14 thoughts on “Ideas/Obsessions for this week.”

  1. I’m not sure if everything needs a AW hack, especially existing worlds.  I think one of the founding principles ‘play to find out’ is kinda in opposition with using an established universe.  Something established have material that has already explored that world making it so players and the MC can say ‘the world is like this.’  Play to find out means that you ask ‘Why did this happen, let’s find out.  Oh it turns out that the world is like this, cool.’  In other words I like AW because it builds the world in the process of playing while using an established world means that your placing a story into an existing world.  While the later can be fun, it’s just not the same as AW and other systems do good jobs of playing within the restraints. 

  2. i recommend doing it! you’ll find out along the way whether apocalypse world is a good fit; if it isn’t, you’ll change the rules until you get something that does what you want! good experience all around.

  3. AW hack is a good idea if your intention is to file off the serial numbers.

    But then again, all depends on how much are you willing to alter. If you go as far as developing new and different basic moves I’d say you’re making a different game altogether.

  4. I think a world of modern magic like the Dresden files would be a good base for an *W hack. There are plenty of hooks to hang various character types on: several specialties of wizards, warlocks, assorted vampire types, assorted fae beings, assorted ‘minor’ talents, and so forth.

    The stats could easily be the four elements and spirit or will. Make the basic moves include nothing weirder than a sense that magic is going on or the like, so that only via moves / playbook descriptions can magic type stuff be done. Supplement the mundane folk playbooks with moves that show off their genius or combat prowess or connections in order to make the mas interesting as the supernatural sorts.

    Steal liberally from the savvy head for things like building magical tools and brewing potions.

    Finally, make a spirit of intellect Playbook because Bob deserves PC status.

  5. Yeah, I totally second what Tim Groth said. I’ve been toying with the idea of a sort of urban fantasy hack for a while, but I’d include a ridiculous amount of other sources for ideas (Sandman Slim, some of the Simon R. Green stuff, Courts of the Feyre, maybe even some Charles de Lint, etc.) and use them more for inspiration than to make “DresdenWorld” or whatever.

  6. Absolutely Matt Strickling; it would definitely be best to go broader than just the Dresden Files world (which is already pretty broad, despite the narrow slice we see).

  9. Tim Groth when phrased as a system inspired by then I feel a lot more excited for such a hack.  An Urban magic/dark fantasy hack would be quite fun, but as far as playing Dresden Files as an AW hack just doesn’t sound that interesting to me.  I’ve actually played the Dresden Files game and other than some abiguous magic rules, I think it’s an ok system.  I’d say with edits it’ll probably get as close to the feeling of the books as we’d likely see.

  11. I think this still feels very based in Dresden Files.  Right now I think it’s missing the players being able to decide what magic is like, or what are the flaws of vampirism.  I also don’t feel like the moves reveal anything about the characters like AW and Monster Hearts does (with the exception of one of the options on Calling Forth).  My suggestion is rather than trying to make this fit with what your accustomed to seeing from the genre, take a look at monster hearts and ask ‘what is this missing?’  There’s a lot of overlap between the two concepts but I do think that MH is missing something thematically so there definitely is room for a new hack, although I haven’t read Monster of the Week yet so I don’t know how that fares with covering the gap.

  12. There is very definitely a lot of potential there. I’ve been thinking of a new harm move to more accurately replicate some elements of Dresden Files and similar. I’ll try to knock it into shape.

  13. Is Trust Hx reversed in terms of who is recording what? If so this is the second raw hack I’ve seen doing that.

    I think the key thing to sort through is what sort of arcs you are thinking of for the characters here. Are you thinking that individuals increase in power, flare out, and leave the world changed? Or are you thinking that they entrench and become the establishment? Or is it both?

    I find that’s key to clarifying the basic setup of a hack as it suggests structure for moves, playbooks, and threats/fronts or whatever MC prep stuff takes its place.

  14. You all make fine points, no doubt. Tim Groth, Trust is Hx reversed yes, I believe Jank Cast’s Sword Power and Unspeakable Powered had this in one of it’s earlier editions, I borrowed from that for this hack.

    As for the arcs, I wanted the temptation of power to be a constant theme in every playbook. You can acquire a great deal of power but as you do you distance yourself from your humanity and eventually lose yourself in that power. It’s a choice though, it would take a great deal of time to go down that path if you wanted to avoid it. Dunno if this carries over or not, but it’s a start.

    Matt Strickling, I would love to see what you have in mind for a harm move. Always on the lookout for new ones.

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