I’m in the process of revisiting my Stress rules to create a more grim or dark fantasy feel. One thing I had in mind to represent a growing mental imbalance was to forcibly change the character’s alignment move. The new move should be something that causes mischief or inter-party conflict without being overly disruptive. Here’s a few I had in mind to start with, please help me think of move!
Tippler
Get drunk at an inconvenient time, or cause trouble from your drinking.
Gambler
Take a serious risk to acquire something valuable.
Compulsive
Investigate something interesting while ignoring the obvious risks.
Paranoid
Refuse help from, or refuse to help an ally when you could have.
I like it. When would it trigger?
That’s currently being worked on.
You might consider adapting some of the stress results from the amazing Darkest Dungeon game.
That’s the first place I looked. The problem is converting them to interesting objectives to be fulfilled in the game.
Where are your original stress rules?
Are you looking specifically for moves?
These look like they fit well were the Bonds would be. In other words, use them to receive additional XP. This could incentify the players
Robert Doe Yes, these will replace the character’s Alignment.
Okay, because people ask:
When you steel yourself against extreme pain, stress or horror, roll+Stress. *On a 6-, you’re fine. *On a 7-9, choose one. *On a 10-11, choose two.
You’re stunned in pain or fear for a moment.
Your nerves are rattled, take -1 forward when you act against the source of your fear.
You get +1 Stress.
*On a 12+, choose a reaction from this list:
Run screaming in terror until the threat is out of your sight.
Drop whatever it is you’re holding, and freeze in shock until someone or something snaps you out of it.
Fly into an uncontrolled rage until the threat is gone. Expect collateral damage.
Gain a Quirk.
Cartel has some cool Stress rules, if haven’t already checked it out.
Peter J maybe in the stress move there should be some “reset” option?
That is, some horrible or permanent choiche (Gain a Quirk) which puts your stress back to 0?
Possibly relevant: I’ve got this backburner project, a PbtA game about adventurers-as-special forces in a fantasy world war.
One of the things I wanted to get at was how the stress the PCs endured in the field wreaked long-term changes on their psyche.
To that end, each playbook has keys (alignment/drive moves, basically, though they get triggered in play rather than at the end of each session). Each key had a tag: noble, common, hard, weird, and dark.
For example, the soldier picks 2 keys from this list to start:
□ Guardian (noble) – defend an innocent from harm
□ Honor (noble) – fulfill a promise made to an NPC
□ Jester (common) – raise the spirits of your fellows through your antics or optimism
□ Loyalty (common) – stand up for or make excuses for a friend or comrade
□ Revelry (common) – indulge in sordid
pleasures (drink, dice, sex, etc.) with another
□ Bitter Duty (hard) – follow a direct order from a superior against your better judgment
□ War-Brother’s Rivalry (hard) – drop more foes in a fight than any other PC
There are more keys out there. For example:
□ Curator (weird) – add a notable specimen to your collection
□ Brutality (dark) – inflict great pain or lasting suffering on a foe
Anyhow… the relevant thing here is that there’s a downtime move, between missions, where you can “burn” a key to effectively go without rest & recovery between missions.
And when you burn a key, you have to replace it. Noble keys can’t be replaced with noble keys. Common keys must be replaced with weird, hard, or dark keys. Weird or hard keys must be replaced by dark keys.
The intent being that, over the course of play, a PC that kept getting put into the fray would get harder/weirder/darker over time.