Here is my current (and often updated) draft of Dark Streets Archetypes aka playbooks or classes.

Here is my current (and often updated) draft of Dark Streets Archetypes aka playbooks or classes.

Here is my current (and often updated) draft of Dark Streets Archetypes aka playbooks or classes. The basic moves and rules are also available in this doc. 

Text in red is duplicated and needs to yet be written, so please ignore these sections.

Feedback will always be appreciated! Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3qkh7qjlfnivyxz/Archetypes.pdf

45 thoughts on “Here is my current (and often updated) draft of Dark Streets Archetypes aka playbooks or classes.”

  6. After reading through it a few times, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on. I like the corruption mechanic a lot; it’s a nice addition to the game for the genre. However, it seems terribly unbalanced; some characters pick up points for using powers, others have to act against their nature. It seems like some will be on a quick descent toward corruption while others will be able to easily avoid it.

    I also like the idea of Trust, but I’m not sure it’s working as it’s displayed here. You’ve basically reskinned Hx, but I think you could do a lot more with it. One of the core themes you’re working with is that these characters come from different communities, and that those communities will pull them apart because they are rooted in different cultures (i.e. Wizards vs. Vamps). That’s neat, and it’s way different from MH, but it needs more crunch to make it work.

    The stat names are cool for the wizard, but they don’t feel like they fit the Vamp or the Wolf as well. (I know this is really hard.)

    Overall, I really like it. When you get a fleshed out version of all the playbooks, I’d be willing to run a playtest for ya.

  7. David Miessler-Kubanek Thanks. I am liking it so far, can’t wait to flush it out some more.

    Hahahah Streets of Darkness sounds awesome. It would be the Superhero upgrade to the game. 🙂

    Mark Diaz Truman, you make some great observations. I will admit I kinda patched this together to get it assembled and posted, it needs a lot of polish yet. Your points regarding Corruption are valid, I need to balance it out a little more. I need to zoom out and take a second swipe of the paint brush.

    Trust is…clumsy. I like it ALOT in theory but you’re right, it needs to be revamped (get it, vamped? teehee) What about a point system where every session you give out a predetermined number of Trust points to the players at the table, divided as you like, and for that session they can spend those points to help or interfere automatically. It would add a tactile element to the game by use of tokens and would be finite as well which is interested. 

    Or what about a Trust mechanic where everyone starts with one trust point and can use it as stated above and when you use it you give that player the token to spend how he likes? 

    Just throwin’ out ideas here to see what may or may not stick.

    I totally here what you’re saying about the stat names. They fit the Wizard and will fit the Changeling really well but for the other playbooks they are less evocative. But I really like them thematically and wanted to add in an unignorable fantastical theme to the stats. I dunno, I am open to changing this but don’t know what I’d use in it’s place.

  8. First, I’m so with you on the stat names. Star World suffers from the same problem, and I’m just stuck on new names. I’ll see if I can think of something for you if you do the same for us! 😉

    As for Trust, I think you need to look to the fiction to determine what you want it to do. On one hand, I think it might benefit from a broader perspective: perhaps Trust is centered around factions (like all Vampires / all Wizards) instead of people. Harry Dresden tries to manage many competing relationships, and the characters he encounters represent that perspective in really interesting ways.

  9. I will totally consider that. Btw I keep forgetting to mention how much I like star world. 

    I think some new ideas regarding trust are coming together very nicely. Faction based trust, let me brainstorm and post what I come up with.

  14. Also, been thinking about Trust and implementing it as a sort of faction based value. The different factions I’m imagining are:

    Being of Night – Vamps and Wolfs

    Being of Mortality – Whatever mortal playbook(s) I come up with

    Being of Wild – Changeling

    Being of Power – Wizards and Hallowed

    You get a starting value in each faction depending on your playbook. So for example Wizard might look something like this.

    Night -2

    Mortality +2

    Wild +0

    Power +1

    This can of course be adjusted in play at the end of session as per Hx or something similar.

  17. Hmmmm, I like your observation about the willingness to shed blood. With that, I think I’d prefer to keep it. It evokes so much for me. I suspect the common interpretation of Heart being about positive emotions will carry through.

  23. Yep. I will be giving it an investigative spin so it will end up being more akin to Murphy than Butters, But you get the idea. I will eventually throw in an Expert type class which should compliment some of the other mortal templates a little more. 

  24. Andrew Medeiros Good work.  I just did a quick read through it and it looks pretty good.  The only feedback I had was a couple things you mentioned you are going to address – Aware/Expert.

  26. I see a potential problem, coming from a “This is a DF hack” mindset. Why would i take like a Vampire Move as an Aware? 

    The “take a move from another Playbook Archetype” advancement doesn’t strike me as this cool in this hack. 

    Seems wrong and against the canon. There is no Canon i know but you seem to assume a lot of stuff from the DF so it is there for me. 

  27. You make a valid point, but how is that any different from Monsterhearts? Why would a vampire take a werewolf move? Or in apocalypse world, why would a hocus take a Gunlugger move? A lot of the moves are pretty generic in their application. Some are more specific, yeah totally, but that’s the way it always goes. 

    And if it works in the fiction, then it would be perfect. If I’m playing an Aware and I get bitten by a werewolf in play, I could start taking Wolf moves to show the transformation slowing taking over. That is, if I wanted to. That’s on the player to make it be reasonable. 🙂

  29. Let me see if I can tackle it:

    In MH or AW, we’re dealing with characters who have some internal conflicts, but don’t necessarily belong to groups the way DS characters do. A Gunlugger is a dude who might become a Battlebabe, no werewolf bites required. But in DS, at least this draft, the characters come from different communities. And it’s weird to think about them borrowing each other’s powers across those lines.

  32.  “If you do, they mark experience 

    and they lower their Trust with your faction 

    by -1.” 

    Vamp. 

    Lowering by -1 would be a +1 would it not? 

  33. I see what you’re saying, it makes sense. I don’t want to deny players the chance to branch out of their archetpyes though, especially if it’s fitting out of the gates. What if we move the moves from another archetype into the 5+ advancement list, it would give players more time to immerse themselves in the different factions and set-up some in game triggers to get access to those moves?

    I will add in human flesh as a possible food source into Eternal Hunger, I got NO problem making the archetypes more flexibile.

    Good catch on the grammer fail, tim. Thanks. I will correct this. I am listening to Cold Days, so I know the feeling. 🙂

  44. Sorry…

    Seemings are (in Dresden Files) when Fearies create items out of thin air, it has nothing do to with beeing especially hot. 

    Cinderals Fairy godmother turning a Pumpkin into a Coach was a seeming. 

    See also Changes. 

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