Separate Looks, Bonds, Drives* and Backgrounds* from the playbooks.

Separate Looks, Bonds, Drives* and Backgrounds* from the playbooks.

Separate Looks, Bonds, Drives* and Backgrounds* from the playbooks. Make those bits workable for all classes though some backgrounds only work with certain moves.

* I stopped using Alignment and Race a long time ago *

Playbooks tell you the usual; HP base, Load base, starting moves, starting gear and damage die.

But something new! Each class has a type such as martial, arcane, divine, shadow, primal or whatever. Advanced moves are labeled with a type. You can take any move upon leveling up if it matches with your type. Some moves require other moves or can only be taken on epic levels (6-10), called epic moves. Some move requirements are starter moves. Starter moves cannot be taken by a different class though Advanced Moves may include lesser versions of them. Characters can take moves from other types, but only a maximum of two and only one of those may be an epic (6-10) move.

What do you folks think? Am I crazy?! Does this defeat the entire point of DW?!?!

10 thoughts on “Separate Looks, Bonds, Drives* and Backgrounds* from the playbooks.”

  1. 1. Looks have been optional from the start (unless I’m remembering wrong, they’re just there for quick,easy,I don’t care character creation.

    2. I like having drives as a class based mechanic, because one element of the game isn’t to be entirely freeform, but instead to have a carved out niche (class) that you can fit a number of concepts in.

    to that end, I feel like Drives should stay as they’re a sort of “These are the types of themes and situations this class was designed to deal with.” but in a pinch or if a player is really into a concept, as GM I’d totally allow substitutions here.

    3. I am working on a hack with backgrounds myself. (You can see this more specifically on my Luminary Adept class in the base classes section)

    The general idea is this.

    Remove the existing backgrounds entirely, if they’re cool enough keep them around as extra Drives instead.

    In place of backgrounds I would revamp Compendium Classes and greatly expand them.

    Compendium Classes for various professions, or callings, and so on. I would add a section to each playbook called Background Compendium Classes BCCs that are tailored to be neat additions or modifications to the class they come with. (eg Turn the Paladin into a BCC of the Fighter, etc.)

    And so at character creation you choose a BCC (or just CC) and take the first move of the CC and explain in your backstory how you met the requirement to get the class

    I’d expand to include werewolf and vampire CCs, I have ideas for a few racial BCCs, or having some specific requirements (like must be an elf, or must be trained by an elf master, or must have Seeing Red) I would stay away from making an entire class a requirement, but a class move would be interesting. imagine a Bard taking cast a spell which may be the requirement for a True-namer or Pied Piper style CC about making magical music or something.

    4. The types thing is where I’d have to say I 100%, without reservation disagree with you. They’re an artifact of the type of game that doesn’t focus on the fiction. They add nothing that isn’t either covered by tags, or just saying ‘I hit it with my fiery/icy/shadowy/acid-y axe!’ and keeping it in the fiction, you’re still doing class damage after all.

    It’s just a tad too fiddly for a system that really, really, works best when you keep it as simple as possible.

  2. I like all this modularity. Also, it doesn’t break the game, so you can put even all the stuff (race, alignment, background, drive, death moves etc.) altogether!

    Finally, I like alignment, ’cause usually my players forget how to play their character’s emotions and actions, slowly returning to their “standard” behaviour. A simple move can do a lot to keep’ em aware, not just for the extra XP.

  5. Believe some of the compendium classes might have something like this but haven’t read them all to see. Would expect something like this though on those expanded classes.

  6. Andrea: I respect your opinion on Alignments. I to prefer Drives on a personal level. 🙂 But this hack would work with either/or.

    This whole thing is about opening up character options. I have a general purpose character sheet made to plug in all of the bits. It is amazing how clean it looks when you are expected to transcribe the choices you make from one source to the character sheet.

    Looks are blank but you can roll a d66 chart to generate Eyes, Hair, Clothes, Body and a Unique Thing… or take inspiration from the chart or simply write your own words.

    I have all of the smaller bits separated into their own documents now. The real challenge is organizing the vast wealth of advanced moves into proper categories to remove that burden from players.

  7. Now that I have been working on this project a little longer (I only have three classes left)… I think what I’ll do is keep the character sheet for each class but set it up so that the bits can be plugged in easily. Then advanced moves will just be written on the blank back side or gathered as cards.

  8. Character sheets for 11 classes are done.

    Separating and organizing the moves is done. Some classes kept many of there advanced moves as ones only they can take while others greatly contributed to the general pool.

    In the general pool I have arcane moves (11), martial moves (34), social moves (13) and support moves (28).

    It is starting to dawn on me that I may never be able to share this project due to the fact that a huge percentage of the writing doesn’t belong to me. 🙁 I borrowed a lot of moves from various sources, including published playbooks. Whoops…

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