I’ve posted these before individually, but I’m looking for more feedback on some moves. They’re all for a teenage witch themed hack, inspired by The Secret Circle. All the characters are witches and the Skins focus more on high school archetypes; the loner, the rebel, the popular kid, etc.
Everyone has access to this move:
Weave Magic
When you weave magic into a mundane action, you perform extremely well or achieve more than you would normally. (If you would roll for a move, roll 1d6+1d8 instead of rolling 2d6.) Then choose one:
– it took more out of you than expected, gain the Condition drained;
– your actions attract immediate and unwanted attention;
– the Powers take a String on you.
These move are for The Loner Skin:
Disinterested
Whenever you stand by and just watch rather than get involved in something that should, or does concern you, everyone who is involved loses a String on you.
Dispassionate
Whenever you act with obvious emotion, whomever caused the reaction, and any observers, take a String on you.
This move is for The Outsider Skin:
Perfect Words
When you lock eyes with someone to know what they’re feeling, roll with Dark. On a 10 up, hold 3 and on a 7-9, you both hold 1. During the scene, you can spend your hold one-for one to ask the following questions, player to player:
– What is your character thinking right now?
– What can I say to make your character feel better?
– What can I say to hurt your character?
Players must answer honestly, and take +1 forward while acting on the answers.
This move is for The Reckless Skin (not satisfied with that name):
Sexy Dangerous
When you impress someone with an act of destruction, violence, or bravado, chose one of the options below, then roll to turn them on with Volatile.
– you accidentally injure someone nearby;
– you cause more collateral damage than intended;
– you suffer 1 harm;
– you gain the condition reckless.
These moves are for The Passionate Skin (again, probably change the name of this one):
Up For the Challenge
When you turn someone on who everyone knows is in a relationship, on a 10 up, take a String on their partner as well. On a 7-9, add this option to the list: they give you a String on their partner.
Honeyed Words
When you converse with someone in an attempt to dig up dirt on them, roll with Hot. On a 7+, they tell you something about themselves they wish they hadn’t. On a 10 up, give them the Condition secretly under [your name]’s thumb.
Again, feedback would be appreciated. Thanks. 🙂
I’m not sold compltely on Weave Magic. I will have to wrap my head around what adding a 1d8 will do. I do think the list of consequences you put forth is interesting and well thought out though I have one question. What can the Powers do with the strings they have on you? are they like normal strings the MC can use anytime to mess with you like a player?
The Loner Skin moves seem to insentivize sitting at the table and doing nothing and disinsetivize actually getting involved with your character and playing in the game (which is no fun for a player, or the MC, or anyone else at the table). I’m not certian that is going to be an interesting addition to the game or provide entertaining drawbacks to a player. Is Dispassionate meant as the “Starts with this move” because otherwise it adds no benefit to having it.
I don’t see how Perfect Words fits the theme for an Outsider who I think would not understand people or be hiding themselves. It triggers fairly easily (though I suppose someone could refuse to meet your gaze). On a 10 plus you can ask all three questions, one of which is towards a positive solution without paying any cost, which violates “Happiness comes at someone’s expense” and does not truly fit with the being a terrible person that teenage monsters usually are.
I would suggest you change it to 10+ you choose one, on 7-9 you both choose one and change the question “What can I say that will make you feel better” to “What can I say that would make you want me?” and/or “What do you want from me?” to make the move fit more in Monsterhearts but I still would not see how that would fit an Outsider, but that might just be me.
For the The Passionate Name change have you considered “Heartbreaker”?
I think Up For the Challenge should be it’s own move not a specialization trigger on turn someone one. Possibly:
“When you sexually proposition someone you know is in a relationship, they choose they accept your offer and you take a string on their partner, they refuse and you take a string on them.”
Honeyed Words the 7-9 result does not seem to be a mixed success or a hard choice, I quick possible fix would be forcing both people reveal things.
For the Reckless if I had a gun to my head I would go with “Bad boy” but that might not be what your looking for.
As for the move I like what you are going for but something about it is not sitting right with me. I think it has potential and promise but I need to mull it over more
Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
At this point, I’m making Skins inspired by the twelve characters from The Secret Circle as I feel they’re all fairly distinct and unique. Some of the Skin names really don’t work, but I’ve chosen them to remind myself who they’re based on. They’ll need to be renamed as they get finalized. “The Outsider” for example is a terrible name, because that’s not what the Skin is about, but it refers to a character’s status in the books. That’s doesn’t really help people looking at these moves, though.
I went back and forth quite a bit about how to do the Weave Magic move. Adding a numerical bonus reduced the chances of miss and mixed results too much for my tastes and made success practically guaranteed. Having something negative happen if the d8 was higher or lower than the d6 had a similar effect; you either glitched far too often or not often enough for the move to be interesting. Making the move a flat “you’re better but at a cost” seemed to be the best way to handle it.
I imagine that The Powers can spend Strings on characters to do all the normal things. I might make a separate list of things The Powers can do with Strings, but that will come later.
The Loner is a strong archetype, and I feel like the moves I’ve come up with are pretty solid, but you’re right. It might not be fun to play if it encourages too much inactivity. If I can’t find a way to balance the nature of the Skin with the player wanted to get involved, I may have to scrap it. You’re right that Dispassionate is a “starts with” move.
The Outsider Skin should be renamed to The Seer or something. It’s based on someone who is an outsider at first, but also has strong visions and intuition. Bad name.
I see your point about the questions not making happiness come at someone else’s expense. Changing it to one question on a 10+ and both parties asking on a 7-9 is better, and I do need to change the questions. Maybe something like “What can I sacrifice to make you happy?” and “What can I take from you to hurt you?”
Heartbreaker is a great name. Thanks. I’ll also consider making Up for the Challenge have it’s own trigger. Having both parties reveal a secret on a 7-9 for Honeyed Words is probably the way to go. Those 7-9 results do need to be mixed successes.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment. While these Skins can be used in a “normal” game, I’m recommending all the players go with one or the other; either the normal Skins or these teenage witches. That way I don’t have to worry about moves in these Skins being better or too similar to the moves in the “normal” Skins.