Crazy, nutty, no good, probably terrible idea for AW.
Prelude: There's no XP system I've ever liked fully.
I had this crazy idea on Jason D'Angelo's deep read of AW collection, and want to explore it more fully.
My claim: Highlighting stats leads to players seeking XP rather than pursuing objectives, and this is bad. Or at least, suboptimal.
Instead, could each playbook have five XP triggers, two (or three) highlighted per session such that when you do those triggers, you gain XP?
Why five? Link one to each stat. Maybe a sixth for Hx.
What sort of triggers? Things very much related to the archetype of the experience of play.
Why highlighting? Because that gets the whole table involved.
An examples: The Battlebabe
Maybe normally the battlebabe is lucky enough to get cool highlighted and maybe also Sharp. OK; when they roll those, they mark XP. Not bad. The player may seek out opportunities to act under fire, and read people and situations.
Instead, maybe:
Cool: Mark XP when you make someone back down
Hard: Mark XP when you teach someone a lesson they won't forget
Hot: Mark XP when you make a situation charged.
Sharp: Mark XP when someone who you said was going to die, does.
Weird: Mark XP when you drink the blood of a defeated enemy
Hx (maybe): Mark XP when you refuse to help someone that needs it. Asshole.
These aren't precise; they are probably terrible. Let's see where it leads.
Maybe the battlebabe still gets cool and sharp highlighted. Cool, then they'll mark XP when they make someone back down, and when someone dies who they said were going to die.
Now we've got this threatening prophesying battlebabe, maybe telling people they are going to die before ripping their heads off. Or setting things up so an opponent either backs down or dies, so she can mark XP either way. Or using that threat of death to make people back down, and then also killing them.
The incentive here is a serious asshole, and I don't know if that's worse or better than the original.
I don't know if this is making sense, and reserve the right to delete this post in the morning. Until then, have fun explaining why I'm super wrong.
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Have you seen flags from Dungeon World?
ReplyDeleteI dig it! I like your proposed list for Battlebabe too.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if you can't simultaneously simplify it and borrow from Primetime Adventure's fan mail (one of the original inspirations for highlighting stats anyway) by having the person who selects the stat to highlight suggest what behavior they would like to see (since the particular status of your game might not allow for, say, drinking the blood of your enemy). You and that player could then have a short negotiation about what you would like to do and what they would like to see. Write that down as a sentence and get to the playing.
I think you would have to make that moment count as 2 or 3 XP or something since it's not as simple as rolling on a stat. With two highlighted stats in a session, you would get 4-6 XP, which sounds about right.
It would act a lot like a flag, only instead of you determining what you want, you are sharing that with another player, which I think keeps the spirit of highlighting while giving you what you want. Just an idea.
Whatever you do, I hope you playtest it for a session or two and let us know how it goes!
Reminds me of Keys in Lady Blackbird.
ReplyDeleteThis would also somewhat sidestep the pattern I've seen of folks using their highlighting as an opportunity to try to turn another PC into just a foil for their preferred kind of scenes... like if you have a Savvyhead with a low Hard, specialized in support, and the player of the Battlebabe always highlights Hard for them, even though the Savvyhead never rolls it.
ReplyDeleteMaking people realize that they're asking for a moment in that playbooks metier, rather than their own, might wake them up.
Oli Jeffery Not recently. Got a link?
ReplyDeleteJason D'Angelo That's interesting, too! My concern is coming up with a sentence is the time involvement: it takes straight up longer to come up with a phrase together than to highlight a stat. Also, drink the blood of your enemies may be a bit far anyway. You'd want to choose things that can come up multiple times per session and that fit the character.
Brian Ashford Yes! The two are similar.
Tony Lower-Basch yeah. As MC, I sometimes go around and highlight a particular stat for every playbook -- in monsterhearts, sometimes that's hot so everybody is seducing everybody else.
But yeah, having all five beats be something that fits the playbook is def a direction I'm interested in.
Highlighting stats means the player needs to look for opportunities to engage in certain basic actions (and playbook specific actions). Your set up seems to want to get the player to look for certain results, which appears to go against the idea of "play to find out."
ReplyDeleteAm I misinterpreting what I'm reading?
Oh man I hope so, Kimberley Lam, as that's a nicely damming interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI find highlighting stats leads to some behaviors -- in myself and others! -- that I'd rather not have. That the incentive structure doesn't quite align with playing your characters as people, and that folks will find excuses to use those stats because they were highlighted, as opposed to because it makes the most in character sense.
This is one attempt to finagle that, to give in-fiction triggers that are aligned to both playbooks and stats. Instead of "when you roll hard, mark xp" -- which is almost entirely a system procedure -- instead it is "when you do which is related to , mark xp".
I'm going for specific in-fiction triggers, not specific outcomes. Original examples may've been poorly worded, like I thought they would be.
Instead of "when you roll hard, mark xp" -- which is almost entirely a system procedure -- instead it is "when you do which is related to , mark xp".
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what the original rule is, though? You can't roll hard unless you do a specific action (the basic moves attached to that stat, or a playbook specific move that happens to use that stat).
But in this case, the specific thing is playbook specific, rather than, like basic moves, applied to everybody.
ReplyDeleteLike Tony mentioned the Savvyhead who gets Hard highlighted and isn't the sort to seize by force or go aggro, but maybe their hard trigger is, instead:
Mark XP when you break a problem to small parts.
Maybe! Then they get xp for doing something both like what a savvyhead does -- working through problems -- and for being hard -- breaking things.
Kinda. Again, off the cuff triggers for what I'm going for.
Hrm. That feels very constricting to me in theory (Savvyheads are like this) though it's possible the actual implementation might solve that initial reaction.
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps another fix would be examples of how to "seize by force" like a Savvyhead? I don't have the exact wording of the moves conveniently in front of me, so I'm not sure how well that would work.
I've always been fond of highlighting stats that seem out of character because it's a sign for folks at the table to push for and explore situations where using that stat would make sense. Like, sure, the Savvyhead is a pacifist - but that's a choice. What would push them to the brink and how would they deal with the aftermath?
Oh! Question: when you highlight a stat, how do choose which stat to highlight?
ReplyDeleteHow do I choose?
ReplyDeleteFirst session, I usually highlight the highest stat. I figure they've put some resources into that stat. So, Brainer's get weird, Battlebabe's get cool, etc. For the second stat, look to see if anything else is high or if they've got a move that uses another stat. Maybe the Battlebabe took the move that let's em roll weird when they go into battle -- cool.
Second session, I'll often try to find a stat they've not used in a while. sometimes that's a low stat, which can be loads of fun, sometimes one that's just getting ignored.
But, YMMV.
Oh, interesting! I don't look at numbers at all when I choose. I look at what's happened in previous games or what the player has said about the character's trajectory. Then I pick a stat based on that. So I might pick hard for the Savvyhead if they've spent the last session resisting the temptation bash in the head of the Handholder because of interpersonal shenanigans, because now there's this mechanical-fiction tension happening. The highlighted stat gets used a bit like a FATE compel.
ReplyDeleteHow about the first session?
ReplyDeleteWhen Hx is assigned, that gives some hints about inter-character dynamics. Assign accordingly.
ReplyDeleteOh, and sometimes I totally pick a stat I know they'll use because I want to cheer them on for being awesome.
ReplyDelete