So here I am looking at fairy tales for Midsummer, my Powered by the Apocalypse game, and thinking about how much genre rules have changed. See, this is because I have made sure to code the genre rules into the system because we all know system matters of course. Only I’ve got a game built on urban fantasy with fairy tale folks running around in the modern, mundane world. So I need to support both.
Let’s take Hansel and Gretel for example. That’s your basic trapped with a monster story. Goes all the way back to the minotaur. This is the same story nowadays as Saw or Jaws. If you want the classic version, it’s the Sin that gets you thrown in the labyrinth. If you want the modern version, it’s the Sin that gets you eaten.
So, by modern standards, if Hansel and Gretel eat some of that delicious candy house they aren’t going to survive the witch.
How has this impacted your moves and playbooks?
An example from the existing rules would be Tell a Tall Tale, the Base Move. This represents fairy tale motif of the hero (or villain) who succeeds through trickery. Puss in Boots, Jack the Giant Killer, the Evil Queen and her poisoned apple, etc. This is one of the basic interaction models of the game. And unlike you might expect if you have been fed a diet of action movies, the Hero storybook (playbook) is good at it.
Right now I’m looking at genres as a way of doing experience and possibly enhancing adversaries (fronts). I’m also making sure the basic moves and narrator moves fit into them. This may mean some changes to the moves as a result. I’m just in the research phase right now and not even sure if it will work right, but an example would be enabling destroying the witch (through trickery) as a basic move, locking the PCs in a cage (through trickery) as a narrator move, and gaining experience by either eating or denying the candy. Oh, and the old woman is probably the adversary.
Any news about this?
I don’t think it is Fabio, though I would co-author with Robert now that I have a true of PbtA if he ever needed someone to take the reigns.
I would like to playtest this, even being more a Fate GM than a PbtA one
Fábio Emilio Costa everything I’ve released to date for play testing is up here: raventower.com – Midsummer Playtest
It’s basically a complete game, but your mileage may vary.
Tommy Rayburn it’s in my maybe someday pile. I need to revise based on years of pbta play and learning. Or at least I want to if I were to move forward.
Robert Burson, would you me willing to co-author to help you push it over the finish line?
Skimmed the material and looks very good for me. I don’t know if you want to sell it or so, but looks you have something almost finished. The books need some design, but the rules and so looks very good. I’ll take some extra reading, but I have some experience on a similar product for Fate, Loose Threads, and yours looks as good as it.
Now, there’s the source for this? Because, if there’s no problem, I could translate them for Portuguese and try to talk about it here in Brazil
Tommy Rayburn let me think about it a little. My worry would be I am not involved at all right now. I want to make sure I can commit.
Fábio Emilio Costa you are looking for an editable source like a google doc?
Yup
Let me see if I have a copy of that version. Or I think I can pull it from the history.