Weird question… has anyone tried modifying DW so that it’s skills rather than ability scores?
For example, use ability score arrangement for 5 skills, with the ‘8’ being for ‘everything else’ (that is, -1 on rolls involving a skill ‘you don’t have’).
So, you might have Archery and Survival skills that are rolled for a variety of attack, tracking, or discerning moves.
My first thought is “Almost definitely.” But to take a step back for a moment… what are you trying to accomplish by doing this?
It might make more sense to call it a Moves as skills system than abilities as skills. Ranger class would have access to skills (moves) that others don’t. All characters would have access to “Everyman Skills” (i.e.: Basic Moves). Maybe something like that?
Yes, you could make the game more complicated as much as you wish, but… what’s the real advantage in doing so? ?__?
Would work. I’d love to see a good a skill system written as moves.
Marty: The goal is stylistic. I’m actually thinking of tweaking DW into a scifi game, and, stylistically, SF embraces a more modernist notion that your character is what you’ve learned, not something innate to you.
Having Engineering vs. Intelligence.
I mean, I can certainly just keep ability scores and describe them as rolling up a lot of learning, too (it’s not how strong you are but a combination of training and innate physique), but … style.
Mattia: It’s no more complicated to say ‘Roll Int to Discern Realities on this ancient scroll’ than ‘Roll Occult Lore to Discern Realities on this ancient scroll.’
Well… my advice is more or less always the same: read Apocalypse World, it has chapters about how to hack it that could help you to make it in the easiest and most effective way possible.
Hacking an hack (DW) is less effective than going “to the source” (AW).
William Timmins If you’re considering re-hacking DW, I think I’d back up to AW as well. Some of the D&Disms in DW should be chucked for a SciFi game, IMHO. (Of course, there’s a lot of sci fi genres, too.
In any case, I think that you could accomplish something skill-like by having class-specific attributes to reflect their core competencies. Then base your moves off of those. You would then also need to consider carefully what remaining “core” or universal attributes and moves you would need to reflect your specific genre.
something simililar has been already done, like in World of Dungeons by john harper. There you stil have stats and also skills, like lore, survival etc.
Thanks for advice to go back to source (I admit I haven’t looked at it yet… heh)
And World of Dungeons.
Thanks!
Now I just have to figure out, if I go this way with my STL SciFi game, how to work ‘worlds’ into a title for a game where the entire setting is in the Oort Cloud. Um.
Edit: Totally misunderstood the premise. Carry on.
Maybe go with the “roles” idea of Leverage (a Cortex+ game based on the TNT show). Every PC has 5 roles as a stat (Mastermind, Grifter, Hacker, Hitter and Thief). Whenever they are trying to do something fitting one of those roles, that’s the role they roll. (http://doabarrelroll.co/ Sorry.)
Looking over AW, it looks like changing the basic stats is, obviously, doable.
(Also, I’m glad I encountered DW first, because WOW AW reads like a hipster 80s game. Sex moves, really?)
But good comments about moves and skills.
I’ll have to think long and hard about what I want to embrace as ‘what characters are,’ what impression to leave players, and what kinds of compatibility I want to leave with different supplements.
If I cleave to a more DW-like game, I give people freedom to pulp it up or otherwise tweak it as needed with DW supplements, so that’s a good point.
I also speak to a greater familiarity and design … commonality with a lot of gamers — people have some idea of what to expect and how to think of Str, Con, Wis, etc.
What do folks think of hit points vs. AW debility thing?
Btw, it is not up to the GM but the shared created fiction at the table. The GM has very little actual say about what moves you trigger.
Check out J. Walton’s “Planarch Codex.” Lot of good stuff there to adapt for a sci-fi or sci-fantasy setting. Here’s a quick link to his blog: http://corvidsun.com/category/planarch-codex/
Marshall: I’m tinkering with a more hard SF game, no magic/psi/whatsis.
(Though people can certainly ADD it, which is a vote in favor of sticking closer to DW)
I wouldn’t start at DW then. Start with AW or simple world
Sure, just adding some food for thought. I especially like how he handles race/species, skills, and abilities.
Alternately, you could go even further afield and make roll modifiers based on situation more than stat/skill. Then make skills a resource you tap to improve rolls. See the game in the link below for an idea of what I’m talking about. It uses stats for the tappable resource, but you could replace them with a skill list pretty easily.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0lFq3ECDQDQdkVSYzYyeFY1OEU&usp=sharing
When you hack a computer for valuable information, roll+HACK
On a 10+ you get what you are looking for plus another useful tidbit.
On a 7-9 choose 1
You find what you are looking for
You find something else that is still interesting
When you hack a security door, roll+HACK
On a 10+ it opens nice and smooth
On a 7-9 it opens, but just for a moment.
When you spread a rumor out to the interwebs, roll+HACK
On a 10+ choose 3
On a 7-9 choose 2
– The rumor spreads fast and wide
– No one can trace it back to you
– The rumor goes out exactly as you want it.
My AW hack for cowboys with skills as you ordered. It is still very early playtest.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9G77aR8YgmbYmNtLWtOTW1IVWc&usp=sharing