Now, we tried to do slide AW into ZW as quickly as possible, without having to re-write playbooks or anything. So people chose playbooks that fit "enough" with a pseudo-modern universe. In our game we had...
A.T. Wakeman -- The Gunlugger
Smith -- The Battlebabe
Setter -- The Angel
Oliver -- The Savvyhead
Some aspects of the Psychic Maelstrom were toned down to make it more realistic, others were emphasized to give the zombies a "paranormal" vibe. Our MC, Dorothy, made some excellent choices during character creation which really served to help us know what the world had become and where we were while it happened. If I work on a full hack, these questions will be a part of the playbooks.
"Where were you when you first encountered a zombie?"
"Who do you know that's dead or missing from the outbreak?"
These questions helped us see a slice of life of the character before the world breaks and know just what they've lost. If we do it again, I would actually use the first session to explore those questions through play instead of just being answered.
The other exciting choice was a stack of cards. There were eight cards that said "Safe" and two cards which said "Bite!" These were mainly used to influence our small camps number of NPCs. After an encounter with the dead, she would draw from the deck to see the results of our NPCs poor combat skills. Being that it was eight and two, these cards could be switched over to the 2d6 model using snake-eyes and box-cars at the Bite! cards.
Other things I liked:
- The savvyheads use of Bonefeel for the setting. "Oh god, this alleyway's a deadend!" "Quick, I'm up here! Grab the rope! I knew you idiots would get yourselves in trouble!"
- How easily several playbooks transitioned with just light move justification. The Angel botched their healing and when they were both opened up to the Maelstrom, they began feeling the desire for human flesh.
- A definition for how Weird is to be used. I like the idea that Weird is like Sanity. It lets you think about some of the horrors you've seen and analyze them, but it still could cause you to drop into a form a PTSD or Madness.
- Some alternate moves for specific playbooks, or alternate playbooks to be created.
- Change Barter to a form of Salvage. Instead of going into bustling marketplaces, you ransack homes and stores, spending your salvage points to search for goods.
- Make something similar to Volley and the Ammo mechanics from the Dungeon World Hack, seeing as it was weird when the Sniper just kept "Going Aggro" to make zombies "lie down and die." It just didn't work quite right. ***ADDED BONUS: ammo gives you the ability to restrict powers and add desolation. Sweet!***
**Edit: fixed the PC names**
3 comments:
Exciting! This sounds really fun.
And there's more to come. I just wander if I should really start eating through the playbooks. I really just want it to be a soft hack.
We'll see!
This is a pretty neat idea. Here's a thought or two for the bite mechanic(using the dice system):
What if instead of a flat chance, each encounter with the undead has a higher probability of an npc being bitten.
The 1st encounter, npc's are bitten on a 1/12. The 2nd encounter, npc's are bitten on a 1 or 2 / 11 or 12. eventually meeting on a 6. Something like this would lend a mechanic-like feel of desperation and being closed in on I think. And when an NPC is bitten, the counter resets to 1/12.
Just a thought, not too refined.
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