Apocalypse World

[Graham W]

We started Apocalypse World on Wednesday. From my point of view, it was successful, with the MC rules especially working well.

Character creation went smoothly: everyone did it from their individual playbook. There was only one misunderstanding: some people were under the impression they got all the special powers, not two of them. This led to Dave thinking he had an infirmiary, when he shouldn't have done: to rectify, we blew it up with a rocket at the end.

So we had Steve playing a Hardholder, Simon playing a Brainer, Wai Kien as a Hocus, Dave as an Angel and Chris as a Battle Babe.

We set the whole thing in a post-apocalyptic Clapham. Steve's hardholding was an encampment on Clapham Common, which as acted as a market: people drove lorries in, sold their stuff and went out again. All the other PCs were residents/workers of The Common.

From the GM point of view, I had two Fronts: N19 and Panacea. So, listing only stuff that came out in play, here's N19:

N19: A gang of kids with rocket-launchers and AK47s
Expresses: Despair
Dark Future: They'll raze The Common.
Stakes: Will the gang survive? Will Jacky escape? [and one more, which I'll keep to myself]
Cast: Calibre (one of the kids), Jacky (an androgynous slut)

N19 Threat One is called: Jacky
Kind: Delusion
Move: N19 dump her on the PC's doorstep. She'll try to move in and seduce a PC, before leaving with what she can get.
Custom Roll: If you have sex with Jacky, roll+cool. If you lose, I get 3 hold over you, as if I'd won you over. If you win but don't get 10 or more, I get 1 hold, in the same way.

N19 Threat Two is called: Invade
Kind: Pain Addict
Move: Watch from afar, then move in and take over.

And here's slightly less information on Panacea:

Panacea: Some sort of mysterious organisation with helicopters and syringes
Expresses: Fear
Dark Future: Not telling.
Stakes: Will a PC get infected?
Cast: Not telling.
Threats: Not telling.

Panacea Threat One is called: Specimen
But I won't say any more about that.

I started the game with the clocktower (a Clapham landmark) blowing up. On investigation, the PCs found Jacky at the base of the clocktower, seriously injured: that was my first move.

After a bit of tapping-into-the-psychic-maelstrom, Jacky was taken to the infirmiary. I must point out, here, that players were trying to direct their use of the psychic maelstrom: "I'm tapping into the psychic maelstrom to find out about...". I sometimes sort of allowed this. Generally, the win-you-over and psychic maelstrom rules were excellent at letting me dripfeed information.

The Angel tended to Jacky. When he left, Jacky seduced the Battlebabe, who didn't seem unwilling. This led to an argument between the Angel and the Battlebabe, during which Jacky escaped. Eventually, the Angel cornered her by the soy pond. There was a failed roll, which I decided meant that Jacky was shot through the head by a sniper. (Because N19 were watching and thought she might spill the beans.)

Oh, yes. A black helicopter was flying around. The Brainer did a Psychic Blast on the occupants, causing it to crash. The Hardholder and Brainer went to search the wreckage and captured the pilot, but not before the pilot had driven a syringe into the Brainer's back. This was a hard move, following a failed roll from the Brainer, and announced in a misdirected way (the Hardholder's PC noticed the syringe before the Brainer). The pilot was captured and questions: various things about a "vaccine" and "test subjects" came out.

Then, at the end, there were lots of failed rolls, so N19 invaded the Common: hordes of kids with rocket launchers, sniper rifles and assault rifles. This sets us up for a battle first thing next week.

Oh, by the way, nobody went aggro. Lots of winning over, no going aggro. (By the way, we really need to know what "go along with" means.)

From my MC's point of view, the rules worked very smoothly. The various information-gathering rules worked neatly to reveal things about the Fronts, but not too much. The make-a-hard-move-on-a-failed-roll rule was particularly useful: I knew when it was fair to hit the PCs hard and when it wasn't. The countdowns didn't play much of a part: I counted down Jacky, but then she got shot.

I know Steve's got more doubts about the rules than I have, but I'll let him explain.

My personal doubt is that it seemed rather GM-led. Often, the PCs seemed to be responding to my threats. Also, the PCs themselves don't seem fully fleshed out, yet.

Graham

[lumpley]

Terrific! Thanks for playing my game.

In our game the PCs have lots to talk about with each other. I think that the big thing I do to make this happen is: I make and actively foster PC-NPC-PC triangles. A lieutenant of Meg's hardholder's complains about Meg's hardholder to Julia's brainer, his lover. A villain makes it clear to Shreyas' skinner that she's going after Meg's hardholder only; she hopes that when she seizes the holding, he'll stick around. A gang member takes something that Shreyas' skinner says and goes and murders someone in Emily's angel's infirmary. (These are, um, weaves, right Ron?)

I don't think the game will ever be fully player-driven, the way that Poison'd can be and In a Wicked Age always is. The GM will always be providing external pressure. I aim for about as much GM-created external pressure as there is in Firefly, say.

(I've answered your question about going along with over on the ecretsay ogblay.)

-Vincent

[Graham W]

Oh, that's useful. That sounds like an important step in MC prep to me: prepare NPCs related to the characters.

Similarly, it sounds like an important move for the MC: use NPCs to drive wedges between PCs.

Could you adjust the MC advice accordingly, please? Much appreciated.

Graham

[Mikael]

Graham, I tried to read carefully but am not sure: you did not use the battle rules yet?