I’m concerned my Stats are out of balance in my hack and am looking for advice.
In the hack I’m working on I call “Cool”, “Poise” and I call “Hot”, “Charm”, just so you know what I’m referring to.
In my hack all the Stats have two basic moves relating to them except Poise which only has one, and Charm which has three currently. Poise has “Walk Through Fire” (essentially similar to Do Something Under Fire). This is a fairly useful move for a lot of situations, but it still seems like Poise is a stat that compared to some others won’t seem very useful. On the other hand, all three of Charm’s moves are very useful. There’s Clear the Air which is a more social/interactive version of Read a Person, String them Along which is a more flavorful/thematic version of Seduce/Manipulate, and then there’s your Origin Move (would take too long to explain exactly how this works and isn’t necessary to be understood) which either lets you diffuse tense situations or call in outside help depending on your Origin.
Considering that each player currently will get three very useful moves that involve Charm, it seems like Charm is kind of overpowered. I’ve thought about giving a Charm move to Poise but the flavor seems off to me. Does anyone have any advice? Am I maybe too concerned with balance and should just let it be what it is, or is this a problem? Appreciate it.
I like symmetry in move design — maybe too much — so I know your pain here. 🙂
Without knowing just a little bit more about your setting & themes, it’s hard to opine. “Poise” does have some social connotation to it, so switching a social move to Poise might work. Maybe some of your playbooks could substitute Poise for Charm in some moves.
Is Origin Move distinct for each class? Is it central to your theme? In that case, it seems okay for it to be the exception to the two-basic-moves-per-stat, so you could think about finding a second move for Poise that isn’t one of the existing Charm moves.
Another possibility would be to remove Poise entirely.
Sorry, I wasn’t sure if setting and theme info would be more useful or more distracting. The game’s concept is to do supernatural mystery solving but specifically in a fixed location full of secrets a la Twin Peaks. The difference between this hack and existing games like Black Stars Rise and Monster of the Week is that it’s about uncovering and working within the confines of a single unusual small town, with the mechanics designed to deliver
The Origin move relates to whether you’re from the town or not and is used emphasize the theme of Local vs Outsider, so it’s not distinct for playbooks, it’s just one of two options that serve to divide players into two camps (there’s a few other mechanics that work on similar themes too for the game).
I’ve thought about giving the Origin Moves (which either diffuse a situation or call in outside help) to Poise but it seems a little awkward to do it that way. Maybe I’m overthinking it though? Another option would be to give one Origin move to poise but not the other, which could make the divide between Locals and Outsiders more pronounced.
As far as making up a whole new move for Poise goes I honestly can’t think of one that doesn’t seem like unnecessary clutter (but I would be open to suggestions).
If I can’t find another option that makes sense I will get rid of Poise.
1) Any ‘Act Under Fire’ move will get more mileage than any other Basic Move: in The ‘Hood, there are actually 2 ‘AUFs’, one for being direct and one for being subtle. So its OK if Poise only has that as it’s one move.
2) Three Basic Moves for one stat seems like more than the average hack/reskin, but if it works, then it works: just accept that it will create a different dynamic in regards to stat modifiers, highlighting stats, etc.
3) If all Playbooks have an Origin Move, then maybe either a) have each one tied to a different stat, according to the theme of the Playbook or b) don’t tie it to a stat, just roll; or c) roll+[something else], like a neutral or variable stat, e.g. the number of hits they’ve taken, their current experience, the number of other PCs present, etc.
I’m not sure what I’d tie it to, but I like the idea of the Origin Move possibly rolling on a non-stat variable of some kind so I’m going to give that some thought, thanks.
Given that social dynamics and investigation are both a big part of this game, I’m not sure an ‘Act Under Fire’ move will actually get a lot of mileage in my game which is one of the reasons I feel like Poise is a fairly crummy stat at the moment. I might just make Origin Moves a Poise thing since that kills two birds with one stone, but I’m not sure how I feel about it still.
It’s not that all Playbooks have an Origin Move, every character has an Origin Move and it’s actually not dependent on your Playbook. One of the things I’m trying to do with this game is give you options on how to play Playbooks so that every time you play the dynamics between the characters cab be totally different even if you use the same Playbooks.
If you’ve got a move that’s not tied to a specific stat, you can try using fictional inputs instead of a stat. Dungeon World does this with the Recruit Followers move. Roll and add…
+1 if you’ve got a useful rep around here
+1 if you Mae it known where you’re heading
+1 if you’re offering a full share
(Something like that… you get the idea.)
Not sure if it will work for your Origin move, buts its a really flexible approach.
Jeremy Strandberg I think that is perfect! I’m not nearly as familiar with Dungeon World as I am with AW and Monsterhearts, so I had never seen this mechanic but it will be excellent for my purposes. Doing it this way is both interesting and better balanced.
Thank you to everyone who chimed in! It’s awesome that I could come to this group with a problem and have a solution within two hours 🙂
No worries. If you’re interested, I made a more-or-less complete (well, at least playable) hack based on that idea. Check it out if you’re interested.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0lFq3ECDQDQdkVSYzYyeFY1OEU&usp=sharing
Thanks for sharing, this is an interesting read! Have you playtested this? If so, how did it work out?
A little. What we saw, it worked great. Certainly the fiction-based modifiers and the stats-as-spendable resources. I’m less sure about the specific moves, the equipment, etc.