Per the philosophy of AW (play to find out what happens) I'd assume they'd be mostly starting points, yeah.
I was thinking of revealing the initial drama ("opening crawl") way in advance - something about a "second apocalypse" cult, with the twist being that one of the players gets to be its leader.
I could start the session with a provocative question - "saaaay. What makes you think there's going to be a second apocalypse?"
And see where it goes :P
The only snag being that I don't like Hocus as a one-off playbook a lot - it has mechanics that are the coolest when the game covers longer timespans.
It's a character playbook/class - basically a cult leader. They have followers who provide barter goods and other benefits on a per-session basis, but also can (and by my experience, will) cause trouble for the Hocus.
Basically every session open with a roll for the Hocus. Hard hit, their followers are in surplus. Soft hit, they have surplus for the Hocus, but also have some want to be addressed. Miss, no surplus for the Hocus but only needs to be addressed. Want options include stuff like "Hunger", "Desertion", "Disease"... basically stuff that goes down if the Hocus rolls badly and neglects treating the consequences.
For example, if the Cult's want list includes Desertion, and the Hocus rolls 7-9, I'd have the Hocus noticing that some prominent member and their family is absent from the ceremonies, and upon further investigation has actually decided to leave the flock. I'd then give the player a chance to find them to get them back, or just ignore the situation and appear weak.
"Getting them back" might mean roughing them up, or bribes, flattery, meeting some more specific needs the family has... there's so many options in AW.
Anyway, this is a bad move for a one-off. I don't want the entire adventure being dictated by this single move.
Dungeon World lacks this self-destructive classes, though. Barbarian is one possible idea - you can go around pursuing your Herculean appetites at the risk of ruining absolutely anything!
A friend pointed out that while AW grants exp for any rolls made with highlighted stats, it sort of rewards failure anyway... because a failed roll typically sets the player up for further rolls, while a successful roll usually averts the danger for a good while.
Some of those Limited Ed playbooks are really cool concepts. Maestro'd is a particular favorite - I'm actually playing one now.
There's also the Quarantine (a special operative placed in stasis before the Apocalypse), which AW2e handbook describes quite well as being a good way to inject "modern day sensibility" in the Apocalypse World - with the warning that such sensibility makes one extremely unsuited for living in Apocalypse World.
It's in the context of the Beast playbook, and I think it's just taking the moves from a monster and writing them in your PC playbook. But I'm not sure how that mechanises.
Monster moves are, like just a phrase, and that makes sense for monsters.
But I'm not sure how it works for PCs.
> Beast-Blooded Your heritage includes the blood of a beast or a monster. Describe your species, appearance, and cultural heritage, choosing anything or any combination of things that sounds interesting to you. Choose up to three heritage moves to start with, based on the monster moves that best match your heritage.
> Hunter Add either “Track by scent” or “Move silently” to your list of heritage moves. This does not count towards your maximum number of heritage moves.
Does that basically just give me permission to do those things?
It shouldn't. Typically a move shouldn't mean that "you can't do X unless you have this move", and "moving silently" sounds like something you could at least attempt without it.
I like how AW and DW encourage the GM to invent new moves when the situation calls for it, but it can get problematic. Like the Druid, in DW, is supposed to receive new moves for any animal form they transform into - and that list is for all practical purposes unlimited.
So say your player says "ok, so the gnoll's charging into me? I'm attuned with the forest, so I quickly concentrate my mind on the essence of the squirrel and adopt its form to get out of the way"
The GM: "Okay, do the rollings. And please wait 3 minutes while I come up with your new squirrel moves"
@kviiri I think "Move Silently" might be somewhat similar to "bend bars, lift gates": Of course you can do that action in the fiction, or something like it. Maybe not move without any noise, but at least good sneaking.
But it is likely qou defying the danger of getting caught or whatever.
@BESW So might Move silently, if it's not explicitly spelled out. If the move is named but never defined, I assume it's meant for the GM to define (and bad design, imo).
Hmm... @BESW @Shalvenay I'm in discord now and have no idea what I'm looking at. I've got a chat window, a list of people (not all of whom I recognize), and lots of hovering exclamation marks. And their help "?" doesn't seem very helpful. I've got a meeting then lunch now, but I'll be back in a few hours.
I'm asking due to this question in particular.
It's a question about the 7th Sea 2e RPG, and we have a new user who was a designer for the game. Currently the answer he's supplied is marked as requiring additional references, which seems a little absurd.
Is there a method to handle users like th...
I'm designing a mechanical and magical lock trap, with the systems backing each other up.
It works by having a manacle as the release mechanism for unlocking it, and if a person tries to mess around with it via a disable trap, a spell trap of blades will come into effect. Also trying to disable the trap by casting dispell magic will activate the spell blades.
Even if the would be thief gets past the the mechanical and magical blades, the lock has one final trick: when you get to the end of the hole, you need to grab ahold of a handle
in doing so a rod goes through the manacle, and the person needs to turn their wrist (without the manacle would break the wrist bones, and cause bleeding), at which point it would be released to open a passageway.
Also, how can dispelling a spell cause it to activate? I've never seen that interaction before, I've seen if a spell fails to be dispelled it activates.. but normally when dispel magic targets a permanent effect it disables that spell for a certain amount of time, yeah?
@nitsua60 the purpose is to protect a series of passages accessible only to the thief's guild
@Sandwich Basically it's GOT an antimagic spell around it already. Disspelling the antimagic with another antimagic spell would cause the magic to activate.
@doppelgreener the spells (and mechanical aspects) would be turned off by the spell (basically all of the aspects of this system are custom spells and mechanism built for this purpose, designed specifically to turn off in the presence of the manacle.
@JesseCohoon oic. quite clever. (i wonder if dispelling dispells absolutely everything though, magic and antimagic. i am not an expert in this though, that is why i am wondering.)
@nitsua60 who sticks their hands into strange holes in buildings? A) The foolish/ stupid/ insane B) the curious C) those who are in pursuit of a guild member. They're trying to discourage all 3. If someone gets hurt/ killed in the process, it's not their concern
Ironically our official merch store does not have any hats, but code HAVEFUN does get you 20% off (today only): http://www.redbubble.com/people/evilhat/shop?asc=u
@nitsua60 anyways, such holes would likely be a (3D&D 3,5/ pathfinder) DC 30 to find (the size of an arm, and deep as it will go), at the end of a dark alley no less!
@JesseCohoon He means, the purpose of the trap as a game element (in D&D-like systems) is usually to expend some of the party's resources before a major setpiece encounter.
And that's important: what's your goal for this trap, as the GM?
As written, it sounds like something you don't want the PCs to engage with.
@BESW actually, I do, ironically enough! The manacle is something that thieves in the upper echelon of the organization gets (not always by choice). But it's a HUGE trade off. This manacle can't be removed, and it takes up two valuable magic slots on the body (the hands, you can't use gloves or any sort of bracelets, as it's too large to allow for either.
@BESW (I got this idea from the Manacle of Osirus on the cartoon and movie "The Mummy") But it allows immunity to the blade barrier spell (it short circuits the spell, even though their system is custom for what they're doing)
@BESW because it also kinda turns off magic, for some things it could provide a sort of spell resistance.
@Miniman I suspect that his goal is to have it undisarmable: sounds like the purpose of the trap is to be a chokepoint for the plot with only a single solution for advancement.
eg, it's less about getting into the guild and more about forcing someone to strap a great honking plot device to their wrist.
And, well. Every group is different but in most of the games I've run all I'd have to do is say, "I've got a plot device that I need someone to strap to their wrist" and they'd start fighting over who got the honour.
Whereas if I said "The only way into this place you want to go is to [do the thing]," my players would instead take that as a challenge and spend the rest of the adventure finding some other way to get in. And they'd succeed.
@Miniman ist stage DC 30 (the first catch to turn off the mechanical blades), doubles for 2nd set of catches, doubles again at the 3rd, doubles again at the 4th. So 30, 60, 120, 240.
@BESW maybe partially psychological. See what solutions they can come up with. Would they be willing to kidnap someone from the guilt and make them let the PCs in?
Would they throw someone (one of themsleves, getting hurt in the process) or something they value to jam the door?
Can they figure out a way that doesn't involve the magic or mechanical aspect? (phase through the door for instance)
@BESW mechanics are one thing. But why not make them think outside the box for solutions that may not be all that obvious? And besides, my players know I run a roleplaying game, NOT a ROLL (whee! dice) playing game
But you've set up some mechanical solutions as automatic failures and others as potential successes. So instead of asking your players to leverage their mechanical ingenuity, you've set this up as a blind game of guessing.
So you've devised a fiendishly clever and effectively un-by-passable lock but you expect the players to just break down the door instead of interacting with it?
The VERY first words I'd tell the players is "you can tell by the design of this hole that it is a trap if you don't have the proper equipment to unlock it. Surely doing so will very likely injure you."
I as a player will say "ok, let's look for the door, so i can not have to mess with this thing that will injure my character."
But that's just me
And I will give hints that the door looks like it could be jimmied or something if they find it, which if they're looking at the lock they will.
@Ash even if told "you've never seen something this complex in your life. The mechanism is far beyond what you know and can tell you really shouldn't mess with it?"
user15026
Then what's the point?
user15026
The more you give me about a thing, the more I generally think 8 am supposed to do something with it
user15026
I dunno, i tend to question things like that, because I assume the more work a thing takes, the more it could be hiding something awesome
Maybe the goal is to get them easy access to all these hidden passageways easily, and without the headache of having to do so every time
@Shalvenay that would cause undue destruction to city property if done all the time. Try something like that and you'd have half the town collapse as there are passageways like that snaked throughout the town
