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Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Erebro posted:

The really hilarious bit is that you can spin "Lovecraftian god" to teenager metaphor; the Complete Outsider. They enter at the exact bottom of the social hierarchy because they've never been a part of it, maybe they were at a much different school or even homeschooled for much of their childhood. This is obviously a bad thing, but the thing is that the Outsider understands how ridiculous the whole dance is. They're something alien to the social web, something who can examine it clinically and guess at who people actually are beyond its bounds, and that scares the social web.
Speaking of "The Outsider" I've given thought to writing up a "Spirit" Skin to represent a sort of genius loci, as exemplified by the hometown kid whose family has been here for generations and feels connected to their home, but not their peers. But it's not something I feel the game is crying out for or anything.

(In my experience, the kids who entered public high school after being homeschooled their whole lives were characterized by a complete lack of perspective and being annoying as poo poo, but that's probably because they had Jesus freaks for parents.)

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Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

homeschool kids tend to come in two favors - those that got pulled out due to bullying/utterly incompetent public school or children of complete wonks (either Fundamentalists who are scared of science or dipshit hippies who believe they got an Indigo Child) and each bring their own baggage.

The Deleter
May 22, 2010
Merry loving Christmas.

Apocalypse World Third Party Playbook Party

THE MAN IN THE BOX

This is a Doctor Who gag playbook.

I like Doctor Who - it's a silly family program about an immortal alien who solves problems and saves the world. But the fandom of this show makes me cringe - partly because I used to be like them when I was in high school, and also partly because how the gently caress are you so invested in a low budget sci-fi/fantasy TV show? On top of that, Doctor Who and Apocalypse World don't work together full stop. One is a mostly light-hearted family show, the other is a gritty HBO-style slugfest. It's not peanut butter and jelly, it's peanut butter and hamburger meat. To make things worse, the version of the Doctor they've chosen is the one portrayed by Scottish actor David Tennant, whose performance consisted of a lot of catchphrases, jumping around and gurning with a face like elastic. I did not like Tennant's run.

Whoever thought this skin was a good idea was an idiot.

Stats
You always have Sharp +2. Unlike the Juggernaut, the rest of your stats are pretty good except for your Weird. You always have positive Cool as well. So you can read people well, and act when the going gets tough.

Moves
Let's start with the Box. You have a Box and it's connected to the psychic maelstrom and you have a key. Well, it can be a barrel as well. It has a few special things about it, and it also has a Want. When it's in Want, you can't use any moves involving it. We'll see if that bites us in the rear end later on!

Also, one of its Wants is "Sexual Energy." Vomit.

Your first move is Allon-sy! (uuuuugh). You try to travel somewhere in time and space with your box. Roll to Sharp to not get into huge poo poo. Options include not going insane, not putting the Box in Want, not getting into huge poo poo, and actually getting where you need to go. I suppose if you roll well you can trivialize the issue of travelling to places, or if you want to get everyone killed or lost and then killed.

Understanding weirdness lets you roll Sharp instead of Weird when you Open your Brain whilst in the Box.

So Halloween Jack professed a dislike of the Juggernaut because they rolled Sharp for everything. I think I have the same problem with this skin. The Man in the Box rolls Sharp for nearly loving everything and there aren't many situations where he won't be in the Box. Nobody is going to put the Box in Want because then you lose access to the cool poo poo your Box does. So he's going to keep rolling Sharp. I keep wanting to go into a side rant about how to make the Juggernaut want to exit their suit sometimes just so I can escape the pain of reviewing this playbook. It wouldn't be hard. Make them unable to roll Hot or manipulate people effectively something.

Come on! allows you to do augury whilst in the box. Unless you roll a ten, your Box goes into Want. Your Weird will usually be at -1 so you'll probably gently caress up and your Box will shut down. Nobody will take this move.

Talk your way out continues the theme of rolling Sharp for everything. If I read the world Sharp again I'm going to apply Sharp to my eyeballs.

Now's a good time to run is the Gunlugger's gently caress this poo poo, except you roll Sharp. It's the exact same move, they didn't even change the wording.

Aren't I clever is the perfect oxymoron. When you spout technobabble you ROLL SHARP AGAIN FOR gently caress'S SAKE, and on average you get +1 forward but all your mates take -1 forward. If you fail the roll the MC makes a hard move, which is weird because I'm pretty sure the MC can make hard moves when someone fails anyway. I like how a move that is meant to help your friends fucks them over more often than not. Good poo poo.

Special
When you vicariously live out your fanfiction at the table, ostracizing yourself from human contact forever, that character gets access to your Box. Until you do it again with someone else.

Extras
Oh good, a weapon that does Psi-harm. Praise be. How the gently caress can someone have "kinky eyes"? Leather eyelashes? The Hx aren't bad, I guess.

If anyone brings the Man in the Box to your game, laugh at them. It's the clumsiest, most ill-thought way of bringing in stupid nerd poo poo into AW.

Next time: a good playbook!

The Deleter fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Dec 23, 2014

neonchameleon
Nov 14, 2012



The Deleter posted:

and there aren't many situations where he won't be in the Box.

I can't agree here - the average episode of Dr. Who takes him out of the box for most of the episode.

The Deleter
May 22, 2010

neonchameleon posted:

I can't agree here - the average episode of Dr. Who takes him out of the box for most of the episode.

That's true. The premise of Dr Who episodes has him outside the box or often separated from it and unable to access it for periods of time. He's still rolling Sharp for everything though, which is incredibly boring, and some of his moves even stop the box from working which means the moves that DO involve the box have a chance of not working.

I also admit writing this stream of consciousness style because time spent on a loving Doctor Who playbook is time wasted.

The Deleter fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Dec 23, 2014

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

The Deleter posted:

I also admit writing this stream of consciousness style because time spent on a loving Doctor Who playbook is time wasted.

Luckily it's a Doctor Who playbook so you can get that time back :v: All you have to do is gently caress the doctor.

I like Tennant and even I find this playbook insufferable, so don't worry, that's a natural feeling.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Halloween Jack posted:

Speaking of "The Outsider" I've given thought to writing up a "Spirit" Skin to represent a sort of genius loci, as exemplified by the hometown kid whose family has been here for generations and feels connected to their home, but not their peers. But it's not something I feel the game is crying out for or anything.

(In my experience, the kids who entered public high school after being homeschooled their whole lives were characterized by a complete lack of perspective and being annoying as poo poo, but that's probably because they had Jesus freaks for parents.)

My tabletop gaming group will be playing a Christmas session of Monsterhearts tonight instead of our usual Rogue Trader campaign, and we'll be playtesting a homebrew Skin we've been working on: the Dragon. I think I've mentioned it before in this thread, but the Dragon is a teenage suddenly thrust into adult responsibilities - the example we're specifically using is a teenager who's the eldest sibling in a single-parent household with several younger siblings and so has to take care of their adult responsibility, their Hoard. The flip side is their innate drive to Rampage, to abandon their responsibility and be a teenager, enjoying themselves without a whit of concern for their Hoard. Of course, without the Dragon's protection, the Hoard is vulnerable. It's very much meant to be difficult paradox for the Dragon to struggle with and not do a good job of balancing.

Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Dec 23, 2014

Capfalcon
Apr 6, 2012

No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

While I agree with pretty much everything you said about the Muse, Gazzeter, I became inordinately fond of it once I realized that 'virtuoso skill' is very vague. For instance, what if you are... oh say.... a superhero training a sidekick?

You can play Batman and have someone else be your Robin. It really works surprisingly well. You have a secret identity with your mask. You can vanish without a trace into your hidden network of tunnels. While you are acting as Batman, you can replace Hot with Cold. You are good at threatening people. You make your Robin choose between a normal life and crime fighting.

Even the darkest self makes sense. You are now terrified that someone is going to hurt your Robin, so you hide them away so no one can do that.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:
That's a pretty good analogy up until you get to the point where you can have sex with people to make them new Robins.

Capfalcon
Apr 6, 2012

No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Kurieg posted:

That's a pretty good analogy up until you get to the point where you can have sex with people to make them new Robins.

Nope, still works! They're your lover that you obviously share this crimefighting obsession with, like Talia.

EDIT: Bonus points if they obviously couldn't care less.

"Honey, it's time for JUSTICE."
"Can't we just stay in and watch a movie?"

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:
"It's not what I am, but who I do that defines me and my protogé"

The Deleter
May 22, 2010

Kurieg posted:

It's not what I am, but who I do that defines me

This could be a tag-line for Monsterhearts, honestly. :v:

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN
My favorite Doctor Who blogger talks a bunch about the Doctor colliding into different genres, and I imagine he's hit a few AW-style worlds in his time. The idea would be how would the Doctor change AW, and how would AW change the Doctor? I can imagine you could do that with an existing playbook, though. I wouldn't even include the TARDIS, since the TARDIS just gets the Doctor from story to story. Assume he's stuck in AW, and explore what somebody who's clever with a strong moral code would DO in that setting. Would he try and reform the local gangs? Overthrow the worst bad guys? Say 'gently caress it' and roll with the least-bad people as a mechanic/clever guy (which I think is already a playbook)? There was somebody who tried to do a Doctor Who run of Fallout: New Vegas, mostly talking or lockpicking, and that would be cool.

I mean, Tom Baker hung out with Leela, who's a Battlebabe if I've ever seen one:



And on the AW side you're dealing with a mutant who comes from the Maelstorm and talks to it and interacts with it.

Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Dec 26, 2014

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG
I'm sorry, but there's something genius about the Doctor Who bullshit playbook using Aren't I clever as the name of a move that fucks up the game for everyone else. I'd call it a piss-take on their customer base, if I thought it was intentional.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer

The Deleter posted:


I like Doctor Who - it's a silly family program about an immortal alien who solves problems and saves the world. But the fandom of this show makes me cringe - partly because I used to be like them when I was in high school, and also partly because how the gently caress are you so invested in a low budget sci-fi/fantasy TV show? On top of that, Doctor Who and Apocalypse World don't work together full stop. One is a mostly light-hearted family show, the other is a gritty HBO-style slugfest. It's not peanut butter and jelly, it's peanut butter and hamburger meat

Good point, bad analogy. I'm told goober burgers can be pretty tasty.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Maxwell Lord posted:

Good point, bad analogy. I'm told goober burgers can be pretty tasty.

Yep. Slather a fresh hot burger with some peanut butter, load a few strips of bacon on there and some shredded lettuce, you've got a ridiculously tasty thing happening.

The Deleter
May 22, 2010
This thread is just full of wrong opinions! :freep:

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

I liked Tennant's Doctor, but his season is when the flaws in Russell T Davies' "vision" and direction really started to rear it's ugly head.

But it's amazing how many people tried to wedge square pegs into round holes, wouldn't be surprised there's a Brony Playbook.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

theironjef posted:

Yep. Slather a fresh hot burger with some peanut butter, load a few strips of bacon on there and some shredded lettuce, you've got a ridiculously tasty thing happening.
Do you really mean this, or is someone threatening to send you to the cornfield?

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Halloween Jack posted:

Do you really mean this, or is someone threatening to send you to the cornfield?

Judge me not lest ye have also surrendered to the beacon of ecstasy that is the peanut butter bacon burger.

I hate mayo but my understanding is that it is also customarily added. I would suggest against it.

Covok
May 27, 2013

Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

Robindaybird posted:

I liked Tennant's Doctor, but his season is when the flaws in Russell T Davies' "vision" and direction really started to rear it's ugly head.

But it's amazing how many people tried to wedge square pegs into round holes, wouldn't be surprised there's a Brony Playbook.

Oh, definitely. There will ALWAYS be dudes in tabletop games who are just like "I want to play my favorite character from X series in my favorite game" regardless of how bad of an idea it is. It's a mix of not understanding game focus and the fact that is an idea that has been with the hobby from the beginning (a lot of the original, classic character classes were made to emulate characters from the creator's favorite book series).

The Deleter
May 22, 2010
I'm not aware of a Brony playbook, but rest assured if it exists, I won't touch the poop. That thing can stay buried.

Gazetteer
Nov 22, 2011

"You're talking to cats."
"And you eat ghosts, so shut the fuck up."

Covok posted:

Oh, definitely. There will ALWAYS be dudes in tabletop games who are just like "I want to play my favorite character from X series in my favorite game" regardless of how bad of an idea it is. It's a mix of not understanding game focus and the fact that is an idea that has been with the hobby from the beginning (a lot of the original, classic character classes were made to emulate characters from the creator's favorite book series).

That's even kind of the point of Powered by the Apocalypse playbooks (skins, classes, archetypes, whatever a given game is calling them) -- they're explicitly designed to emulate certain characters/character archetypes. The whole idea is that you can play a certain playbook, and go "oh, so I'm Buffy!" and then the playbooks mechanics are all about being Buffy or whatever. The idea that "I can play as my favourite character from X!" is an assumption that is baked right into the system... just there is sometimes a failure to understand that this has limitations, and that these games are designed very specifically to work within a certain genre. So you can't just throw the Doctor into Apocalypse World, and you can't just throw a loving Scooby Doo character into Monster of the Week -- a game which has "Kick Some rear end" as one of its basic moves.

The really unfortunate part is that one of these examples is fan content, and the other is not.

homerlaw
Sep 21, 2008

Plants are the best ergo Sylvari=Best

Gazetteer posted:

So you can't just throw the Doctor into Apocalypse World, and you can't just throw a loving Scooby Doo character into Monster of the Week -- a game which has "Kick Some rear end" as one of its basic moves.

Have you seen Shaggy on a bad day?

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Kai Tave posted:

I'll be honest, a number of conditions that people make up for Monsterhearts remind me of that guy who makes Fate aspects based on how cool he thinks they sound, not whether or not they convey what they're intended to represent appropriately.
Granted, I am incredibly cranky, but stuff like that actually turned me off from trying more narrative-based systems for awhile. McDaldno has even talked about how important it was to be accessible, rather than "poetic" (I would say glib) when writing the rulebook.

Gazetteer posted:

That's even kind of the point of Powered by the Apocalypse playbooks (skins, classes, archetypes, whatever a given game is calling them) -- they're explicitly designed to emulate certain characters/character archetypes. The whole idea is that you can play a certain playbook, and go "oh, so I'm Buffy!" and then the playbooks mechanics are all about being Buffy or whatever. The idea that "I can play as my favourite character from X!" is an assumption that is baked right into the system... just there is sometimes a failure to understand that this has limitations, and that these games are designed very specifically to work within a certain genre. So you can't just throw the Doctor into Apocalypse World, and you can't just throw a loving Scooby Doo character into Monster of the Week -- a game which has "Kick Some rear end" as one of its basic moves.
That said, playbooks tend not to go so well when you model them on one specific character. Especially because, as someone else pointed out in this thread, a lot of film characters build up to a climax that is very final. Carrie didn't have to go to school the week after she freaked out and murdered everyone.

Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Dec 27, 2014

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
edit:dp

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
I think a certain degree of poeticism is fine and even better at conveying intent than something dry and utilitarian. Spirit of the Century, one of the first not-completely-obscure Fate games actually discussed this, mentioning that "Strong," for example, is a perfectly functional aspect but does little to inspire the imagination on either end of the GM screen, while "Bull In a China Shop," though more florid, speaks more to the character and how they're strong (reckless, destructive, clumsy) and provides a better springboard for creative invocations and compels.

But it's when you start having things like The Serpentine skin who can give people the condition "Snake Food" and it's like, okay, but what does that mean?

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Kai Tave posted:

I think a certain degree of poeticism is fine and even better at conveying intent than something dry and utilitarian. Spirit of the Century, one of the first not-completely-obscure Fate games actually discussed this, mentioning that "Strong," for example, is a perfectly functional aspect but does little to inspire the imagination on either end of the GM screen, while "Bull In a China Shop," though more florid, speaks more to the character and how they're strong (reckless, destructive, clumsy) and provides a better springboard for creative invocations and compels.

"Bull In a China Shop" doesn't say that you're strong though; it just says that you're clumsy, possibly in an aggressive or reckless manner. You could probably convince your table that your "Bull in a China Shop"-Aspect describes your strength, but it's a pretty misleading name.

Grnegsnspm
Oct 20, 2003

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarian 2: Electric Boogaloo

theironjef posted:

Judge me not lest ye have also surrendered to the beacon of ecstasy that is the peanut butter bacon burger.

I hate mayo but my understanding is that it is also customarily added. I would suggest against it.

You might not think peanut butter and mayo on a burger would be good. You would be wrong. It's so goddamn good.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Grnegsnspm posted:

You might not think peanut butter and mayo on a burger would be good. You would be wrong. It's so goddamn good.
Probably not if he just hates mayo in general though.

Heliotrope
Aug 17, 2007

You're fucking subhuman

Kai Tave posted:

I think a certain degree of poeticism is fine and even better at conveying intent than something dry and utilitarian. Spirit of the Century, one of the first not-completely-obscure Fate games actually discussed this, mentioning that "Strong," for example, is a perfectly functional aspect but does little to inspire the imagination on either end of the GM screen, while "Bull In a China Shop," though more florid, speaks more to the character and how they're strong (reckless, destructive, clumsy) and provides a better springboard for creative invocations and compels.

But it's when you start having things like The Serpentine skin who can give people the condition "Snake Food" and it's like, okay, but what does that mean?

It does tell you what it means in the "Playing the Serpentine" section though

quote:

The Condition snake food can work in two ways: it can be represent your enmity and brooding anger towards this person, or it can represent your desire to kill them. Other characters are able to interact with this Condition, if they can justify doing so in the fiction.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
I am legitimately disappointed that it doesn't allow the Serpentine to literally distend their jaw and devour someone whole, 3/10 would not recommend.

Gazetteer
Nov 22, 2011

"You're talking to cats."
"And you eat ghosts, so shut the fuck up."
Well, the Serpentine can turn into a snake monster, so there's no reason a player couldn't describe that as the result of a fatal Lash Out Physically roll without needing a special move or condition. Probably not going to fly with a PC, but sucks to be Ricky from chemistry class or whatever.

sexpig by night
Sep 8, 2011

by Azathoth
Yea when you can go snake monster and the other option for what that condition describes is your desire to kill them you can totally just chomp down on Jimmy if you Lash Out hard enough. Probably a poo poo move to do to another PC but NPCs basically exist to be props in these stories half the time.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry

Count Chocula posted:

My favorite Doctor Who blogger talks a bunch about the Doctor colliding into different genres, and I imagine he's hit a few AW-style worlds in his time. The idea would be how would the Doctor change AW, and how would AW change the Doctor? I can imagine you could do that with an existing playbook, though. I wouldn't even include the TARDIS, since the TARDIS just gets the Doctor from story to story. Assume he's stuck in AW, and explore what somebody who's clever with a strong moral code would DO in that setting. Would he try and reform the local gangs? Overthrow the worst bad guys? Say 'gently caress it' and roll with the least-bad people as a mechanic/clever guy (which I think is already a playbook)? There was somebody who tried to do a Doctor Who run of Fallout: New Vegas, mostly talking or lockpicking, and that would be cool.

I mean, Tom Baker hung out with Leela, who's a Battlebabe if I've ever seen one:

And on the AW side you're dealing with a mutant who comes from the Maelstorm and talks to it and interacts with it.

Pretty sure The Quarantine is like, exactly this? Dude from a better time with a cleaner moral compass who might well be trying to fix things.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN

Covok posted:

Oh, definitely. There will ALWAYS be dudes in tabletop games who are just like "I want to play my favorite character from X series in my favorite game" regardless of how bad of an idea it is. It's a mix of not understanding game focus and the fact that is an idea that has been with the hobby from the beginning (a lot of the original, classic character classes were made to emulate characters from the creator's favorite book series).

The idea of The Doctor IS that he jumps between genres easily, and Apocolypse World sounds like a perfect place for him to show up as a guest star. The Psychic Maelstorm even sounds like something from the new series.

That blogger also reviewed the FASA Dr Who RPG.

The Deleter
May 22, 2010

Count Chocula posted:

The idea of The Doctor IS that he jumps between genres easily, and Apocolypse World sounds like a perfect place for him to show up as a guest star. The Psychic Maelstorm even sounds like something from the new series.

Except he doesn't? There's many different interpretations and ways he's played by different actors, but the show is ostensibly kid-friendly despite all of the gruesome deaths and dark themes. It's a completely different kind of show than the ones Apocalypse World is based on, where death and sexuality is depicted more starkly and the outcome of an episode isn't 100% guaranteed to be a happy ending. He doesn't work in AW thematically, not without some serious changes. It's the complete opposite of "perfect" from him. Also,

Glazius posted:

Pretty sure The Quarantine is like, exactly this? Dude from a better time with a cleaner moral compass who might well be trying to fix things.

If you want to play as a naive outsider trying to fix things, don't force your stupid nerd fantasy on the people at your table and play the well-written playbook instead.

Apocalypse World Third Party Playbook Party

THE BEAST MASTER

The Beast Master has a monster pet, and spends much of their time trying to stop it from breaking poo poo. Ironically, after slagging off a Doctor Who playbook, I'm now looking at one that could basically be a Pokemon one. There's a lot of "boy and his monster" stuff to play on, though, and the artwork reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus, so you can basically play this any way you want to. Let's hope this is the good playbook I promised!

Stats:
You always have +2 in Hot. A quick look at the moves says that, sadly, you're rolling Hot for everything, mostly to manipulate your monster into doing stuff. The rest of your stats are below average.

I wonder if people will realise it's okay for a playbook to do something with a stat that isn't its best one, or that not all of the moves have to involve a roll. The default playbooks have maybe two or three moves that use a roll, and the rest are changes in situation, or give armor, or even roll a stat that the character might suck balls in. It's okay to do that! Failure means interesting things happen! The MC isn't your adversary but they can make interesting stuff happen if you fail, and surely that's the point?

Moves:
Let's begin with your monster. It's a 2-harm small gang with 0 armor. If it ever gets out of control, you let it satisfy one of its Impulses to bring it back. I immediately like this more than the fans of the Spectacle, because despite having four or five Impulses at once, they don't all fire at once and cause a narrative headache, and you could even turn the monster's desires upon a foe or obstacle and help yourself out. There are, of course, still way too many Impulse tags - you even get one for choosing its shape, for goodness sake. Also there's another psi-harm atttack

There is a way to remove Impulse tags! Your advances can remove Impulses instead of gaining new moves! Holy crap! That's a cool decision - do you try and teach your monster new commands and risk it going out of control, or make it tamer but less versatile? I wish there were less Impulses in the first place, but this seems to be a good halfway house.

You also can get, as an advance, some kind of breeding pit or training ground - hopefully not the former because one monster is enough of a handful! This is basically "make a location" as a move. It's also a place where you train your beast, and it works kind of like a Ritual from Dungeon World, in that you can specify what you want to do, and you WILL accomplish that task, but the MC has a few caveats for you. I like this because the Ritual move owns for doing what you want, and it works well in Apoc World too because it follows the same sort of negotiation the MC and the players do. I'm not too happy about the outcome, where you can make up a new addon or move for your monster, because this and previous F&Fs show that people can't seem to come up with good moves when they have all the time in the world so I'm not sure they'd come up with something good at the table. Unless it was something simple, like a stat boost or something.

It's also noted that you need 2-barter a month to look after and feed your monster. A 20-foot-tall ragebeast is for life, not just for Christmas!

Your initial move is Fetch! and it's basically what you think it is. You roll to send your monster to do something or fetch something, and it could get distracted or come back harmed. You have a decent chance of succeeding here, which is good because on a miss its been completely diverted by an Impulse. I don't really have a lot to say about the move, to be honest, except it seems to be themed around your monster dropping out of sight so you don't see what happens to it. That doesn't preclude stuff where you're there, though. It'd be pretty funny to tell your monster to break down a wall and it stops halfway through to chase a butterfly or throw bricks at people.

8th Wonder of the Apocalypse is a really cool name. Your monster gets bigger, and it also gets the Impulse to crush stuff. I'm not 100% on gang mechanics, and I'm not sure it's worth taking this move to risk the added Impulse.

Beast Rider is a stat replacement move, where if you're going into battle with your beast, you can roll Hot instead of Hard. I think there ought to be the additional caveat you having to order your beast to sic someone to get the roll, in order to separate you manipulating the monster from you attacking someone yourself.

Law of the Wild does what I mentioned earlier! If you just say "gently caress it" and let your monster be a dickhole to everyone and follow its Impulses, you mark experience. It rewards you for doing something that's already mentioned - letting it satisfy an Impulse to get it under control. There's no mention of what to do when you want to get it under control more directly, but you could probably just roll to Manipulate for that. It does raise the question of why letting your monster run crazy for exp isn't baked in already, but I suppose not alienating all the npcs with your jerk monster from day one is a pretty good thing.

Milking the Locals is a barter generating move - you take your monster on the road! You can either get 2 barter, nothing OR squeeze one barter but have to skip town, or get an angry mob coming to kill you! Since your Hot is +2 all the time, the number of mobs coming to kill you is pretty small. But you're not guaranteed to get to feed your monster this month either, so it's a pretty interesting move.

Unleashed is, as far as I can tell, just Seizing by Force but with hold, and you roll Hot. There's the additional options of them running the gently caress away, and if you mess up your monster follows an Impulse. Not terribly interesting, but it's better than just saying "roll Hot when you Sieze by Force," plus Beast Rider does that already.

Special:
Anyone you have sex with gets +1 Hold with which to help or interfere with you when you're controlling your beast. I suspect a lot of these hold-based sex moves are the fault of the Faceless, the creepy brute from the Limited Edition playbooks. I'd have put something like "your monster won't ever hurt that person, and they can give it commands as per Fetch" or something not clumsily worded.

Extras:
The names are all references to "boy and his monster" stuff, and also Dr Dolittle for some reason. You can also call your monster Gidorah or "Good Jirra" which is a very mush-mouthed take on Gojira/Godzilla. Your Hx revolves around your beast liking or not liking people, which is pretty cool and focuses on the theme of you having to devote all of your time to this thing.

I somewhat like the Beast Master, but it's not perfect. Its got elements of that cargo cult third party design - always rolling your one good stat, too many rolls, way too many tags/effects on things. Much like the Juggernaut, this could be a really good playbook with a bit of tinkering. I'd drop the impulses from the shape selection of the monster, and make 8th Wonder change an Impulse, to represent the monster getting bigger and clumsier/meaner. I'd also try and remove some of the rolls for moves or make ones where you roll a lesser stat, and fiddle with the stat choice so you don't get +2 Hot every drat time.

Next time: And death followed with him!

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

Sadly, I rather have the playbook retooled into something more familiar with the genre, like "A Boy And His Dog" or at least like Stinger and her falcon in Wheels Of Fire.

At least, there should have been different beasts that you start with as pets that have varying stats other than "2-harm gang with 0 armor". Seriously, a "gang" tag? I know that the Gunlugger can have that tag, but starting off, I'm seeing more like a gang of piranha chihuahuas than a single "beast".

Tasoth
Dec 13, 2011
You could also just change it by having weapon choices be the actual monsters and modify the standard moves and add unique moves that would fit with a monster handler. Like using +sharp to take hold of something when you threaten to unload you monster or being able to use weird/cool to have the monster relay information from some distance away.

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Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

Considering there's an epic-length crossover fanfiction between MLP and Fallout 3 that many bronies consider the highest of arts, the chances of there NOT being a pony AW thing are very close to zero.

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