#glowinthedark

#glowinthedark

#glowinthedark

The Driver playbook!

It’s been a while since I posted a new playbook. I had jumped over to flesh out the actual rules hacks for a while. In contrast to the Leftover, which can branch out a few different ways with its abilities, the Driver is laser-focused on vehicles.

Need for Speed: When you face a challenge using speed and precise driving, you gain +1 effect level. Pushing yourself only costs 1 stress in these situations.

Witness Me: When you sacrifice your custom ride in order to accomplish something, say why you’re willing to do that. Pay any additional costs set by the GM and describe how you succeed.

Maximum Overdrive: You get +1d when ramming smaller vehicles. If you’re running over pedestrians, your attacks also gain +1 scale.

Fast and Furious: You can make your vehicle do things it shouldn’t be able to do. You are able to find conveniently-placed rubble to ramp off of, half-buried wrecks to get you up on two wheels, make astounding jumps without blowing out your tires, and burst through obstacles that should shred your vehicle.

Tank Girl: You have special armor against collisions and crashes, plus anyone in a vehicle you’re driving (including you) gains +1d to resistance rolls against collision damage.

Beat the Snake: When there’s a question about who acts first, the answer is you (two characters with this ability act simultaneously).

Car Surfer: When you leap between or clamber over moving vehicles you never fall off.

Eleanor: When you name your custom ride, you may choose an additional edge and mitigate one flaw.

9 thoughts on “#glowinthedark”

  1. Dig the backgrounds (missed that before) and “What Wont You Do?”

    oh my lol: Maximum Overdrive is maximum insanity! but I am kind of in love with that one just the same for the reference (and for sort of forcing me to think about a semi that flattens the raiders and their poor bystanders like a row of crumpled cans)

    Fast and Furious is cool name, and is very thematic when I picture the best case, but I think you should just give them +1d on desperate rolls with the car, and reduced cost to push in such situations. Simpler, and relies on present fiction rather than inserting it when it isn’t (worst case)

    Why so OP? looking at you, Need for Speed and Eleanor. Need for Speed is like.. two, no three! great uses (“speed”, “precise driving”, and the reduced cost to push). And Eleanor’s about the same. Removing a flaw alone is really good, normally you do that separately from adding edges and its expensive  (a crew advance). Suggest making it that vehicle improvements mitigate a flaw or edge that isn’t normally included & Requires you to name your ride.

    I like Car Surfer but can’t tell if Silver Surfer ref or another character? also <3 Tank Girl and Beat the Snake

    PS: So I love it and also sort of hate it. 🙂 5/8 would play again though

  2. Thanks for the input! I’ve got 3 playbooks now and it’s easy to drift into OP territory when you’re in that headspace of “gotta make this playbook awesome and tempting”. My mistake here was I forgot for a minute that I run for five players. That’s a lot of abilities at the table at once, so thanks for the reality check.

    Quick answers first! “Car surfer” isn’t a reference to anything, it’s just what you call it when you ride on top of a moving vehicle.

    I freely admit that I love the reference to Beat the Snake but realize that it can and will easily degenerate into lewd jokes. I will tentatively say that’s working as designed.

    I’ll be taking your advice on Fast and Furious. I think your edits help the ability engage back with the mechanics in a way I wasn’t able to articulate before. I was going for “you’re a Car Wizard, Harry!” but +1d desperate rolls with reduced push cost probably covers similar ground. And so swapping the reduced push cost out of Need for Speed and putting it into Fast and Furious helps Need for Speed as well. And I feel if the Lurk can get +1d on _every_ desperate action, limiting it to driving actions deserves a bit of an added bonus in there in the form of that reduced push.

    My suggestion for solving Eleanor is to give you one edge or one flaw, not both, but then let you take the ability twice to gain the other benefit. I have a Leftover playbook ability, Future Shock, where I’ve done the same edit but for power armor.

    My question to you Mark Cleveland Massengale is if Need for Speed was “only” +1 effect level when you use “speed and precise driving”, is that enough to make you want that ability? I want it to be the “you’re good at driving” ability. I guess it’s okay – the Lurk and Cutter’s first abilities basically do this. It’s in line well enough.

  3. Sweet: I knew you could handle it! Wait, actually I was nervous to say that much – but I felt I had more to say about this than other things you’ve shared since I went down that 🙂 Driver/Rigger road with the Runners hack. Glad to hear it was received criticism. And that you have a playtest group that’s putting up with being in development.

    ——

    Eleanor sounds good

    —

    To answer your question, I probably would take NFS, since I will probably be doing ‘speedy’ or ‘precise’ in most any situation involving the vehicle.

    In retrospect though, I was harsh on NFS. It isn’t really OP, so much as simple. Which can be good too, so I will lay off after another idea. Since you are putting the benefit of reduced stress in F&F, maybe it will suit to have this one spend stress. And also bring back some of that “driver is a badass” vibe you want from it. Feel free to steal from this reskin of the Tempest ability if so.

    Rigged Driver (v5): Tinker vehicles to produce road effects without losing control (smokescreen, oil slick, drive-by pickup, impossible direction change, collision without major damage). Take stress equal to the magnitude of the results (0-4).

    If not, I suggest sticking with what you got and just letting the playtest tell you more

  4. Interesting! I’ll consider that for sure. I am kind of liking NFS okay as a simple, broadly-applicable bread and butter ability, though. +1 effect level means you win the race, you get the beer from Texarkana back to Big Enos and Little Enos on time, and you drive through the crazy sandstorm without hitting fire tornadoes. I’m okay with that.

  6. Mark Cleveland Massengale your Tempest reskin idea’s going to show up in my Junker playbook I think. The gadgetry aspect of it fits better with that mechanic/scavenger/macgyver archetype.

    I clearly had forgotten about pushing yourself for effect level. 🙂 My guys always just take the bonus die – probably because that’s the more obvious choice by virtue of being on the character sheets.

  7. Sorry I’m late to the party on this one, probably not too much original feedback here.

    Need for Speed – I’m unsure what the final text for this ability is now, so I don’t have too much to say. My only question is what if I use speeding and wild driving? No +1 effect?

    Witness Me – super cool, I love these sorts of abilities. Have we decided how you go about getting your ride back between scores?

    Maximum Overdrive – I feel like ramming a pedestrian with a car should be +1 scale without this ability. Or maybe just +1 potency. The point is, it’s already a ridiculously effective tactic, so I’m not sure I’d take this. Depends on the size of my vehicle and the likelihood of finding a smaller one.

    Fast and Furious – I think I’ll like the new ability better than the one as written. If my driver asked me if there could be some conveniently placed rubble, I’d just say “Yes! Make that desperate roll!” And if the player asks if he can burst through an obstacle without shredding his vehicle I’d say “Roll and find out”

    Tank Girl – sounds good

    Beat the Snake – also good, but i don’t get the reference

    Car Surfer – This is fine. I’ll miss the rolls on this one but if the player is super into it then I’m okay giving it to them.

    Eleanor – Extra edge and one fewer flaw seemed like a lot. I prefer the rewrite.

Comments are closed.