18 thoughts on “Hi there!”

  3. I’m trying to think about a move that enables a PC to command a group of fighting NPCs. Maybe not thousands or hundreds, but enough NPCs that it would be overtly complicated and boring to stat all of them as hirelings. I looked for the chopper and the hardholder moves in AW and they were pretty cool… but in AW there are stats and precise rules for gangs combat, are they not? It would feel arbitrary to give a PC a move with holds to spend for keeping their men in line or making them attack, if ultimately the GM decides it all…

  5. I like how DW handles this stuff: it’s just you and your party. Sort of, one-party-army. Everyone else, at the very best, can give you a significant help, but is otherwise helpless. Only the pcs can change the world for the better, whether it’s a small or a big change, and to do it, they have to be in the front line, not in the back giving orders.

    (it’s obviously very different from the grim & gritty perspective of AW)

  6. Well, I don’t think that a Compendium Class move to make a PC command a group of NPCs could bring to a less-than-protagonist group. It’s just an asset that no one else has, like casting spells or communing with deities…

  7. Alessandro Gianni, the Guildleader (compendium class) has a move which allows him to create himself a Lieutenant which he will play thoroughly without any restritions (it’s no more no less a second PC controlled by the same player). Depriving this PC (or a gang of them) of a name and a face is, imho, less of a “spotlight steal” than a full grown character with its own sheet.

  8. I agree with Alessandro that it’s a smidge off-theme–but, if your theme is more along the lines of Dynasty Warriors, with awesome commanders supported by armies that are there but don’t really steal the spotlight, then it could be rad. Whatever your group likes, really.

    Anyway, I don’t know of such a thing, aside from the True Friend (fan-made class) which sort of implicitly has a lot of loosely-represented minions floating around. That said, off-the-cuff, maybe something like…

    When you lead a troupe of redshirts to accomplish a straightforward goal, roll +CHA. On a 10+, choose 1. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a miss, something has gone horribly wrong. They die like lemmings, surrender to the enemy, or suddenly remember that they all left their irons on back at home. You are unable to use this move until you replenish your troops, in addition to whatever other consequences the GM decides.

    ~They suffer serious losses. Take -1 ongoing to this move until you replenish their ranks.

    ~In the confusion of battle, they get in your way. Take -1 forward to your next action.

    ~They misunderstood your command, and accomplish something similar to what you intended instead.

  9. I know well the guildleader, being the highest level character in my campaign one 🙂

    No one said you should deprive them of name or faces. In fact, you may want to name every person. More over, the lieutenant, as you said, has full pc stats and is in fact a second pc (like the one you may take at level 10+). So it’s not a gang, nor an npc.

    Speaking of the guildleader: we named and described in full detail at least 6 important guildmembers, 3 of which are very powerful npcs. The last time the guildleader sent one of these three to “take care” of a rival guild. It was a slaughter and the pc’s guild didn’t suffer any loss.

    That is: allied npcs vs. enemy npcs could win or lose, the gm will decide depending on the fiction. But sure thing is, they’re not protagonists. They don’t deserve rolls.

    If you want to shift a bit what’s the game about, like the most wise James Etheridge said, that’s totally fine. Just build up some custom move!

  10. …suggestions and advice about building up custom moves is what I was asking from the beginning. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Again. 

    Btw, thanks James Etheridge that’s not bad at all! 🙂

  11. uh I posted this before I saw your reply. I realized this, but I felt it was constructive to point out these things 🙂

    It’s the same as the ranger’s companion. It doesn’t roll. Ever. You don’t roll to command it. Ever. You just have powerful boons if it’s helping you in specific circumstances.

  12. I read it as asking whether there were any such moves among official sources, though your latter posts made the point a little more clear. In any event, thanks and happy to help! 🙂

    Edit: Alessandro’s suggestion about the animal companion parallel would be another excellent way of going about it!

  13. I did a mass fight move a while back. The dropbox link is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gmodmpejffykmv1/mobfights.doc

    I found in playtest that  it was too complicated and removed the “defy danger-mob fight” move. The simpler move is now in my Pirates! sourcebook (on RPGNow.com and DrivethruRPG.com) as the Boarding Move. It is the same except that the “defy danger – mob fight” was removed. It now works quite well.

  14. Not sure if this is useful or not, but gang combat rules are broken in the original AW. by the RAW, you can throw grenades in the midle of a Large gang with 2-armor all day and deal no damage.

  15. Nikitas Thlimmenos, a fair bit of Pirate World’s new Hireling mechanics is devoted to a new type of Hireling, mobs and crowds. i.e. large groups of Hirelings!

    The rules for commanding them are pretty simple, basically Order Hireling (roll +Loyalty) but the drawbacks of commanding a crowd are higher than normal Hirelings; their Loyalty is specifically much more fickle, and they’re nearly impossible to aim at a unique target.

    One of the main classes (the Fanatic) has moves specifically about controlling an angry crowd. Here’s the Fanatic Preview:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz0lilU7GQ4cMnhySkgwQV9PbW8/edit?usp=sharing

    The basic skill, Rabble Rouser, allows you to create a crowd or mob that you can incite to violence, and there are more advanced skills that specifically build on that.

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