Alt. Battlebabe Special Move

[mcdaldno]

So, over in another thread I started, a couple people mentioned how the Battlebabe sex move always falls flat in play. I agreed, saying:

The Driver and the Battlebabe both have "clever" sex moves. They do clever things, and they communicate a bunch of things about who these characters are. But only one of them is fun in play.

The Driver's sex move is fun, because it takes play in a direction. The Battlebabe's sex move is not fun, because it shuts down directions without providing new ones. I mean, sure, you can have already seduced someone to get what you want, and not have to suffer consequences for those actions now... but that's a before thing, not an after thing.

In the moment that the Battlebabe's sex move happens, it shuts down momentum. Lame!

So, someone else asked if there was a more sex-positive special for the Battlebabe, one that would actually make sex mechanically interesting for the Battlebabe.

And I came up with this:

Battlebabe Special
When you have sex with someone, you can temporarily change their special move to one of the other playbooks'. The effect only lasts while you're having sex.

--

The idea is simple: when you're a battlebabe, you decide what sex means. You decide whether it's about feeling good, or getting something for nothing, or getting inside their heads, or what.

What do you folks think about that idea?

[Chris]

Hmmm. I kinda like it the way it is. I don't think the sex moves really advocate having sex or not having sex. I'm not sure it's about it being mechanically interesting, which I think is something that makes more sense for Monsterhearts.

I think it does this:

...they communicate a bunch of things about who these characters are...

...and they communicate it both to the battlebabe's PC, the other PX, and all the NPCs.

I like this:

...when you're a battlebabe, you decide what sex means...

...but I already think it's true, more so than giving the gunlugger the option to give me some scratch because I slept with him.

I think your version makes the battlebabe a wildcard, in that s/he can use sex as either a weapon or a gift, but I think that deadens the original effect, which is that sex matters to h/e/i/r/m as much as s/he says it does, including not at all.

If this is the move, does it include the battlebabe's current one?

[Johnstone]

See my comments in the other thread. I don't think this is appropriate for the Battlebabe, as you might expect.

However, as a move I think it's rather interesting. A little bit... overpowered maybe? It certainly incentivizes using sex. Like, a lot. Like, it should be the special move of a playbook called The Whore, because hey, if you have sex, you have a dozen extra moves you can make! So, of course, you will (have sex, I mean).

I'm broke? I have sex and they give me free barter.
I need a +1? I have sex with somebody.
I want somebody to do something for me? I have sex with them.
I want somebody to know the secrets I cannot voice aloud? I have sex with them.

Perhaps it could be a bit more limited?
-- when you choose a special move for your partner, either they keep that same move towards you permanently
-- or all your partners for a session have that same special move, which you pick at the beginning of a session or the first time you have sex in a session
-- or you choose 3 sex moves at chargen and you only get to pick from those
-- or you can only choose from playbooks not being played in the game

Hm. Now I kinda want to make The Whore playbook.

[Joe Beason]

Doesn't the Skinner cover a lot of that ground, with options for getting barter, taking forwards, granting/inflicting forwards, or hypnotizing them into doing any of a number of things?

[Paul T.]

It could be interesting if the move was reciprocal, though.

So, sex could mean nothing... for both you.

Or, if you're really into it, you could hypnotize your partner... but at the cost of them hypnotizing you at the same time.



(You'll probably not want to include the barter option, though, or you give birth to some weird liquid procreation sex cult.)