Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Nasty Cards and Life Experiences in High Strung

Two mechanics going into High Strung:

Nasty Cards

At the beginning of each session, any player may choose a Nasty Card from the deck. Nasty Cards are a freshly shuffled pack of ordinary playing cards. Picking a Nasty Card is always optional, but if picked it must be done.

Nasty Cards are always a nasty act attempted by the player's character on another player's character. Sometimes, they are turned around so that they affect the original PC, but mostly they affect the second PC, to the first PC's benefit.

The Nasty Card drawn might say: "You attempt to seduce a band mate's S.O. - or steal a groupie right from under a band mate if the band mate has no S.O. - and succeed! You are hereby proven superior. You take two Hope from your band mate for stealing their S.O., or one Hope for a groupie."

This can be a viable method for older PCs to stay in the game.

Life Experiences

After each gig, each character rolls a single 20-sided die vs. a Target Number. This TN varies depending on what the character is looking for: Love/Sex uses the character's CUTE score, Booze uses ENRG, Drugs uses SMRT, and Partying uses DANS.

A roll under or equal to the TN is a success. Any success gains you one Hope.

Hooked: A roll of 20 means you are Hooked. Being Hooked means you cannot look for any other source of Hope, and the thing you are Hooked on must always be to your detriment in any other area. For example, if you are Hooked on Sex, you will begin cheating on your S.O. if you have one, and treat groupies like dirt. Your TN score goes down by one. Each subsequent roll of a 20 reduces your TN by one as well.

Escape: A roll of 1 means you found some way to get away from being Hooked - but you are more susceptible to getting Hooked again. Your Hooked Target increases by one - if it was 20, that number now changes to 19-20. Get Hooked and Escape yet again, and it will change from 19-20 to 18-20.

Comments?

3 comments:

  1. Nasty fun! I like it. It will also help some players who aren't sure with what to do with their characters. Help them stay on target as it were and it fits in with the whole music bad boy reputation.

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  2. Musicians have their reputations for a reason, Bon Bon! You've got to keep that Hope alive, or it's all over, and nasty stuff can be a way of validating tour choice.

    As for the Life Experiences, when I was a musician, I *assumed* I would never make it to be 21 years old. :D

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  3. Thanks for your comment, and I am very glad you are liking this! :D

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