Gotham - Forged in the Dark - Playbook Ideas (+)

[Aldarc]

Thing is though that many of the classic Batman villains still fall in these archetypes.

Sure, Clayface is a supervillain who can change shape and becoming an imposing, brutish "monster," but at the heart of his character, he's an actor who uses his shape-shifting as a disguise artist. The Riddler, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, Dr. Hugo Strange, Clock King, R'as al Ghul, and Penguin, are typically depicted either as Spiders, Leeches, or Slides. Basically as "smart people" or people who specialize in playing head games. The villains still roughly follow criminal archetypes, "but with powers..."

 

[Fenris-77]

Yup, I completely get where you're coming from. As part of the hack I wanted to explore playbook construction. I'm going to borrow from the Blades ones heavily regardless, and may end up just reskinning them and adding powers via a different mechanic. However, a personal interest for me is taking the rules apart and putting them back together to really get a feel for the balance and moving parts, so even if I just reskin, I'm going to spend some time making some as well.

I'm essentially portmanteau-ing Blades and Scum and Villainy, Blades for the basic templates, and SaV for the actions and some of the ranged combat stuff plus the Xenos mechanic. That's the base anyway.

 

[Aldarc]

I don't want to complicate things for you, but if you are interested in exploring playbook construction, then maybe you should look into Ironsworn, which is free on DriveThruRPG. It's not Forged in the Dark. It's similarly "inspired by the Apocalypse World Engine," but it has similar principles. But it deconstructs playbooks into abilities that players can select at character creation and while leveling. So you could possibly apply its ideas to a DC super-villain style Forged in the Dark game.

 

[Fenris-77]

Don't worry about complications at all. I'm open to any and all ideas. I am pretty firm on using FitD for this hack though. That said, I'll take a look at Ironsworn anyway. First, because I was considering deconstructed playbooks for this project as an option, and second I have another project, something fantasy-urban, and I'm looking for mechanics for that as well. Provisionally it going to be PbtA, but I'll take a look at anything.

 

[atanakar]

Have you seen this?

Galaxies in Peril: Superhero Roleplaying Forged in the Dark

Superheroic roleplaying Forged in The Dark; Wrest back control of a galaxy in peril!

www.kickstarter.com

 

[Fenris-77]

Yup, I'll take a look for sure. I'm reading a lot of different Supers games for inspiration. Currently that's Masks and Capes, Cowls, and Villains Foul, both of which seem excellent so far.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Using or updating the existing BitD playbooks would not be too difficult due to how broadly they are modeled after criminal archetypes.

• Cutter ("dangerous and intimidating fighter") -> Enforcer/Heavy/Muscle
• Hound ("deadly sharpshooter and tracker") -> Hitman/Assassin
• Leech ("saboteur and technician") -> Tinkerer/Bomber/Mechanic
• Lurk ("stealthy infiltrator and burglar") -> Burglar/Cat/Ghost
• Slide ("subtle manipulator and spy") -> Trickster/Charlatan/Swindler
• Spider ("devious mastermind") -> Mastermind/Brains
• Whisper ("arcane adept and channeler") -> Freak/Weirdo

I think that a lot of the abilities would likely map from the closest match among the BitD playbooks. So the Tank would be the games version of a Cutter, for sure. Similar to how Scum and Villainy has the Muscle, or Band of Blades has the Heavy.

But each of those also has some differences from the Cutter, suitable to the setting. This is why I thought a good way to start would be to look at the existing characters and thinking about what kinds of “buckets” they’d fall into.

And I think that most characters could likely be created using more than one of the playbooks, for sure.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I think the real change will be in the abilities, which is where most of the power modelling will happen. There I was going to use the SaV approach, where a Xenos can replace the starting ability with a Xenos ability. The same could be done to add more superpower feeling elements to the playbooks, giving the players a knob to twist for the super-ness of their character. I'll also likely add in some ability to grow powers through experience, probably with additional abilities that buff existing abilities somehow. I'm still working on that part.

This is where I hit my most significant snag when I was tinkering with this. How exactly to handle powers? Would it be solely as playbook abilities? Or would I graft on a whole new module to help with that? I think either approach could work, but each has its drawbacks. I was going with a more broad supers approach, so that probably made it worse for my project, but I think this will be a significant element.

I’ll have to go over the Xenos aspect of S&V and see how that could work. It might be a good starting point for you, for sure.

 

[Fenris-77]

What villains can be created with what playbook is even more open when you account for the rookie power level and the flexibility provided by veteran upgrades. Maybe it would be easiest to start with Blades playbooks and Scum and Villainy actions and see what would need to be modded.

From an actions standpoint, I'll hold firm for now just swapping Helm for Pilot/Drive and Attune for Spooky. The details of those changes will keep for later.

Here's what the translation from Blades to SaV looks like for actions:
Blades
Insight - Hunt, Study, Survey, Tinker
Prowess - Finesse, Prowl, Skirmish, Wreck
Resolve - Attune, Command, Consort, Sway
Scum and Villainy
Insight - Doctor, Hack, Rig, Study
Prowess - Pilot (Finesse?), Skulk, Scrap, Scramble
Resolve - Spooky, Command, Consort, Sway

Finesse would cover both Pilot and physical sleight of hand stuff, so maybe that goes back in. I like Hunt a lot, so maybe that goes in instead of something else, or tailing and ambush goes under Skulk or Scramble. I think the effects of BitD's Survey get folded into Study to make room for Hack. Wreck I just pulled, figuring Brute abilities can cover some of that ground.

So, playbook one, Cutter or Mercenary/Tank

Stating Actions - Scrap 2, Command 1

Abilities - I'd like to add starting abilities from SaV, which can only chosen at CC and would help define the character. This would be a place to seperate, say, Tanks from Mercs. The ability called Unstoppable from SaV would be my pick for Tanks and Wrecking Crew for Mercs

Unstoppable:
You can push yourself to do one of the following: perform a feat of physical force that verges on the superhuman—engage a small gang on equal footing in close combat. When you push yourself to activate this ability, you still get one of the normal benefits of pushing yourself (+1d, +1 effect,
etc.) in addition to the special ability. A superhuman feat is one a regular person could not do
unassisted, such as tearing apart metal handcuffs. If you engage a small gang on equal footing, you have equal scale.

Wrecking Crew:
Your strength and ferocity are infamous. When striking in melee, you gain +1d. Whenever you spend a gambit in combat, you also gain +1 effect on that action. (edit - I'd add ranged combat)

From the Cutter list, I'd remove Ghost Fighter and add Backup (An ally’s push costs 1 stress (not 2) on any action you set up or assist.)

 

[Fenris-77]

This is where I hit my most significant snag when I was tinkering with this. How exactly to handle powers? Would it be solely as playbook abilities? Or would I graft on a whole new module to help with that? I think either approach could work, but each has its drawbacks. I was going with a more broad supers approach, so that probably made it worse for my project, but I think this will be a significant element.

I’ll have to go over the Xenos aspect of S&V and see how that could work. It might be a good starting point for you, for sure.

One way to go is to add powers as a fourth action type, that get bought with the same points. So a starting character would have to sacrifice skills for powers (also perhaps an extra actions point to spend on CC). Adding in the above starting abilities helps there too. Using the Xenos idea to swap the starting ability (which BitD doesn't use as a mechanic) for a more power-y power would also work.