In Solar Wind and Sale, there's an officer position of Boatswain. This officer is in charge of making sure gigs are profitable and selling prizes.
I'd wanted a bankruptcy mechanic, and it occurred to me in the shower that this was the right place to put it.
When the ship docks in port, the Boatswain rolls with Trade (probably gigs). on a 10+, good things. On a 7-9, slightly less good things. On a 6-, one good thing but also bankruptcy.
Here's my first draft for how bankruptcy works:
Bankruptcy: Whether through ill luck or incompetence, you are unable to meet the ship’s financial obligations. Choose one, and mark it off. Once chosen, an option cannot be chosen again by the same Boatswain:
[ ] Everything is fine
[ ] Mark a ship’s system down one
[ ] Mark a ship’s system down one
[ ] Mark a ship’s system as busted
[ ] The ship is prevented from leaving.
That is: You get one get out of jail free card, and then you have to start selling off ship's systems to keep the ship flying.
This is not yet playtested. Whatcha think?
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Can the boxes ever be cleared? Or can a boatswain only spiral into being an albatross around the ship's neck?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that the damage can be fixed by normal means; that should be clear in the move text. Otherwise "the ship is prevented from leaving" feels mighty permanent.
Adam D That's true!
ReplyDeleteI'd hope the QM would fire the Boatswain long before that happens. I'll add a thing that this can be resolved by firing the boatswain and selecting one with the backing of the ship's lendors.
I'd kind of imagine that, in firefly style, being broke means you need to pull off a caper you'd rather not -- or deal with an "adventure" where a system fails catastrophically at the wrong moment. More story driven, and creates places where you have to scam the harbor master to get out of port!
ReplyDeleteJesse Cox Legit. Totally legit. You should be able to worm out of these things with the narrative. It should also be terrifying to do so!
ReplyDeleteYeah to Jesse. I feel like "Everything is fine" could be rephrased as "You can pursue profit/adventure of your choice" and thereby the others be rephrased to "you are compelled to pursue this specific/disadvantageous situation."
ReplyDeletePerhaps:
ReplyDelete[ ] You can continue as per usual
[ ] You must sell a systems upgrade
[ ] You must sell a systems upgrade
[ ] You must sell a system until it is busted.
[ ] You must resolve difficulties with the authorities before departing.
Suggestions...
ReplyDelete[. ] you can scavenge what you need out of the ship's reserves. Take minus 1 going forward on this move until you make pay and replace your boatswain.
[. ] you have to forego maintenance on a ship system. Name the system and the MC holds one. At any point in the next run, the MC may turn any roll involving that system into a miss, retroactively. After the first time, the MC picks the system.
[. ] your ship is impounded. Pick one; you have to agree to a task for them before you can fly again. Double crossing may work, but will create problems down the road. After the first time, the MC picks.
A) a ruthless criminal whose trade requires moral compromise from you.
B) an ambitious official who needs you to turn against old allies.
C) a maverick trader or scientist who needs you to "beta test" something he's been working on. He won't tell you anything about the alpha testers.
D) a mysterious figure on the run from a powerful and merciless foe.
Jesse Cox G+ formatting is messing with that. Could you edit, with something besides mdashes?
ReplyDelete(I'm a big fan of moves/choices that reenforce the fiction and directly push on the story)
ReplyDeleteI think it's fixed now.
ReplyDeleteJesse Cox These're for sure good, and direct towards the root.
ReplyDeleteThey take up more space than I have allotted for the bankruptcy move, which I'm taking as an indication that I should embiggen the space for it.
Derek Balling That's 2d6 + a modifier. The mod is -2 to 3, usually 0 to 3.
ReplyDeleteYep. Those numbers are pretty standard powered by the apocalypse, where the universe is harsh.
ReplyDeleteRemind me to get you to play Dungeon World at christmas sometime. It'll be different than you think.
ReplyDeleteWith the obvious exception of hacked together things like the above, generally a 6 or less in AW isn't "you are incompetent", it is "the MC makes a hard move", which means something very different than D&D.
ReplyDeletePbtA games are not spreadsheet emulators. I'm not entirely sure trying to apply GURPS logic to the game is even useful, especially not knowing a thing about PbtA games. Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with the system before trying to suggest ways to fundamentally change it?
ReplyDeleteIt's clear by the reading of the move itself that when you hit bankruptcy, you mark off one box and still continue to operate. So bankruptcy does not mean you lose forever, it just means you're dead broke right now and need to go deal with it. Go bankrupt enough and your ship is kaput.
pbta games are like sex; you can't really explain it to those that haven't had it.
ReplyDeleteAnd both sound gross.
And, Derek Balling , Dungeon World has been in your inbox for two years.
Man, then you'd hate the Vote of No Confidence rules. Shifting among the officer positions is a design goal anyway, not a bug.
ReplyDeleteJesse Cox I figured out how to move things around a touch to give more space for the Bankrupcy move, as well as boat loads more space for the Boatswain to write down contacts. I think its a more interesting move now. Either you can break the ship (don't break my ship), or have to make a deal you'd rather avoid.
ReplyDeleteNice! The space for contacts will really flesh out your universe : ' )
ReplyDeleteYeah! I'd always had space for a few, which're setup based on how many upgrades you've got in contacts. This way, there's room for a whole lot more as the game continues.
ReplyDeleteI did have to move the floor plan of the ship, but I that'll be OK, as I've still got it.
As an aside, one of my favorite parts at the table was drawing where all the stuff goes in the ship. Passing that around was a really fun part of ship building.
I can make this simpler. Bankrupcy may not need to be its own move, just complications that occur on a 7-9 and crap.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the Boatswain has a special ability to "bank" complications that would normally beset people on an unrelated 7-9 roll, and pay them off later by ship-plot sort of complications that drive new complications further down the road.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite get what you're trying to achieve with the slow countdown toward firing the Boatswain, though, so maybe this is a solution in search of a different question.
It may be, Tony. The Vote of No Confidence remains an important part for the Captain and the Quartermaster, and tis is the analogous problem for the Boatswain.
ReplyDelete