Author: T. Franzke

Some thoughts on political “power level”

Some thoughts on political “power level”

Some thoughts on political “power level” 

One of my complains for Urban Shadows was (/still is a bit) the low power level of characters on the political side. In Apocalypse World you can be the Hardholder or the Hocus and have a bunch of people that directly reply to you. Outside of the Wolf Pack and the Spectre’s Body of Ghosts there is no Archetype that can get these before 5+ Advances and no Archetype can start with them.

I was getting ready for creating a Vampire and had this Vampire biker gang in mind. Turns out, my character can’t be their leader. The game doesn’t allow that. However; this might be a good thing. 

Advancement is both prescriptive and descriptive right? So if my character kills the leader of a local vampire clan he can become their leader. Or maybe she messes with the offical vote and comes into power like that. 

A starting Vampire however might not have enough power to see this through. So they would need to collect debts of other characters to help them. 

If you want to play with the big boys, either wait it out and get the advance or work for it in the fiction. I like that. It forces a player to use their debts and claw for power. 

Was that the design intention behind moving these advances to the later part of the game? 

The Wrangler Rewrite Help

The Wrangler Rewrite Help

The Wrangler Rewrite Help

The lovely Regine Bernhardt decided to play a Wrangler in a game of Apocalypse World so I decided it is finally the time to update this playbook. Johnstone Metzger made some awesome points about it here: http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/18311/apocalypse-world-writing-playbooks/p2 once but I was too lazy to fix it. 

So. The quick and easy thing would be to bring the Wrangler statline on par with the Driver. Reduce one stat at each thing by 1. 

Also adding your packs bonuses to hard/combat moves is probably a bad idea. I don’t know why I did that. The father of that move from Dungeon World doesn’t do that either. To fix that I should probably just define how you use your pack as a weapon. 

When you go aggro or seize by force with your animals you don’t get better at doing that. You can just use them instead of your fists or guns. So I guess they are 2 harm with the possibility of area? 

Maybe add a move to make you fight as a gang with them? Is that too Gunlugger? 

There were complains about the Primal Howl move but I don’t quite remember or understand what the problem is/was. 

I really really like the option of giving the Wrangler a Herd to tend to as a Gig but it reads bad as an advancement. I mean look at it. No hate for Patrick Henry Downs who did the layout but it just sticks out sore. There must be a better way to do this. Maybe just as a move? If I do it like that and add the gang move I probably have to many. 

Any other input people have on this? Just first thoughts. 

One-Shot Scenario Sketch  —  The Wedding of Pam and Tyrone

One-Shot Scenario Sketch  —  The Wedding of Pam and Tyrone

One-Shot Scenario Sketch  —  The Wedding of Pam and Tyrone 

Pam and Tyrone are barely 18 but have decided to get married  because they are soooo in love. You are all invited to the wedding for some reason.

Questions for the players: 

– Why are you invited? 

– If they are sibling or bestie of one of them, ask them why the respective person isn’t dating them anymore but Pam/Tyrone now? 

– Why do you think this wedding is a terrible/awesome idea?

– Who are the bridesmaids?

– Who is the best man?

– Who at this wedding do you want to bone tonight?

– Why must you stop this wedding and how do you want to do it?

– What do their parents think about this wedding?

– What surprise do you have planned for Tyrone?

– What should Pam know before she says yes? 

etc. etc.

Young people getting married way too young is full of drama and pathos. A perfect moment to throw monster into. 

Needed to share this.

Needed to share this.

Needed to share this.

Regine Bernhardt has magic cake skills. 

Originally shared by Regine Bernhardt

Inspired by Kimberly Chapman s 3D Choco-Blood Filled Eyeball Cookies I wanted to make blood filled Monsterhearts cookies…and failed miserably. The dough did just not do what it was supposed to do; not with my approximation of Kimberly’s recipe, not with the recipe that came with the cookie pan. I was close to tears and ended up settling for mini-cakes.

The blood (based on some red currant jelly, starch and syrup) consistency turned out nice at first, but I froze the cakes for shipping and I think that somehow spoiled the effect in the end.

I finally have found a fondant that is working well though, thanks Tortentante .

…and i am not giving up on those 3-D cookies yet!

A theory on why people use “Say Yes or Roll the Die” in Apocalypse World and games inspired by it.

A theory on why people use “Say Yes or Roll the Die” in Apocalypse World and games inspired by it.

Originally shared by T. Franzke

A theory on why people use “Say Yes or Roll the Die” in Apocalypse World and games inspired by it.

Disclaimer: I believe that using SYoRtD in AW or related games is not supported by the game. You shouldn’t be doing this by rules as written. Using it can still create a very enjoyable gaming experience. There is no fundamental thing that gets broken beyond repair by doing this. 

I do also believe though, that saying you can do this in a post of a newer player is hurtful to the discussion because it can confuse them and lead them down an understanding of the way the game works that is not intended. If you want to use this in your game; go ahead. I just don’t like it when you don’t mention that this is basically a hack of the game. 

Okay with this out of the way? Why is this happening? 

Dan Maruschak made a great point about it earlier today that I’d like to mention here too: 

“My theory on “say yes or roll the dice in DW” is that “it’s all about techniques!” is the story-gamer-friendly strain of System Doesn’t Matter. People think that any idea that’s good in game X is “a good technique” and therefore something they should import into every game. ” 

This is definitely one of the major reasons, I do however want to propose an additional one.

It creates a better story

Quite often I found people arguing for saying yes with mentioning an example where it wouldn’t be interesting/realistic/good for the story when a character would need to roll for a move and the 6- or 7-9 result doesn’t mix with what everyone else thinks should happen there. They do that because it is better for pacing and for the story as they think of it at that moment.

The problem however; is that AW and others don’t care about “The Story” from what I understand. They care about how interesting and cool characters react to different situations. The story emerges of characters doing cool things in tense situations and succeeding or failing. A narrative arc is not something that you should care about as for the principles. Still a lot of people care about it. 

That is understandable. I think it is a pretty human thing to strive for dramatic build-up and conclusion. AW doesn’t. 

It seems like a lot of people aren’t used to letting go of “The Story” and I don’t really know how to address that in talking about it. It doesn’t help that the texts (that I have read) aren’t very clear about this either. 

Do you think that this need for “telling a story” has a hand in this?

A little perfect(?) Monsterhearts moment

A little perfect(?) Monsterhearts moment

A little perfect(?) Monsterhearts moment 

In the last session Mika the Infernal wanted to shoot Ray the Queen because they had thought shelter in her home and her Dark Power (her dead Mom) said Ray needed to be removed from this family. Both Mika and her twin brother Luca were part of Ray’s gang at that moment. 

Based on a few botched rolls Mika did shot Ray but also shot her own brother by accident. 

Both are blaming each other for that happening and Luka later died in the hospital. 

We skip a bit forward to the day of the rememberance of Luka and Ash (who died in the same session). 

Mika got into all kinds of trouble earlier and is leaving the school to not have to deal with the ceremony and with seeing Ray again. Lilli the Vampire and her (former?) best friend follows her. Lilli is in her darkest self. She earlier told Ray how she can’t stand being close to Mika after what she did. 

She comforts Mika by telling her what an ass Ray is and how she can’T even look them in the eyes anymore. Mika is still upset though but Lilli makes her feel beautiful by reminding her how proud her family always was of her and that the best way to move forward is to honor that and do what her mother would have wanted. 

This was of course me wanting to push Mika into confronting (and killing) Ray again because that was the last thing the Dark Power told our Infernal. 

Mika goes home, waits for her father to go to bed (he was seeing someone new that Mika hurt earlier for revenge) and then suffocate him with a pillow. She then kills herself so that her whole family can be together in dead. 

She will come back for the last session as a ghost. 

TL;DR

After the Vampire made the Infernal feel beautiful (to manipulate her) she goes home and kills her father and then herself

Mika played by Regine Bernhardt 

Ray played by Philipp Neitzel 

MC of that game Sascha Müller 

Also in it as Cal the Selkie Markus Wagner 

Lilli the Vampire, played by me

Season Advance: Rewrite your Sex Move

Season Advance: Rewrite your Sex Move

Season Advance: Rewrite your Sex Move

I want my Vampire to have a Sex Move that allows her to have sex without hurting me mechanically (i’d go for helping me too, i am not picky)

Do you have any suggestions?

From the established Playbooks I could see the Chosen or the Fae (triggering specifically of Sex) Move working. 

Otherwise maybe

When you have Sex with someone, they choose 1 

– Give you 1 of their Strings they have on someone else

– Tell you a secret

– Let them feed on you 

They can only choose each option once. 

Also paging Sascha Müller because he is our MC. 

Just looking for ideas here. Will talk with the Group of course. 

Hypnotic is great (okay, that is a generally true statement) when you use it to infuse general hurtful comments that…

Hypnotic is great (okay, that is a generally true statement) when you use it to infuse general hurtful comments that…

Hypnotic is great (okay, that is a generally true statement) when you use it to infuse general hurtful comments that teens throw at each other with dark power.

“Go fuck yourself”

“Why don’t you just jump out da window you fat cow”

“Just leave her if she bores you so much”

“Get a room you two”

“Go tell that to your priest”

or whatever.

There is something about Powered by the Apocalypse that is really really appealing to people.

There is something about Powered by the Apocalypse that is really really appealing to people.

There is something about Powered by the Apocalypse that is really really appealing to people.

But there is also something about it that makes so many people get it wrong. I still wonder that that is.