Okay, I have ideas for new Archetypes for each Faction, going to be bringing them in my game when I have it ready, but some feedback on the alpha versions will greatly be appreciated and will help me not make game breaking or game losing archetypes. The first up is THE MONGER, a Power based Factionite who levies great resources into superior power while being controlled by their job in ways no other person is.
Here are the Stats and Moves as I currently have them –
Blood -1, Heart +1, Mind +1, Spirit 0
Mortality 0, Night -1, Power +1, Wild +1
(Like the Veteran’s Workshop you get:)
The Monger’s Carnivale
You are known for being able to get one item better and more safely than anyone else in the City and can be called upon to get a few other items. What main item you can get can never be disrupted by the MC and you may only lose the others on a miss on your moves. Choose one item that you barter with as an expertise and two more that you can scrounge up on the reg:
Dreams, ephemera, drugs, tomes, blackmail, high-tech, weapons, ammunition, food, contracts, collectibles, music, sex, vacations, medicine, or animals.
Your main source is what you are a known Monger of. Ex: A Monger specializing in Dreams is a “Dreammonger” while one specializing in Blackmail is a “Secretmonger.”
Archetype Moves (Devil’s Due plus 2 More)
Devil’s Due
You are the only source of illicit goods or what you sell in the city. This brings a certain level of respect to you. You may offer up one of your goods to instantly gain a 12+ to Escape a Situation. If you are threatened you may spend a Debt you are owed to make the person who owes it to you show up in the scene and defend you.
Owned By the Hoard
Your job is more than a way of life, it is alive itself. You may automatically Refuse a Debt by giving your business 2 Debts on you. The MC may spend these debts normally or to require you to obtain something for your job. Your hoard is now sapient.
Does This Catch Your Eye?
You may offer someone an item in your possession or that you sell as if you were Cashing In a Debt to boost a Persuade an NPC roll. You must then give up this item or they gain a Debt on you.
Materialistic Triage
You may spend an entire day organizing, stocking, and otherwise renovating the store you work for or gathering an item for a Faction in order to heal 2 Harm done to you once a session per Faction. You may be given a Debt by another PC for them to gain the benefits of this Move as well.
Capitalist Animist
When someone offers to give you access to one of your chosen Carnivale items, you may roll Mind to Figure Someone Out and gain an additional 2 Questions, even on a miss, to read what they are trying to sell. The Questions for the item are as follows:
~ Is this Item their most prized example of Item?
~ Why are they willing to part with this Item right now?
~ Will accepting this Item put me or my store in danger?
~ Who can I best barter this to?
~ Are they selling this Item of their free will?
Green Eyes and Golden Teeth
Gain an additional Item from the Carnivale list to barter in and upgrade one of your side Items to an additional main Item.
Corruption Moves
Sign In Blood, Please
You gain an extraordinary barter mechanic from the following list:
Beauty, slaves, youth, power, or desire.
Whenever you barter in the chosen Item you may force the person buying to give you 1 Debt if a PC or 2 Debts if an NPC in addition to whatever price you levy. Then Mark Corruption.
Friends in Low Places
Whenever you are leading a group they lose one trouble and act as if they are one size larger than they really are. After you accomplish your goal with them or they disperse you mark Corruption.
Swallowed by Success
Whenever you cash in a Debt from someone who has purchased your services you additionally get the following:
They offer you a useful item or piece of information. If you take it or use it, Mark Corruption.
Goblin Marketeer
You may Mark Corruption and take 1-Harm (ap) to immediately ask questions about a person as if you had rolled 12+ on an Advanced Figure Someone Out roll.
This is a very interesting looking character! I at first was struggling a little bit to piece it together, but once it hit me, it seemed quite exciting.
At the moment, I’m a bit tied up to try to work out specific minutiae of things that look weird or amazing, but when I come back later I’ll comment again with more than an initial feeling of ‘This is cool.’
Oooooh! Neat!
I can see the shape of the thing but I can’t put good words to it. There’s an internal conflict in the design though. I’ll try I suss that out.
Meanwhile, what role do you see the Monger playing in a game? What conflicts and drama are they designed for?
(I am in love with the carnivale and sign in blood design space~)
The Monger is supposed to be a devious Pimp of Power (if I may alliterate). They are the ones who SAFELY get what “Items” they can and sell them. They can make what they sell sapient, giving their job a sort of hint of the Tainted without the devious manner of a patron trying to taint other people.
The main plays I want the Archetype to deal with is greed versus morality. What lengths will you go to acquire new items, power, and will you betray your colleagues for a bauble? Just because you are the safest source of your product in your City does not mean you are going to be safe yourself. People are going to want what you have, want your land, want your shop. You will need to have allies willing to fight for you as well, whether you bribe them or have them help you out from the goodness of your heart.
The more Corrupt you get, the more deviant desires you can sell. You can sell people the years they have lost, the beauty society says they should have, even unbridled power! But, even though you sell it, can you use it yourself? Will you give into the darkness to get one more gift to sell to save your own skin?
That said, the Corruption/Intimacy/End Moves:
Corruption Move
Whenever you use physical threats or greatly hurt or kill someone to gain something to add to your hoard, Mark Corruption.
Intimacy Move
After a moment of intimacy you may donate an item or take an item from your partner. If you give an item you remove Corruption, if you take an item mark Corruption.
End Move
You donate all your Debts to the other PCs as you see fit. If you are owed no Debts raise every PCs rank in your Faction by 1.
Whew, wordy.
I think what’s getting me is adding in Barter on top of debt.
Perhaps more abstract? A start-of-session move that gives you hold, and that hold can be spent for it’s own things through the archetype moves, and also spent in lieu of debt? The hold represents having a ready stock of barter goods, but using the existing Hold mehanic makes it easier to integrate into the game without adding another resource to manage.
I’m also thinking of some weird faerie exchange power, where you can “resupply” by trading material goods for supernatural goods, and vice versa. But only one for the other; you can offer someone ten thousand dollars for their happiness, and offer someone happiness in exchange for their house, but you couldn’t offer someone ten thousand dollars for their house (…not that any market I’ve seen would see that price and not laugh <_ <) but that's play-around thoughts for a WoD port in toying with. XD
Oooh, I like those. I will get to editing tomorrow. I have some of the Maenad ready but need to polish off The Monger first.
Rehashed a Move:
Capitalist Animist
Whenever you barter with someone for one of your Carnivale items, gain a Hold 1. You may spend this Hold to restock your store with either an immaterial or material source that you distribute through your Carnivale, subject to MC’s discretion.
Hmm.
I think the trouble with the Monger is that the game itself wants to dig into what stuff represents, but we want to focus on concrete stuff, instead.
Does that make sense?
Ugh but trying to write up a similar thing isn’t working. @.@
I’ll come back to this, the idea is so cool but I need a bit more hands on experience before I start poking and prodding.
Thank you!
I understand the rationale to try and make it all concrete, I am basing this a bit off the Wyrm from Monsterhearts who can collect lots of things. The items like secrets, dreams, ephemera can be handled in lots of ways. Taking someone’s eye color (ephemera) becomes a blue eye shadow that can be sold to someone else, a dream can be a stolen recurring nightmare that becomes a script for a TV show, a secret can be an e-mail correspondence or photos of an illicit affair. I think it just takes some imagination.
I believe I have someone wanting to run an ephemera marketeer Monger in my upcoming game, so I’m going to test the more esoteric parts of it that way. If it doesn’t work out I can try to just scrap the more hard to describe bits and stick with tangible forces.
I mean rules wise. Having actual objects seems clunky; hold works better. But putting that into a well written game stuff is killing me. I think I’m just not giving what you’ve got here a fair shake. So I’m definitely gonna push this at a player I know who loves this type of character. Try it out in stress test games :3
You might try looking at the Apocalypse World Maestro D’ playbook. It kind of does some of the stuff you want.