Author: T. Franzke

Originally shared by T. Franzke

Reading the Apocalypse World fight scene example (again) makes me so want to play/MC this game again. 

Just glorious. 

Example here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1he1eh174fuxdk0/Apocalypse%20World%20-%20A%20Combat%20Example.pdf 

Example with commentary: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5jjd58phc3gaf2w/Apocalypse%20World%20-%20A%20Combat%20Example%20(Director’s%20Cut).pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1he1eh174fuxdk0/Apocalypse%20World%20-%20A%20Combat%20Example.pdf

Did anyone ever find an elegant way to work with moves that require 2 stats? An action that requires you to be Hot and Weird for example? 

Rolling with X (x=A+B/2) makes little sense with the -3 to +3 range so any other ideas for that?  I have ideas that don’t require that but i would like to know if someone worked with such things once.

Originally shared by T. Franzke

Why i think i don’t need a jousting move

5 days after Vincent Baker released the playtest files of AW:DA there was a discussion about how you would do Jousting tourneys in this game. Today, in a discussion with Misha Polonsky and Eric Nieudan the question of a tourney move arose again.

Misha: Do they hold tourneys when they meet? I always love a good tourney scene.

Eric: Tournament move! Need. 

My first reaction was that a tourney move would defeat the whole point of having it. A tourney should be a big thing. There are a lof of people to meet, deals to make and battles to fight. So doing the whole thing with one move that gives you a few positive and negative results takes away all of these scenes. Because you would roll the move and then skip to after the tourney, or just really short say how all these things come to pass. 

I think that a tourney gives you enough stuff to base at least half a session on. So we clarified and it was more about the fact that battle doesn’t work well for jousting and what moves i would do instead. 

Now here is the thing. There are fictional qualities in play. If you set up your character as Kervin the Jousting Master then you will win at jousting, that is your stick. Unless Aenny the jousting queen of the east also participates. So what do you do then. Maybe you describe that you go at at for a few rounds and you see you are equals. But the sun is hot in the air and you are getting exhausted. You need to hold steady even to continue. And since you can’t win with your usual technique, what do you?

There are quite a few options when dealing with this. You could draw them out to know what you would need to do to win. You can pray for guidance. Maybe you need to go and ask the Wicker Wise to read her soul during a break. Who knows. Tell me how you deal with it.

So the character just wins every tourney if Aenny isn’t there? 

Oh no. Maybe they are hurt. Maybe another participants cheats something into their drinks. There are a lot of interesting situations to be had that don’t strictly involve rolling to see if you win. 

Maybe someone pays you to loose. Do you want to? What if you really need that money to fix your destroyed castle walls? What if it is for your friend that wants to win the heart of the princess by winning against the fabled jousting legend?  

Misha then asked what i would do in an archery contest between two good archers that are both PCs. My response was, that i wasn’t interested in who wins but how people deal with that situation and who the characters are. Maybe you just describe PC A making a few really good shots and then you ask PC B how she is doing with that since she described herself as really nervous and easy to impress in the past. That character would need to hold steady. Someone that is really sure of themselves wouldn’t need to.

Everyone involved can use the options stated above too. Maybe they have an oath that hinders them in some way and we are more interested to see how they decide based on that instead of only if they win. Maybe A  just wants to see character B lose? 

If we have moves that skip over these things, we might lose all these options. Now what does that got to do with other systems? 

There is no “when you write an important test” move in Monsterhearts either. But you can study for it. Maybe you take 2 weeks off from your relationship, concquests and monster struggles to just learn like a crazy person. You ace that test. Maybe your character is set up as extremely clever. They also get good results without trying. 

Now what if you don’t want to study? Go and buy the test from the teacher, or seduce him. Maybe you can convince someone to let them allow you to copy from them. Maybe you gaze into the abyss for answers. You could go to your infernal sugar daddy for help too. 

All in all the characters don’t have the tools to deal with most situations. They have their stupid teeny and monster moves. These are their tools and using them is part of the tone and story of the game. 

However, having moves for these things is not wrong in any way. It is a different way to run the game. I am more interested to see how characters deal with situations (given the tools that they have) then if they win or loose. A lof of other systems teach us that things like tourneys should have special mechanics to see if you win. And if there is not such a mechanic then how can you win? How can you make sure your character is good at the thing you want them to be good at? 

However in World games you can be good at stuff without having mechanics for it. 

Have you found something similiar in a World game, where you thought a specific thing clearly needed a move? 

Or stories where you handled something that would have mechanics in other games just with basic and playbook moves and it turned out good? Where it turned out bad and you really needed a move? 

All comments are greatly appreciated. 

To be continued in part 2

Where i think you should put in custom moves

(but i need to think about this a while more) 

Buying things in Apocalypse World: Dark Age

Some thoughts of me about how “buying things” work based on apocalypse world understanding and what is in the rules. 

Cross-posted from the forum. 

I would like some input if i am on the right track. 

Here is how i understood the text/game/phosophy in relation to buying things. 

1. If you don’t have some kind of financial want you can get things that are within your fictional reach more or less without problem. It will take time and you might need to give up something else but you should be able to get it. 

2. If you have a bonty of coin you can get most stuff you want and start to attempt bigger project like hiring masons etc. to work on your holding. Even more so when having double coins. However you will need to pay people over multiple seasons to get bigger project done. Also when you “spend coin” for a really big thing it is spent and you revert back to option 1. 

3. You might be able to barter for stuff with services or favors owed. 

4. When you are in debt, be prepared to lose stuff. The GM might ask you what you are selling to pay (when you not go and murder the person you owe) 

Watch us stumble through AW:DA

http://youtu.be/-eOo6Y4qyeE