Troublemakers: A Game of Childhood Adventures

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Re: Troublemakers: A Game of Childhood Adventures
« Reply #15 on: June 27, 2016, 09:53:42 AM »
I've replaced the whole chow down move with something new: each playbook now gives a special end of session move where you award another player 1 will for being the most [something] in that session, with each playbook making this award on a different criterion.  That means every player has a chance to get at least 1 will at the end of every session, though this might need some tweaking, as it's possible that some kids could get 2 or 3 will per session whilst others get none.

However... there is also an alternative version of respect, where you mark it and then take your reward when it reaches 3: the playbooks that follow this design are here. I'm open to opinions about which method people prefer, though in either case, the actual triggers need some tweaking.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2016, 01:45:50 PM by James Mullen »

Re: Troublemakers: A Game of Childhood Adventures
« Reply #16 on: June 28, 2016, 06:48:46 AM »
I've just added a page of advice relating to the moves for giving badges to other kids:

Protect
This is a heroic move, where one kid steps in to take the rap for another or save them from immediate danger: when you protect another kid, you swap places with them and face whatever fate was about to befall them. This circumvents the need to roll any dice to save them, so you don’t need to pull a stunt, play a trick or tell a lie to get them out of trouble, you just give them a badge and it happens automatically from there. The downside is that the trouble still occurs, it just happens to you instead of them, but hopefully they’ll remember what you did for them and return the favour in the future.

Support
Kids will stick up for each other and work together to get what they want: a team of two or three kids may succeed where one would fail on their own. As with spending will, giving a badge to another kid only makes a little difference, but if a little difference is all you need, then that’s enough. By grouping together, though, kids can push way beyond what they might otherwise be capable of and this move is very useful for ganging up together to overcome your adversaries, whether they be rivals at school, desperate criminals or eerie monsters.

Scolding & Daring
These moves are two sides of the same coin and amount to the same thing: do as you’re told or face the consequences. Whether you are scolded or dared, you mark experience when you do what the other kid says you should, so you want other kids to give you those badges, but why should you scold or dare them? What’s in it for you?
  • Narratively, you can cut through an argument and this is the most powerful & effective use of these moves in the story: instead of a long back and forth between two characters over what to do now, either of you can short-cut the debate by giving a badge to the other. When someone gives you a badge, in one sense they’re flagging this as something they really want to happen and are offering you a reward for going along with them; you can still choose to turn them down if you don’t mind the penalty, but you might trigger a falling out.
  • Mechanically, those badges you’ve got aren’t doing you any good: they only help you when they are in the hands of the other kids, so you should be looking for any opportunity to give them away. When another kid has a badge with you, that’s a resource they can use to protect or support you, so you want them to have your back as much as possible. Scolding or daring another kid is a good way to put that resource in their hands where they can use it to assist you; or they can just scold or dare you back, which gives you a chance to score more experience.