THE NEWBORN: ASK US ANYTHING!
Hey folks! This is Alberto and Tim Franzke, and we’re the creators of The Newborn, one of the stretch goal playbooks! KS Backers got a playtest edition with the yesterday’s update (If you haven’t seen it yet, click on the link below!), and we’re so excited to show you what we’ve been working on!
So, this is a bit of an AMA thread for The Newborn: reactions and first impressions?What’s your take on it? Would you be excited to take it out for a game? Love it, hate it, any questions? Tim and I are here and we’d be happy to chat with y’all about it!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1277034820/masks-a-new-generation/posts/1631070
Hey! We are super excited about the Newborn.
We learned a lot of important Lessons from creating this Playbook.
Let’s talk about it and make sure it’s not Damaged and if it is, with your help, it can undergo Regeneration to become even better!
(this man is smart!)
It’s really tough though! sometimes when you’re writing them, playbooks seem to really have A Mind of their own – fortunately we had excellent Role Models for game design…
I just skimmed it, but the first thing I noticed is A mind of their own:
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Your powers evolve and mutate. When you are facing an obstacle or threat that your powers would not be able to deal with, you can mark a condition to have your powers adapt to the situation and manifest in a new and unprecedented way. You do not retain these new powers once the danger is gone.
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Since in Masks abilities are just a general idea, it’s fairly easy to come up with a new description – manifesting your powers “in a new and unprecedented way” – within the same power to deal with new threats, so how does it works? Each new abilities’ application trigger this move? “Adapt to the situation and manifest in a new unprecedented way” means the Newborn can use powers outside it’s abilities (like, Elemental Form used as Elemental Control, or even more using an ability they don’t have)?
(I know, the fiction, the group, etc., but I’m not sure I’m understanding this move how you meant it, it seems almost like the Newborn can just do what all the other playbooks can – paying a price the others don’t.)
The idea here is that you can indeed do stuff that is completely out of your powers but you can’t repeat it and it will hurt.
I think this goes beyond creatively unleashing your powers. The Delinquent in my home game can teleport and control emotions. He can’t shoot fire (and really, he shouldn’t) or summon guns (same thing). With this move he could do that.
So the Newborn could de facto use other’s playbook abilities?
(I ask this also becaue the Doomed can, but paying a fairly high price – a mark on their Doomtrack.)
To be fair, as can the Outsider and Transformed on a more permanent basis with an advance.
But being unable to change them and being limited to the abilities’ list, while the Newborn could choose a new one each time also inventing it.
(To be clear: I’m not criticizing, I’m just trying to understand how the move works; to know if it works I would like to see it in game, so I’m not judging it.)
Hi Mauro! As usual you’re right on the money and you ask the tough questions. Tim’s answer is correct, but if you’re interested I’ll unpack a bit more of our thinking here.
The idea behind this move is that you pay a mechanical price in order to gain fictional leverage to use your powers in a situation where you wouldn’t have any. I don’t know about you, but it’s definitely happened to me, playing the game, to feel “I really need to do something about this, but my powers are sort of useless here” – also it’s a bit of a trope you get in superhero comics as well, the moment when a hero goes “I can run faster than the speed of light, but there’s nowhere to run anymore”, or “what good is being super-strong, if this cosmic storm is destroying my hometown?”. This is your “get out of jail card” for that (but not for free!).
As such, the idea is that this covers radically different uses of your powers, that would usually not be open to the characters, and/or one-off manifestations of entirely new powers. Your example of turning elemental form into elemental control is cool:
For example, I have a fire form, but what good is it to me if the whole building is burning down and i’m not fast enough to save everyone? Trigger this move, and suddenly my powers expand, and I just command the fire for a moment, and extinguish it.
As another example, I have a water form, and I realise something horrible has happened on the other side of town – and I might not make it there in time. But i jump in the river, and I am somehow able to dissolve myself here, and reform myself immediately on the other side of town, from the river’s water.
On top of that, the fictional aspect of it – slightly unstable powers flaring up in unpredictable ways to get you out of danger – which I think is super cool.
Clearly, we are aware that the limits of how rigidly defined powers are vary from group to group, so this is a move that may be groundbreaking in some groups, and less so in others. Similarly, we may decide to tweak it in terms of what you can do, or what price you need to pay. That’s what playtest is for 🙂
(Just to be clear: I cited the Doomed not to say since the Doomed is that way, then A mind of their own is broken, but just to let you know my doubts came also from that; it can work, also given the differences, I was just asking for clarifications.)
When’s the art coming out? I’m asking for a friend…
We would like to know as well.
They’ve just finished the art for the core book, so there’s gonna be a bit of a wait for the final art of additioanl playbooks, I’m afraid… though I can’t wait to see art for this, myself! 🙂
What are you looking for in a playtest? Are there some moves you’re particularly interested in?
Have you considered specific GM hard moves, initial question, or any advice? (I’m likely to gm my next campaign, so I have a different perspective) Should I experiment on my own?
We have a tentative list of Playbook Moves for the Newborn but they are not quite finalized yet. Expect them soon(TM).