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Impulse Drive PWYW

A roleplaying game about misfits and spaceships, Powered By The Apocalypse. · By Adrian Thoen

Advancement Question

A topic by sully5443 created May 06, 2019 Views: 302 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 2

Hi Adrian! I've been looking for a really solid Sci-Fi/ Space Opera TTRPG in the PbtA vein and I am seriously Hooked (no pun intended) with Impulse Drive! It really is a phenomenal game that facilitates my GM (SM) style and evokes all the Space Opera feels I want to evoke in my players! Seriously, well done on a great game! I'm not sure if this is the correct/ best forum for questions- but I couldn't find any other avenue, so I apologize if I'm barking up the wrong tree!

Anyway, I've been reading through it a bunch of times to understand how best to interpret the rules for advancement. As written, the game states that with 5 XP, a player can "Gain a New Archetype Move" and in each Archetype Playbook, I noticed that under each playbook's advanced moves, the trigger is "When you have 5 XP and choose to gain a(n) (Insert Playbook) Move, select on of the below moves to take"

To me, it almost sounds like a player could choose to take a move from an archetype that is not their own; for example, a Warhorse can take "Quickdraw" from the Hound archetype. Overall, I think that is pretty neat- if it was intended. However, aside from the concern of perhaps "taking the vibe of an archetype away from another player with that particular archetype by taking their advanced moves," the more "practical" limitation of this rule interpretation would be that advanced moves that enhance a signature move that a player would not be able to otherwise acquire (like the Tempest's advanced moves, for instance, which enhance their "Oncoming Storm" signature Move).

So I guess my question comes down to: Are players allowed to take advanced moves from other playbook archetypes? Obviously, I'm fine if they cannot- I just want to be able to clarify that for my players once I get a chance to run this game. In the event they can, is it just a matter of not taking moves that enhance signature moves or perhaps something like Dungeon World where taking a multi-class move would apply to a playbook's starting move, such as a Cleric's "Cast a Spell" move would also require the ability to commune with a deity to cast cleric spells and therefore an Impulse Drive Archetype would have to also get the signature move before the advanced move?

Look forward to hearing a reply, awesome work on the game, and I look forward to any new updates you have in mind!

- Sully

Developer

Hi Sully, thank you for the kind words! I'm really glad Impulse Drive is scratching that itch for you. This is definitely a great place to discuss Impulse Drive and its rules and I'm glad you asked that question.

By default, players are assumed to only be able take Moves from their own playbook to protect fictional niches for other players characters. Moves from other classes or new custom archetype Moves is one of the first places folks start drifting - so much so, there's a Move in Drifting that addresses this exact idea!

 

Atypical Archetypes is just my spin on taking Moves from other playbooks though. Your group may play it differently! For instance - a fictional change for a character may result in them getting a Move from another playbook.


 There's also a rule that each player should have a different playbook, but the folks over at the Merely Roleplayers podcast had a season where 2 players played Mystics at the same time and that was a lot of fun seeing the difference between them. 

Ah, I figured I probably missed something! Must’ve Drifted away from me when I was looking at that section :p

But that is very sensible, and pretty much what I figured the case to be!

Great advice and thanks for the reply!