We’ve been thinking about the interplay between Families and Characters, and how to best guide the flow of the game from Family-level to Character-level and back again. Simple Characters (see linked post) are one piece of the puzzle, but we’re also trying out a mechanic for Character Roles. Here’s the relevant section of the text:
Bringing Characters In
All Family moves are triggered by a group of your Family members attempting a course of action – getting information, claiming a resource for your family, holding fast despite adversity. When the move is triggered it abstracts away a lot of the details – in particular, who’s present on the mission, and the ups and downs of the mission they go on. As Family moves can take a long time to wind up, you may only find out things went bad when the few survivors limp back to your family’s holdings – or when it’s been a month and nobody’s returned.
If you want to keep a closer eye on your family’s actions, you can send your Character along. When the group of family members that triggers a Family move includes your Character, you can gain a bonus according to their role – Leader, Agent, Rebel or Outsider.
A character’s Role is a free choice at the point they’re created and the choice can be changed over the course of the game. Simple characters don’t provide this bonus.
Leaders are willing to put the Family before themselves. If a move tells you to gain a need or erase a surplus, the Leader can instead take 3-harm (ignores armour).
Agents are experts at navigating the wasteland and its factions. Your family’s agents can either travel twice as fast through the wasteland, or travel unnoticed through a faction’s territory.
Rebels have different loyalties than the rest of the family, and have contacts in surprising places. They can call on a contact to boost the move as if a surplus had been exhausted, but the contact gets 1-Treaty on you.
Outsiders have a unique piece of kit that has a specific, weird function. If an action they’re part of would benefit from their gear, you can boost the roll as if you’d spent a point of Tech.
Assuming Control
If main characters are helping a Family move, you can choose to enter Character-level play immediately after the family move’s completed rather than waiting for reports to make their way back to the Family’s holdings. If you do this, the GM will describe the situation the main characters on the mission find themselves in, the other players pick up quick characters to flesh out the rest of the group if they wish, and you start playing. The family move’s effects – good and bad – will still happen, but this allows you to keep the momentum going on a success or try to mitigate the catastrophe on a failure.