Awesome, thanks! More stuff to play around with.
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Another favorite mechanic, paying the price.
A lot of moves (and failures) will tell you to pay the price, and you get to decide exactly what that means. Fighting a giant troll and need to keep them busy while someone else sets up something to finish them? Maybe your sword breaks in its tough hide, its swipe damages your armor, or the fight is so discouraging that it damages your Courage.
Lots of fun choices.
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Also an important question to remember for session 0: tone and level of fantasy. Just to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Because while I’m more than okay with a scene involving an injured comrade trying to tell their friend it’s fine, they don’t need to keep shouting asking if someone can break their twenty so they can buy a healing tonic out of a vending machine, I don’t know if everyone is.
You know, I’d probably be more than happy to run the SEF kind of thing, because I find that kind of thing fun.
But … my eyes were opened just in reading in the intro to the book the idea of “or Avatar: The Last Airbender” (which we just finished bingeing) to realize how flexible the concept/system is.
So I’m fine with people bucking that and seeing what interesting things we can do (or are interested in). I also feel better about what I was thinking of doing, and got some additional ideas of how to do it in the notes below.
(As I noted elsewhere, I’m jazzed that, as with Masks, I have an idea that I’ve already seen how I can fit into multiple playbooks. That strikes me as a good sign.)
I downloaded what came from the purchase at DriveThruRPG. I’ll have to take a look at the others.
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Yeah, those extra playbooks are going to be included in the next two Fellowship books: Inverse and Rebellion. Inverse Fellowship is mostly ready to publish, they’re just waiting on all the art to come in to finish the book. Book three is a bit less finish and as I check the Kickstarter update, I noticed this message:
Next month, I’ll be sharing with you the completed 2nd edition updated playbooks from book 3 - the Ogre, Dragon, Spider, and Remnant have all had some pretty big changes. Look forward to it!
So maybe don’t get super attached to those playbooks, because I might have different versions of them by next week.
Okay, well, let me toss this out there …
So I was considering what sort of character I wanted to play (and considering as well how to make such a character flexible enough to find play opportunities in multiple scenarios), and slowly lit on the idea of …
Puss in Boots.
Or, in general, a diminutive[1] cat person[2], a doughty warrior and/or a sneaky thief. Someone who laughs at danger (but knows when to ably scamper out of the way). Determined, but self-indulgent; fastidious and egomaniacal, but also noble and proud.
And, the cool thing is, depending on what aspects I want to emphasize and go with, or how the rest of the party chooses playbooks, I can see ways to fit him into the Elf (graceful, mysterious, touching the world lightly), Halfling (tiny, troublemaker, sneaky, Sting like a Bee), Heir (honor, royalty, How Dare You!), or even Orc (the little killing machine and agent of chaos). Heck, I could even see a Squire of sorts (considering the original folk tale).
And that’s just looking at the Basic playbooks …
Anyway, that’s what I’m sort of thinking of. If that serves as inspiration to anyone.
[1] Not truly cat-sized. Halfling-sized. Small enough to be discounted … once.
[2] I did consider a Cat Girl, but thought Doyce would damage his eyes rolling them so hard.
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Depending on how you want to modify the initial concept, you could also play that character as the Pair. Daring swashbucklers inspired by the Three Musketeers (in fact, one of the options makes it a Trio instead of a Duo), you could go for a Master and Apprentice role of swashbuckling kitties, or even more exotic pairings…
I saw the Pair (looking at the other playbooks for sale at DriveThruRPG). It looks fun, but … I don’t have a good sense yet of the overhead of running a PC + Companions, let alone a pair of PCs + Companions.
Along those lines (and aligned with that photo), I’d considered the Halfling Companion (Mount) that was a Dog as being a particularly droll possibility.
The playbooks for sale on DriveThruRPG are for first edition. The versions I have in my Google Drive are the updated (or at least mostly updated) versions for 2nd Edition. Not that I doubt there would be much trouble running the first edition versions given the limited differences, but I know at least one playbook got a major overhaul (the Giant playbook from 1E has become the Ogre playbook in 2E).
YES
See also the centaur-looking dogs-as-adventurers art that are out there in the world. (Siberian Husky Barbarian ftw.)
Ageless alien warriors who project humanoid forms from gemstones that are the true core of their being. Their abilities include fusion—the ability to merge their projected bodies and abilities with other star-elves to form new, more powerful personalities.
Yeah I I like that.
Having looked at the extra playbooks, the Beast is an obvious way to go for the Puss in Boots idea, except that it’s more Outsider/Other than I wanted to go here. Still, it’s yet another option, depending on what other folk want to play.
As it stands, I’d order my playbook preferences for the character as Halfling, Squire, Orc, Beast, Elf, Heir (each a different spin on the theme).
I’ve got several ideas, but I think they depend on answering the session 0 tone-and-level questions. On the other hand, maybe talking about the playbooks will help people answer those questions? In no particular order.
The Orc: a hero or champion from a Bronze Age fantasy Rome ruled by orcs. I’ve actually spent some time thinking about what that society would look like (e.g. it’s a democracy, there’s a bicameral legislature, “spears” and “sickles” are the two ways you get a vote - you stand in defense of the nation, or you’re a farmer or someone else involved in food production). Not so great for the Fantasy-in-space game variants, though.
The Collector: a traveling naturalist or student of mystic beings, who uses their skills to cure weird ailments or work a low-powered natural magic. Someone affected by the Overlord’s machinations, perhaps who wants to put nature back in balance (if that’s a thing). Probably works in any milieu, as long as there’s a nature to be balanced.
The Lantern: a default or fallback choice, something if a more overtly fairy-tale sort of world comes out of session 0. Inspired broadly by pastel fantasy like Legend of Mana, FF9, and Grandia.
The Tinker: a Tomb Knight: a fallen warrior brought back to life and outfitted with prosthetics to guard some important person or place. When that thing was threatened or destroyed by the Overlord, they went on a quest for revenge. Inspired by Ziggy from Xenosaga.
The Exile: a young traveling witch, cast out from their people. The comic-relief option, plucky and chipper.
The Remnant: a character similar to FFX’s Auron, a ghost or shade who plays mentor to some younger, more alive characters. Perhaps a past victim of the Overlord.
If it helps, I’m now excited to see almost all of these characters (obviously the Lantern is just sort of there as a backup).
And just like you, I figured I’d share some of my current ideas (subject the change, as always).
The Harbinger/Exile/Lantern: A wizard of some distant order. They want to keep their heads down and not draw the Overlord’s ire (or maybe secretly helping them), while our hero decides “screw that, I’m going to do what’s right.” Not horribly original, but it’s what I like.
The Elf: A person from a space colony which fell to the planet due to Overlord shenanigans (maybe they stole the satellite’s power source as one of their Sources of Power). The elves cannot easily survive on the planet, so they outfit their champion with an hi-tech environment suit so that they can fight the Overlord with the rest of the Fellowship.
The Collector: A champion of the small gods who are being crushed by the Overlord without the Overlord really even realizing it.
The Pair: Fezzik and Inigo from the Princess Bride. I’m going to throw my own style at it, but that’s basically what you’re going to get. Definitely the comedic option out of all these.
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While not a vote of “you should definitely do that,” I’ve have an image stuck in my head since I read this description.
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You’ll just have to clear your name by playing one