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Work has recommenced on my folkloric fantasy PbtA game about exploration & discovery, and with players wanting to…

Work has recommenced on my folkloric fantasy PbtA game about exploration & discovery, and with players wanting to explore new places I’ve got GM prep on those regions to do too. Here’s a few new moves for hanging around town, and a new format for the GM-facing region summary information.

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

Last weekend my playtest group and I officially updated from V1.3 to V.2 of #AllThingsUnderHeaven.

Some of the changes this encompassed related to moves for gathering information before a journey, and the group were headed to a new region anyway, so as I’ve been working on my prep I’ve taken the opportunity to draft a new layout for the summary-page of each Region.

For clarity about the purpose/utility of the first column, I’m going to include the text for the two moves being referenced.

First is Gather Rumours, which lets the PCs discover interesting things to go and find in sketchy enough detail that getting to the vicinity, finding the area, and investigating whatever they’re looking for still keeps a sense of exploration.

GATHER RUMOURS

When you gather rumours in a settlement, name somewhere that interests you (a region, a general direction, a specific place) and say where or who you go to for the information. The GM will roll the Die of Fate and add your Face, then tell you in nonspecific terms of an opportunity (treasure, location, or individual) in that vicinity. How accurate, helpful, and complete the information is depends on the roll.

Second is Seek Guidance, which arms the PCs with information about where they’re going and why it’s dangerous. With that information they can avoid making blind agency-less choices, plan for what lies ahead, secure the right gear, and also enjoy a heightened sense of dread & cleverness when what would otherwise be innocuous information is described and they realise what’s going to happen next.

SEEK GUIDANCE

When you seek practical guidance in a settlement before venturing out into the Wastes, name a nearby region. The GM will will tell you some general information about the area and its terrain. Then, roll +Face. On a hit, you gain 2 pieces of information about your destination. On a 10+, you can ask a follow-up question or two:

– Directions to well-known landmarks or safe places to camp

– Information about dangerous predators or creatures in the region

– Warnings against a common threat or danger to travellers

On a miss, you gain 2 anyway but the GM will answer one (their choice) falsely.

(Jeremy Strandberg tagging you because I remember you mentioning you had some thoughts on how the old layout presented information.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6PHwgzf63UiVy02cXU2WGJrTEE/view?usp=sharing

Some seats left for my playtests of #NahualRPG at #Metatopia2017.

Some seats left for my playtests of #NahualRPG at #Metatopia2017. Here is the schedule in case you’re going and are interested:

R164: Friday, 11:00AM – 1:00PM – 2 left

R287: Friday, 4:00PM – 6:00PM – 2 left

R631: Saturday, 4:00PM – 6:00PM – Only 1 left

R804: Sunday, 10:00AM – 12:00PM – Only 1 left

Here is the link with the full schedules and the instructions for registering.

Recently picked up The ‘Hood from Groundhoggoth Games and decided to have some fun.

Recently picked up The ‘Hood from Groundhoggoth Games and decided to have some fun. Statting up the characters from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as playbooks from the game.

Edit: This should go without saying but, if you haven’t seen the movie. This post contains spoilers. So if you haven’t seen it go watch it and come back to this post. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

Apocalypse World: Pyre Party

Apocalypse World: Pyre Party

I just finished running an Apocalypse World mini-campaign inspired by the Fyre Festival fiasco. The gimmick is expired by this point, but it was fun and some of these threats might be salvageable for other island-based AW scenarios.

The Gist:

It was supposed to be luxurious. Glamorous. Sexy. A week of partying with supermodels on the beaches Isla de Pira. Live shows by brokeNCYDE, Kid Rock, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Catering by chefs like Guy Fieri.

But the models, bands, and chefs never showed up. Instead of a week of getting lit, it was a week of picking at sandfleas, sleeping in FEMA tents, and eating creamed corn from a can.

The organizers left early, saying the San Clemente government would evacuate the island. No one ever came. Three months later, you’re still here. There are no boats. There are no planes. The nearest island is 100 miles away. The food and water has long run out, leaving all of you to fend for yourselves.

Things are getting a little weird. People talk of visions of wars and apocalypse, the outside world consumed by flame. A psychic maelstrom howls across the island.

What do you do?

Threats:

All NPCs came to Isla de Pira as part of Pyre Party. There are no native inhabitants.

Weapons Caches: Left behind by guerillas from San Clemente who once used the island as a staging ground. I decided that before the game started, the Devils had found one cache, and the Hardholder had control over the other. The Devils were a smaller force, but found a cache with more powerful artillery, which helped create a balance of power on the island. There was one other cache in the jungle, but the PCs never found it.

Burn Flats: Pre-Columbian San Clemente natives used to bring dead bodies out here by boat to burn them. Used as a landing strip by Pyre Party organizers.

Tent City: Where most of the Pyre Party attendees live now.

The Jungle: NPCs never come back from here. There’s another weapons cache out there, plus the slaver cult.

Cybelle: A 16 year old brainer with bug eyes, a big bald head, and a violation glove. He lives in the jungle and has several mind-controlled slaves working to build a boat to get off the island.

Hell Hawk: A Chopper who leads an all-girl golf-cart gang called the Devils. Has red liberty spikes and paints herself red.

The Devils: An all-girl golf cart gang dedicated to keeping women on the island safe. They paint their skin red with some sort of clay they found on the island. Discovered the better of the two weapons caches.

Jaws: Hell Hawk’s right-hand woman. Has really big teeth. Wears chain-mail bikini, paints herself red, and carries a bazooka.

Psychedelic Crabs: Tend to wash up ashore a ways down the beach from the Tent City camp. Eating one opens your mind to the Psychic Maelstrom.

Nuclear Submarine Wreckage Further down the beach. Didn’t come into play. Would be more useful in a post-apocalyptic game that involves mutations.

Erowid: Dreadlocked trustafarian. Works for the Hard Holder. The only person who knows how to make Red Drank. He tried to teach other people, but identifying the right plants and getting the exact right proportions is extremely difficult and Erowid really isn’t a very good or patient teacher.

Red Drank: Some sort of mildly psychedelic downer. Keeps the party-crazed populace sedated, as long as it keeps flowing.

JD: Organizes bare knuckle boxing matches. Has gold teeth and a big beard. Wears whitey tighties, cow bow boots, a cloak, and lots of big rings. His sister Skarlet is is body guard.

Skarlet: A member of the Devils, but is more loyal to her brother than to Hell Hawk. Hides a scarred face beneath a hockey mask (she won’t take it off unless coerced). Has multi-colored liberty spikes, paints herself red like all Devils. Wears a long leather duster. Carries a fully automatic shotgun.

UnPlayable Fantasy PbtA

UnPlayable Fantasy PbtA

BASIC MOVES

This is the third thread in the series where I present my latest work to the public, explain it’s design goals, and then discuss and analyse the final result on the Story-Games forum.

Enjoy.

http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/21346/unplayable-fantasy-pbta-basic-moves

Keandra Hunt spent a long time working the journalism beat in Halcyon City, eventually rising to Editor-in-Chief of…

Keandra Hunt spent a long time working the journalism beat in Halcyon City, eventually rising to Editor-in-Chief of the Halcyon City Herald and its many associated publications. Nobody can stay in this business forever though, tracking down the truth of the City and its many superpowered events. Hunt is finally moving on, but she’s got one last bit of editing to do. She’s leaving behind a portfolio of interviews, articles, reports, and pictures all selected from her time as Editor-in-Chief. Her successor will get it as an inspiration, a challenge, and a warning. We get it as the Halcyon City Herald Collection, the first supplement for Masks: A New Generation!

https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2017/10/27/the-independents-masks-halcyon-city-herald-collection/

This is a pretty hot mess, but it’s a PbtA hack I used with my home group for a while.

This is a pretty hot mess, but it’s a PbtA hack I used with my home group for a while. It was a weird Dying Earth genre meets steampunky magi-tech and some other stuff where the players were involved in the game’s narrative (and doing world building to some degree) IN-character.

I really wanted to be a thing but couldn’t quite find a solid enough vision for it for it to really go anywhere. Still, maybe someone will find things in it which they want to use with their group, and can have some fun with.

I also used the rules formed in here as the basis for my current PbtA hack that I’m running with my group.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7iiKs6gf8dDU2ZKb19GdFA3eFU?usp=sharing

Been working on a PbtA-esque game.

Been working on a PbtA-esque game. The setting is an a high fantasy however gritty world where the mortality stakes are as high as the fantasy elements. Players create characters on the path to becoming legendary heroes where they face legendary beasts/villains. Sort of classic fantasy with the ever present fear of death one felt back in the day playing AD&D or more recently any RR Martin reader feels for any character from SoI&F. And would like to get some feedback on a couple things:

I wanted to create a character record sheet unlike a specific set of playbooks. The player at character creation would use a point gen mechanic I’m working up to assign stat mods, purchase starting moves, and choose a background and/or archetype that offers a multiple choice list of narrative benefits or hindrances. Then as the character develops (like achieving an advancement) the player earns points rather than choosing a single option from a list of advancements, using or pooling the points on the various moves or modifiers, or narrative improvements from the same lists used to create the character.

Then I was thinking about adapting/modifying a mechanic for conflicts similar to momentum from WWW, Fate Points from FATE, Action or Force Points, etc. Wherein players and the GM gain said points during a conflict scene (combat, social “combat”) and can use them to activate “moves” for bonuses, narrative advantages, and the like.

And lastly, utilizing a system for harm wherein PCs have a number of health levels and a number of “stress” or “shock” not completely unlike Stress from Blades in the Dark but mechanically the two are coincide; the character has a damage threshold and when that is threatened by a single “attack” the player rolls to determine whether or not the character suffers from shock. If the roll succeeds the character takes damage as normal and marks a level of stress. If failed, the character suffers from shock – player chooses an option from a short list of how the character suffers the trauma. Each time the threshold is threatened the character marks a level of stress, once maxed out – shock/trauma.

There’d be a move to increase the threshold, one that perhaps grants a bonus to succeed a roll vs shock, and perhaps a use of an action point that may mitigate in favor of the character as well.

Been typing a lot of it up and it’s nearly ready for a play test with my table but thought I’d get some feed back from anyone on any potential pitfalls I may run into that would need addressing. I’ll post updates as I go and address any other issues or improvements I come up with. MUCH APPRECIATED. Thanks.

A follow up post to my character concepts for Night Witches.

Originally shared by Phillip Ribbink

Night Witches: Character Concepts the Return

So a while back I wrote some character concepts for Night Witches. You can find those here . Essentially they’re characters I came up with after an initial glance at the prompts in the Night Witches playbooks. I’ve been wanting to write a continuation to…

I am looking for feedback from people who have played Apocalypse World on roll20 regardling the character sheet.

I am looking for feedback from people who have played Apocalypse World on roll20 regardling the character sheet. I played a season of masks but just recently played my first game of pure AW and found the sheet really wanting and have already submitted a few quality of life things that should be implemented soon but am considering a more radical overhaul of the sheet as a side project and was wondering what issues people have with the sheet currently. So far I’ve added repeating Hxand buttons to roll hx, a button for rolling suffered harm, modifiers to all of the rolls (so you can add forward/assist/interference dice) and changed the way some headers looked, to see these things before they go live you can check the test game: https://app.roll20.net/join/2679015/OsVAGg

I come from a background playing mostly Blades in the Dark on roll20 and I have used those sheets as a template to make the Scum & Villainy sheets so a lot of the tools and things I intend to use will be drawn from there if I do go ahead and take on this project, so any feedback from more experienced players is appreciated.

Also, any leads on active places to ask for feedback is appreciated, I haven’t found an active AW discord or anything to ask, but have dropped this message in the PBTA channel on the RPG talk discord and on the apocalypse world subreddit