Idea for a playbook suggested by Tim Franzke
THE SAMARITAN
After the world collapsed, they rebuilt it. They studied the remains, they scoured the cities, they probed the maelstrom, and the resurrected the memories of the fallen. They plotted and programmed and prepared and eventually found a way, they figured out how to fix it. One event, somebody could go back in time and prevent this one thing from happening. One mistake, the domino effect of causality would erase the horrors of the apocalypse and replace it with something new. One shot, they sent you back, but they missed their mark. You’re too late.
NAME
Hero, Miss/Mister, Number [#], Professor, Wannabe
Or maybe everyone calls you Samaritan.
STATS
• Cool+1, Hard+1, Hot=0, Sharp+2, Weird-1
• Cool+1, Hard=0, Hot-1, Sharp+2, Weird+1
• Cool=0, Hard-1, Hot+1, Sharp+2, Weird+1
• Cool+1, Hard=0, Hot=0, Sharp+2, Weird=0
HX
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.
List the other characters’ names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn:
• Who was the first person you met on emerging from the future? Tell that player Hx+2.
• Tell everyone else Hx=0.
On the others’ turns:
• Whatever number everyone tells you, give it +1 and write it next to their character’s name. You know how all of this ends.
LOOK
Man, woman, or concealed.
Pressure suit, scrounge wear, or military fatigues.
Ancient face, friendly face, stony face, weathered face, or young face.
Cold eyes, shadowed eyes, clear eyes, steady eyes, lost eyes, or eager eyes.
Athletic body, stocky body, thin body, muscular body, or old body.
GEAR
In addition to your computer, you get:
• a 9mm sidearm (2-harm close loud)
• pressurized body armor (2-armor valuable hi-tech)
• your clothing, but no barter
SPECIAL
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. You get “I Know the Answer” and one more samaritan move.
I KNOW THE ANSWER: when you consult your computer, roll+sharp. On a 10+, you find the answer you’re looking for and you don’t spend battery. On a 7-9, you can either spend a battery and find the answer or not spend a battery and get an impression. On a miss, you will spend a battery and you only get an impression.
COMPUTER
You carry a computer that is loaded with data from the future. You can seek answers from it and it will spill the beans on any sort of secret or knowledge you care to know, unless it’s not in there.
When you find the answer you’re looking for, the MC will tell you exactly what you need to do to solve a particular problem (Ex: talk to Dremmer about being passed up for promotion, cut the rowboats loose from the dock and make sure nobody salvages them downstream, pop all of the tires on Face’s car, get the local Savvyhead to make a remote camera drone and follow Poptart with that). If you follow the MC’s instructions you, and anyone who assists you, will take +1forward on any rolls you make in an attempt to follow the instructions. Deviating from the instructions in even the slightest causes the bonus to go away for good.
When you find an impression of the solution you’re looking for the MC will give you an idea of what you need to do (Ex: somebody in the barracks might have info, make sure nobody can get across the river, stop Face from leaving town, you’ll need to follow Poptart without him knowing) but no bonus will apply.
When you successfully follow the instructions on the computer you hasten the future, taking +1forward on your next use of “I Know the Answer.”
When you deliberately don’t follow or ignore the instructions on the computer you’re changing the future, taking -1forward on your next use of “I Know the Answer” but marking experience.
Your computer starts with 12 battery (two countdown clocks). Once the battery is gone the computer is useless, unless you could find some way to keep powering it up…
Self-Made Future: You have concocted a plan to get the now into the future that you came from (+workplace)
Whenever you make progress on it, mark XP.
/sub
SPECIAL: When you and another character have sex, roll+weird. On a 10+, everything’s fine. On a 7-9, that took a lot out of you, take -1forward to your next roll, whatever it is. On a miss, you’ve damaged the fabric of time somehow, you’re in a +stupor until you consult your computer.
What I’m going for: http://popcornsocks.com/site/wp-content/uploads/Real-issues.jpg
Think this is a cool contrast to many of the other characters.
Hx: Ask the other players if any of them knew your parents. If so, tell them Hx+1.
Marshall Miller More like: Ask the other players if any of them are your ancestors.
I considered that but was concerned that if two said yes it might make them feel forced into having sex; which would be bad. This kind of sets up the idea but leaves it open. Maybe you know but aren’t telling, maybe they say it’s one of the other player characters, maybe it’s them, maybe they killed your parents. They also don’t have to say just yet, they can wait and play to find out.
No but their children might have sex with each other wich leads to you. Could be the children of the children of their children.
Pacifist at heart: when you go into battle, roll+sharp. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. On a miss, take -1ongoing until the battle is over. During the battle you can spend your hold 1 for 1 to:
• inflict s-harm on a PC
• allow an NPC to escape the fight
• disarm an NPC who is about to inflict harm onto another NPC
• redirect all harm coming from or going to one PC onto yourself
Knowledge is power: your computer functions as a psychic antenna and you can make an augury with it
A sense of urgency: advance read a situation for yourself, and anyone in your presence
i don’t really like Knowledge is power. To obvious.
Eduardo Caetano
It seems like somebody from the future being able to put information into the psychic maelstrom is a recipe for awesome.
Also, I love augury so…
Computers are sophisticated idiots: You are from the distant future, perhaps centuries will pass before you are sent back in time. At the beginning of each session, you may consult your computer as if you rolled a 10+. Roll for psi-harm (+0) as if you have been exposed for the first time.
I’d say this is a sharp playbook?
It is. Yes.
Seeking suggestions for questions here =
Looking Through Alternative Time: when you deliberately change the future, you can ask a question from the following list:
-who has what I need to keep working?
-what is eventually being made or destroyed by my change?
-should I leave this place?
What is the best/worst outcome of my change?
How can i still make the normal future happen?
Who will directly benefit from the new future?
I was looking for ideas that are more immediate and pressing concerns, like “who is going to try and stop me now?”, as opposed to conceptual questions dealing with the future that hasn’t arrived yet.
“How can i still make the normal future happen?” also assumes the player is trying to maintain the constant timeline, but since the concept of the playbook is that your arrival in the past was miscalculated then you would have a real incentive to change the future.
But you could still play that angle can’t you? Just giving that option doesn’t take the others away.
I suppose not.
If Needs Must: when you take direct action to kill somebody and succeed, mark an experience and all of your stats move up or down one slot, MC’s choice. (e.g. a character with cool+1 hard+1 hot+0 sharp+2 and weird -1 with have their stats moved up one slot to cool+1 hard+0 hot+2 sharp-1 weird+1, or down one slot to cool-1 hard+1 hot+1 sharp+0 weird +2).
mandatory move, and the price one pays for fucking with time