So where does one start if he wants to create a playbook?
can’t stop playbook design posts
So where does one start if he wants to create a playbook?
So where does one start if he wants to create a playbook?
13 thoughts on “So where does one start if he wants to create a playbook?”
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I was working on a “Revenant” playbook based on revenge movies like Kill Bill and Taken, but I kinda let that fall to the wayside. I should go back and see what needs to be done with that.
Start with a niche you want filled. Check if that “niche” is actually a playbook with moves from another playbook — that’s the big lameness I see lots of people do. Like, the Juggernaut is awesome for example — that’s a niche: apocalypse mech, yes, I’m on board.
So maybe read some cool books or watch movies? And if the genre isn’t apocalypse, imagine an apocalypse equivalent? Like, an apocalypse equivalent of a beast tamer could be cool! Every hold could use someone who can talk to the razor-snakes, ya know?
Beast Tamer is the idea, like the Juggernaut but with a Dragon.
Okay, cool. So maybe think a little bit about mechanics? Like: is this dragon best handled as just a vehicle?
I once played a bio-apocalypse where vehicles were animals — in that apocalypse, No Shit Rider makes you a sexy beast tamer basically.
If the dragon is just a vehicle, maybe eyeball the Driver/Chopper/Juggernaut and mimic your “dragon creation” system off them. Make up statlines for the dragon like you would for a car, maybe.
Maybe it’s more like a gang, but with all new options… So you pick options like the Dragon Is Barely Tamed so its +Savage, and its Young so it’s -1harm -1armor…
Or maybe it’s a big enough deal that you start from scratch with your own original system for detailing dragons. Maybe you make it a questionnaire for how it was reared and that gives you it’s tags? And maybe the questionnaire includes people who disapprove of your dragon (actually tapping into the Maestro’D’s questionnaire actually!)
Just thoughts.
So the Handler (working title) get’s a monster and those are the monster creation rules right now. Some of the instincts do overlap to much but i am looking for a general feel and workable mechanic
Monster
Choose a basic kind of body
* Lizard I instinct : to hoard
* Mammal I instinct : to mate
* Mutated mess I instinct: to shatter sanity
* humanoid I instinct : to get away
* insectoid I instinct : to lay eggs
In battle it counts as a 2 harm small gang
Give it two additional abilities
* Fire breath 3 harm close, area, fire I impulse: To destroy
* Immens strengh and claws 3 harm hand, messy I instinct : to show power
* More than animal cunning I instinct : to corrupt
* It’s heavily armored 2 armor I instinct : to rest
* It’s gigantic +1 armor I instinct : to destroy whole buildings
* It has wings/can burrow or has other unique movement modes I instinct : to get away
* It can carnouflage itself I instinct : to scare
* Uses psychic powers to destroy your mind 2 harm ap quiet I instinct :
* Is grows strange diseases ridden fungus on his skin mechanical stuff I instinct : to infest
* It’s extremy sleek and agile I instinct : to get away
* Can carry a ton of stuff I instinct : to rest
How do you control it
* With whip, threats and constant oversight – you control it with hard I instinct : to get revenge
* A psychic link – you control it with weird I instinct : to corrupt
* Bribes of special food – you control it with hot I instinct : to eat
* Sheer luck, you have no idea why it listens to you, and only to you – you control it with cool
instinct : to protect
* You have a team that controls it – you control it with hot I instinct : to mate
* ITS APOCALYPSE ELECTRONICS, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THING DOESNT WORK – you control it with sharp I instinct: to do random shit
When you control your monster roll+*
On a hit it does as you want to but you still have to control it the whole time
On a 7-9 it also follows one of it’s instincts during the time and there is nothing you can do against it
On a miss it will follow all of it’s instincts with little control from you
I am worried that the “choose your control stat” could create problems with the stat array.
Plug the control stat into one of the first choices you make? Like, control a sanity shattering monster by keeping cool, a humanoid with persuasion or whatever?
I think you should roll with a straight up hot playbook since those are the rare ones in the base AW set.
I like the basic idea here with you detailing loads of monster stuff, but I don’t know if the monster needs so many instincts? What are you hoping for with several instincts? Really rounded characterization or something else?
You have my attention! I am intrigued!
I was actually aiming for 3 but can’t get it to work. I could just take out the first set of instincts. that is probarbly better
It also is probarbly better to make it a hot playbook. The control mechanisms can stay in play but the are all rolled with hot.
The other way to make the wants of the monster come into play would be a hunger mechanic like the hoarder hoard but i don’t have much experience with this so i am sticking with instincts right now. More like Wealth and Fortunes.
I like the instincts fine. I see them as mostly tags for the MC, suggestions for moves to use when the beast isn’t quite controlled. Maybe have when you control your monster roll+control and have control be a stat based on your method of control, and it can be permanently or temporarily modified by various things.
Moves.
A lot of these moves are about seeing people not as people but as animals or make you a bit more animalistic. That’s why you don’t get read a person. I was thinking of removing manipulate and give the handler Pack Alpha with hot.
Maybe this playbook right now is a bit much about packs and gangs and groups and too less about the monster. I am not sure but i like it.
The advancement doesn’t give you the option to get a gang right now… If he get’s pack alpha with hot a gang would be cool. He then would have the possibility to pick manipulate up with a move.
A Handler get’s all the basic moves but read a person
He get’s “Monster Control”, “A beast in battle” and “Pack Order”
(not sure if A beast in battle should be mandatory. It’s based on the Juggernaut. Maybe it is okay to make this something you can pick up)
* When you control your monster roll+hot
On a hit it does as you want to but you still have to control it the whole time
On a 7-9 it also follows one of it’s instincts during the time and there is nothing you can do against it
On a miss it will follow all of it’s instincts with little control from you
* A beast in battle
When you are in battle with you monster you can go aggro and seize by force using hot
* Pack order
When you read a group of people roll+hot
* Who is the pack omega
* Who is the pack omega here
* How can I damage this pack
* Who in this pack is easiest to manipulate
* Who is fighting with the pack alpha for power
Primal Howl
When you howl like a wolf to scare your enemies roll+hot
On a 10+ they get away in fear
On a 7-9 choose one
* They freeze up for a moment
* One of them looses his cool, the others don’t fall for it
Animal Speak
You can talk to animals and can use moves on them like on humans
Homo homini lupus
Get the “read a person” move
name
When someone does something with his gang you can help or interfere with hot
(is this to weak)
Special
If you have sex with somebody they get +1 hold. They can spend this hold to make your monster loose interest in them for a moment.
(Even in his special, the Handler is still about the monster, not the people)
Advancement
– get +1 hot (+3)
– get +1 sharp (+2)
– get +1 hard (+2) (i have no stat array so treat these as placeholders)
– take another Handler move
– take another Handler move
– take a move from another playbook
– take a move from another playbook
– remove one instinct from your monster
– get a breeding pit (workspace, detail) where you can work on animals
No one got anything?
I liked the monster construction pieces. I think an angle to go with for the Handler would be that their Moves use animals the way Drivers use vehicles (as suggested previously), and gaining new animals is definitely a big thing. I could see Hot, Hard, Cool, or even Sharp as the main stat that handles control. Cool would make sense in that you need to keep yourself collected when dealing with crazy beasts, and it would be interesting to represent the precise control you exude and use through the beasts.
As an unrelated though you could have moves where you let the beats cut loose and an effect happens, and the roll helps you prevent the consequences of the beast cutting loose.