Creating a PbtA Playbook — Thug for Zoo Mafia RPG

September 15, 2022

Welcome to the Family! But first, have you downloaded the Zoo Mafia RPG Quick Start Rules? You can sign up for the Zoo Mafia RPG Newsletter here and get them for free. It’s time to build a new Playbook: Thug. (Or maybe it’ll be called Muscle.) Before going any further let me give the elevator pitch for Zoo Mafia RPG. It’s tabletop roleplaying game heavily influenced by the Powered by the Apocalypse, specifically Monster of the Week. Our design also took inspiration from Green Ronin Publishing’s AGE System. Zoo Mafia is all about being a zoo animal who is also criminal trying to get into an organized crime family.

Creating another PbtA Playbook

Creating this Playbook is tricky. Thug is very close to Button Person. They both fill similar roles being combat focused and skilled fighters or killers. The Button Person strikes me as being more methodical and capable of greater levels of finesse. These two Playbooks will certainly have some overlap. They’ll be the most combat capable Playbooks in the game.

One focuses more on accomplishing the task where the other is more about not having to do the task. Let me explain. The Button Person benefits from being unobtrusive. This helps them to get closer to their targets and get the drop on them.

The Thug is the opposite. It’s kind of the bully of the Playbooks. Thug should be able to accomplish their goal without having to get their hands too dirty. By looking scary they can get what they want without having to resort to violence. This isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of Thugs who aren’t here for doing things the hard way but the premise I’m going to go with for this Playbook is they are really good at intimidating their way to their objectives. They’ll still be more than capable of violence but this path isn’t always the way to achieve an objective. Part of being effective Thug is getting what you want without scaring your target beyond their ability to be useful.

Let’s review our Button Person and see where we can find the difference between these two archetypes. What does a Button Person do?

They kill people.
They get too hard to get to people.
They research their targets.
They understand security.
Masters of weaponry.
Capable of great violence.

What does the Thug do?

They rough people up to varying degrees.
They look threatening.
They tend to be followers.
They are good at working in groups.
They are tough.

While their skill sets are similar the objectives are different. Those differences are where we can start building the moves for our Thug Playbook. It’ll also help us to prioritize the stats. Let’s look at those:

Awareness (Perception or Senses)
Magnetism (Appeal or Presence)
Moxie (Grit or Willpower)
Precision (Accuracy or Focus)
Sly (Guile or Subtlety)
Wild (Instinct or Physicality)

Half the stats jump out to me right away. I feel like Magnetism, Moxie and Wild are the priority stats for this Playbook. Magnetism helps this Playbook manipulate others with their mere presence. What good is scaring someone if they are so scared they can’t do what you want? Moxie is an easy one — it takes guts and force of will perpetrate or imply violence upon others, especially up close and personal. Wild is an easy one. You are a brute or a bruiser and it doesn’t get anymore physical than this.

Let’s assign stat arrays:

Awareness 0 / -1 / 0 / 0
Magnetism +1 / +1 / +2 / +1
Moxie +1 / +1 / +1 / 0
Precision 0 / 0 / 0 / +1
Sly 0 / 0 / -1 / -1
Wild +1 / +2 / +1 / +2

Now onto our Moves. With all of the Zoo Mafia RPG Playbooks so far I’ve created the Moves from the list of what the archetype does.

Thugs rough people up to varying degrees.

Bruiser: You get a +1 to damage when you use the Bop move.

They look threatening.

Intimidating: Use Wild when you use the Start Spitting Move if you are trying to intimidate or coerce someone’s actions.

They tend to be followers.

You Got it Boss: You can assist someone else when they either Bop or Bring the Heat or Start Spitting. If the help is successful they receive a +2 instead of +1.

They are good at working in groups.

You Hold ‘Em, I’ll Hit ‘Em: When someone uses the Bop move to assist you in combat you get a +1 damage.

They are tough.

Tough as Nails: You take -1 damage any time you take damage.

Equipment

ONE SIDEARM OR SHOTGUN: Double-Barrelled Shotgun, Sawed-Off Shotgun, .357 Revolver, Colt M1911a1, Smith And Wesson M&P .38 Special, Smith & Wesson Model 10
TWO MELEE WEAPONS: Blackjack, Crowbar, Knife, Knuckle-Duster, Leather Slapper, Sap, Steel Bar, Straight Razor, Wooden Plank, Baseball Bat wrapped in Barbed Wire
A HAT: Banded Fedora, Bowler, Cloche, Hair Clips, Headband, Headpiece, Homburg, Sun Hat, Tiara
CLOTHING: Double-Breasted Jacket, Flannel Suit, High-Waisted Trousers, Jazz Suit, Knickerbockers, Longer Plus-Fours, Sweater, Vest, Wide-Legged Oxford Bag Pants
AN ACCESSORY: Cigarette Holder, Flask, Pocket Watch, Sunglasses, Suspenders, Wrist Watch

If you want the PDF version of the Thug Playbook we’ll be posting it up over on Patreon. Next up I think we’ll be doing a Wheel Person Playbook.