Ran a great first session of The Ward at #JiffyCon, so I thought I’d post a little more. We’ve got a lot to work on after that first trial by fire, but the comment, “This is a game I’d like to play again” by Aniket Schneider was very inspiring! I’ll post a little about our playbooks and “tags” concept.
Ran a great first session of The Ward at #JiffyCon, so I thought I’d post a little more.
Ran a great first session of The Ward at #JiffyCon, so I thought I’d post a little more.
One of the concepts we’re working with in The Ward is that playbooks themselves aren’t unique in the “world” as they are in many #PbtA games. In The Ward, everyone might be a Nurse, or an Intern, or what have you, but each player’s character will have a “tag” (which we really need a better term for!) that is unique to them and which gives a simply benefit.
The Playbooks (So far)
The Intern – a fresh and shiny medical school graduate
The Resident – a doctor with skills, but still in need of experience
The Specialist – a doctor with a focus
The Nurse – here to help heal
The Support Worker – here to help with everything else (this is currently a “catch-all” book which will probably be broken up into other more specific ones)
The concept of the character tags is that they modify and identify your playbook as unique, even if everyone is playing the same book. The titles of the books are like this: The _____ Nurse and you fill in the blank with a tag. We’re looking to place the tags in tonal groups so that at the start of a game or campaign people can select the style/tone they want to go for. So far we’ve got Standard, Dark, Sexy, and Wacky as our broad goups… a Standard/Sexy game is going to be quite different from Dark/Wacky… and you’ll know this going in, before you make your character. We’re thinking one or two of the broad groups should allow for enough customization.
So far, we’re basically done the “Standard” this, and that’s all I used on the weekend. Here’s the Standard list, and some examples from the other lists:
Character Tags
Standard
Chief, You have a couple of NPC staffers (lackeys, minions) who will do things for you. Who are they and what are their specialties?
New – During character creation, tell the other players to subtract 1 from any Cxn they assign you. The first time you would gain Reputation, gain an additional +1Reputation
Old, Your Stress meter can never drop below 1. Once during a session you can call on your years of experience to make any roll a strong success without the need of a roll.
Young, Take -1 to your starting Reputation score and you may also ignore the first point of stress you suffer each session.
Cynical, When you show contempt towards your peers you may always take a partial success instead of rolling.
Idealistic, When you show compassion to a patient, you may always take a partial success instead of rolling.
Genius, During character creation, select an additional speciality.
Arrogant, The first time you would lose Reputation during a session, ignore it the loss.
Sexy
Icy – When you show contempt for a member of the opposite sex you may always take a partial success instead of rolling.
Wacky
Evil-ish – After you’ve rolled you may declare whether you showed compassion or contempt.
Dark
Addicted – During character creation, select an additional addiction. If two (or more!) of your addictions come into play in a scene, mark experience.
We’ve got a lot more in the works! Let us know what you think!
Neat!