks specific intent.

That's not to say that it has to be this way - you could certainly play it such that the Maelstrom could be treated like an entity in its own right, with motivations and intents and whatnot, and handle it like any other NPC Threat. But in some sense I think this is overly reductive, and actually lessens the mystery/wonder/uncertainty that dealing with the Psychic Maelstrom should entail, especially for games where different characters perceive or interact with the Psychic Maelstrom in very different ways.

Very interesting. I was a little narrow-minded when it came to the idea of the Psychic Maelstrom, I suppose. I still want to use the integral component's name; Noospheric Psychrometer is just too much of a funny word not to use. I'll just come up with a new effect for it...

Quote

One of the things I love about Apocalypse World is the fact that one of its most interesting elements is left entirely up to the group. I tried to limit the assumptions made, but there are two big ones that I noticed.
A. the psychic maelstrom is recording people's brains and putting them in mechanical corpses for some reason
B. if you pick Maelstrom Dependent, the psychic maelstrom gives these corpses visions and wants (or seems to want them) turned into reality.
I'd be curious to hear what you think of these assumptions and any I missed. Plus, I plan to put a 'the assumptions about the maelstrom in this playbook do not apply if it isn't picked) warning on this like the Quarantine.

To my thinking it's more like the assumptions built into the Macaluso, that there are entities native to the Maelstrom. Only moreso, because it ascribes some sort of "plan" to the Maelstrom itself.

You might be better off severing this link entirely, and having the Ditto be the product of a Golden Age technology gone horribly, horribly awry. It's unclear what the intent behind the project was, but it has somehow become co-opted or corrupted or was just flawed from the get-go and the Ditto is the end-stage creepy result. That way, you don't have to specify anything about the Maelstrom itself, and can leave it up to the player to decide how the Ditto fits into the world that was and the world that is.

That sounds like a much better idea. It opens things up a little more in terms of origins for the Ditto.

Quote

I intended that to mean you look like a person except for an uncanny valley-esque flaw: your movements are stiff, your smile is creepy, you don't blink, etc.

I'd say being an obvious cyborg, while not having mechanical downsides, does have fiction downsides.

Sure, but is the character unique in appearance? Yes, there's only one "Ditto," but are there other cyborgs? In my current game, some people have neural interface jacks, the Savvyhead and Juggernaut chief among them. This fact sets them not slightly apart from the rest of the populace, but rather puts them above the rank-and-file peasantry. It is the mark of a "knight," which is how people view the oath-sworn pilots of Dreadnaught armor. This little fictional tidbit is completely the product of the collective world-building that happened during the first session, and not something I planned at all. It emerged from the results of the players' answers to my provocative questions.

So again, assuming that being an obvious cyborg puts people off is incorporating another built-in assumption to your playbook.

Wow, that's a really interesting thing and it certainly changes my opinion on the move.

How's about this: instead of imitating a generic 'human', the Ditto can actually disguise themselves a specific person? It would add a 'stealthy' aspect to the Ditto. Appropiate, considering how fragile some Ditto builds could end up.

Quote

I'm not happy with the move. Can you think of what I could do to make it better or do you think I should replace it with something more fitting?

I'd say replace it. For reference, the Synthetic's fuck the laws of robotics move is one I'd use for better inspiration. It's just a flat +1 Harm when fighting humans, and represents the cold, hard, robotic killing potential of the playbook.

If I had to make a suggestion, I'd say maybe take a page from the Brainer's move that lets that playbook go aggro using Weird instead of Hard. So you could have it be something like:

10 KILL 20 CRUSH 30 DESTROY 40 GOTO 10 - When faced with a violent situation, the Ditto is adept at allocating processing resources to determining the optimum intercept and attack vectors. Roll +Sharp instead of +Hard when seizing by force.

This makes the Ditto good at a straight up fight, but not so good at threatening people (because it's bad at human psychology). You could place further limitations on it (for laughs I might tie it to a -1 Hot attribute penalty), but the fact that it fills one of the playbook's precious integral component slots might be drawback enough.

That's a clever idea and I like it. Though I'd interpret the Go Aggro rule as less 'Dittos can't connect with humans and don't know how they work' and more as 'Dittos are brainscans from the Golden Age - and a regular person from now trying to threaten an Apocalypse World denizen is like an accountant trying to threaten a convicted murderer'. The integral component would thus represent the body being inhumanly strong - it doesn't matter if the person was good at combat or not, the body they were loaded into is.

A few things that I've been thinking about and would love to hear people's opinions on:

• How would a Ditto PC be treated in your game of Apocalypse World?
• The Ditto's primary concept is that they are a copy of a person from before the apocalypse struck placed in a robotic body. I think this would lead to interesting interactions with other players, especially the Quarantine if they're in play - but they might be too similar to the latter.
  Is the Ditto too close to the Quarantine or does it stand on its own?
• I recall reading on Story Games that the problem with custom Playbooks is that too many of them inadvertently make the whole game about themselves rather than letting the other players have time to shine.
  Do you think the Ditto avoids this? If not, what could be fixed?
• What do you think of Vampiric Drain Protocol and Maelstrom Dependency as moves?

A few things that I've been thinking about and would love to hear people's opinions on:

• The Ditto's primary concept is that they are a copy of a person from before the apocalypse struck placed in a robotic body. I think this would lead to interesting interactions with other players, especially the Quarantine if they're in play - but they might be too similar to the latter.
  Is the Ditto too close to the Quarantine or does it stand on its own?

My first reaction here is: if that's the premise, why is there so little to support it in the playbook itself? The Quarantine is built around the question of the apocalypse -- the Ditto is built around being a violent psychic maelstrom cyborg. The fact that you are a person from the past is mentioned in the intro, and then features in basically zero moves.

To clarify, a violent psychic maelstrom cyborg is a perfectly fine premise for a playbook -- and the playbook as it stands is pretty coherently set up around it. But if you want the playbook to be about 'before the apocalypse' in the same way the Quarantine is, you need to build that into some of the moves. Same goes for if you want it to be about 'being a human mind in a robot body', for that matter.

• I recall reading on Story Games that the problem with custom Playbooks is that too many of them inadvertently make the whole game about themselves rather than letting the other players have time to shine.
  Do you think the Ditto avoids this? If not, what could be fixed?

I think it avoids this pretty well -- though the more you move it towards your expressed premise, the less true that might become. Right now the Ditto seems similar to the Faceless -- it has a Thing, sure, but it's a Thing that's primarily important for itself. The Quarantine's Thing, on the other hand, is the history of the apocalypse itself.

• What do you think of Vampiric Drain Protocol and Maelstrom Dependency as moves?

Not a fan. First off, healing harm is not that interesting. It's definitely not interesting enough to base two moves around it that both basically work the same way. Vampiric Drain Protocol is worse because most of the choices are extremely vague or (in cases where they are applied to PCs) actively hostile to player agency. A custom/playbook move should almost never say something like 'there will be consequences' -- it should describe some specific, concrete consequences that are going to happen right now. The more interesting those consequences, the more interesting the move.

Maelstrom Dependency at least does that, but again the results don't seem that interesting -- or their level of interest depends entirely on the MC coming up with a good thing for the Maelstrom to ask the Ditto to do. And why 'you lose a highlighted stat', when the game already provides lots of good carrots/sticks to use (e.g. mark experience, a la seduce/manipulate.) So many moves in this playbook seem to boil down to 'hope the MC comes up with something cool here', instead of providing their own, move/playbook-appropriate structure.

Also, while I am here, I am a bit confused as to why this is a Sharp playbook. Adding a +1 sharp move (that other playbooks can take, as opposed to an advancement line, which is limited to the Ditto) is already generally a super-dangerous idea (which I have ranted about elsewhere), but in this case it seems to make even less sense, since (to me at least) the Ditto reads as either a Hard or Weird playbook.

--

Reading more thoroughly, I kind of feel like you accidentally put the entirety of the playbook into the Consciousness Transfer Kit. That move is ultra-dense and ultra-powerful -- you could base an entire playbook around it, in fact -- but for some reason it has ended up as one option among many, despite containing what you later describe as the premise of the playbook. Meanwhile, your mandatory, playbook-defining move is about being in a broken-down cyborg body.[/list]

Apologies about the radio silence, but I've done some revision and streamlining of the Ditto, based off Daniel and Munin's thoughts. Take a look; hopefully Ditto v2.0 has improved from the last version.

Back in the Golden Age, folks had time to think about stupid crap. Shit like, "What's a human?". That got too hard to ponder, so they asked this thing called a 'computer' to figure it out for them.
While the sky turned black and the firestorms raged, a computer the size of hardhold thought long and hard about what a human was.
In the end, it was boiled down to three rules: a human has to think. A human has to reproduce. A human has to die.
But then the computer had nothing to think about and no-one to give it orders. So it decided for itself: if I follow these rules, can I make a human?
As you know yourself, Ditto, the answer is 'kind of'.

Get these two and one more.
error: entropy
You are succumbing to entropy at a startling rate. At the start of every session, roll+cool.
On a 10+, all systems optimal.
On a 7-9, choose one bug. These are in play until you get repaired.
* Your body will malfunction at an inconvenient time.
* All harm you take is doubled.
* If you refuse an order from anybody, it's acting under fire.
* If it's not a highlighted stat, you can't use any moves that roll using it.
On a miss, the MC chooses two bugs.
If someone wants to repair you, roll+Hx. On a hit, they can operate on you like a Savvyhead making something with the goal of repairing you. On a miss, they just can't figure out what's wrong with you.
You cannot operate on yourself.

c+p: (consciousness)
If you have intimate access to a person, you can copy their brain and place it into a suitable body, creating a robotic clone. Roll+weird.
On a 10+, hold 2.
On a 7-9, hold 1.
Spend your hold one-for-one on the following:
* The soul survives the copying process. Otherwise, they're a 'flat person'; they cannot do anything of their own initiative.
* The mind is intact and healthy. Otherwise, they're prone to delusions and psychosis.
* The body is mobile and functions well. Otherwise, it's immobile and prone to breakdowns.
On a miss, your creation despises you and breaks out of captivity. Tell your MC that it's a mutant - they'll get what you mean.

take_pity.exe
When someone repairs you, they mark experience.

initiate.(grief)
When something you created is destroyed, mark experience.

(set: $everything to 'die')
When you Seize by Force, roll+weird instead of hard. When you make a battle move that calls for hard, you can roll+weird instead.

free.will: overruled
You can control your creations remotely. You use your stats and don't suffer any harm they take; however, while you control them, you are not aware of your surroundings.

return; favor
When you help or interfere with someone who repaired you, what you add to their roll is increased. +3 on a 10+, +2 on a 7-9.

Name
Simon, Sho, Sonny, Hal, Orsina, Caroline, Ash, David, Kyoko, Maria.

Look
Mechanical body, dead body, mix and match body, skeletal body, makeshift body, spiderlike body.
Red eyes, dead eyes, human eyes, glowing eyes, video eyes, no eyes.
Filtered voice, monotone voice, singsong voice, stuttering voice, glitched voice, child's voice.

Stats
Cool -1 Hot =0 Hard +1 Sharp +1 Weird +2
Cool -2 Hot +1 Hard =0 Sharp +2 Weird +2
Cool =0 Hot -2 Hard +2  Sharp +1 Weird +2
Cool +1 Hot -1 Hard =0 Sharp =0 Weird +2

- Get +1cool (max cool+2)
- Get +1hard (max hard+2)
- Get +1hot (max hot+2)
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a new Ditto move
- Get a vehicle (You detail)
- Get a gang (and Pack Alpha)
- Get a move from another playbook
- Get a move from another playbook
****
— get +1 to any stat (max stat+3)
— retire your character to safety
— create a second character to play
— change your character to a new playbook
— choose 3 basic moves and advance them.
— advance the other 3 basic moves.

Hx:
Ask one of these questions; just one.
* Which one of you has me down as property?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Who was someone I knew before I became like this?
For that character, write Hx+3.

* Which one of you had a hand in my creation?
For that character, write Hx+3.

For everyone else, write Hx-2.

Ditto Special
When you die, you can do one last move. Treat this move as if you had rolled a 12+ on an advanced move.

Do share your thoughts.

Yeah! This is much better. The flavor comes across much more strongly. It is definitely a Weird playbook, but the emphasis on making (intrinsically flawed) creations/copies is sufficiently different from how the Brainer operates that it preserves the separation of roles pretty well. And I love the idea of rogue copies running amok.

Thank you, Munin! Glad you like the look of it. Is there anything that might need improvement? I did notice that 'takepity.exe' would be better if it just increased Hx, not just marked experience.

Well, technically any time you heal someone you mark Hx with them anyway. It's an oft-overlooked rule (along with other people gaining Hx with you every time you inflict Harm on them).

The second version is far better then the first. I would consider looking over the bugs a bit more though, they're a bit... eh. I mean they do the trick, they make life hard for the ditto and provide opportunities for others to get involved. I just think that they could potentially do more by themselves, they're very flatly mechanical. I'm also not so sure about the cannot make moves that aren't highlighted. I think a -2 ongoing for any non-highlighted moves would be better suited, or maybe just -1 ongoing regardless.

I haven't had a lot of time to render any real suggestions here, but I would advise you take a moment to compare AWv1 and AWv2 angel healing as an example of what I mean by narrative over mechanics. To put it simply, the bugs should be cool. If someone wants to play a broken down robot, they will probably want to enjoy breaking down as much as functioning normally. You also might want to tell them what someone needs to do to repair any given malfunction, which is again why I direct to you the angel kit comparsion.

I feel that free.will:overruled seems... off? Just a little. What about:

"Against your creations, you can make any move against them at any distance, rolling +weird."

Manipulate, Go Aggro, Read a Person/Sitch. For bonus power add the clause:

"Any 6- is instead treated as a 7-9."

Where did Noospheric Psychrometer go? To be fair, it's now a weird playbook, but just add "When you Open Your Brain, ask one question from the Read A Person list"