So here is a question for you guys. Can you sell me on playing the hocus? I’ve seen it in play once and I just didn’t see the appeal. Maybe it was how he played it. Not sure. Anyone have any great hocus stories?
So here is a question for you guys.
So here is a question for you guys.
.
Play a Hocus for that +2 weird!
Especially if there is a Brainer at the table.
Having followers is great for pushing you into rough spots, and causing conflict with the other players. Those followers have a capital ‘B’ Belief, and the Hocus may or may not actually share it. Remember that to hocus means to deceive. The followers need the Hocus and the Hocus need them.
Take Frenzy, Fucking Weirdo, and Charismatic, probably in that order and you can literally start or stop a riot.
My biggest piece of advice it to try something other than having a cult; cult is fun and evocative, but it can really turn the other players on you fast. Try picking “your scene”: you’re king of the hipsters (All hipsters roll+weird), or “your students”: you’re apocalyptic dead poets society (school of rock?).
Also, I recommend Arvid’s playbook focus of the Hocus (all of the focuses are great) http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=6521.msg27804#msg27804
Examples given there are Thulsa Doom and Colonel Kurtz. Seriously who doesn’t want to be Kurtz?
I once played a hocus named Lost that was a religious icon in our AW setting. She was part of a cult that worshiped nebulous gods she communed with by getting high on a sacred weed. She was kept in check by a group of devout followers called Pilgrims, who would follow her from temple to temple, keeping her high, and acting as a middle man between herself and the the rest if the world looking for her blessings/prophecies. Think an old-school Greek Oracle, like the ones fictionalized in 300. The people of the valley loved her, but the Pilgrims saw her as a tool to be used and abused.
Her story was about her gaining the trust of a few pilgrims, and priests/priestesses. They were helping her prepare to escape the pilgrims control, and start a new temple that would worship the gods in a way Lost thought would bring more happiness to the people.
So the pilgrims found out she was trying to escape, they excommunicated her to discredit her, and named some bozo the new oracle. Lost had a few supporters who followed her, but she was ultimately killed in the arms of her lover, moments after they admitted their feelings for each other, by the gunlugger who had a less than pleasant history with her…
I particularly liked playing her. She comforted the masses after a tragedy at one of her temples, she turned public opinion away from those in power, and her cult was a corrupt organization she was working to fix in the name of good. And she was self righteous, and unwaivering in her faith.
I’d play a hocus any day.
The Hocus is inherently destabilizing I think, because their power is a mirage. It’s not about how many guns or trucks or rations or whatever they can put into play. It’s about what’s going on in their messed up little heads. Unpredictable, volatile, and terrifyingly dangerous. Like true Faith has always been.
Hocus is definitely about messing with the status quo. If are doing well you spreading your beliefs disrupting those around you. If you are doing poorly your followers are pulling this way and that and probably causing even more trouble.