When I ever get to play in an ongoing AW game; here is a thing I would want to do.

When I ever get to play in an ongoing AW game; here is a thing I would want to do.

When I ever get to play in an ongoing AW game; here is a thing I would want to do.

Have tons of family members and have them be parts of other PC’s stuff

A brother who works with the Maestro’D, a daughter in the Hardholder’s gang, a kid Nephew who brings junk to the Savyhead and a mother who is the Angel’s supplier. 

That probably turns out terrible for that character’s family but it sounds like fun. 

Trying to recap the action sequence from last night’s AW2 game

Trying to recap the action sequence from last night’s AW2 game

Trying to recap the action sequence from last night’s AW2 game

So in the session before the Chopper Hooch had stolen a turbine power generator and a car from Roark’s hardhold and his gang and him are now trying to transport it to Gunpowder. 

Following them are Torres the Angel and Lux the Savyhead in Torreses combat ambulance (an armored personnel carrier/ Fuchs Spürpanzer) as well as some guy’s from Roark’s gang in a car and a motorcycle.

First thing first, Torres takes a daring maneuver to lose the other pursuers (Act under fire). He wants Hooch and his Despoilers for himself. Thanks to a vision of Lux they know where the Despoilers are and what route they are most likely taking.

They are on the freeway(highway? not quite sure about the right term there). Some time ago the freeway was full of car wrecks and stuff like that but something massive went through there with a snowplough in front and made two routes by pushing all the cars out of the way.

Anyway, as Torres is clearly hunting them we roll Hunt Prey. We get a 7-9 and Hooch decides that they catch up with them, but the chopper gang is on the other side/route of the freeway.

Torres orders Lux to use the machine gun on the car to shoot at them in order to maybe get the turbine lose and crush some motorcycles with it (Thee was an Keep an Eye out here). Hooch responds by asking one of his gang for a Grenade (Fucking Thieves)  which he gets and then orders the Despoilers to return fire in order to Defend something they hold. Lux rolls Seize by force

This leads to a result of the Despoilers using their own bodies to block shots at the turbine and Lux being really hesitant to shoot directly at her baby. Hooch himself uses that opportunity to throw the Grenade at the Ambulance but can’t quite get close enough to get a full hit in so the grenade explodes directly in front of the ambulance, leaving them with smoke and debris in front of them.

(Lux: It’s safe and undamaged through the fighting + you suffer little harm

Torres: You inflict terrible harm, You hold it secure, you dismay or frighten) 

Torres remembers there being a school bus half dangling from the halfway and tries to drive around it blind (Act under fire) but hits it hard (6-), sending the ambulance tumbling, crashing first against something at the side and then over something ramp-like and flying of the elevanted highway into muddy ground beneath. 

At this point we roll Harm moves. 

Torres is basically fine and barely hit.

Lux gets thrown out of the ambulance and headfirst into the mud.

Hooch got hit in his arm and his sloppy motorcycle threatens to crash. He must act under fire and gets an ugly choice. He can use his body to slow the bike when it starts sliding sideways or let the bike take the blunt of the crash. Like a badass he pushes his shoulder into the asphalt and his armor takes most of the damage, leaving his heavy leather jacket torn to pieces at one side. 

Hooch for some reason now wants to talk the whole situation out. As he shows himself however, Torres has gotten to the machine gun of his car and lays down covering fire, hitting Hooch slightly and suppressing any action his gang wants to take. The Despoilers are sure that they have won and want to leave but Hooch reigns them in (Pack Alpha 10+). 

The car of Torres is basically nonfunctional at this point. With a few fixes (good they have a Savy there) they might be able to slowly slowly drive it back home where it would need extensive maintenance though. 

Still, Hooch basically screams over the bulletrain that he wants to start a new Hardhold free from the opression of Gunpowder or Roark and that he really could use Lux and Torres there. He rolls to Manipulate and fails. They clearly see that he is lying and that all of this can’t work. Still, Lux agrees (for different reasons as we would learn OOC later) and she asks Hooch to help her back up the highway. She climbs a bit up and Hooch reaches down, wanting to pull her up.

Torres can’t have that though. He seizes Lux by force while hooch is interfering with that. Both roll a miss. 

Just as Hooch has her hand the bullets start flying again, first nearly missing, then hitting him square in the side/arm. Shocked by the pain he lets go of Lux, letting her fall hard back to the ground. Both take harm. 

Hooch is at 11 on the harm clock now but tries for a last time to … something … I really can’t remember right now. The important thing is, he fails his roll, loses the last of his strenght and falls headfirst over the railway, the same way Lux just did. 

The Despoilers are furious. They want to shoot and kill and desecrate Torres but Lamb stops them, instead urging Torres to save his life or they would kill him. They will find him and kill him. He makes them a counteroffer – they should leave, let the turbine stay where it is and he would take care of Hooch. He rolls a 10+ and the Despoilers leave – for now. 

Torres then gets the near lifeless body of Hooch back to his ambulance willing to bring Hooch back, even though life seems untenable. He will be in deep, deep debt. 

While all of this was happening the Maestro’D Giullia had a “nice”(?) dinner with Roark, his sister Hugo and with the leader of the water-cult and learned a lot about all their relations (when she opens her brain she sees relationship maps between people). 

For example: 

Roark loves her but without lust.

Someone wants to kill Naya (someone from her crew)

Hugo is very very afraid of her brother (but she is in denial about it as we later learnt). 

Giullia also proved herself to be very very scary as her Arresting Skinner stops people from basically everything other then looking at her. She used that ability to have a talk with Hugo without the others being able to think about her words or even really hear/understand them. 

Using the Battle moves seemed a bit awkward at first but near the end we had a hang of them. I think the most fun is had when two parties roll opposing moves against each other and figuring out the fiction that is created by their opposing choices)

How come no one is talking about how the Deliquent and the Protege?

How come no one is talking about how the Deliquent and the Protege?

How come no one is talking about how the Deliquent and the Protege? 

They can get an additional +2 to their stats! That is HUGE, isn’t it? 

The Janus can get an additional +1.

I wonder what the decision there was.  

Do you want to play Masks and maybe playtest a new Playbook?

Do you want to play Masks and maybe playtest a new Playbook?

Do you want to play Masks and maybe playtest a new Playbook?

Originally shared by T. Franzke

Greetings Heroes!

I will run a One-Shot of the Masks RPG.

I will also use this opportunity to playtest The Newborn Playbook Alberto Muti and I are writing. So one of you will get to play it and be the first one to ever do so.  

If you don’t have access to the Beta Documents, they will be provided on time.

See you in Halycron City!  

In all the Apocalypse World games I have been in (mostly as MC) we always used a fictional or at least unspecified…

In all the Apocalypse World games I have been in (mostly as MC) we always used a fictional or at least unspecified…

In all the Apocalypse World games I have been in (mostly as MC) we always used a fictional or at least unspecified place as the base of operations for the player characters. 

Others have talked about having great success with using actual places instead. 

For our 2016 game I decided to try this. 

So our game is set at Seagirt Marine Terminal Baltimore

Will report back next week after we had our first session. 

I might call this one Aportcalypse World…

Analyzing the Crabby Moves by Ross Cowman

Analyzing the Crabby Moves by Ross Cowman

Analyzing the Crabby Moves by Ross Cowman 

I am not a big fan of the Crabby Moves and think they don’t really work in Monsterhearts as written (at least in the way I usually play) and I think that is because of 3 reasons that I want to explore in this post

1. They disrupt the String economy 

2. They sometimes interact weirdly with other Skin moves

3. They sometimes are worded/work weirdly 

Let’s tackle them one by one 

1. They disrupt the String economy 

Looking at the basic moves there are two main ways to gain strings on people. 

Turning them on or lashing out at them. Neither does that reliably as Turn on requires a 10+ or their choice on a 7-9. 

Lashing out requires that you take that option on a 10+. 

You can also get a String on Shut someone down but only if they have no strings on you that you can remove and you pick that option. 

In the Crabby Moves 

Turn someone On does give you a string on a 10+ and an extra effect or maybe on a 7-9. 

On a 10+ with Shut someone down you gain a string on them. 

The option on Lash Out is removed. You can’t beat people up to gain emotional hold over them. 

Now in the Basic move there is one option to remove Strings from people. 

Shut someone down. On a 10+ you take their strings, on a 7-9 you both lose them. 

In the Crabby Moves, there is no option of making people lose strings. It turns Shut from a “defensive” Move that you use to show people that they can’t control you into more of a bullying tool that you use to make people feel bad and then show your superiority over them. 

I think that Shut acts as a safety valve so that people can’t just take more and more strings on someone. There is at least a way to fight back. Also a 7-9 on normal Shut can remove strings from both parties while in the Crabby moves it gives THEM a string on you. 

How does this kind of behaviour get stopped in the Crabby moves? 

The removal of the option of getting a String with Lash turns it from a violence move with social implications into a pure fighting move and removes it fully from the string game. I don’t think I am a fan of this. 

2. They sometimes interact weirdly with other Skin moves

As I am writing this there is actually less weird interactions then I thought. Here is what I found: 

Infernal: Unknowable

When you lash out physically against someone, on a 10 up, they lose 1 String ���������������������������������������� options: they lose 1 String on you. 

With this only the Infernal (or people with this move) have the option of making people lose strings on them and only with violence. 

Vampire: Hypnotic

Is weird because it requires your victim to not have strings on you. Without a way to make people lose strings this gets way harder. Maybe this is an acceptable nerf of the maybe most powerful move in the game? 

Vampire: Cold as Ice

When you successfully shut someone down (7 up), you may choose an extra option from the 7-9 list.

Now this IS weird. For one there is no 7-9 list. Second choosing two things from the list might not make sense together or might not feel rewarding enough. They apologize & shut up and take it?

They apologize & walk away? They walk away & shut up and take it?

Not ideal… A fix might be that you get to choose what option they can’t pick? Not sure here. 

Werewolf: Primal Dominance

When you harm someone, take a String on them. 

 

Now the Werewolf (or others with that move) are the only ones that can use violence to get social hold on people instead of Werewolves just being better at it. 

The Infernal and the Werewolf move could be seen as fixes or extra costs for people that want these options but the Vampire thing is weird. All in all not too bad. It depends on how important you thing the changes I talked about in bulletpoint 1 are. 

3. They sometimes are worded/work weirdly 

Hold Steady: 

On a 10+ you have 3 options: 

} you handle it like a badass

} something gives you strength or respite, tell us what and remove a Conditon

} something gives you an advantage, tell us what and take two forward 

I am not sure how this is supposed to work out? Does the scary thing still happen when you don’t chose to handle it like a badass? If not why would you choose that option when the others give you more advantages? 

Shut someone down: 

On a 10 up, deal your harm as established and choose one:

} the harm is great (plus 1 harm)

} the harm is scarring (physicaly or emotionaly)

} the harm is frightening or horrifying 

It feels like option 2 and 3 feel very similar. When you scar someone physically it might still be frightening. When the harm is horrifying then it might also scar the opposition emotionally. I think the options are supposed to be focused either on the victim or on the audience but the two things are not that different, are they? Also if you scar the oposition, why don’t you put a condition on them? 

Also, when the harm is great (+1 harm) why can’t it be frightening? 

The three options are just sooo similar… 

Run Away: 

This is basically the same as the normal move BUT on a 7-9 it doesn’t actually say that you get away from the scene. Minor point but I thought it’s worth mentioning. 

Gaze into the Abyss: 

I feel like 

} The visions are lucid and detailed

} The visions show you what you must know

Are very similar. It takes some effort to always distinguish them. Yes I can imagine moments where the difference matters but one option less wouldn’t hurt the move, would they? 

What do you think? Am I just overanalyzing? Is getting strings and spending strings enough for the string economy? 

All the characters are in the school’s choir together

All the characters are in the school’s choir together

All the characters are in the school’s choir together 

Insert Glee reference here 

I had a thought recently that the game could gain some interesting dynamics if the characters are all part of one specific group. A sports team, debate club, the choir whatever. I will use the choir here because I interacted with some choir-teens recently. 

Why is that a good idea? I gives all the characters a common thing that they (more or less) all want, something binds them together. If MH is too heavy on PvP for your tastes this can alleviate this somewhat. It also turns home-room into choir sections and you have most of your connections to people from that. You are basically forced to hang out with these people way more then students from the home room. It also let’s you put characters together interestingly because you have things like special practise camps etc as well as roadtrips with the choir you can use to get into all kinds of shenanigans.  

And then you have in choir competitions and rivalry to play with. Only one of you will get the internship at the pop academy and become the next great star etc. 

It’s worth a try at least. Would like to know how that changes the dynamics in play, if it even really does. 

When you give someone a makeover, roll+Hot.

When you give someone a makeover, roll+Hot.

When you give someone a makeover, roll+Hot. 

On a hit, gain a string on them. On a 10+ choose 2, on a 7-9 choose only 1 and they also gain a string on you.

– They take +1 ongoing to their Hot and -1 ongoing to a Stat of your choice until they change their style

– Ask them a question that they must answer truthfully

– Remove one of their condition and give them a different one

– Offer them XP if they do what you want