Thoughts on the Kirby-craft

Thoughts on the Kirby-craft

Thoughts on the Kirby-craft

The Kirby-craft is an oft talked about move for my group, largely because it’s such a popular choice for character advancement.  My Legacy who is based off of the Nova Core is getting one and my Beacon may be stealing one as time goes on.

However, there is an important aspect of the Kirby-craft, an narrative aspect, that is missing.  How many people can it hold?  While leaving it up to the player and/or the GM might be just fine, I believe that this needs to be something that should be represented as a Strength or a Weakness.  If the Kirby-craft can hold the entire team, a whole new avenue of mobility is opened up, changing the narrative potentials.  If it can only hold the team, suddenly we could have a story where one or more of the team is stranded as their allies use the Kirby-craft to ferry away important NPCs.  If the Kirby-craft is only large enough for one person, none of this happens.  If it’s of Whovian proportions, there’s no reason it couldn’t act as the PCs base of operations.

That’s a lot of scaling left up to the GM’s discretion, when such things as weaponry and fueling isn’t.  I’d love to see this codified in the updated version of the playbook.

10 thoughts on “Thoughts on the Kirby-craft”

  1. While I can see Strengths and Weaknesses like big (fits 6 or more people) and small (for 2 its really cosy) I dont see the need for it.

    But then I wouldnt come up with its-bigger-in-the-inside stuff. It is defined as a vehicle. It comes in sizes typical vor vehicles.

    But then … if play group and MC feel fine having flying castles, why not. 

  2. Thank you, Jim Crocker and Bastian Dornauf  for the insightful comments.  However, I disagree.  The Kirby-craft has some narrative limitations build into its mechanics:  Difficult to repair and Bizarre Fuel Source come to mind.  These are clearly designed to allow the narrator to turn the Kirby-craft into a mission-generating plot element or more simply to take it out of a mission that would be made less fun with easy available spaceships.  In much the same way, I can see it being Big or Small being used as a plot element.  Also, classifications like that could help serve the player’s needs.  If someone wants their ship to be their own personal flying pod, there should be a  weakness for that.  If the ship can bus around a whole squad, that’s a strength.  I’d argue carrying capacity is more narratively important than Chameleon plating or Detectable.

  3. Jim Crocker   I agree that complications for fuel keep the ship from being a Deus Ex Machina, but an indication of size could do much the same.  A ship of sufficient size could be used to cart away the villain, hold the school bus full of rescued kids, or the population of a small, sinking island.  It could also delineate the narrative function of the ship for both the player and the GM.  A small, personal ship is a tactical tool for encounters while a team sized ship offers the sense of freedom and exploration that you mentioned in your earlier post.  

    I don’t care about the mechanical carry weight, as I agree it’s completely out of genre.  I would like a narrative guide that helps define what the ship means for the character and the party.  If narrative guides weren’t important, the Kirby-craft move would simply say, “You get a spaceship” and let the player and GM hash out the details.  As is, it gives narrative parameters to make it more interesting and personal.  I don’t think asking for a general size is taking us too far into the realms of nitpickery.

  5. The Kirby-craft is a move listed in the Outsider playbook.  I’ll post the text in full below:

    Kirby-craft: You have a vehicle, something from your home. Detail its look, and choose two strengths and two weaknesses. When you are flying your ship, you can use it to unleash your powers, directly engage a threat, or defend using Superior.

    Strengths:

    Fast & maneuverable, chameleon plating, powerful weaponry, regenerating, dimension-shifting, size-shifting, telepathic

    Weaknesses:

    Bizarre fuel source, susceptible to _____, easily detectable, slow and clumsy, unarmed, difficult to repair

  7. No worries.  As far as I know, we Kickstarter folk only have the three sheets at this point:  Playbooks, GM Starter, and Basic Moves.  If there is anything else out there, I don’t know about it.  (And desperately would love to see.  I’m consuming Masks content at a terrifying rate…)

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