What playbook moves are have you used (or seen in use) that best express these character traits?
– Resolve
– Bravery / Daring
– Resourcefulness
– Inspiring others
Any playbooks welcome, even other PbtA games.
Bonus points for things that aren’t just +1 forward/ongoing to X.
(By way of example, I think the Barbarian’s Herculean Appetites is a fantastic representation of recklessness and grandiosity. And Port in a Storm is a beautiful way to represent being well traveled. That’s the sort of thing I’m looking for.)
Thats whats the Path are in my hack. A personal path of aspirations and moral codecs. Instead of just add random moves from the Main class or compendium class, you mark an level on the Path, than choose a move corresponding to the paths progress which can be narratives or events like “Audiance with the Emperor” or “Ceremony of the Medall of imperial Championship” things that are “real” ingame archievements for the characters not some badass skill. Thats why I dont call them classes but career system.
well, let’s see…
– The Wizard Ritual move is the quintessence of resourcefulness (given a place of power), I used it myself to reintroduce dragons in the world. The “father” of this kind of moves is the Workspace of the Savvyhead playbook in Apocalypse World. Of course the Shapeshifter move from the Druid is a very close second: I saw it used to become a poisonous dinosaur and scare the enemy’s mounts and to become a giant Roc to take the group on the top of ad undead-filled castle. As far as illegal stuff and equipment, the Connection move from the Thief is pretty good too, I used it with a bard to get… I guess it was some kind of poison, couldn’t remember. There are other moves I’ve read and found them interesting, but didn’t see them played.
for Bravery/Daring you might want to check out the Dashing Hero class, it’s basically what that’s about
for Inspiring, I like (just read about it though, sadly) the Hocus (AW) move “Frenzy”
I don’t really understand what you mean by Resolve (English’s not my mother tongue) but if it’s something about being stubborn and unstoppable, then I suggest Samson from the Barbarian. Used it while encased in magical ice from an undead legendary king. Hah! He thought he could stop Thra-raxes the Glorious. His very last mistake! 😀
I’ll think about some other moves (from Monster of the Week maybe).
oh, of course! On the “Resourcefulness” stuff, the Expert (Motw) is pretty big. They have two moves that allows them to pull item out of the blue by saying that they were prepared all along (Preparedness) and that gives them holds which may be spent to be in the right place, totally prepared. This last one has some equivalent in Apocalypse World, I just can’t qui remember where… I have seen them used quite efficiently and lethally in more than one occasion 🙂
Bloody Aegis and Samson are pretty awesome representations of Resolve, I think. Battered, bloody and broken, but still carrying on regardless of what the world throws at them. Awesome.
Edit: I think the Princess had a good Inspiring move, but I don’t have that book on hand.
On the subject of resourcefulness, here’s one from my own work in progress.
It’s a space opera game, and this move is one of the main moves for the Hitchhiker playbook (a sort-of rogue, sort-of thief blend of Han Solo, Star Lord, and Lone Star: Jack of all trades, master of none)
Apologies in advance because it references other moves and has its own specific stats in use, so it might not read very clearly.
I KNOW A GUY…
When you Make Port in a location you know well, describe the nature of your contacts here (Street? Corporate? Merc? Rebel? Etc) Describe these people and how you know them:
-Your contacts respect strength. Roll +LEV
-Your contacts respect your allure or forceful personality. Roll +AUT
-Your contacts respect intelligence. Roll +EDU
On a 10+ choose 2,
On a 7-9 choose 1:
* Shelter you: They provide you a safehouse and very basic supplies for a day or two
* Get something done for you: Find one or more contacts to accomplish an off-screen task.
* Lean on Someone for you: Get information about a subject as if you’d rolled a 10+ on Technobabble.
* Gain Insight: ask their advice on a course of action, and receive a +1 to any rolls you make if you follow it.
If you follow their advice but don’t accomplish your goal, mark experience.
On a miss, choose one, but your contacts need payment or a favor before they’ll help you anymore (you cannot use this move with this contact again until you satisfy them.)
[Note: Your contacts must work within the reasonable capacity of their fields. Street gangs are not appropriate for help in shorting a company’s stock, and corporate contacts aren’t the right people to help you track down a drug dealer.]
It’s sort of a limited utility local follower NPC that you can call up for limited assistance, and it seems like a good fit for the “I’ve been everywhere” jaded hustler archetype that the Hitchhiker is supposed to represent in the fiction.
NOTE:
Make Port: is a special move in my game that’s essentially “when you return to town X happens”, it’s not an active ‘rolled’ move, so I feel safe in having this trigger off of it without it being a ‘roll this move to roll that move’ situation, which I know is a bad idea design-wise.
The stats listed are
LEV – Leverage: How willing and able you are to use lies, manipulation, and threats to get your way.
AUT – Authority: How you use your confidence and perception to inspire people, or demand respect from them.
LEV and AUT can be thought of as dark and light forms of Charisma.
EDU – Education: How much you know. cold logic and hard facts, using reason to think your way through.
Technobabble: This is basically my Spout Lore, it functions a little differently, but this takes up that niche.
/sub
Resolve: The Survivor.
Bravery / Daring: The Dashing Hero
Resourcefulness: The Collector
Inspiring Others: The Lantern
Basically, Jacob Randolph rocks.
Social Justice Commander Shepard Hah, nice. I’ve actually written up a few versions of I Know a Guy for a different project. Here’s what I came up with:
When you declare that you know someone in town, someone who might help, give them a name and roll +Charming. On a 10+, they might take some convincing but they’re able to help. On a 7-9, pick one.
– They’re still holding a grudge about, well, you know
– You’ve got to find them first, and that won’t be easy
– They’ve fallen on hard times, and need your help first
– They got out of that business a long time ago, and swore never to get back in
– Can we trust them? No, but they’ve got no love for the Enemy, that’s for sure…
– Yeah, they can help, but they’re a greedy/sleezy/opportunistic as they come
On a 6-, the GM picks one of the above and then some.
Nice!
I wanted to leave mine slightly more generic (kind of outside pbta ethos, but my intent is good)
So the hitchhiker can be a smuggler ala han solo
Or a military field intelligence officer
Or a well-traveled scientist like Liara from mass effect
Or a soft spoken preacher with a dark past like shepherd book from firefly.
But I love the way your move works!
James Etheridge Yeah, Samson & Blood Aegis definitely hit “resolve” the way I’m thinking. I think Good Day to Die works too. I’ll check out the Princess. Oh, and I bet Star Wars World has a Noble playbook that’s got something…
Peter Johansen Nikitas Thlimmenos I’ve got the Dashing Hero but haven’t seen it in play. Have either of you? It’s some of what I’m looking for (Parry is very solid, and I really like Old Enemies), but much of it rubs me the wrong way and some of it strikes me as full-on bad design (like Draw Your Blade).
Nikitas Thlimmenos The Expert’s Preparedness from MotW is really good. But I think I’m looking for something more about the character noticing & exploiting resources here and now, rather than having accumulated a bunch of stuff. Maybe. It might still work for what I’m looking for.
Peter Johansen I’d forgotten about those. I’ll have to take another look. Thanks!
Keep ’em coming!
I favor more practical designs when I write myself. Different strokes and all.
Jeremy Strandberg That’s pretty much how I feel about the Dashing Hero, from the preview. Lots of plus ones and free tricks, not much actual derring-do. Usually like Monsieur Randolph’s books, but not so much that one.
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