Something I’m tinkering with for my magical shoujo superheroines game — which is becoming a white whale game for me. Conditional move pairs.
So, when certain moves are rolled you gain strings, like in Monsterhearts. You can spend strings to A. offer the person an XP to do something. B. when the person the string is attached to is relevant to the move, spend a string on them to trigger an alternate move.
For example, there are two moves for teenage hormones: Blush & Giggle (being turned on by somebody, this is everywhere in Cardcaptor Sakura & Sailor Moo) and Turn Someone On (for instigating the shoujo lens flares, sudden blooming roses, and making hearts go doki doki yourself).
Blush & Giggle
When you are struck by somebody’s attractiveness and make a social faux pas roll+ Sweet. On a 10+ they lose a condition or gain a string on you. On a 7-9, also choose 1.
– You do not gain the condition “flustered”.
– You are not put in a spot.
Turn Someone On
When you turn someone on say how, spend a string, and roll+ Sweet. On a 10+ they gain the condition “lovestruck”. On a 7-9 they choose 2…
– They gain the condition “flustered”.
– They give you a string.
– They promise you something that they think you want.
The fighty moves are Kick Butt and Kaboom!
Kick Butt
When you attack a monster Roll+ Fierce. On a 10+ trade harm for harm. On a 7-9 the MC will also give you a hard bargain or ugly choice.
Kaboom!
When you attack a monster and spend a string Roll+ Fierce. On a 10+ deal harm and choose 1. On a 7-9 trade harm for harm and choose 1.
– They are disarmed.
– The harm is especially brutal, add +1 harm.
– Their weakness is revealed to you.
Small thing. On the blush & giggle move. Change the 7-9 options into
You get the condition flustered
You are put in a spot
It reads much cleaner.
I didn’t get that pair thing, it looks like mundane moves to me…
Jiima Arunsone
Well they are moves, yes. I’m not saying they aren’t, individually, moves. But each pair overlaps the same sort of conflict in the genre and the “pay a string” moves are more potent. Kaboom! & Turn Someone On are, in theory, less available until the snowballing has happened, and they represent an escalation of action.
Kick Butt is overall less effective to use, but its supercharged counterpart, kaboom!, is restricted to those times when you know exactly who and what you’re fighting for.
Tim Franzke That’s probably a good idea, yeah.
Ok, it makes a sense. But I’m wondering if they should be individual moves then. Maybe it should be some “upgrade option” to standard moves?
Also, I’m not a fan of “attack” moves. Of course, in AW there are moves which result in damage, but as someone said in other entry, they aren’t for dealing damage, but damage is a by-product.
I’m also working in my spare time (hint: “what is a spare time?”) on similar game, but I decided to follow AW example and there is only “seize” move, not any “attack”, “kick butt” or something similar. Recently, after reading entry about “aggro”, I’m reconsidering adding that too, although in my first approach there were only more restricted “intimidate” move. Now I’m seeing this as too restricted, but my first idea was, if protagonists should be these good guys (girls to be precise), they shouldn’t go aggro, and even intimidating is questionable.
I see what you mean. Though I am not sure that a Seize by Force equivalent is appropriate to the tone of mahou shoujo sentai shows. Seize works excellently because Apocalypse World is based on scarcity and what you do to overcome it. It’s the default stuff at stake that drives the action forward.
In that same sort of niche in mahou shoujo sentai shows, is blasting monsters with lasers. And the soap opera is sort of structured around that. There’s a tonal difference and a focus shift. At the very least, the power fantasy is more core to the genre.
I’m still figuring out how the moves all work in this. I might cut out violence moves entirely in favor of fictional positioning and a Defy Danger equivalent, if I’m pushing for a Cardcaptor Sakura style. Though if I’m pushing for Pretty Cure then the kung fu is going to drive the action more.
Thanks, Jiima Arunsone, you’ve unstuck some thoughts I’d been stuck on. I’m going to process this while I nap.
Yes, moves should be thematically appropriate. I’m still thinkin ’bout that “seize by force” name, my first approach to mechanic and moves was, well, somewhat copy-paste-ish. The difference is my setting is not generic monster of the day version of most maho shoujo shows, but rather space opera with galactic war (as proper space opera should be) with “magical-girl-ish” protagonists caught between a rock and a hard place. So “seize” is more appropriate here I think, I also adapted optional shootout rule from AW and it is quite useful there. Still thinking ’bout relationship rules, currently approach from Dungeon World seems the best for my players (they didn’t like Dx from AW as not intuitive at all, and strings they considered as overkill).
(On the other hand, now I’m thinking about throwing away whole thing and starting from scratch. I recently created FATE conversion of setting and during that work many ideas changed… so probably it’ll be another never-finshed idea)
In generic mahou shoujo I think the set of moves from Monster of the Week will be more thematically appropriate (and that book has many advices about monster hunting oriented games). But it is not exactly my thing, and especially not my players’ thing… (they conditionally approved magical girls only if game will be also about something else)…
I’m wondering another thing — how you see archetypes / playbooks in such a game?
Jiima Arunsone
It’s just like any other Apocalypse game. Not all the basic moves have a thematic pair (yet?). The character moves have a similar setup, but the -string moves are only taken as advances on top of their standard version.
The playbooks are also set up a bit differently, with the player mixing and matching a skin (shoujo archetype) and costume (magical archetype) to make their playbook.
June Shores It’s the second part I have a problem with. Magical girls are simply too diverse and usually there are no clear archetype (except Dumb Crybaby maybe :P), so I wondered how you classified them.
In my approach I started with simple D&D classes and cut them to genre, but it was not so good move. Especially when there is only one rogue-ish character and everyone want to sneak on enemy…
I disagree. As a genre, superhero magical girls is basically a cross between Shoujo and Tokusatsu Sentai. Both have plenty of archetypes to define characters by. The individual powers are mostly color for their role in the team.
Ok, maybe you’re right, sorry for offtopic.
Is cool. I enjoy the discussion.
Yes, but it diverged into something not exactly related to moves, and not so related to AW…
But I’m still wondering what archetypes exactly you defined…
For now there is:
Skins: The Child (innocent), The Punk (rebel), The Space Case (airhead), The Queen (super-popular dashing senpai), The Violet (timid wallflower).
Costumes: The Princess (inspires in others, a regal role), The Guardian (defends others, a violent role), The Rogue (dark magical girl), The Witch (realizes potential concepts), The Emissary (from another world).
The list is probably going to expand and revise as the game gets more fleshed out. But a couple moves each should make this playtestable.
The playbooks not only give the players an archetype to play, they also add angles to the genre and the setting. The Princess defines a magical kingdom and adds more anachronistic fantasy to the urban setting. The Queen brings in school clubs and more slice of life stuff. The Emissary brings in other worlds and possibly big organizations. The Witch brings in more everyday magic.
Interesting, and completely different than my approach. I think I have to reconsider some things, because D&D-ish approach “race + role in team” is too restricting. I considered also “motivation”, but decided that three movable parts in playbook is too much…