Too sick to sleep, so here, have this.

Witchdudes doesn’t have Sex Moves. Instead it has Bewitching Kisses. Each playbook has its own type of magical kiss. All the effects are, in theory, positive/helpful for the person being kissed, but they could be used in a selfish, manipulative way. Doing so causes the witch to mark Ego (more about Ego later).

Examples include:

Grounding Kiss rapidly calms someone who was feeling panic, anxiety, terror, grief, anger, or pain.

Motivating Kiss infuses the kissed person with a burst of energy and determination to go out and do something that they wanted to do, but hadn’t because of fears, doubts, obstacles, etc.

Intoxicating Kiss loosens inhibitions, causing kissed people to relax, let down their defenses, and act in more in line with their true selves.

Just had a potentially interesting Witchdudes thought.

Just had a potentially interesting Witchdudes thought. I have no idea if I can turn it into something usable though. Wish me luck and watch this space.

(Also, I have started collecting some inspirational images and music for WD. I don’t know if that’s a sign of anything though. But if you have any suggestions please share!)

WIP, first draft excerpt

In the fiction layer, several types of witches have an affinity for healing magic, and they all express it in their own unique ways. The Earth Witch uses empowered crystals to “reset” a broken bone or open wound to its most stable pattern. The Wood Witch amplifies the natural healing properties of his herbal poultices and medicines to supernatural effectiveness. The Water Witch pours raw, primal life force into a broken body, allowing it to settle where it’s needed most. And the Blood Witch performs gruesome but effective magical surgery, shaping flesh and blood like clay.

In the rules layer, though, all of these diverse magical approaches to healing work in the same way: by clearing away points of Harm.

So I want to give some feedback to Avery Alder about the sneak preview of MH2.

So I want to give some feedback to Avery Alder about the sneak preview of MH2. I’d like to hear some other people’s thoughts, though, about whether my idea is worthwhile.

There’s been a fair amount of rumbling about the removal of manipulate an NPC, and I think it’s a fair rumble. Not necessarily the removal of the move itself – I think it’s awesome that it’s effectively been folded into pulling strings, and I think that using strings to get NPCs to do what you want (the same way they work on PCs) is pretty ideal.

The problem is that as of right now, there’s no Basic Move way to generate strings except via turn someone on. If you want to pull a string on an NPC (or a PC for that matter!), first you have to get them hot and bothered. That’s definitely a great way to get influence over someone, but it feels weird and off-putting for it to be the only way.

So here’s my thought: turn someone on is the “carrot” way to gain social leverage on someone – it’s about enticement based on desire. What’s missing, I think, is a “stick” method of gaining social leverage. Coercion based on fear. Desire and fear are natural partners in Monsterhearts, so I feel like having them both be ways to get strings works thematically.

Shut someone down doesn’t work for these purposes. It doesn’t generate strings. It’s not about getting someone to do what you want, it’s pretty explicitly about weakening them. Removing their strings, putting a debilitating condition on them, or emphasizing their weakness compared to you.

So I’m proposing a new Basic Move, ~~threaten someone~~ play on someone’s fears. My mechanics are shitty, so don’t pay attention to the details beyond “get a string by making them afraid of you,” the idea here is what’s important.

When you ~~threaten someone~~ play on someone’s fears, roll with Dark. On a 10 up, gain a string on them and carry 1 forward. On a 7-9, you still gain a string on them, but you’ve made them angry as well as afraid, so they carry 1 forward.

Here are some example situations where a player might roll to ~~threaten someone~~ play on someone’s fears:

“I slam Jake into his locker and loom over him. ‘Don’t forget my paper is due tomorrow. I want an A this time.’ I hold my fist in front of his face for a second before I leave with a glare.”

“I lean in close and whisper in Serena’s ear ‘I know who you were with last night.’ I shoot an obvious glance across the room to Cassidy, then to Serena’s boyfriend on the other side of the room.”

“‘I’m not dumb enough to think I could take you in a fight, Rico. But Wendy isn’t much of a fighter. And you can’t be with her 24/7. Think about it.'”

…

So. Feedback? Try not to pick at the exact mechanics; I’m sure Avery can come up with something way better. The important thing here is the proposal for a coercive fear-based string generating Basic Move rolled with Dark.

Harpy stuff.

Harpy stuff.

Stats: Hot 0, Cold 1, Volatile 1, Dark -1. I thought about bumping Cold to 2, but putting the extra point in Hot will help with both generating Strings and explaining why people still hang out with such an aggressive person.

Random thought: my current media image for the Harpy is Mona Vanderwaal from the Pretty Little Liars TV show (in opposition to Alison DiLaurentis as the Queen, obvs).

BIG QUESTION: do I want to keep this Skin like the Queen, in that she’s mostly got realistic/mundane Moves, but with one or two that are overtly supernatural? Or make her fully mundane like the Mortal? Or make her more overtly mythic? Is the ability to sprout feathers and claws and shit really central to the Skin’s monstrousness or is just being The Mean Girl enough? I’d love some feedback here, and I’ll be keeping this closely in mind as I go through and decide which Moves to keep, ditch, fold together, change, etc.

I think Backstory is going to change a bit, and become more of an obverse of the Queen: one string each on three side characters you’re planning to victimize. Plus one string on a powerful enemy you’ve pissed off, and they have two strings on you.

The Harpy’s Darkest Self got some critical feedback for just basically being “get meaner than you already are,” and I feel like that’s really valid. One thing I want to do in this rework is emphasize that the Harpy targets the powerful, the arrogant, the prideful – she punishes hubris. The school’s wallflowers are probably terrified of her but also kind of admire her, since she preys on the predators. So her Darkest Self would involve losing that shaky moral high ground, and instead targeting the weak and defenseless, so it’s less about divine retribution and more about just lashing out. If I can express that in the Moves and Darkest self, do you, dear readers, think that would work better?

I actually really like the Harpy’s original Sex Move, although I think I’m going to be refining it a bit. Having to choose between being tender and cruel, with a slight mechanical enticement to be cruel, just works for me. I keep thinking of Laura Palmer laughing at Bobby Briggs, for those of you who get that reference.

Thoughts on individual Harpy Moves in the comments.

Specific mechanics goals:

~ try to trim and consolidate down to 6-7 Moves per Skin without losing iconic abilities

~ in keeping with MH2, do away with the “freebie point” and build it into each Skin’s starting values (ie instead of getting a free point to put in any stat, the Vampire automatically has it put into Hot)

~ total Move restructure on some Skins (frex the Muse will be structured more like the Witch and Infernal)

~ take a close look at Background Strings and really the String economy in general due to changes to Basic Moves

~ Speaking of, deal with the removal of Manipulate an NPC from the game

New collection, feel free to opt out, blah blah blah, you know how this works.

I’ll be using this space to kind of design out loud as I revise Skins for the Skinless for a second edition. Here are some goals:

~ Incorporate actual-play feedback (which I have a TON of now, thank you so much, players around the world) to make things clearer and more fun

~ Streamline and simplify, in line with MH2

~ Focus harder on core concepts and eliminate what doesn’t support those concepts

~ Try harder to “keep things feral” and put less emphasis on built-in narratives

Ideally this kind of work – pruning and editing – will be something I can accomplish more easily than fresh writing when I’m having Crazy Pants days.

Taking advantage of my semi-headache-free evening to do a little name research for future Witchdudes playbooks.

Taking advantage of my semi-headache-free evening to do a little name research for future Witchdudes playbooks.

Altair, Blake, Chandra, Dark, Darren, Hoshi, Kearn, Nash, Orion, Shalim, Sullivan, Tariq

Aspen, Forester, Garland, Heath, Kunal, Leaf, Linden, Mace, Reed, Ren, Rowan, Sage

Aubin, Frost, Himesh, Kenyon, Kolden, Noel, North, Quilo, Snow, Whitaker, Winter, Yukio

Worldbuildy notes.

Twelve (formerly thirteen) family bloodlines. They’re massive, spread all over the world. Almost all of those with the bloodline are just carriers. Magic only manifests in queer guys, and even then only in one or two per family per generation. When a kid comes into his powers, an older witch somewhere loses his. Most of the time. It’s magic, there are lots of exceptions.

Yes, trans guys can be witches. The magic is proof enough that nobody will squawk about it (see above, re: sometimes exceptions).

The religion associated with witchdude PCs is wicca-esque, centered around a triune deity manifesting as Warrior, Father, and Sage. Any given witch may or may not buy into it or be particularly devout.

There are other witches in the world with their own types of magical powers. Witchdude PCs may or may not ever run into any of them. Different sects keep their distance from each other to avoid conflict whenever possible. So yes, women can be witches. You’re just not playing one of those.

Witches make binding oaths to one another to form covens. A witch who breaks his oaths is branded a warlock and outcast. Warlocks are treated about like you’d treat Nazis; the most infamous warlock hunted down and killed his entire bloodline (no small feat!), which is why there’s no Thirteenth House anymore.

Celebratory “brainfire has ended for now” random notes post.

Cardinal Watchtowers: Above, Center, Below, Within

Fixed Watchtowers: East, South, West, North

Mutable Watchtowers: Before, Right Hand, Behind, Left Hand

The Thirteenth Watchtower: Without

Interesting interactions. Example: the Watchtower Behind = the past, and ties to the Ice Witch. Past = frozen, unchangeable. BUT it’s one of the Mutable Watchtowers, so despite actual past events being frozen in time, one’s perspective on them can vary wildly, because one is always viewing those events through a cloudy sheet of ice. This sort of thing would affect in-game Moves. If the Ice Witch can magically see into the past, he would have to do lots of interpretation and (necessarily!) filter the vision through his own experiences, prejudices, and perspectives.

Most of this is design note stuff that would influence the final game without being presented explicitly in the final game. But ideally the feeling that there’s a system behind the “cosmology” and magic, rather than stuff randomly thrown together, would shine through and lend a sense of coherence and verisimilitude.