Category: Powered by the Apocalypse: Discussion

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.