Alongside my 66 billion unfinished projects I also add: HUMONGOUS.
A setting for Apocalypse World 2. About hunting giant monsters.
The finished product will use the same fonts as AW2, a tiny smattering of art, like I’m talking front cover and maybe three more, by me, who ain’t no artist, and obviously, a lot more content than I’m showing off here.
For now, have a google doc, for free. Oh, speaking of free, I’m thinking of trying to sell something for the first time in my life (maybe), with a price range of £0.25 to $2, if I’m feeling dangerous.
Oh, and obviously, would you spend a cold, hard dollar on this setting if I complete it? I don’t particularly plan on a new career in game design, I kinda just want to tick “selling a thing I did make” off my list of life goals. That aspect of this is very much up in the air, I might do it with something else.
YES.
I would spend several cold, hard dollars for this.
Oh man, I love take your quarter so much. What a great move.
I would definitely pay for this.
Vincent Baker Thanks man! I appreciate this unique opportunity to allow people to use retrofit mining equipment to drill through the still living skull of a 4 story monster and then drink it’s spinal fluid to converse with the universe.
Noah Tucker Thank you, I’m glad you like it. Making setting moves is a slow go, as I want them to be worth the trouble of remembering them.
Take your quarter is essentially designed to cause rivalry among the hunters. They need each other to take down the beasts, then they instantly fall back into being survivors, out to get what they want, right now. Its also quite balanced, or I hope it is, because sharp characters get the most fat on average, but the aftermath, the fight for the extra thing, will go to a manipulative hot character, or a hard character that forces the other’s hands, and finally, two characters weak in getting what they want might just club together out of mutual desire for the thing. Its an okay move.
Hey, just a little list of possibilities:
Quarantine gets access to a mobile frame that they need a partner to run properly.
Hardholder gets a factory that produces messed up fat based products, manned by orphans or glitchy robots or whatever.
Maestro’D can turn fat into food, at the risk of her customers going Innsmouth.
Sprawling flesh-fungus landscape.
Trees that used to be humans.
War trains.
An electrified sledgehammer.
Okay, I’ll leave you guys alone for now:
THE HARDHOLDER
Mass production: You’ve got a fat-based factory up and running.
Choose a resource you’re producing: fuel, electricity, comfort, heat, specialised goods, luxury goods.
Now say who’s manning the ground floor: just a few savvy guys, hungry orphans, glitched-out machinery, docile man-things, you don’t ask.
When you roll for wealth, you can add up to +3fat to the roll. Should you do so, the factory gets +1Hx on you. Once the factory has +4Hx with you, it utilises all the fat you currently hold, resets to =0Hx and produces something really special, just for you.
Fantastic. Jenni Sands is playing their first game of AW at the moment. I think they’d love this.
Steve Hickey Thank you, feel free to steal the additional moves if you think they’d be fun for you players.
Okay, so I’m not going yet. I get so little time to design I get really into when I do. So!
Hey Steve, what move do you like so far?
Uh, sorry, a tiny update, it was just so obvious that the final Skinner move is a King Kong reference.
Killing with beauty: When you willingly give yourself over to a don, roll+hot.
On a hit, it spares your life, for now, and carries you off as a prized possession. On a 10+, you alone can reason with it, and you treat it as a person for the benefit of your moves. On a miss, you’re in a bad, bad place.
Off a first skim read, I’m a fan of the Angel’s cyptobiologist and the Driver’s scream into the sun. Both of those give me good insights into the niches and attitudes of the playbooks in this world.
The Hocus ‘rub fat, conduct augury, and take on an aspect of a don’ move seems really creepy to me. As someone who played a Hocus for about 12 sessions because it made me uncomfortable, I’m not sure if the amount I’m creeped out by that is too over the line for me. Guess I’d have to find out in play.
There was a mech-warrior playbook roaming around the Barf Forth forums at one point. This setting seems perfect for it 🙂
Generally, I like how it inspires me to think about Apocalypse World in a different way. I guess it gives a campaign a pretty specific initial hook.
This looks fun.
Tony Ferron or anyone else: Have you seen other hacks, custom movesets or PbtA games that deal with extreme size- and power differences on the battlefield?
This looks awesome! Count me in with the whole “paying cold, hard dollars” thing
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Steve Hickey Thank you for the reply. If I can be a fan of my own thing, I too like Scream into the sun. Something about being wasteful in the apocalypse is appealing to me. It’ll make more sense when I give mudane, barter uses for fat. So you can say, “Honda, why did you just waste all that fat?!?”
Yeah, a good Hocus in this setting is going to be a mutated wreck in no time. Fun!
I’m glad you like it, seriously.
The Show is tough to make new moves for, I don’t want to spoil it, you know? I also don’t want to just build on the moves it does have. This’ll be one of them, expect the others to be very different.
Blackstar: When you would die, you drag the psychic maelstrom down to your undead corpse, wear it like a profane halo and crack open the world one last time. Choose:
• You make the noise that this wasted galaxy will make when it’s devoured by a supermassive blackhole. Tell the MC that all the NPCs that hear it will die. Ask them how.
• You make the noise that can never be made, far beyond the reaches of possibility. Give someone something they cannot have: freedom; beauty; youth; influence; wealth; security; strength. They’ve got it by the truckful.
• You make the noise that the first flower made as it opened itself to the first pollinating bee. Tell the MC that the location of your death will become a place of abundance, of life, of happiness, better than it was, better than the Golden Age, maybe. It’s true.
• You make the noise of the psychic maelstrom, outside time and meaning, pure and unrestrained. For a half-second you’re the master of all the fucked up things in the world; give them direction, a task, a motive. That’s what they’re for now, fundamentally.
Afterwards, you vanish in a hail of fire and flood, famed for eternity…
Tor Droplets Nah I haven’t to be honest. I think for now at least the vehicle moves account for climbing on them.
I do have some moves in mind for fighting dons, I’ll add them soon.
Sebastian Baker r, have you seen this?!? It looks like it might run RWBY pretty nicely.
Yes, yes, yes, I wholeheartedly support this. It’s interesting that you’re adding to existing playbooks instead of writing new ones, that’s a way of modding AW I hadn’t considered before. Hey josh savoie, you might want to look at this too.
For the Hocus’s Skunk Run, what are “hunters”?
I just saw a move Sebastian Baker posted a while ago, which seems perfect for fighting a don, unarmed or unprepared: https://plus.google.com/114740607118618835613/posts/VaH6CtexVfV
Steve Hickey Wow, I even said “hugemongeous monsters.” I had no knowledge of this project at the time, what are the odds?
Tony Ferron I officially give you permission to use that move in Humongous, if you want to.
I wondered whether the final option for ‘When you measure up a don’ could be: Where are some places its sweet spot could be?”
That way you don’t get a definitive answer but you get some places to check out … which leads to crawling around a don, finding dead ends etc.
Oh, and I was just thinking about Shadow of the Colossus. Maybe there should be a basic move (and this isn’t right, it’s just a suggestion):
When you move around a don, roll+[something].
On a 10, you get there
On a 7-9 you get there but choose one:
you’ve drawn its attention
you’re exposed to one of its biohazards
you stumble into a nest of dangerous parasites, symbiotes or epiphytes.
You could make customise the 7-9 and miss results for each don. That way you could reflect the don’s nature and any specific threats that are living on it.
Sebastian Baker its from the subtefuge move on cat and mouse, so hunters are whatever. Once you’ve seen the 2nd edition moves a bit more hopefully that won’t need clarification.
Steve Hickey aye, everything needs a second pass of editing, that’s an idea.
You got me, dons are going to have two or so custom moves each. That’s why part of the book will have a whole section on dons, that’s how my monster manual works, monsters aren’t much stat-block wise, they’re made of moves…
I’ll be back to work tomorrow, but I’ll tick away at this project over time. I’ve promised myself I’ll finish something, and Humongous calls to me too much not to.
Today, have a move for the Show. It’s a little bit Dungeon World Barbarian, a little bit Monsterhearts Ghoul. It just ended up that way.
Dark necessities: You’ve got a beast in your belly that you just gotta feed.
Choose a want: strange and new sex, destruction of establishment, desecration of tradition, escalation of violence, delicious pure-strain blood, looking death in the eye.
When you give in to your want, mark experience. When you deny your want, mark rampage. When you reach 3 rampage, you’d murder your dear old mother to fulfil your want, and you’ll do it completely, utterly, no matter who it hurts, twice as hard as you’ve ever done it before. Whilst rampaging, you ignore the effects of harm, but you still take it. Afterwards, reset your rampage to 0 and face the music.
Rampage ◯ ◯ ◯
And the last Show move is done.
In waves: When you idle away 1fat with a circle of friends, roll+weird. On a hit, you all get +1Hx with each other. You’ve seen the things they hide deep inside. On a 10+, you all go together to a sky high place, and nobody can touch you until someone breaks off. On a 7-9, you all open your brains, together, as one. When the MC questions you, you all must agree on the answer.
It wasn’t a conscious decision, but Humongous is about self destruction, and becoming worse than the monsters you face.
Humongous is a meteor burning through an atmosphere; thoughtless, dangerous and white-hot bright.
Humongous is about how too much fat in your diet is bad for you.
I would definitely pay for this.(2)
I’m happy you’d consider it Elder Freitas Cunha!
Which of the new moves do you like?
Just found this today. It looks totally awesome! 😀
Well back to work for me. You guys might not hear from me for a couple of weeks, thank you for your time so far.
Hey Rob Deobald, I’m glad you dig it so far! Next time round I’ll reveal some of the equipment of the setting and that should bring the whole together nicely.
What are you most interested in so far?
No time to create, but if I haven’t said already the implied landscape of Humongous is
– shattered mountains
– snow and lava side by side
– salt seas
– town sized bottomless holes
– visible tectonic plates
– constant aurora in the sky
– fields of living flesh
Are you open to suggestions for moves, because I love this, and have a couple ideas for The News, and The Child-Thing, if you are interested.
Currently I’m stuck in the water off the coast, so I can’t update yet, but believe me, it boils in my brain incessantly.
josh savoie I want this to be my own thing, so I doubt I’ll use it, but at the same time how can I say no, it is just a hack, so you can hack my hack until we’ve got blood and guts and- well that escalated. Yeah, whatcha got?
Ah! Signal! I’ve been play testing (or just playing really) with a few guys on board. You have these things to look forward to:
– a play report
– a general editorial pass at everything
– equipment
– The News “…and now the weather” move, which is about as grand and potent as the Show’s crack the world.
THE NEWS
You’re here with me: If someone is listening to you, you’re together, in a personal, private space. When you make a physical action against them, first roll+weird. On a 10+, you do it. On a 7-9, you do it, but take 1-harm loud before recoiling into the static. On a miss, you’re just white noise.
So basically, they’re listening to you speak, and its like you’re right there. Maybe someone is sat next to them, it doesn’t matter, for them, you’re there, a breath away. And when you kiss them, they feel it, and when you stab them in the heart, they die. Or, their radio blows and you’re just in your studio, nose bleeding, hands shaking.
I’ll break this next move up so its easy to read. Its roots are in the Show’s music, but I tried alternatives and this is what works, so who cares?:
The weather where you are: When word spreads of a don on the rampage, near or far, you set the scene. Choose an option, then roll+sharp.
On a 10+, everyone listening takes +1 forward to deal with it. On a 7-9, you’re right, but the info is hours old; wait around and it’ll be useless on the ground. On a 6-, you’re dead wrong, and someone else will pay the price.
It’s like an earthquake fucked a volcano out there! Tell the MC this place becomes a furnace (impulse: to consume things), a prison (impulse: to contain, to deny egress), or a tempest (impulse: to force back, to drag away), or blizzard (impulse: to hide things), your choice. Now ask the MC, “What is my best way in / around / out of the carnage”.
(So for the record, these should be treated as very open, it can be a “blizzard” of ash or a “prison” or fallen buildings. I’m sure you can deal.)
There is panic in the streets, but Widget is okay! Tell the MC who is definitely alive, unscathed in the vicinity of the attack. If they can, they’ll call to you, ask them, “What can you see?”.
This one is for all the ‘jacks still alive out there: buckle the fuck up! Tell the MC some other donjacks tried their luck already, they’re dead, but they managed to wound (flaw: injury), hound (flaw: exhaustion), or piss off (flaw: reckless) the don before they got crushed. Now ask the MC, “What makes this don scarier than the others?”.
(I like this one, just because it does so much. Other hunters of monsters died on this hunt, they did something helpful, but also, this one is a mean fucker!)
Giant monster still at large and that damned sun won’t quit, either! Tell the MC that the NPCs listening are hiding (impulse: to survive, to fortify), looting (impulse: to covet, to escape), or rallying (impulse: to gather, to fight back). Now ask the MC, “Who has taken charge?”.
It’s raining somewhere else. Tell the MC of a safe, secure place, and anyone listening will want to go there. Now ask the MC, “What’s the cost of getting everyone to safety?”.
(I know the previous option can force NPCs into looting, which suggests escape-with-stolen-gear, but this option lets you invent a good safe zone, and directs them there, without offering you a position of power over them. Its just a free for all.)
In traffic; no roads, no lights, only shattered earth, only fire, only death and glory! Everyone listening takes +1-harm ongoing against the don. Now ask the MC, “Who is exploiting the devastation?”.
(This one is neat too, I hope, before it lets you more easily slay a don, at the cost of a human enemy.)
Oh, and the fact you choose the option before you roll is a personal little moment of, well, not genius, but 2-sharp, at least.
So hey people, whats up?
Second to last update, then I’ll leave it until I’m 50% done. I’m about… 10% done so far.
This is a pretty silly move, but my players, one in particular, wanted a move that said, “I’m an ice queen mega-bitch that can’t keep her word for shit.”
THE HARDHOLDER
This is what you get: When you strike a deal and they come back for your end, roll+hard.
On a hit, they take -1 forward to bring down harm on you, by whatever means.
On a 10+, you give them half, or something else entirely, and they’ve got to take it or get out.
On a 7-9, you give them less than planned, but the debt still stands. Against PCs, they name the date. Against NPCs, you name the date.
It looks pretty powerful, but only initially, after a few goes around the rodeo people are going to hate the thought of striking a deal with this HH, meaning they’ll have to work even harder to trick people into working with them. This move will turn pretty much anyone into a snake.
Vincent Baker In particular my good man, what do you think of the third and final Chopper move for HUMONGOUS?
Bonfire: When you burn up the corpse of a don out of spite or battle rage and party around the flames, roll+weird.
On a hit, rainbow-black smoke blots out the sky and any remaining fat on the body is gone. Good job.
On a 10+, choose one, and ignore the vulnerability.
On a 7-9, choose one, and be prepared for the worst.
– Your gang becomes a pack of laughing hyenas. +1harm, savage. Vulnerable: disease.
– Your gang becomes cold as blade metal. +1armour, mobile. Vulnerable: desertion.
– Your gang becomes a swarm of plague locusts. loyal, rich. Vulnerable: madness.
– You gang becomes like unto the shattered earth. large, +insight. Vulnerable: idle.
– Your gang becomes as subtle as a child’s first nightmare. stealthy, fearless. Vulnerable: sadism.
Should you set up another bonfire later, erase your gang’s altered state and choose a new one.
It’s just a big Chopper size fuck you to everyone, I can see it now, blinding smoke and ash, dim lights in the distance, arranged without pattern on the black remnants of a beast… then, the laughter, the hunger, the violence as they crash down on you, their leader looking on, straight faced, stony, save for the eyes, eyes that tell another story all together…
Fun times!
Excellent. With that I’m off for a while, expect big things in the future.
I’m at sea, as I so often am, when I’m not on a train or a helicopter, but I’m still on this, though it’s all on paper at the moment. I’d say I’m approaching 30% done.
Like the don, she getting bigger than I planned.