Happy Thursday, Shoppers,

I hope this update finds you all debt-free and in a well-watched corner of The Mall. I come bearing some more information on the current lineup of playbooks, but before I get to that, I want to personally thank anyone early enough to be reading this. This project is the first I've done, and as a long-time player and forever-GM of PBTA games, I sincerely hope this lives up to your expectations, as well as the bar set by the PBTA community that has inspired me endlessly.

Now that my spiel is out of the way, let's get into the playbooks:

Mallgoer Playbooks

As of right now, there are 8 unique playbooks slated for release. Most of them are a nearly finished first draft, but I expect a lot of teensy tiny changes to be taking place in the future. Here's what I think about them all as of right now:

• The Denizen 
  • (First draft done)
  • The Denizen is heavily inspired by "object companions" like Kez from Infinity Train, Backpack and The Map from Dora, The Brave Little Toaster, etc. This playbook has a lot of goofs built-in, reminiscent of cartoons and bad sitcoms. This playbook has you build your own unique character, with its "form" or appearance governing the perks it was created with. Additionally, there are plenty of moves like "Allow Me to Introduce Myself" that incentivize chatting up obvious threats with unfounded bravado, only to turn and run. This playbook is unique as the character has lived a life in The Mall, so if embracing the absurd as the norm and improv'ing with NPCs about your past sounds like something you like, this lighthearted playbook could be a wonderful fit for you.
• The Encore 
  • (First draft done)
  • Where The Denizen has a cheery outlook for more fun-loving mallgoers, The Encore serves as a narrative powerhouse for those who enjoy the gravitational pull of a strong narrative arc. The Encore has been here before, over, and over, and over again, and yet they have no recollection of any of it. They don't know how they got here, or how they got out before. Regardless of the holes in their memory, something keeps bringing them back. For this playbook, I made The Loop -- a mechanic built to feel like being stuck in a cycle. At the start of a Spree, The Encore retrieves a memory from a past loop that spells out grave danger for them in the present. While The Encore facilitates this "bad ending," they gain loop tokens that can be spent on powerful effects while breaking The Loop (shockwaves, additional dice, confidence, etc.). The playbook also has plenty of moves that will bring your past loops into play, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.
• The Fashionweaver 
  • (First draft almost done)
  • I'm not going to mince words -- this is the Sharpay Evans playbook. The Fashionweaver is a paragon of style that has a lot of flexibility in deciding their style (which has plenty of mechanical perks). This playbook feels like a typical "party face," with moves highlighting the ability to throw their weight around socially and influence the landscape of The Mall through dazzling the senses of its denizens. I felt that many PBTA systems have a character's expression be just "flavor," but what we put on our backs can mean a lot to us and influence our lives in deeply impactful ways. If this idea resonates with you, I really suggest you try out The Fashionweaver. It's my goal to continue to make this playbook open not only to high-femme high-cost divas, but also to styles like mall goth, retro revivalist, business chic, streetwear, etc., so if you don't feel this is the case when the playbooks start getting released, please, let me know how I could serve your aesthetic better and I'd love to do so.
• The Mallmancer 
  • (First draft almost done)
  • The Mall, when stripped down from its absurdist terminology of vast esoterica, is effectively magic. There's magic in the items that think and feel, as well as the corridors that circle back on themselves infinitely. The Mallmancer calls on some of this unpredictable power to alter things within The Mall. As a Mallmancer, you can see and take "tags" on items and people within The Mall, later utilizing them to construct intricate spells and enchantments. Take for example a stove top -- one could pluck a "hot" tag from it and later use it to cast a fireball spell (or even pop popcorn). Add 1-3 more tags to the mix and you have a lot of room to play with the types of spells you cast. For example, add "lost" and "fast" to that "hot" tag, and you could cast a spell to freeze over the water fountain with the fabled "lost hot fast" spell. If the concept of powerful and wildly unpredictable chaos magic tickles your fancy, I think you would enjoy the world of The Mallmancer.
• The Mall Rat 
  • (Needs more moves)
  • The Mall Rat is a troubled teen let loose upon The Mall. In every campaign I've ever played or DM'd, there has always been a player that sought out trouble in hilariously reckless ways. This playbook is a love letter to that playstyle. With The Mall Rat, you choose the way you are "troubled" (according to the adults in your life), and whenever you act in accordance with this "totally inaccurate" character flaw, you gain holds for your moves. The bread and butter of The Mall Rat is spending these tokens to Find Trouble, which thrusts them right into a hook from the MM's Shopping List (more on that in the future). This feels to me like when a character in a tv show causes a scene only to run off and see something they shouldn't. If you like causing your party a healthy amount of stress, The Mall Rat will make you feel as impactful as your fellow mallgoers... even if you directly defy them often.
• The Part-Timer 
  • (First draft almost done, needs moves tweaked slightly)
  • Debt is an important resource to manage in You Are Here, and an accumulation of too much Debt can easily lead to a party death at the hands of The Collectors. In my notes, I call The Part-Timer a "Debt Cleric." I say this because this playbook is all about working odd jobs to earn favors, clear away debts, gain access to restricted areas, and get info. The Part-Timer is a healer of the wallet, and having one around (or, perhaps, being one) is a Top-10-Way-To-Avoid-The-Collectors-Indefinitely. If roleplaying a tired part-time employee occasionally flipping Improbable Whoppers at the food courts run-down Burger King sounds funny to you (which it does to me), then I think you should try it out on release.
• The Tethered
  • (Hardly started)
  • I need more time with The Tethered, to be completely honest. With all the previous playbooks, there has been an "Aha!" moment where I've felt like my brain has chewed the concept enough for me to articulate their story. For The Tethered, I feel like I'm 40% there. So, here's a 40% description: The Tethered is someone with exceptional empathy afforded to them by the person they have been separated from by The Mall. Because of their need to connect with others around them, they can see and manipulate the threads that tie everyone in The Mall together. Their abilities are fueled by relations with others and what people owe one another, so as such, this will also be a very heavy interpersonal RP playbook. If stories of longing, found family, or a desperate need to connect tugs at your heartstrings, please, give it a look when I can do it more justice. After all, I'm drawing inspiration from some hard hitters from MOTW campaigns past (A little bit of Lorelei, a little bit of Faith).
• The Trinketeer
  • (Haven't started)
  • Similar to The Tethered (and perhaps even more so), I need more time with this concept. This concept is somewhat of an "item whisperer," someone who collects, creates, modifies, and even speaks to items within The Mall. This playbook will be a custom item machine and will open up a whole new world of non-human NPC's. I have to admit, this concept has gotten even more exciting in my mind due in part to the "Speak with Animals" spell from Baldur's Gate 3, but as it's extremely in its infancy, I'll leave it there for now.

...

So those are our 8 playbooks planned. This list likely won't shrink but may grow with time. This project is still very early, but I feel like my design philosophy is very antithetical to Monster of the Week's philosophy of needing proper touchstones in media to make a playbook. In this system, I'm more interested in the idea of taking concepts, stirring them around in a vat of glitter glue, and slapping them on a page. No playbook goes entirely uninfluenced by The Mall, so as such, they aren't exactly like anyone else anymore.

And, hey, thanks for reading my unedited and likely jumbled ramblings! I hope to have more updates for you soon.

Stay Infinite, Shoppers
 Nate