AW + PbtA Thread I'm working on a Grimm campaign and I

>>51724102
>I'm working on a Grimm campaign

What is Grimm in this context?

>>51724111
I assume he means dwarfs and wolfs and shit.

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Oh, let me explain:

Grimm is a setting in which players play as kids taken to the faerie realm. A lot of the places and characters are based off of Grimm's Faerie Tales.

The setting is awesome and there are some cool meganical elements, like spending imagination points to temporarily cause something make-believe to manifest in the faerie realm. The classes are schoolyard clichés like Nerd, Jock, and Bully.

That said, I find the system needlessly complicated and loaded with unnecessary character options. I want a game that is more rules light, with some element of a clock ticking down on your humanity. See, the longer characters stay in the faerie realm, the more like Faerie they become. Eventually, they may find themselves unable to return to the mortal realm.

>>51724102
It works well with a group of players who all engage and contribute. If everyone isn't on board with answering questions, thinking about worldbuilding and running with ideas its not going to go anywhere. This doesn't mean everyone has to be an actor but if they're just around to roll dice when its their turn it doesn't work.

The base mechanics work well for melodramatic action. Characters are better, more interesting and powerful than randoms. Succeed is frequent enough but complicated enough to propel the next scene.

Stats have to be a specific/distinct way of approaching the world. Hard is being tough, unyielding, forcing things, enacting/resisting violence, etc. Sharp is for parsing, dividing, categorizing and specific points. So when you're making stats keep in mind they're for defining how your players will interact with the world.

Moves aren't feats or skills. They're not special abilities you activate, they're things that trigger when the players act under specific circumstances. There is necessary metaknowledge of how to act as a player to trigger moves, but the players never declare using a move and then describe how. They describe what they're doing and you decide if the move triggers. Only trigger the move if there are stakes, or if the risk of failure is deeply important.

When designing moves that have options less is more. The lists to pick from are to make the choice more drastic not give endless possibilities.

When you're making playbooks talk to the player who wants to use it. Ask what they're interested in doing, what the themes/archetypes are that interest them and craft moves along those lines. Read other playbooks.

The MC principles/moves are specific and required. The MC actually has to follow the intent and wording very carefully otherwise it losses momentum. Make a hard move when it calls for it, always ask what next, etc. are how you as the MC play.

Do you have more specific questions?

>>51726627
Sounds like it'd be more conductive to transplant it to (a tweaked) FAE than PbtA. Intra-party conflict is a big thing in PbtA, and I'm not sure that fits the theme of a group of kids trying to get home.

>>51724102
>I've heard some discussions

Fair warning that /tg/ is generally full of shit when it comes to game design. "It's badly designed" is almost always a euphemism for "I don't like how this works" rather than a sober criticism of whether a mechanic functions as intended.

>>51727674
>>51727697
Those are good points. I thought no I picked PbtA games because it was the only thing that had a stat to represent relationships. I'd like a mechanic that allows players to bolster their humanity by strengthing the bonds with other pcs. Things like using faerie magic, eating food in the faerie and generally spending time in the fae lands drains your humanity - gradually turning you into a faerie.

Characters with a 0 in humanity cannot return to the human world.

Do any systems come to mind? Would FAE work with a modified wounds system or something?

>>51729369
If I wasn't about to sleep, I'd crunch it out with you.

Is the Grimm RPG based on something? Your explanation makes me think of Changeling: the Lost, except before the characters get out.

>>51729455
It's a stand alone thing. The system suffers from trying to act like DnD 3.0 with skills/feats etcetera. Most of the feats don't even matter. I'd rather focus on the setting established in Grimm but with a more narrative system that focused on horro/fading humanity.

Here is the PDF
http://www.mediafire.com/?954s3gp0r6alswi

>>51729369
Hrm. I know this might sound weird, but take a look at Dogs In The Vineyard. It has well made relationship mechanics that draw on other players and npcs, as well as fallout from conflict that scales on severity that you could probably figure out how to do with fae stuff.

Its also really well made.

>>51729560
Oh yeah! I heard about it but I never picked it up because the setting was so weird. Thanks for the tip!

>>51727961
>"It's badly designed" is almost always a euphemism for "I don't understand how this works" rather than a sober criticism of whether a mechanic functions as intended.
Fixed that for ya.