Hello Hivemind ) I need help.
Have anyone by chance seen any kind of “Epic World”?
I’ll explain. In 2009-2012 I’ve ran a D&D4E campaign. In the end there was a lot of mechical experiments (including using different other systems). Anyway we ended with rather epic characters. I mean really epic – Saint Head of the Church of Bahamut, Nearly Awakened Primordial and The Time Itself to name a few.
Yesterday we suddenly thought that sequel is a very good idea. Of FATE and PbtA I’ve chosen the latter. So now I’m looking for cool mechanical ideas. I’ve already have some myself, but would be really thankful for any help and advice.
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Strangely enough, I feel like ‘straight’ Apocalypse hack may not be the best idea. In my view AW is a) rather intensive on those dice rolls when GM decided to actually roll it.
b) not all that scalable
Undying, for example, while is supposed to be AW hack, to me feels much more ready for epic, with question being not whether or not you have enough oomph to solve particular single task, but rather will you choose to spend your limited oomph on this particular task
Ганс Андроид thanks. This is the idea very worth considering.
In my experience with my own game, one of the best ways to allow things to scale largely is to structure your basic moves as generally as possible. If your ‘attack someone’ move makes just as much sense when it’s gods warring in the heavens as when it’s a tavern brawl, you’re golden. (And if you manage to sneak in even more types of attacks, like throwing insults or declaring war, all the better). This can be hard to do though.
Colter Hanna good idea, thank you.
Pavel Berlin a relatively simple approach (I was pondering about extending DW campaigns) is power tags. For example, you could use a growing scale of power such as: mundane, heroic, epic, mythic, divine, cosmic.
The scale is translated in mechanical terms this way: when a character faces a situation that activates a move, but the scale of the problem has a tag of a lower level than the character’s, then the moves are not activated, since there’s no danger, and the result is just narrated (GM or player. that’s a choice)
If the threat has the same tag of the character, then the moves are rolled normally. If the threat tag is one level higher the move can be rolled, but either it has a negative modifier to the roll, or the character needs a situational (fictional, a gimmick) reason why the action can be attempted. If the tag is 2 steps higher than the character’s, the action is simply out of the character’s reach.
This, coupled with the more generic move design approach Colter Hanna suggested could make the *W framework more scalable (i.e. the scale of the moves’ results change, but the moves work reliably).
Paride Papadia another good idea, thank you.
Use the heritage moves from Dark Heart of the Dreamer – your characters’ “heritages” are “Saint Head of the Church of Bahamut,” “Primordial,” and “Time Itself.” Let them use the heritage mechanics to pull off ridiculously cool things. Otherwise, just run your game as “normal” for an epic game, and don’t skimp on letting your characters affect the world around them. If they’re such big deals, let them be able to persuade kings and emperors, let them perform incredible rituals with fewer requirements… you can help set the scale by making these characters look like badasses in everything you prep and bring to the table.
Alfred Rudzki oh! Thanks for reminding about this book. Good idea.
May also be worthwhile to check out the Nobilis hack. The characters in that game start with reality bending powers within their estates so you might be able to easily use some of the ideas they use.
Patrick Scaffido thank you. Had no idea about this hack.
Pavel Berlin
Need the link? I found it through one of the pbta apocalypse listing pages.
Patrick Scaffido if there is a pdf I’d be grateful. As for the forum version (on Barf Forth Apocalyptica – this one I’ve found already.
Pavel Berlin This is a forum link that contains links from the creator for all the various existing documents. It’s still a work in progress but I like it.
http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1845.0
Patrick Scaffido thank you very much, I will check it out.