Tag: Bill Garrett

I’m thinking more and more of moves as rulings, and feeling more freedom to write custom moves as the situation demands – usually to satisfy one of the game’s principles, when an existing move feels inadequate. This includes coming up with moves as a player, and suggesting them to the GM.

For example, my PC has technology that can “remix” existing human memories, and this is how he produced his AI friends. It’s not a general-purpose memory editor, it only facilitates the creation or repair of living minds on their own terms. Another PC, and his NPC love interest, both shared plenty of experiences, but had also lost memories or emotional contexts. So we put this tech to use fixing that. Rather than Unleash Your Powers, I wanted a move that put control over those characters’ fates in their hands, and gave them as much authority as they could. The resulting suggestion to the GM (and adopted as written, and used successfully) was this:

When your memories are remixed with someone else’s via Newman neurotech, roll +Conditions. On a hit, the resulting connectome (a map of how a brain is wired) is stable, and the merge goes forward. On 10+, pick three side effects. On 7-9, pick one.

1. An important existing memory takes on a new form, or you get a new perspective on it

2. You get memories the other person would prefer you don’t get

3. You gain one of their goals or plans; if it’s something you wouldn’t have done before, mark potential if you do it

4. Your ego is in flux; the GM shifts your labels

5. Their relationships bleed into yours; give Influence to the other person, or to someone they give Influence to

On a miss, choose one: the connectome isn’t viable and the merge can’t take place and you must try again after time passes, or the merge succeeds but your ego is wildly in flux – the GM will rearrange your labels as they see fit and you take a powerful blow.

In Doyce Testerman’s game, we have an Outsider who’s a Civil War-era ghost. The Outsider moves imply an alien origin, so we reskinned them to be more appropriate. Here they are, for anyone who’s interested.

The unseen world: You can commune with other departed ghosts. Whenever you contact the unseen realm, roll +Superior. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 2. On a miss, hold 1, but those beyond make an uncomfortable demand. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to:

– receive a cursed or spiritually potent item that will allow you to use any ability from another playbook once (choose the ability when you spend the hold)

– consult the memories of the departed to ask the GM a question about the current situation

– clear a condition through the comfort of contact with your home

Possession: When you touch a mortal object and empower it, roll +Freak. On a hit, you can use this object as a focus to do something impossible. When you roll a 10+, choose one:

– it works exceptionally well

– you get an additional use out of it

On a miss, the focus is effective, but it has a completely unintended side effect that the GM will reveal when you use it.

The past is a foreign country: Whenever you openly disregard or undermine an modern era custom in favor of one of your own era’s customs, shift Superior up and any other Label down.

Fetters: You have a set of physical fetters, some otherwise mundane items with special emotional significance to you such as a pocket watch or painting. Detail their history, and choose two strengths and weaknesses. When your fetters are present in the scene, you can use them to unleash your powers, directly engage a threat, or defend someone using Superior.

Strengths: Very portable, very concealable, usable as weapon, easily fixable, can shift between mundane and spirit world, can be used at a distance

Weaknesses: Requires ritual to empower, susceptible to ______, easily detectable, big and clumsy, difficult to repair

In good spirits: When you comfort or support someone by telling them how they exemplify the best parts of the modern world, roll +Freak instead of +Mundane.

History lesson: When you talk about your home time and place, roll +Freak. On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. During the conversation, you:

– confess a flaw of your home; add 1 Team to the pool

– mislead them about your home; take Influence over them

– describe the glories of your home; clear a condition

On a miss, you inadvertently reveal more about yourself than you planned; tell them a secret or vulnerability you haven’t shared with the living before now.

What does the community think about villains who come with their own game rules, not just villain moves? Here’s an example.