Some thoughts on political “power level”
One of my complains for Urban Shadows was (/still is a bit) the low power level of characters on the political side. In Apocalypse World you can be the Hardholder or the Hocus and have a bunch of people that directly reply to you. Outside of the Wolf Pack and the Spectre’s Body of Ghosts there is no Archetype that can get these before 5+ Advances and no Archetype can start with them.
I was getting ready for creating a Vampire and had this Vampire biker gang in mind. Turns out, my character can’t be their leader. The game doesn’t allow that. However; this might be a good thing.
Advancement is both prescriptive and descriptive right? So if my character kills the leader of a local vampire clan he can become their leader. Or maybe she messes with the offical vote and comes into power like that.
A starting Vampire however might not have enough power to see this through. So they would need to collect debts of other characters to help them.
If you want to play with the big boys, either wait it out and get the advance or work for it in the fiction. I like that. It forces a player to use their debts and claw for power.
Was that the design intention behind moving these advances to the later part of the game?
Yeah, it’s all debts. You can get a bunch of people to do what you want, but you owe them (or they go into your web)
If you are the leader of a vampire gang what’s the problem?
The other vampires are normal npc. O_o
But as a starting US Vamp you don’t really get to be the leader of a vampire
gangclan.The specific advance mentiones Clan. It might be that you could get a gang but not really. They are not “yours” in the same way a Hardholder’s or Chopper’s Gang are theirs.
Yes, obviously.
Months ago, the player of the Gunlugger
“Can I be the leader of a gang of sons of a bitch?”
MC “Sure. Why they follow you?”
Player “Because i’m the strongest son of a bitch in the area”
MC “Cool, ok!”
The the MC write “The Sons of a Bitch” in the sheet of the first session, and they became a threat “Brutes – Family”.
Mh.
You can definitely do that but I wouldn’t have as a MC.
We chose the Archetypes we thought best fit the group dynamic and gave them access to their “Gang Advances”. If they don’t have one, it was either because it didn’t fit in our minds or we wanted something else in its place.
If you really wanted to put players at a higher level, you could also definitely give everyone their respective Gang or Haven advance.
Love Letters are a great way to handle new gangs/groups.
This sounds like a great thing to include in the starting setting for that player. OK, you’ve described a vampire biker gang that you want to take over… how are you trying to do that? What kind of bikes do they ride? Who’s the leader now and who’s his enforcer? (There’s always an enforcer.)
Then that biker gang is going to be part of the story, and the player can make his/her move as part of the game, maybe by accumulating Debts and subtly undermining the current boss.