Tag: apocalypse world

Actual Play – The Sprawl at GPNW (6/29/2013)

The_SprawlGM: Hamish Cameron
Players: Jonathan Reiter, Morgan Ellis, Karen Twelves, and Sean Nittner
System: The Sprawl

I’d really been wanting to play The Sprawl for a while. First off it was Hamish’s creation, so I was interested just because of that. Also, I really dig Cyberpunk/Shadowrun settings, but loathe the mechanics/system attached to most of the games. Thirst, it’s an AW hack, how could I not want to play. Hamish has been really working on this too. From his Live Journal post it looks like he’s been taking really extensive notes on this feedback and working a lot of those change into his game to make it better.

Corporations rule the world!

The first thing you do in a game of The Sprawl is define one corporation per player (including the GM) that will be present in the game. They aren’t yours, and you shouldn’t get attached to them because “they are all going to fuck you over” (I think something like that is in the text of the game), but you get to add some flavor to them, and describe the thing that they excel in (though of note, all corporations, or entities the size of corporations, really do everything). We had:

Global News Network – A media corp that reported on the news the created.

Nanotech – An advertising company that used nan0-viruses to infiltrate cyber and wired interfaces to display relevant ads.

Nutrigrow – An agrarian corporation that specialized in fabricated protein enriched food replacements.

Omni Dynamics – “We make everything. And we make everything better.” A consumer products R&D corporation.

Tiaxia – An orbital platform manufacturing corporation. We didn’t realize the real role of these corps, essentially as antagonists, until later in the game, but this was our baseline.

Character creation

Jonathan had an idea from the get go about playing a reporter, so he made PZ, who worked from Global News Network (GNN).

I was attracted the the idea of a character who actually had a moral compass (kind of a rarity in the genre) so I played a Pusher named Dillon Vicara. He worked in an Omni Dynamics manufacturing plant and was horribly burned in an accident that they covered up. After that Dillion had a serious axe to grind with OD and their labor policies.

Karen had a couple different character concepts in mind an eventually settled on a Tech. Eleni, a  gun for hire (or in this case explosives for hire).

Morgan played a Hunter named Frost. She was a South African woman who  believed in getting the job done. She worked for corps, hunting down people, like you do.

Cyberware

All of our characters (I think) had the option of being cyber-ed. The consequences of that however were two very awesome questions.

1. Why did you elect to have a part of your body cut away, and put a piece of hardware in it’s place?

2. Who paid for it? If a corp, are you owned or hunted by them? If yourself is it unreliable, substandard, suffers from hardware decay, damaging,  or cheap.

I really dug these questions. The first because it asked why kind of damaged human being are you. Either you’ve been physically injured and needed parts of your body replaced, or your just fucked up enough to cut out parts of your body to get better versions.

The second, except maybe the cheap option is great because it creates hooks for you in the game. If you’re owned you’ll get bossed around. If you’re hunted, you’ll being chased. If you paid for it yourself, something is wrong with it that you’ve got to deal with. It may just be unreliable, on a miss it’s going to mess you up (Millennium Falcon engaging its hyperdrive anyone) or it may actually be killing you. No matter what though, you’r character has problems right from the get to.

Elini made her own cyberarm, but it was unreliable. A project for her to work on.

Dillion’s eyes were replaced at Omni Dynamics expense to shut him up, but after he went rogue and published their malpractice, now they are hunting him.

PZ is totally owned by GNN, both his body and his contract!

Links

Like Hx or Strings, The Sprawl connects the characters together. In this case Links are formed by going on missions together, or by being connected in some way to the same missions (sometimes on the opposite sides).

Missions also start ratcheting up the clocks (The Sprawl uses a lot of clocks) if the corporations we created. The more people involved on a mission the more links we have to each other, but, also the more the corps clock is moved up, and when it hit 00:00 (Midnight) that means they’ve had enough of us and are hunting us down.

Each of us had done a run against one of the corps except GNN (they, oddly seemed to often be the ones backing our runs), and two runs had been done against Taxia, and not surprisingly their clock hit 00:00.

GM Prep

After characters were made, and our links established, Hamish had us take a break to get coffee while worked our background into a mission. He had two hard points to work with.

1. My character Dillion, had a mad hate on for Omni Corp, and was constantly trying to unveil their inhumane labor practices.

2. Tiaxia Corp had a made hate on for us and was ready wipe us out for the trouble we caused.

The play is the thing

Our “before the mission” moves kicked off the story, which is pretty cool.  PZ got a job to “interview” a corporate exec from Omni Dynamics. All that was known was that she was meeting with some other high level execs from other corps in the Transamerica building soon. The meeting was all hush-hush and the public wouldn’t be allowed in.

PZ assembled a team (us) and we quickly decided to break into the meeting at the TZB and extract the exec so we could question her. We added a side job of robbing a bank on the ground floor of the TZB as a “distraction”. This created some interesting friction between Eleni who as in it all for the money and Dillion who didn’t want to compromise his beliefs just so someone else could pad their pockets.

Of course things we as we expected them to go for about as long as we expected it to, which is to say as soon as we got in the building all the fecal matter hit the rotating blades of a ventilation unit.

Paramilitary dudes in black suits surrounded the building on foot and in air. They landed their chopper and broke into the building, taking a direct path to the same place we were going. Seeing the threat, and not knowing who they were or why they were here, we grabbed our mark and convinced her that coming with us was way safer than sticking around here (dudes in ninja pajamas were assassinating everyone they saw).

She came willingly, as we spent the rest of the game being chased by dudes (who we realized were from Tiaxia Corp, the peeps we had burned well before the mission) and burned all kinds of bridges (with Yakuza, PZs boss, and probably a bunch of poor peeps that lived under the dome).

The final reveal got Eleni paid (the bank was in fact ripped off), hurt Omni dynamics (satisfying Dillon) and got PZ the story! It also ensured that now Omni wanted our heads as well as Tiaxia, and probably several of our contacts. Yep, felt like gritty Cyberpunk to me!

Fun Facts

In twenty-whatever, when Alemeda has been submerged, the SF Bay was covered by a dome and the city sprawled across that and all of the east bay to form a huge urban wasteland. Under the dome, shipping continued, but the light of day was blocked and exhaust fumes could never escape creating a quagmire of smog and refuse.  Yay for Cyberpunk futures!

 

Thoughts on the Game

The game uses keys from The Shadow of Yesterday to reward XP as well as XP for following the mission. I think this is a great mix of “yes, your characters have a point to prove” and “we’ve got a mission to do”. It also means that if you push your characters beliefs (hitting keys) and complete a mission, you should get an advancement and a bit more every mission (I think the mission offered 6XP total, plus 2 more for hitting keys). My on suggestion would be to put the directives (the name for keys in The Sprawl) on our character tents, so as players we could prompt each other to act on them, and call out when we think they were being used so the player doesn’t have to announce “hey, I did my thing, can I get an XP?”

I’d replace the +cheap option with +dept, unless that tramples too much on the +owned or +hunted options. Cheap seems to be to be the only option that doesn’t cause a problem for the characters.

Is there an end of game mechanic to add links to people? If not I think there should be. If so, I think you should make sure to have that at the end of every game so the players can specify how they’ve grown closer (or farther apart) from each other.

I talked to Hamish about this after the fact, but the game, like my hack suffers from having too much paper work. There is a character sheet, a sheet for how to make your character, a sheet for the basic moves, a sheet for the directives, a sheet for the cyberware, and that may be it, or there might have been on more I’m forgetting. I think a good layout person will help this immensely, by not only figuring out how to fit more on a page, but also organizing the info to be more intuitive. I think this game will look really slick once layout has been done.

Man, Apocalypse World, what is it with everyone in the world (including me) wanting to hack you? My only beef with AW hacks (including my own) is that they all have to spend so much time and energy not just explaining what they are, but also, how they are different from AW. I get why, but it still a shame.

Actual Play – Damascus Falls at GPNW (6/29/2013)

Apocalypse GalacticaGM: Sean Nittner
Players: Jeremy Tidwell, Morgan Stinson, Nels Anderson, Andrew Carbonetto
System: Apocalypse World
Hack: Apocalypse Galactica

I was very inspired by Go Play even before I got there. Once I had arrive, and especially once I had played Monsterhearts, I was even more so. I’m very glad I brought my Apocalypse Galactica get up. Uniform. Check. Playbooks. Check. Tokens from the game. Check. Game on!

Under the gun – A 3 hour slot

What I hadn’t realized, however, when I signed up to run, was that I was signing up for a three hour slot. It was right there in front of me (Saturday 9AM-Noon) but my math failed, or maybe I just assumed all slots were four hours, but yeah, there it was. I got to run my still in development game that I had never run in fewer than four hours, in three.

And I’m so stoked that I did. We had an hour of character creation and then two hours of game, where SO FRAKING MUCH HAPPENED! Games are fluid, and like fluid, fit into whatever space they are given.

Characters

Nels – Played an Activist that was a former Colonial sergeant, and then a former union man, and finally a protestor for the equal rights and opportunities for all 12 colonies.

Morgan – Played a cool headed president that wanted to restore order to the fleet and power to the quorum by any means necessary.

Jerry – Played a tough as nails CAG callsign Titan, who didn’t think the Commander was the right person for the job.

Andrew – Played the Admiral in charge of the fleet. An exceedingly practical man, with a terrible sense of the big picture, or rather of the value of human lives.

The Play is the Thing

Character creation, including the fleet, Hx, Love Letters, and all that jazz took exactly and hour, which left me two hours to run a game from FTL jump to Ka-Boom. Lords of Kobol guide us, somehow we did it.

Here are just a few highlights of the game.

We started off with some awesome bit of insubordination. Upon landing the the hangar bay Titan was immediately summoned to Admiral Raptis’ personal quarters. Where she totally didn’t go. Instead she made her way to the Condor, where she had heard that Karina Halphen had been put under house arrest by the Admiral and was not going quietly into the night.

Meanwhile, on Colonial One,  the activist and the president were having a pow-wow. How could they collectively get the Commander to back down. And boy howdy how they conspired against him. Though who was being treasonous would really depend on who you though was the rightful authority.

As play progressed

we saw some awesome badassery all over the place like…

… when Titan shot the Captain of the Condor (her ally) in the head, took her keys to the cargo bay that the Marines and Civilians were trapped in the middle of standoff in, and the told everyone to calm the frak down, completely diffusing the situation, or…

… The activist ordered his men to take over ships they were on and face the wrath of a Battlestar to declare their independence from the tyrannous rule of the Admiral under the presidents explicit orders, or….

… when the president jammed the commander’s signal to the fleet with wide spectrum electromagnetic interference, which caused so much noise it was picked up by a long distance cylon raider, or …

… when Admiral Raptis ordered a Marine to evacuate the Miya San (which had a radiological alarm go off on it) rather than use civilian technicians capable of diffusing the threat, because he didn’t trust anyone outside of his command, or …

… when the Activist realized the president was a Cylon and nearly got shot down trying to get to the Battlestar to tell the Admiral. And then, when they, two previous foes, saw eye to eye against a common enemy, or…

… when the President, calm, cool and collected told everyone that things would be just fine as she contacted the Cylon Basestar and called in an ambush on the fleet. Or …

… The admiral use the point defense turrets to drive the Basestar back just far enough that Titan could, with a nuke strapped to her Viper’s underbelly, suicide bomb the Cylon Basestar and give the fleet time to jump…

… followed by another nuclear explosion as the Miya San, because of the Activist’s plea that the Miya San was lost and this way she could at least take out a Cylon with her…

SO SAY WE ALL!

Thoughts on the game

I need to add to my list of names, as list of ship names. That keeps coming up.

Character creation reliably takes an hour. I think there are lot’s of fiddly bits on every playbook. Selecting name and look, stats and moves, and invariably some other gear/follower/beliefs options. Then we have love letters as well, which take time to read and then selection options from. Somewhere in there I have them select Fleet and Battlestar options. They are all fun things, but it’s a lot of choices. Jeremy told me later that the time it was taking made him anxious, we still had a good time, but an hour for character creation is a long time.

I think one approach to speed this up would be to drop some of my setup. Encourage people to play people without command (i.e. not the President, Commander, Activist, or CAG, which we had all of), leave out the love letters, and play without the Fleet/Battlestar playbook. I bet that could trim at least 15 minute off the setup time. Jeremy also suggested that instead of choosing lots of options for the Fleet and Battlestar, that juts one option is picked and it cascades down to fill out the others. I’m going to see what I can do with that on the next revision.

Morgan has a long period at the end of the game, after revealing that his character was a cylon where there wasn’t anything for her to do. I kept trying to find ways to put the spotlight back on her, but it never quite stuck. Morgan was a champ though and said he really enjoyed watching the chaos unfold through the fleet. One of his finest lines at the end was asking the pilot of Colonial One if he could escape the oncoming Miya San. We had previously defined Colonial One as a giant shit with a huge observatory dome, excellent for broadcasting to the fleet, but very awkward to maneuver. When the pilot respond (panicked, mind you) that they couldn’t, he final words were “The let me tell you how to pray”. It was awesome.

Most tragic moment of the game… probably when the yet unspoken to, but plenty spoken about rookie pilot Lunchbox got his launch sequence just a bit off and turned his viper around in the launch tube, causing it to turn end over end and explode inside the tube. Beeper and Titan died. But they died avenging Lunchbox!

The characters spent most of game able to communicate with each other over coms, but not in physical proximity. That’s something I want to work on, excuses to get them all in the same space. This game had a lot of NPCs acting as intermediaries between the characters, which did create PC – NPC – PC relationships, but I’d like to see more PCs in each others faces. That is good stuff.

Oh, this was the only game ever, perhaps because of time, where nobody wanted to find out what happened to the Damascus. To much other crap going on!

Titan was scary. If she hadn’t died killing Cylons I think she might have taken command of the Battlestar herself. Frak yeah!

Actual Play – Damascus Falls at BoyCon (6/22/2013)

Apocalypse GalacticaGM: Sean Nittner
Players: Zach, Josh Curtis, Justin Evans (aka J-dog, aka Mr. Boy, aka the only survivor)
System: Apocalypse World
Hack: Apocalypse Galactica

Mr. Boy was turning 40, and his wonderful wife thought what better way to celebrate that to throw him a weekend party of gaming with his boyz.

And so it came to be that we happened upon EndGame as the doors were opening, settled into the Carl Rigney table in the corner and played ourselves some Apocalypse Galactica.

Characters

Mr. Boy – Commander Abram Raptis -The hard as hell Commander of the Battlestar Argonaut who had taken over the fleet after his brother Admiral Acario sacrificed his life and the lives of everyone aboard Battlestar Athena to buy the fleet time to escape.

Josh – President Desma Yen – The conniving president who rigged her own election (before the Fall) and was now finding out what it really meant to be the steward of humankind.

Zach – Deepak Teng – A visionary who saw truth in the flames. We had a bit of license crossover here, he worshiped the Lord of Light, and instructed his missionaries to make merry and burn everything around them.

Opening Moves

The purpose of the love letters is to make sure something is going on at the start of the game. The scenario is set just after returning from a jump gone wrong (landing right in a Cylon ambush) and is laden with trouble. Damaged ships, suspicion of a traitor that led them into it, and the controversy between the President and Commander over the latter introducing Martial Law. It’s rife with problems but…

The guys make plenty of problems of their own. Deepak rolled his Fortunes and came up with want: Savagery. We decided that his missionaries had set the prisoners free on the prison ship Precipice, and they were now rioting.  When rolling her campaigns President Yen got the catastrophe “Malfucntions” and to keep them tied into each other, Josh through out that the prison ship had listed into the Condor (the agricultural ship) and cracked the dome, O2 was blasting out of it, even as ships were arriving from their jump.

Also, during Hx when picking their +3 connections, the guys all made deliciously contentious relationships. Commander Raptis blamed President Yen for his brother’s death and for the danger the fleet was in. Yen was in love with Deepak but didn’t believe in his “Lords of Light at all”, and Deepak, though a member of the presidents cabinet didn’t care about the president, but did want to teach the Commander that he needed to see the Truth.

Man, so take all that and add more complications from the love letters… it was a shit storm of crises (see Thoughts below).

Highlights

There were a ton of great moments in this game. Many of the highlights surrounded the Visionary Deepak, simply because he was so out of control.

His first “vision” was a baptism by fire as he sought wisdom from the Lords of Light about a pilot “Allycat”. Holding Allcat’s head over the edge of a raptor he had a vision, and watched the pilot die and be born again in a resurrection ship, surrounded by the likeness of himself. This vision was too much for Deepak to take and he dropped the pilot off the raptor, on his head where he broke his neck…

…just above two mobs of angry and potentially violent people! This was the only game where I saw Colonial Marines and Raptor pilots draw small arms and fire on each other. And that was only because the Commander decided to stop the fist fight from erupting by shooting his chief engineer in the brain pan. Chief Hsing was quite dead, but all that did was escalate the violence.

President Yen, set up her own VP Hye Su to take the fall on the prison ship. The self-same ship that with the visionaries guidance declared themselves a sovereign nation. The Nation of Light. This was the first time population was removed from the Presidents’ total, only to be added to the Visionary’s. The ship was declared and enemy vessel, and would have been nuked by Commander Raptis, if not for the Cylons suddenly arriving in overwhelming force.

In the end the President made a play to “sacrifice” herself by surrendering her ship to the Cylon’s while sneaking a Raptor armed with the sole nuke in her ship’s tylium wake. This worked just until the end when her faithful aid caught her trying to flee in an escape pod. And thus the President went down with the ship and aid Yeliz became the new president of the twelve colonies, or what was left of it.

Thoughts on this game

Gods Damnit these guys are great players. I set the stage and they took off with it.

The president’s political assassination of the Commander went a little like this. “Your CO has a new XO”, which was code for airlocking the XO. This game was a blood bath!

Since no-one was playing a pilot or CAG, when Deepak when to rouse the pilots into a frenzy, I should have had them ask him the question “how did our scouting go so wrong? Why did we jump right into a Cylon ambush?”

This is the first time I saw the President use the Well Connected (allowing her to spend Favors to describe someone owing her something and taking +2 going forward on a roll). I really liked how it worked. It pushed the president to go back for more favors and introduce more Fleet scale problems. Aces!

Also, the president move “Personable”, which allowed her to treat any interaction as an intimate moment and thus trigger the Special moves, was hot.

I wonder if rolling on the love letters (to introduce more problems) is a good idea if you see your players creating tons of their own. As is we had a great time but it did feel a bit like everything and the kitchen sink was going out the airlock.

Actual Play – Knifesies – (11/28/2012)

MC: Sean Nittner
Players: Eric Fattig (Keeler), Devon Apple (Nero), and Justin Evans (Juck)
System: Apocalypse World

Before the game, I did my MC duties gleefully. In my apartment, on the bus, at work, I was thinking up where the characters are out of control, where can I push, what threats have already presented themselves, what questions do I have. I decided to start by listing all the threats, and maybe some questions about them, and then see where they would fit into fronts.

Threats (and Questions)

Taxi – Warlord (collector) – Taxi wants to own things. Things she thinks has value. Right now she has a Fanta fountain drink machine she wants working, but Nero didn’t deliver her the CO2 canisters he said he would, so she’s steaming mad at him. Taxi controls entrance the Mall with her gang of Nordys. Threats: Barricading, cutting off.

Sing – Brute (Family) – Sing and her father Sing’s Pa own Hot Topic (the bar). I don’t know what she wants yet, but I know she’s got a nasty temper about people making good on their tabs or stating fights in her bar. Threats: withholding spirits, calling in debts.

Abe – Unknown – Abe is Nero’s obligation gig. He’s the guy who knows people and makes connections. He also brings trouble. Nero shot Abe last session which he’s none to happy about, but it prevented Keeler from killing him, so maybe he should be grateful, right? Threats: bringing trouble, offering deals (good and bad).

Question to the MC (for all to answer): Is Abe going to make it through this shit, or is he going to broker the wrong deal and get killed for it.

Tape – Brutes (cult) – Tape has sex with Jesus ever night. She makes, or has, or whatever, J-babies. Little porcelain baby Jesus dolls. She gives them out to anyone that wants them. For their own protection against the Fates, er Furies. She knows their name Balls, Sling and Jackal. She tried to give that knowledge to Nero as payment, but he chased her off, so now she’s traveling with Juck’s gang. Jone has claimed her as his. Threats: Spreading fear, offering protection, starting a cult.

McKinley – Grotesque (mutant) – Craves restitution for Tad. McKinley dives deep into the Ash Heap. He knows it’s secrets and it knows his. He’s brought back some of them. Threats: Bringing radiation.

Trunk – Unknown – Keeler’s little brother who is crazy paranoid. He wants to claim as much territory as he can on the 2nd floor. It’s prime space, above the Nordy’s, easy to defend. Trunk keeps trying to push his brother out of his space. Threats: Claiming Nail Elegance, other locations in the the Mall.

Vicki – Grotesque (Perversion of Birth) – Vicki is gross. Her eye got torn out but it’s never come all the way and eye meats still hang from threads out of a mutilated socket. She’s got insatiable needs as well. To fuck, to press on Juck, to authority. She wants to feel alive all the time. Threats: Distracting Nero, Make Nero buy her things.

Question to the MC (for all to answer): What the fuck is wrong with Vicki? What is her deal?

Ivy – Warlord (Alpha Wolf) – Ivy doesn’t just want to control the Brawlers again, she wants Juck and the members he took with him to pay. Threats: Harrying the gang, rotting away at their core.

From these I pulled up two Fronts, one very mundane, the other tied in to the waste of Ash Heap and the Furies.

BBQ’s Ambition

BBQ is dead but his legacy lives on through Juck and Ivy. He wanted to move east to find treasures from before the fall, but everyone knows it will lead to ruin. Still, the hope he put in the brawlers hearts is a hard thing to quell.

Dark Agenda

To many fucking cooks. Between Ivy’s revenge and Taxi’s cold heart, there won’t be a safe place for anyone between the Burner Tracks and Dog Stop. All the doors are closed, and vultures will pick you off in the night while you sleep.

Threats

Ivy – Warlord (Alpha Wolf). As above, she wants to punish Juck. Make him grovel, drag him through the burner tracks lashed to her bike, on his back, for all to see.

Taxi – Warlord (Collector). Taxi wants to blockade herself from everyone else. Protect her domain and only let her

RN, Stow, Smog – Brutes (Family). These three aren’t so sure breaking off from Ivy was the way to go.

Vicki – Grotesque (Perversion of Birth). Vicki wants to overthrow anything that stands firm. She wants chaos and ruination. She’ll keep fighting Juck no matter how much it hurts him or her. It’s what she gets off on.

Countdown Clocks

Brawlers disbanding – Between Juck’s break away, and Ivy trying to punish him, most of the brawlers are caught in the middle, and they don’t like it. At 12:00 the gang scatters to the and no-one (Juck or Ivy) is in control.

Mall closed off – Taxi may become self sufficient inside the mall. Once enough supplies are gathered, she can close it off to everyone, leaving many without a home, and without protection. At 12:00 she’s convinced they can live without the outside and the two remaining doors are collapsed. Trapping everyone inside in, and everyone outside… out.

I might create another one for Vicki, but I don’t see it yet. In my mind I want to find out why she’s so fucked up, not push for her agenda (if she even has one).

Stakes Questions

Will Abe survive? Seriously, he got shot in the first session just following his impulses. I’m not going to kill him outright, but who knows if he’s going to make it.

Will Ivy make east for BBQ’s dream?

Will Nero make amends with Taxi or is he going to blow it?

Custom Moves

When you touch Vicki’s face roll+Cool. On a 10+ she just gross. You stomach tightens, maybe you puke, but your fine. On a 7-9, she has 1 hold on you. She can spend it any time you can see he to give you -1 on a roll, or give you 1xp. On a 6-, you just can’t get her out of your mind. That eye, what the fuck is wrong with her. Take -1 ongoing until you fuck her, fight her, or otherwise bleach your brain.

Tape’s Fear

She fucks Jesus every night and then cries. She hopes that her sins haven’t made her unforgivable. She protect herself from the furies with the J-babies. She offers them to others without explanation. There is no reason to ask if their soul is un-pure. There is nothing pure left in this world. She hopes the J-babies will protect her and the others from the Furies Balls, Sling and Jackal.

Dark Agenda

The Ash Heap is pandora’s box, ready to burst open. Plenty of treasures, but everyone that goes there dies. Everyone but the J-babies. An abusive rape cult spreads fast on the tails of a deathly sickness, offering protection but demanding submission.

Threats

Ash Heap – Landscape (Breeding pit). The Ash Heap is full of treasures, but everything there is irradiated. Touch it, eat it, kill it, fuck it, it doesn’t matter. It’ll cook you from the inside like a microwave oven.

Tape, Jone – Brutes (Cult). Fuck Jesus for protection. It’s the only thing that will save you. Make J-babies.

McKinley – Grotesque (mutant). He’ll find something in the Ash Heap to bring Tad back to him, or something close enough.

There is something else out there. Mutants who have been changed? Fucking Jackal’s with a taste for man-flesh. I’m not sure yet. Something not quite right? We’ll figure it out when the arrive.

Countdown Clocks

Irradiated Lands – If the contents of the Ash Heap be spread far and wide, as many want too, the regions nearby will be irradiated causing mutations, death and disease. At 12:00 The radiation is communicable, it covers the Ash Heap and Dog Stop, and it spreads…

J-babies cult – Those seeking protection from the evil spirits will flock to Tape and her protective J-babies and a full fledged cult will form. At 12:00 the cult is formed, and anyone unwilling to let Jesus sodomize will be cast out to fend for themselves, or worse, become an enemy of the cult.

Stakes Questions

Will Jone break from Juck to protect Tape?

Will Keeler join the J-babies?

Will someone use the warhead? Oh who?

Custom Moves

Custom Move: Every time you enter the Ash Heap roll+Weird. On a 10+ your unaffected. You may get nauseous or feel week, but you’ll survive. On a 7-9, you’re body is trying to fight it off. As with a 10+ but you probably are going to get an infection, start hemorrhaging, or start shitting your pants. Start the countdown at 0:00 or move the clock up if you’ve already started it. On a miss, the radiation owns you. By morning you’ll be vomiting, fevered, and shitting blood instead of feces. If the clock is below 9:00 move it to 9:00. Otherwise, move it up.

0:00 – Contact with the radiation
10:00 – Poisoned
11:00 – Contagious
12:00 – Succumb

Custom Move: Once your poisoned, roll+weird at the start of every session. On a 10+ your body fights it off. Reduce the clock to 9:00. On a 7-9, you’re struggling, do not advance the clock. On a miss, it is taking you over, advance the clock.

Custom Move: If you adorn yourself with J-babies take +1 to resit the radiation. Jesus may visit you at night.

Custom Move: If you take Jesus into you (your mouth, your cunt, or your ass), roll+Hard. On a 10+ you are cured of all radiation and cannot be affected by it again, but Jesus has 1 hold on you. On a 7-9, you are cured but still susceptible to radiation in the future and Jesus has 2 hold on you. On a miss, he just rapes you for fun and makes you do his bidding.

When finished, and a map of the mall drawn, it looked like this:

The Play is the Thing

We started with a congratulatory round of fuck you banter to get in the mood and skipped any kind of recap.

Last session we forgot Hx so we started with that and then did highlights. I was happy to see them mixed up some this time. We got some sharp and hot in, that we didn’t have last time, and that made me happy.

I also asked how much experience everyone had marked because I wanted to make sure I was spreading screen time (and move opportunities) around evenly. They were at Nero (2), Juck (2), and Keeler (1). That seemed like a good spread. We ended at 7,7, and 5, which seemed pretty un-fucked as well.

Then I got to asking questions

Nero, Abe is your obligation, what is it you need from him? Connections, Abe knows everyone and knows how to make deals happen.

Where does Keeler keep his ammo? Oh yeah, under some tiles in the mall, Trunk watches it for him. Does Keeler think Trunk is stealing from him? He knows he is.

The guy that is still walking his bike in. His name is Smog. What is he to Juck? He’s a useless sack of shit. The guy who is sent on point to be a meat shield.

How is Vicki stuck in Nero’s head, why can’t he stop thinking about her? That eye, it’s revolting. Why won’t she clean it up!

Would Truck really kill Keeler for his store? 90% of the time no, but sometimes, 10% even, he might.

How long has it been since Juck has eaten? At day, and longer for his gang.

Nero, can you read? Yeah. Who do you read stories to? The mechanics daughter Grease, and to McKinley, who’s pretty maudlin after he lost Tad.

Dust clouds moving in

I asked Juck what he was going to do when he saw the dust clouds moving in, catching up with Smog in the distance. He let them roll in and come close. Smog dropped his bike and started running screaming for Juck. Moments later a bolt flew this his hand and harpooned him. Ivy’s contingent of the smoke house brawlers (at least some of them) emerged, and began to drag Smog across the dirt bed by the bolt stuck in his had.

Nero stepped up and unloaded his nine on Aldo, who was dragging Smog, and took him off his bike, but leaving himself open for some shotgun spray from Frederick who was coming up behind.

Keeler got wise and climbed up on the marquee still hanging in front of the old theater. He surprised me a little by opening up his mind. And we talked about what the Psychic Maelstrom looks like to him. It’s full of whispers on the edge of his hearing, and figures wrapped up in bandages, moving in impossible ways. I added that he saw a figure whose bandages were yellow and black. She whispered and her whispers echoed through the rest…close it them off…block them out…protect the mall. When he came too, he saw a old school bus being pushed in front of one set of doors, and a metal grate being dropped in front of the other. Taxi was cutting them off outside.

Junk told his gang to hold tight while he settled this. He rode forward to call out Ivy. I think this is where I dropped the ball a bit and could have done better (see below on thoughts). He wanted to meet her face to face, but inside the dust was nothing but old brawlers. Ivy herself hadn’t come. The offered to take him to her… alone. Just told them to fuck off and as they were circling him on their bikes rammed his tire iron in Alphonse’s spokes, sending the fucker flying.

Nero meanwhile was looking around. He saw the three bangers on an ATV closing in, and noticed the bus closing off the way into the mall (well, balls) but he didn’t catch Frederick coming back up behind him for a second pass. The banger clocked him hard with his shotgun and then leapt off his own bike to start hog tying him with the same cord that had Smog all tangled up. The metal wire bit into Nero’s wrists but it never made it all the way around, because…

Keeler had a perfect vantage from up top and put some lead in Frederick’s head. A sniper riffle in Keeler’s hands, every shot is deadly.

Juck had some interchanges with Charlotte, who felt the need to one up him (again, where I think I was falling down, see below) by revealing his/her indeterminate gender and finally settling on Ivy meeting Juck at Ash Heap on the morrow.

Getting inside

By the time the Brawlers were chased off Taxi had secured the mall tightly. She doesn’t like Nero (he’s holding out on those CO2 cannisters and it looks like he’s bringing trouble to town) but he had jingle to offer just to get inside, and after the fighting was over, a bag of jingle (Frederick’s boots, his shotgun, some ammo, and a bullet head bolo tie) was just the right price to get inside, so long as they didn’t cause trouble. Taxi, like the colors her name implies is dressed in caution tape, all yellow and black.

The bus was pushed back by two giant women, sisters. Born-again and Lunetta. The former recognized Nero immediately. I’ve still got the clap from the last time we bumped ugly.

In Hot Topic, some deals were made. Abe would hook up with Deek and get some petrol by the morning (for a bit of jingle for his part, and a j-baby). Nero, Keeler and Juck would ride out to Ash Heap to see what they could find, hopefully some CO2, maybe a ride or two.

Vicki also had to fuck shit up. Just because Juck was being a dick to her, she jumped his ass and took his keys. Nero managed to talk her down with promises of sweet loving (also fucked this up, see below), and she gave them back before Juck had to take out her other eye. But mostly, she just had to cause trouble. And just touched her eye (see custom move above). Now she’s in his mind as well. Fucking gross.

Knifesies

Things settled down some. People drank. Others did bad things to each other. Someone, somewhere was remembering a time before the ruin.

Then I asked Keeler what he was up to. “I’ve got a beef with Taxi, I’m going to go talk to her.” So he meandered over to Nordy’s where two guards stood outside. He told them he was going to walk past them. They told him, about as casually they were going to wait until he was far enough and then shoot him in the head. He wasn’t really going to let that stand so he offered a game of Knifesies. We all knew it was a real game, but didn’t know how it worked so we decided in Apocalypse World it works with people taking turns trying to take out the other person’s eye by throwing a knife at it. Custom move.

Custom Move: When you play Knifesies roll+cool. On a 10+ you take out your opponent’s eye and they yield to you. On a 7-9, you both take 1 harm (ap) and the give, full of grudges and bitching. On a miss you lose your eye and get a kick in the crotch for your efforts. Find an angel fast chummer.

This move seems a bit rough, but I do like that it’s irreversible.

So…Keeler lost an eye and we wrapped up the session with Nero and Juck racing around the mall to find Peck, the only guy with enough meatmesh, narcostabs, and bloodslower to put Keeler back together. He pulled out the knife, and most of Keelers eye with it. He snipped the stringy bits and filled the socket with a canister of cheeze whiz looking meatmesh. Keeler would live. I put him at 6:00 Harm, down from 9:00.

Thoughts on this game

I’ve been gauging the violence based off the PCs. They seem very casual about it, so I’ve tried to have the NPCs reflect that. They don’t get too upset about violence or maiming each other. Keeler said he was going to walk by the guards, they said they were going to shoot him. Juck pushed Vicki, she jumped him with a barrage of punches. Ivy’s gang started off my harpooning Smog. Everyone has a hammer, and most problems are nails.

There was some good moves in this game. I liked seeing Taxi come alive. Knifesies was a lot of fun. The barter system was playing out well. When Smog was left to fend for himself, I let the move snowball and they harpooned him. I dig watching Vicki, Nero, and Juck in there little three way mess. For that though I feel like I made several mistakes, namely:

  1. When Juck approached the other gang to make a show of meeting with Ivy, I thought there was something on the line. Like would Juck’s gang just sit back or would they start fighting. Would Ivy’s gang let him approach to talk, or would they start taking pot shots at him. I should have had him act under fire. The fire was violence breaking out before he could talk.
  2. When he did go to talk though, and rolled hot, I should should have first asked what kind of leverage he had, you know threats of his gang fighting back, or that he knew some of he guys personally and had history with them. Something to figure out where it should have gone. When he did hit a 7-9, I decided the thing they wanted first was for Juck to come to Ivy’s domain alone. I think there were better options. I could have used something something from one of those questions, or offered something else more immediate.
  3. At one point Juck was facing off with Claudette, Claudette had just scraped his machete against his stubble, you know, to show how tough he was. Then Juck told him “Hey, you Claudette is a girls name don’t you”, to which Claudette pulled down his (her?) shirt to show a breast. Now, on the surface this is great, it’s Barfing forth the Apocalyptica. She/he is a freak. But it violates the principle of being a fan of the characters. It isn’t my job to one up them, it’s my job to make their lives interesting and I think that move, and kind of the whole “you can’t see Ivy now” move in general was me blocking.
  4. When Vicki gave back the keys she told Nero she’d she him later. It’s a small point but he manipulated her with a 10+. She gave him what he wanted (the keys) and then should have taken (or tried to take) what he offered (the sex). Giving him time wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t in her nature and it wasn’t the move.

 

Actual Play – Dog Stop (9/8/2012)

MC: Sean Nittner
Players: Eric Fattig (Keeler), Devon Apple (Nero), and Justin Evans (Juck)
System: Apocalypse World

Devon, Justin, and I have been bullshitting about Apocalypse World for a while, and it kind of me an itch to run it. We dragged Fattig into the mix and started some pretty advanced fuckery. It’s an intentionally laid back game. I didn’t write any love letters, or really plan anything at all. I did make a map, so we could start slapping things down on the table, but none of the names had meaning until we gave it to them.

NSFW Warning. When I write about Apocalypse World, I can’t help but slip in to the kind of “fuck you, and balls that” language native to the setting. Put the earmuffs on that content isn’t safe to have on your screen, or something you want to read.

Dog Stop

Dog stop is a shit hole of a holding but it’s got two things going for it. First, it’s defensible. There is an old mall, nobody knows the name of it, but they know the shops. The Sparro’s food court where Trunk, in his wild paranoia keeps try to edge his brother Keeler out of the nail salon on the corner.  There is Hot Topic, the bar, where all the drinks are served in kitchy shot shot glasses. The 2nd floor holders have it good. They have a good view of the plaza below, where the Nordy chumps gather in masses. Plus, they are damn hard to assault from outside, as the bikers from the Burner Tracks have to come in from the ground floor to raid.

Taxi has dreams of getting a fountain machine working again. It will be the Fanta of the Gods, if she can.

The hold is also an intersection of commerce. To the west, through the mountains is Ash Heap, where scavengers like Cobble and Mckinley raid for parts. It was a military base or something before the fall. There are all kinds of metal parts there, and if you have a set of balls like Mckinley, you’re willing to go deep enough inside to pull out something of worth, heavy weapons, ammo, combat rations, fuck, there is even some working machinery down there, hi-tech shit.  To the south is Deek’s Dregs, right on the top of oil lake. It’s pretty much the only reliable place to get oil that isn’t sludge.

Indigenous Fuckers

Keeler is probably the only one who can call this can of shit soup home. He and his brother Trunk have property here and it’s pretty choice. Keeler claimed NAIL EXCELLENCE for his digs. He’s taken the linoleum floor tiles plus chicken wire to make armor, and wears the “A” from NAIL on his chest, like some kind of “A”sshole super hero. He’s a bony fuck, like his brother, but all his big fuck off guns usually means he eats better, and gets picked on less than paranoid ass Trunk.

Nero works here. Maybe he calls it home. Maybe home is just where he can find a warm, wet place for his cock. He’s got a crew, Coyote who actually knows how to read and build shit but always thinks the others are stealing from him, Harrow, the banger, who most definitely is stealing from Coyote, and Michelob, his scout. Abe doesn’t work for him, but he does find him gigs. Abe also sticks his little pecker where it doesn’t belong, so it’s become Nero’s de facto job to keep the little fuck alive. In fact it was Abe that got him the job with Taxi, trying to make her Fountain Drink machine work. Would have gone well too if the CO2 canisters weren’t ripped off. Now Taxi thinks Nero is fucking her over and she’s cut him off. He’s not wanted in the Mall, but her influence doesn’t carry much past that, so he still work of out some crappy shacks cobbled together outside.

Juck doesn’t like it when you call him Junk. It’s Juck, rhymes with Fuck. And Suck. Juck is a chopper with a pretty sordid past. He used to be part of the Smokehouse Brawlers, a gang run by BBQ. In fact, for a time, even Keeler was part of it, and the rode as far north as Dremmer’s Dock, and owned the fuck out of Car Park. BBQ has a peculiar way of waving his dick around. He lost all his teeth, so his gang had to chew is food for him and then feed it to him, like a mama bird feeding it’s baby. If we knew what the fuck a bird was. That was fucked up, but hell, shit is fucked up. BBQ went crazy though, he got it in his head to cross the Mud Grave and Maggot Heights and try to take Croke’s Gate. First off, just getting through the mud grave is a fucking batshit, but second, nobody fucks with Croke’s gates. Those assholes a eight feet tall and can fucking crush a man’s head into mush in one hand. Juck stood up to BBQ, which meant dropping him dead. It should have been over, Juck would be the new leader, but there were some that were still loyal to BBQ, namely his little sister Ivy, who also happened to be Juck’s fuckbuddy. She had a made hate for Juck and she took the better half of the gang with her. There’s more there, but I’m bullshitting to long already. He’s got a fuckin past.

The play is the shit

We stated game with Juck rolling into town. His bikes were about ready to break down, in fact Ambassador’s just ran out of gas all together and the lonely fuck had to push it.

Juck met up with Nero and Coyote (who were out looking for those CO2 canisters) as the gang rolled into Dog Stop.  Vicki, his #2 wanted to just start pillaging off the bat. Vicki is a fine woman, or she wood be if her right eye hadn’t been ripped out. She refuses to cover it too, and flies like to perch in there, nesting in the entrails. But her body and her spirit are hard. She wanted to get herself something to shoot and something to fuck. Nero, popped out of his cover at about that time and offered his services, at least for the latter. Nero is a big man, voluptuous even, but apparently that is how Vicki likes them because she was happy to go back and rut in Nero’s shack.

Quentin appeared, trying to hock his wares to Junk’s crew. He had macaroni art and real rayon, but mispronouncing Juck’s name got him a oily boot to the face and some orders barked out. “Go find me Keeler, and bring him out here.” Quentin didn’t like the sound of that. He agreed, but had hate in his heart. He took his most valuable possession (a corked jug of ever-clear) from his tent and scampered into the mall to fetch the gunlugger.

The upper floor

Meanwhile Keeler was coming home to find his store chained shut with a god damn padlock. Which, he prompt shot off and put another hole in the plexiglass front doors. Trunk came running out of Sparro’s and wondering who the hell was shooting when he found his older brother Keeler. “I thought you were dead.” “I’m not fucking dead. I’m right here.” “Oh, Abe told me you were dead. So I locked up the shop, for protection.” “Why is that little fuck Abe telling people I’m dead. C’mon lets do drink.” and then Keeler affectionate head-butted his little brother leaving a gouge in his forhead from his chicken wire armor (1-harm for the kids keeping track of how long Trunk will live).

Hot Topic has a pretty simple security system. If you fuck with the owner Jone her old man who is nested somewhere in the rafters upstairs blows your head off of with a sniper rifle. It works well enough.  Keeler and Trunk were drinking the regular swill when Quentin spotted them and set his jug on the table. “Keeler, I want you to do something for me. I’m offering you my most prized possession, this jug of pure spirits.” He un-corked the jug and Keeler could smell the wafting ethanol. Quentin, who had a greasy boot print on his face already (from Juck’s boot to the head) got a head butt from Keeler that sent him reeling (again 1-harm on account of Bloodcrazyed). Quentin fell down, tried standing up, but fell again, his head spinning.

Out front

Keeler made his way out to talk with Juck and took a swig of Quentin’s finest. Then the visions came. Unprepared for his brain to open Keeler looked to the sky and saw only a black void that seemed to suck on his soul. On the ground below things were normal, or normal enough. The tire iron in Juck’s hand for instance slithered and spun, a snake coiling around him. But you know, otherwise he was his usual self.

Juck had made camp which consisted of unhitching his trailers from the bikes and letting the rest wherever they stood. His gang was getting antsy for some action, which wasn’t helped but the shouting coming from Nero’s shack. It had been a while since Vicki had any dick and she was sharing that with the world. She kept shouting about his giant cock when…

… Keeler convinced Juck to drop the tire iron, by way of pulling a pin on a grenade. He took the tire iron snake, threw it a good ways off and then chucked the grenade after it… right in the direction Quentin and Abe. They were both coming out of the mall, trying to shove a shotgun into each other’s hands as neither was brave enough to level it against Keeler but both wanted to.  Abe looked up and dove for cover, Quentin was too busy shoving the shotgun in his hands and took a grenade to the face (5-harm in Keeler’s hands). I was starting to like Quentin, now he gets to stick around. Get it, stick around, cause his parts are sticky. The joke is that he isn’t alive but his body parts are blow all over… this gets funnier if I keep explaining it…

In a manifold explosion, Nero was done as well, and without ceremony Vicki pulled up her trousers, and walked to see what she was missing. Nero followed and the three protagonists were all present for the first time. Abe had recovered, still had both hands on the shotgun and was walking towards Keeler purposefully. “You asshole” BAM! Nero shot him in the leg. That was his version of protecting him. Dropping him on his ass before Keeler killed him.

Dust in the north

We ended with something coming from the north. We’ll see what it is next time.

Some stuff behind the scenes

We talked about some looming threats. Tape, some crazy witch woman tried to pay Nero for a job with knowledge, specifically the name of the three fates : Balls, Jackal, and Shitbird, or something like that. Nero chased her out of town, but she met up with Juck’s gang on their way in, and one of them claimed him as hers. She has a huge stock of porcelain white Baby Jesus figures, that the gang has taken to start lashing to the handlebars of their bikes. They talk of Baby Jesus the ass kicker and mother fucker. She seems to be worried he’s far worse.

People have been going out to scavenge at Ash Heap and not returning. Sooner or later this is going to be a problem.

Thoughts on the game

I didn’t present a lot of meaningful opposition this game. I mostly wanted to see what the players would do, un-contested. This was the time when they got to show off how awesome they were. That seemed okay. I can see problems looming in the horizon, and they’ll snowball for sure.

The guys had fun. We named everyone (I have the names in my notes) and got some really cool characters out of there. I like Vicki and Abe a lot. I’m excited about Tape and Ivy to see what they do. I think the Ash Heap is going to be a problem, I know Taxi isn’t letting Nero or his crew in the mall. Fun times ahead.

Working off a map was good. It gave us some reference points. Yay, maps.

Now I gotta start on some fronts! Fronts, motherfuckers.

Actual Play – Hillsdale High (5/18/2012)

GM: Scott White
Players: Sean Nittner, Rich Rogers, Jack Nolan, Adam Robichaud
System: Monsterhearts

Well, I couldn’t make the EndGame Monster Party, which made me very sad, but I was happy to be playing a Monsterhearts game of my own. Scott White and Rich Rogers (who I play PTA with) recruited me into the game, and I was very excited to get my angst on.

The first session was character and setting creation. It was also the players getting to know each other. I had never gamed with Adam or Jack so we spent a lot of time dong the dance of “this is how I play. I want to make sure you’re down with playing in a compatible way, without coming out and telling you ‘you must do this thing'”. I think we all got some buy into playing teenage angst and our characters digging their proverbial (and perhaps literal) teeth into each other.

What I’m still very dubious about though is play style. Jack and I have characters that are nearly identical (teenage female ghoul musicians who died in fires… I know, crazy), but we have very different approach to secrets in game. I’m super hippie-indie “lets all talk about our character secrets so we can frame cool scenes around pushing on them.” Jack, is old school and has character secrets that are shared between him and Scott only. I was pretty heavy handed about saying “I want us all to collaborate” and in fact talked a lot more about my character than I expected to at first, to show that doing so is safe, but I think Jack has very different sensibilities than I do. So we’ll see how it plays out in game.

Seating Chart

Character Roster

Fee was born in 1970 in the Prypiat (Ukraine) and in 1986 was incinerated during the Chernobyl disaster.  Buy she didn’t die, or she died and came back, she really didn’t know. Either way, she came back, physically untouched but mentally and emotionally vacant. She has been wandering the world for over 20 years lost and empty, until recently she found something that makes her feel alive again. Spreading the chaos that caused her death. Still with the emotional maturity of a 16 year old girl, she seeks through music to incite the same longing she feels into others… to burn it down, burn it all down.

“We all know it. The universe is expanding and moving to a state of greater entropy. All I’m trying to do is help it along. It’s like watching a tiny bird almost ready to take flight, all it needs it a little nudge to push it out of the next and set it free.” –Fee

Fee is of course short for Phoenix Levitski, but her real name is lost to her. Something like Elena no doubt. She currently lives, as a foreign exchange student with the Browns. They have one (biological) son named Doug who is 15 and would have had a daughter that was Fee’s age if not for a miscarriage.  The browns never got over their first loss and are always terrified they will lose Doug as well, so they are incredibly protective of him, terrified of anything that might put him in danger. Not surprisingly the browns are not delighted with Fee. She’s super goth, she makes a lot of noise, she doesn’t play by the rules, but worse of all, when scolded, she just looks at them with these dead eyes, oblivious to the threats they make. The truth is she always has dead eyes, it’s just only in times of anger that they notice.  Fee is terrified of them trying to send her back.

Dante is a misunderstood kid with no right to be as angsty as he is. His family loves him and they are good people. His brothers and sisters are well adjusted, and his parents have noticed how distant he is, tried to help, but haven’t been able to figure out what is wrong, let alone how to fix it.

Music speaks to him though. He mixes it, remakes, and turns it into something. He’s found a mixing service that allows users to do re-mixes online and has begun connecting with the DJ community, specifically the owner of the site, who has become his patron. Really. His effing dark patron!

Now Dante gets help from the owner Brom Silva (whose real name he doesn’t know), in exchange of course for doing things that are in their mutual interest.

Abraham was groomed to be great. He’s a Serpentine and was told by his parents, specifically his father. Brom Silva, that if he followed in their footsteps, power would all but be given to him. Yeah, but what teenager wants to do what his “father knows best” father tells him? So he’s taken his inherent knack for getting his way, a household servant and a modicum of the family’s wealth (which is still quite a lot) to Hilldale. Unfortunately, there are always strings (get it, strings?) attached. His “servant” is more of a watcher than anything else. He’s gotten a job at the Hilldale highschool and now teaches History and Homeroom. Yay for our new homeroom teacher Mr. Drake!

Abraham has a posh apartment that overlooks the Hillsdale docks and next door is Mr. Drake… who has a key to Abraham’s place. Yay. His father has let Abraham go on his walkabout but holds him on a leash both with the presence of Mr. Drake and tight control over Abraham’s accounts.

Tiffany Darrens is a girl in search of who she is, or what happened to her. She lives in an abandoned house that is rumored to be haunted. She is a classic rock chick, a singer, and dressed the part. Tiffany has a reputation for being vengeful and wicked.

She is a ghoul who was burned to death in a fire. Unlike Fee, however, she ages, and when she was killed in 1990, was only a young child.

Strings

After going over the character concepts, we did strings and figured out how we all had hooks into each other.

Dante – Abraham likes his music, Tiffany hates it. Fee saw him stealing Tiffany’s amp but didn’t say anything about it.

Abraham – Knows where Tiffany lives (in the “haunted” house). His father Brom, also holds his purse strings and has Mr. Drake watching over him.

Tiffany – Dante reminds of her of what love means and she’s drawn to him (which sets up some awesome tension give that have such a contentious relationship otherwise). Fee saw Tiffany die and be reborn so many years ago, and is fascinated with her. Are the they same?

Fee – Fee sees the power running through Abrahams veins and she is drawn to him like moth to a flame. She wonders how someone can be so “alive”. Abraham has agreed to mentor Fee in history. Just before the game starts, Fee caused an accident at the docks. She made a cargo container fall from a lift. It crushed her underneath it and after she died, she burst into flames and started a fire on the dock. Tiffany saw it all.

Setting

Hillsdale is a small town in Oregon, near enough to the music scene to have aspiring musicians but far enough away for anything real to happen. It has some interesting features.

The abandoned house on the hill. Supposedly haunted.

Dudley’s Diner – Run by Mack Dudley (the chef) and his cougar wife that hits on every attractive boy or man who walks in the door.

A fishing port that primarily has locally owned and operated trawlers, but occasionally a massive commercial vessel will come into harbor. As mentioned above a big fire just broke out at the docks. Big enough that it is in the newspaper.

Mr. Drake is our Homeroom and History teacher.

Thoughts on this game

I think we created a rich set of characters and setting. It should give us plenty of fuel to start our own funeral pyre.

I was disheartened that we didn’t get to actually “play”. It took almost four hours just to create characters and the town/school were were in. Part of that was because of doing it online, with all the complications that creates.

I’m concerned about having very different play styles. We’ll see how that works out in game.

 

Actual Play – Apocalypse Galactica Beyond Thunderdome (4/21/2012)

Apocalypse GalacticaMC: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Hamish Cameron, David Gallo
System: Apocalypse World
Hack: Apocalypse Galactica

David wins all kinds of prizes for being int this game. He is:

  • The only person to play three games of Apocalypse Galactica with me (notably Karen Twelves, Michael Garcia, and Eric Ullman have all played two).
  • The only person to play three games at Nerdly Beach Party with me.
  • The only dude who got me to introduce a warlord inspired by Grace Jones ala Tina Turner vis a vi Thunderdome!

I started this game with my confidence a bit shaken. The previous game was fraught with trouble and I really wanted this one to be better. Also, David had already played through the scenario I prepared (Damascus Falls) twice.  By the second run, I had changed things substantially, but even with that a 3rd run through seemed like it would be lackluster at best.

So I tried something I’ve never done with Apocalypse Galatica (or with AW for that matter, beside the very first time I ran it, when I was still learning the system). I ran a “1st session game”.  I took all my love letters and tossed them, held out a few playbooks that I thought would be fun to see, and let the players pick something they wanted.

The Cast

Karen – Pilot – Elspeth Reiss, call sign Apex. Reiss wanted to be a good pilot, wanted more than anything to be a good pilot. Wanted it so much that she used stims to stay awake all the time… and got busted for it. Freeze, her CAG had put her on non-combat duty (not quite grounded, but nearly as bad) and she started the game loading passengers on to her Raptor to ferry from the Battlestar to the the Prometheus.

Hamish – Daljeet Solomos, a security officer (the first time someone has played the Partisan) who was an ex-marine from the colonial navy. He now did whatever work he could get to play the bills. Dajeet was well dressed and tried to create an air of professionalism, but truth be told he was hired for thug work as often as not.

David – Levin Solat, aka, The Solat was a visionary and priest of the Lords of Kobol. He believed that the fleet had been offered a moment of respite and the gods willed that they take this time to rejoice, in a completely bacchanal fashion! His flock were dedicated enthusiastic drug fixated anarchists. Wow, I didn’t even realize that combination of options existed. How awesome.

Hx

With three players, I really wanted every one to be in each other’s faces. I asked the players to all think of reasons why they were together.  It came very easily, actually. The Solat had heard word that one of his followers ran afoul a powerful businesswoman named Kanti aboard the Prometheus. He hoped to resolve the situation peacefully, but wanted to be prepared, so he hired Daljeet to come with him as either bodyguard or extraction expert, depending on the situation.

Apex was on shit duty. Now that there was a reprieve from the Cylons, many families that had been separated were now being brought back together. She was on ferry duty, taking passengers on her Raptor back to their respective ships. Her assignment included a group of civilians, going back to the Prometheus. Polati, Hsing, Targaris party of two (mother and daughter), Daljeet, and The Solat.

The set up made, each player picked the person to have +3 Hx with.

Reiss had a love/hate relationship with The Solat’s followers. Though she had never met him personally before how, that same feeling of begrudging dependency extended to him. She needed his people for the drug hook up but hated having to listen to their religious yammering.

The Solat, it turns out did not hire Daljeet just for his protection, but because he saw something in the man and though it would feed his soul to be around The Solat and his followers. He didn’t want to convert Daljeet per se, but just show him the spiritual side of life.

Daljeet had no idea what he was getting into but new that most jobs ended up being a whole lot crappier than they sounded at first. He didn’t really care about The Solat per se, he was just another client. Apex however, had saved his life back in his days of being a Marine. A boarding party hand landed on the Sisyphus and the ship was about to blow. The CAG had ordered Apex to get the hell out of there but she stayed till the last minute till Daljeet and his fellow marines made it back to her Raptor. She didn’t even remember him (especially out of uniform) but he owed her an incredible debt.

Apocalypse Galactica

We started this game asking questions, barfing forth the Galatica, and generally doing the 1st session kind of things. I wanted to know what it looked like when Reiss did a roll call for her raptor and Solat was on board. The result was “huh… next!”

We followed the characters, and their very low intensity interactions for a while. The Solat asked for a prayer on board, that made people uncomfortable. Reiss’ CAG called her on board and told her she’s have to stay on the Prometheus to do some work… and could take her mandatory drug test there.  Daljeet noticed that two of the passengers has untoward intentions. Hsing was packing a small arm under his jacket but it was Polati that deferred to. All in all we had a lot of subtle tension, but no overt threats.

Getting off the raptor on the Prometheus made it clear that something was wrong. Luggage checks were being done by the civilian officers and while Daljeet had to “check” his gun by placing a tracking beacon on it, the other armed passenger Hsing passed a handful of cubits to the officers and walked passed unaccounted for.

Unarmed and seemingly unaware of the guards, The Solat walked passed. He belonged here, he knew it and so did everyone else. I had David roll+cool (Acting under fire) for this, but it was such as cool move (as you’ll see below) that I’m considering make it a Visionary move:

I belong here: Put down your defenses and walk among enemies with tranquility in your heart. Roll+cool (maybe +faith). On a 10+ choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1, either way you are where you want to be.

  • You’re the center of everyone’s attention.
  • You draw no notice to yourself.
  • You have an audience with the leader.
  • You are able to bring your friends with you, under your protection.
  • One f your followers is already present in the group.

They encounter Jasvinder almost as soon as they passed security. She ostensibly was there to tell The Solat about Acario, one of his flock who had gone missing after he displeased Kanti. Her first encounter, however was with Reiss. The pilot knew she was taking a blood test and knew she was still high on stims. I had her read a sitch to see if Jasvinder could find her something to detox with, so she could pass the compulsory drug test. I think this was my favorite missed roll (6-) of all time.

“Yes, we have an herbal root that will purify you. It is called Chamalla and it is known for it’s healing and restorative properties.” For folks not a fan of the show, Chamalla is yes, used to fight diseases, it is also a VERY powerful hallucinogenic. YES!

Jasvinder then pointed the way to the cargo decks, where Kanti, leader of the black market could be found.

Visions of Serpents

I could tell, just at the mention of Chamalla (and seeing David’s enthusiasm) that this episode of AG deserved a little more of the supernatural than normal. Sure, pass it of as hallucinations or delusions, I was ready to start in truly giving the visionary capital-V Visions.

As they walked down the bulk head they could tell things were worse than they expected. I proceeded to barf forth the Galactica. Lights were flickering, comm stations had been ripped form the walls, bulk head doors were welded shut, and detritus filled the passage way. At the end of a hall the met two guards, Kelso and Cosmo, who clearly had armed themselves with Colonial Navy munitions. They also saw that Daljeet was packing a giant shotgun and Reiss was dressed in a  Colonial Navy flight suit. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

The Solat did again, what would be his signature move. He just walked passed the guards. He was unarmed and clearly someone who belonged in a seedy place like this.

Reises and Daljeet were told plainly however, they weren’t wanted.  And the question came up, why hasn’t anyone done anything about this blatantly illegal behavior on the ship? Cosmo, who had a marine radio on his shoulder had just squeeze the push-t0-talk button to call in reinforcements (he really didn’t want to answer that question when the prospective answer was going to result in a fair fight). And what did Cosmo get for his hesitation? The butt of Daljeets shotgun to his head… and Kelso go the business end of that same shotgun in his face.

From here the mechanics drove the narrative in a really, REALLY, awesome way.  Daljeet had rolled to seize by force (in this case, seizing control of the situation) and Reiss wanted to help buy pinning the guy down after he dropped.  Daljeet got a 10+ and did all the awesome seizing you’d expect. Reiss roll a miss to help, so when she jumped on Cosmo to pin him down, he raised his SMG right up into her gut… and cut to Solat vision. Watching all this happened I turned to Solat and told him he saw one of his companions in danger. A man had a gun in a her belly and a snake was crawling up his arm and around his neck. He leapt to kill the snake, another seize by force. He squeezed the serpent till it feel limp in his hands and then dropped it to the ground.

What everyone else saw was him grabbing the shoulder strap to Cosmo’s SMG and using it as a garrote to choke the life out of the man, friction burning his own hands from grabbing so hard in the process.

Damn, I felt like that changed the game in a fundamental way. First off, I revealed that I may not depict things as they are in reality to the players, especially Solat. Second, if felt like a major bonding moment between the characters. They had all just been involved in a major physical altercation and now a man was dead, so that one of them could live. In the hallway earlier Daljeet and revealed to Reiss that he was one of the marines she saved on the Sisyphus. So now, both Reiss and The Solat had saved someone’s life… and Daljeet was hired as the bodyguard. The upcoming danger of his job was implicit.

After that, they entered the cargo bay

Beyond Thunderdome

What was this place going to be like? Frak if I should know. So I pulled out the Businessman’s playbook and handed the back of it, with the “Bussiness” options to the players and told them to hand the playbook around, filling it out. The selected that the primary business was “Fight Club”, and the secondary trades were recreational drugs and water. For atmosphere they chose: violence, noise, and kink.

I ask you dear reader. How could I not make the the Thuderdome? I described hanging cages, artificial waterfalls that people drank from and or defiled each other in, a heavy cloud of smoke that clung to everyone and everything, and pounding, thundering above it all was a constant thrum of music, so loud and full of bass, it could only be heard as noise. Yeah, I barfed forth the Apocalypica.

This is the point in the game where Karen later told me I had gone to far, but it was very hard to stop adding these details when David kept applauding them. Every nuance was met with a resounding “Yes” and so it encouraged me to add more.

The Fight Club, as the the found was a pit surrounded by tall walls made of cargo containers. Above the pit was a carosel mechanism of cages, like some carnival ride gone horribly wrong. Seemingly at random the cages would slowly whirl and clack above head and and when it pleased Kanti, stop, deposit their contents into the pit, so they could fight for their own survival. The contents were one part prisoner, one part gladiator.

To both continue the serpent theme further and to really irk Reiss, a Viper (as in the ship) wing was perched above the pit, like a deadman’s plank over the open sea. At the end of the wing (which had a missile still attached mind you) the cockpit seat had been placed like a throne. Kanti, covered in serpent tattoos, wearing black leather boots, with black hair standing straight up, sat in the throne, ruling over all. At each foot was a servant, literally licking her boots.  Okay Karen, perhaps you’re right. This may have been too much for Apocalypse Galatica… or maybe (in retrospect) it was just the cloying vapors of Chamalla smoke in the air, that made everything seem as surreal as it was.

A new range category for Apocalypse World: Intimate

The character split up. Reiss and The Solat went to speak with Kanti (and try and smooth over relations with her) and Daljeet looked for Acario (in case they couldn’t)

For the third time (and why I really think I need to make a move for this) The Solat just walked past Kanti’s guards and addressed her. The music was turned down to a low thrum and the audience quieted their shouts so everyone could hear the exchange. Kanti, still sitting on her throne, had her back to The Solat as he walked down the plank towards her, but as he addressed he, her two servants, like twin headed serpents looked up from licking her boots and spoke to The Solat, offering her response.

Kanti was not impressed. An least not until The Solat grabbed a bucket of water and threw it in the face of one of her servants, causing him to fall off the edge of the wing into the pit below, where he broke his neck on the uneven wreckage.  That got her attention, the one head had to talk in double time (as his twin was now dead) but she was willing to discuss the division of their interests. See, it was at this point that I realized Kanti was just the dark shadow of The Solat. His followers revered violence, indulgence and recreation… as did the patron’s of Kanti’s hold. The talked, realized they were fighting over the same audience, and (thanks to a miss on his roll to manipulate) The Solat got clubbed in the back with a Viper landing support turned weapon and knocked down into the pit.

We had a bit of confusion in play, because I had thought, as part of that hard move to finally resolve Daljeet’s search for Acario and have him in a cage (of course) and have Acario drop down into the pit and be forced to fight The Solat. Well, that was a bit more than the characters were going to idle by and watch.

Daljeet climbed on to one cage as it swung by and then leapt onto Acario’s cage to rescue him. Yay the “smash and grab” move got used.  I really like that one.  He picked the “don’t make a mess of things” and “don’t have to fight my way in” options, leaving “don’t have to fight my way out” for me to give him a fight.

Meanwhile, Reiss grabbed a chain and threw it down to The Solat to get him out of the pit. Unfortunately, that chain was attached to a big guy, that she tossed down with ease… because of course a) she revealed herself as a Cylon (yay) and b) she got a 7-9 acting under fire, so that was an actual “reveal” to those around, given her inhuman strength.  With some effort (his hands were still burned from choking Cosmo) he climbed back onto the wing.

This was too far for Kanti. Actually it had been too far the moment he climbed out of the pit without fighting his way out, but I didn’t want to interrupt all the awesome. She lurched at him like a servant darting forward, wrapped her arms around him, and planted her two curved blades (like fangs) into his back (and I’m sure several internal organs).

Their two sweaty bodies were pressed up against each other, face to face. Held fast by her strong arms digging the blades into The Solat. They were at “Intimate” rage.

A new range category for Apocalypse World: Erotic

With what could have been his last breath The Solat began chanting to his followers present (which of course there were plenty of). He spoke the truth about Kanti’s corruption, about his own teachings and the home they would find in his flock. Yay, Frenzy! He incited them to surge forth and then go quietly back to their homes, ebbing away the the violent energy in the crowd.

Kanti spit in his mouth. It didn’t accomplish anything. It was her final act of defiance. Even if he died then on her blades he had won. Still though, we had to invent yet ANOTHER range category for Apocalypse World: Erotic.

Exodus

It was Daljeet and Reiss’s final heroic action to get The Solat to a doctor before he bled out. And because we established that Doc Burns was in fact on the Prometheus (as he was going to do Reiss’ drug test), it made total sense that they could get him there. The Solat’s wounds were at 11 o’clock and it was a final “acting under fire” that got him there. And they got the 10+ because of aiding one another. How cool is that!

In the final down beat, we saw Daljeet and Reiss again in the doctor’s surgery room. He handed her a small vial and said “here, that’ll get you through the drug screen.” Aw.

Thoughts on this game

Yeah, I went overboard. But I had a blast with it, and I think so did the players in the moment (though they might be wincing in retrospect). What I really should have done was to premise the the fight club scene with a puff of chamalla smoke as they walked it. Then it could have all been metaphoric and shit.

If fact, I did dump some smoking chamalla root in Reiss’ face towards the end, to fulfill the he miss she made early on to detox, but we never really played off that. A bit sloppy on my part.

Also sloppy was introducing the other passengers, and having none of them come back. We really didn’t have time for any more NPCs to have spotlight, but I had made a point that they were bad news and then we didn’t see them again… maybe next session…?

This game was just a shit load of fun for me. I wasn’t worried about keeping track of a gillion things. I just played of what the characters did. The players were great about finding reasons to stick together and it invest in each other.  I didn’t have nine thousand things going on, just one stream of awesome.

I’m definitely going to run more “1st session” games of Apocalypse Galatica. I liked that we were more focused on what the characters were up to than what was happening around them.

Range Categories: Far, Close, Hand, Intimate, Erotic. Rock!

 

 

Actual Play – Companions (4/21/2012)

MC: David Gallo
Players: Meghann Ahern, Will Huggins, Sean Nittner, and Jeff Pedersen
System: Apocalypse World
Hack: Companions

This is Jeremy Tidwell’s Dr. Who hack of Apocalypse World. The premise is that all the characters are companions of the Doctor that have parted ways with him (for one reason or another) and now the Doctor is gone and what are left are his companions, all feeling a little bit empty inside without him.

I know about as little as a nerd can know about Dr. Who. I’ve seen 1.5 episodes, and have heard people talk about the shoe. I know who Rose is, who the first doctor after the reboot is, and a little of the technology (Sonic screw drivers, the TARDIS, etc). I was interested to see how well I’d do playing with people who were big Who fans.

The cast

Adair – The androgynous Whiz picked up by the doctor. On a planet of technical experts Adiar was considered the working class and was never given much regard. The Doctor treated Adair with respect and gain the Whiz’s admiration. A combination of fear of the outside world and total fascination with the TARDIS kept Adair inside ALL the time. The Whiz never left. Ever. One day the Doctor left and the TARDIS took off without him. Adair, like always was on board, and now rode the TARDIS alone. Waiting to find the Doctor again.

Drake – The Agent who could seduce anything that reproduced. He was a time traveler who eventually parted ways with the Doctor, trying to find his own future and not be under the Doctor’s shadow. Drake dressed in a WWII flight suite and we opened up the game with him on the wedding alter (still in the flight suit), about to say “I do” when the TARDIS arrived and he bolted out of the chapel to find it!

Sarah – A physical therapist and workout instructor from the 1980s complete with spandex and leg warmers. She nursed the Doctor back to health when he was injured once and tried to protect him from the enemies that were still after him. She got caught up in his world and became a companion. Three years ago (by her time) Sarah was left behind by the Doctor, who thought she died in an earthquake. She had been struggling to survive since them, amongst a note quite hostile, but definitely not friendly race of bipedal insects (imagine Thri-kreenbut with four legs and haunches like centaurs). She had become tough and a little bit crazy due to the experience (like a crossover of Fred from Angel and Sarah Conner from Terminator 2).

Mentat – A robot created by the Doctor, and like Adair, respected by the Doctor for his sentience, rather than being disregarded as a tool. Mentat parted ways with the Doctor after Sarah was left behind. He had to go save her, but ended up trapped on the planet as well. Mentat identified as male (and dressed as such) but that was mostly to fit in. His garb was a mish mash of many time periods where he had picked up this and that.

History/Bonds

This part of the game was a little muddled. David asked us something about our history, specifically how we parted ways with the Doctor. First off this was kind of hard to think of. I mean, why would the Doctor leave you, or why would you leave him? We had some suggestions but most of those came from the show, and players, being what players are, were inclined to think of their own ideas, or at least fresh takes on existing ones. Will made a character that was very much like Captain Jack Harkness (yes, I have now watched two episodes of Torchwood, however that was since playing the game, so I didn’t know who Jack was then), and I think he really wanted to separate him from Jack, and not have the same concept.

We started coming up with reasons for separation, and who knew who, and what the timeline of when we were with the doctor when I mentioned to Jeff, that I had already filled out my bonds and according them he had betrayed me (Mentat betrayed Sarah) but we were now best friends. This helped us start forming relationships and a chronology but still it was a little bit sticky.

The result we had was:

The Doctor traveled with Drake first, and while traveling with Drake, picked up Sarah. He then created Mentat. Then Drake left to find his own way, Sarah was lost, Mentat left to find her, and finally Adair was inadvertently take from the Doctor by the TARDIS. I don’t know when in there Adair joined up, presumably before Drake left though, as we all had bonds with each other.

Bonds were also somewhat problematic because the fiction indicates (from what I understand) that the Doctor very rarely travels with more than one companion. Yet, based on the bonds we all knew each other. And I think knowing each other is VERY, VERY important. So, I almost think the canon format needs to be suspended a little bit to make this game work, as doing “oh, you worked with the Doctor too?” introductions will get really old, really fast.

Bonds:

I don’t remember everyone elses but this is what I had:

  • Drake had rescued my family once and I was grateful to him.
  • Drake was also my confidante that I told everything too.
  • Mentat had stabbed me in the back, telling the Doctor there was no life signs after the earthquate even when he knew I was there.
  • Mentat was also my best friend though. He had come back for me and we spent the last three years living together on this unfriendly planet.
  • OMG, I was so in love with Adair. His technowizardy was thrilling and he was always there in the TARDIS, an enigma. This played off really well as Mentat had absorbed an image of Adair and so could reproduce his voice and physical mannerisms… which Sarah asked him to do sometimes to feel connected.

Overall, I’m not a big fan of bonds. I like the narrative element in that it is more than just I have +2 with you but -1 with you, etc. I don’t like the fixed nature of them though, and how they can actually make establishing backstory harder if everyone is trying to fill out all their bond slots and come up with bonds that break each other’s brains.

The play is the thing:

The TARDIS works for a very nice plot device. It quickly picked up Drake (Adair was already on it) and dropped both of them on the planet where Mentat and Sarah had been living.

We had a very dangerous reunion (as the surface of the planet was filled with APOCALYPTIC GASES , my invention) and a person could only survive two minutes on the surface without risking permanent brain damage. Sarah, at the start of the game has already been exposed for 1:53 so she only had 7 seconds she could survive, and didn’t quite make it. She ended up trapped under a collapsed tunnel and although Adair tried to give her CPR, they fell into a kiss instead and were both exposed to the atmosphere.
Cybermen appeared, they fought with the Click-Clacks (the natives) and we all ran away into the tunnels. Yay!

The very cool twist on all of this was that we had invented this problem planet where Adair had (in trying to help) activated their seismic weapons and destroyed the worlds atmosphere. The story had us all coming back to right that wrong, but not in the way you expected. There were powerful crystals that controlled those weapons and preserved the Click-Clack larva, as well as the queen herself.

We decided the only way to fend off the Cybermen was to destroy what they sought, the life preserving crystals. Doing so though, meant killing the queen (as she would die without the crystals).

In the last minute I got my 5th XP and took the “Ring of Truth” vortex move. I tried it on the queen, rolled total crap, and she decided WE were her enemies. She sent her men to attack us and we ended the episode with Sarah, Mentat and Drake back to back to fight off the Click-Clacks, while Adair bravely snuck past them to activated the weapons anyway.

Experience

David was using the “Emotional Keys” to handle experience. I’m a big fan of keys in TSoY, and in other games that use them (Lady Blackbird, and our L5R hack), but I didn’t feel like they delivered in Companions. My thoughts.

Justifying them was much harder or at least less frequent than saying “I rolled this stat”. End result I only gained 2 XP from my keys (the others from special moves that gave XP) and everyone else got 0-1 XP from keys. In a four hour game, that advancement is very slow.

Because the keys required some move (any move) associated, some of them were very hard to satisfy. I’m thinking specifically the key of Trust and Fear. Both of those reward you for not doing something, rather than for doing something. I think that is counterintuitive to begin with, PCs rarely want to not take action, so rewards should be for doing things. That was compound by the fact that not doing something is almost never a move (sometimes you might say that staying very still and trying to avoid being caught is “doing something under fire” but there is no guarantee there.

We discussed this somewhat in game, and I think that with some retooling, keys could work better. They need a bias towards action and be easily translatable to a move. Right now they seem independent, but you only get rewarded for using them when a move is involved.

Thoughts on the game

We had a great time. The fact that Adair had inadvertently caused the disaster three years ago and now we were all back to try and fix it had some very nice symmetry.

The premise was a little bit convoluted to me, because as far as I could tell, there was never (or rarely) a time in the show when a bunch of companions got together. I think the game should start with a brief description of the status quo and then make a strong point of the contrast of the game vs. the show based on the disappearance of the Doctor.

This is a nitpick, but as playing someone who’s strong stat was “Appeal”, I was disappointed that there were no moves that were solely under the providence of “Appeal”. Sure, “Appeal to Emotion” worked with Appeal, but Appeal to reason did the same thing and worked with Clever. Sure, not every argument can be made with reason (or with a threat of force, which was another way to use the move) but it did feel like my primary stat had really one third of a move at best, while other stats had up to two that were all their own.

Actual Play – Damascus Falls (4/20/2012)

Apocalypse GalacticaGM: Sean Nittner
Players: Jeff Pedersen, Paul Tevis, Josh Roby, and David Gallo
System: Apocalypse World
Hack: Apocalypse Galactica

This was the first AG game that I’ve run that I was unhappy with. So rather than talk a lot about what happened, I’m going to discuss the play, and where I saw hiccups along the way, and how I’m going to try and make it better.

Playing outside in the dark

I didn’t know what to expect out of gaming at Nerdly. I assumed that there would be some provisions for how to game while outside and in the dark. What I got was a a picnic table with holes in them middle that I just knew all my XP tokens were going to fall through (they are small), and a whole lot of dark and cold. This ended up working out okay. I had a lantern and Paul brought one as well. I also put a tablecloth on the table that made for a nice flat surface. Folks were able to read well enough by the light they had and we were all comfortable. As the game progressed though I got colder and colder. First in my feet and then all over. I don’t know if it affected my ability to MC, but it wasn’t comfortable.

Plan for next time: Tablecloth for sure. Bring a few lanterns. Wear warmer clothes. Have a warm drink (coffee, hot chocolate, etc) in a thermos.

Communicating Cause and Effect

There were several times in the game where Paul in particular, but I believe the other players as well weren’t sure of why things where happening, or what the effects of things were.  This is partially do to the way Apocalypse World handles misses. Just because you roll 6- on the roll doesn’t mean something immediately happens to you, it often may mean something else happens outside your perception. I like to announce future badness a lot. So, for instance when the commander left his XO to handle damage control and rolled a weak hit when “acting under fire”, the result was the XO did put out the fire on the Battlestar, but airlocked three engineers to do so. What I presented was the sounds of the XO yelling “I don’t care of they are still in there, shut that bulkhead before we lose the whole ship” and then told the President to mark population down by 3.

This is a legitimate AW move, and Vincent directs you to make a move but  hide what it is. Engineers dying wasn’t an immediate problem (I mean other than the loss of life in an already nearly extinct population) but it was a lead up to bigger problems (ships needing to be fixed and not having enough deck hands to do all the work). So all an all, I feel good about the move, but Paul mentioned that not only was the outcome of his action unclear, it was unclear that there was and outcome to his action.

Later, when Josh’s president was trying manipulate Paul’s commander and I said “do what he wants and you get an XP, don’t do it and you’re acting under fire.” He had to ask what that meant several times before I felt like I explained both the mechanical and in-fiction narrative effect adequately.

Plan for next time: Paul actually gave really good advice on teaching a system in a HGWT episode many moons back. Explain the options and then give examples. In the case of a board game he said, for instance “You can move your piece 1 space up, down, right, or left, but not diagonally. So, you can move it here, here, here, or here, but not here, here, here or here.”  I think I need I was lacking in the example side of things. During the manipulate roll, I should have said. “The president just told you to step down, else the fleet will rebel. She is offering you an experience point if you do it, and if you don’t that means your acting under fire. In the fiction this means that you take a tough blow but learn something about yourself, and the people you protect if you step down. If you don’t the president’s influence is going to create heat and someone inside the military is going to challenge your authority. To maintain it, you’ll have to earn their respect gain and roll+cool.”

Players separated

Jeff’s character, the Activist, didn’t have direct interaction with the other PCs until very late in the game. In fact, it wasn’t until he was dead, resurrected as a Cylon, and we saw a second copy of him on the fleet, that he actually talked to another player. And that was the second to the last scene in the game.

So the players were set up as antagonistic to each other. They all wanted different things and were all equipped to push very hard for them. Jeff’s activist, in particular was trying to topple the government. A perfect goal given that the other three characters were all part of that government. On this surface this setup seemed perfect. It reminded me of the Gift where I assumed that all of the external threats would take a back seat to PCs differences.

This worked, by degree. The activist sent his people to go do things and mess with the president and the commander. All cool, but it meant for me speaking on behalf of the activist, rather than the player doing it. This was weird. If pulled a lot of the intensity out of the situation. My general rule of thumb is that if a PC asks an NPC to do something that is really important, the NPC will do it wrong. Not necessarily failing, but somehow missing their intent. I only do this when PCs are abdicating responsibility. A PC wants to lead his troops into battle, that’s cool. Make a leadership roll and they’ll kick but. But if a PC wants to send to troops off to fight without him, and the main focus of the game is that fight, then the NPCs is going to do something the PC doesn’t want so they have to step in. It may be a cheat, but it works. In this case the NPC was a zealot. She didn’t want the change to happen in degrees, she wanted it ALL RIGHT NOW. This eventually put Jeff’s activist at odds with his own members (a perfect reason to use the “Crime Lord” move) but still didn’t bridge the gap between PCs.

Plans for next time: Do a little more discussion before hand of how the PCs are connected to make sure that frame scenes with any or all of them is possible. That way if two PCs haven’t been in a scene together, anyone (player or MC) can start a scene with them together without having to do mental gymnastics (like we did with the Cylon rebirth.

READ THE MOVES SEAN

This seems really, really dumb, but I didn’t read my own move. At one point Paul’s commander was held up at gunpoint by the president who had wrestled his gun from him. Paul wanted to look for an answer by taking a leap of faith. He did it, and rolled well. And then I flubbed.  The move reads “…describe your experience, in brief or in full about the nature of things. On a hit, the MC will seize on something you’ve said and elaborate on your insight.”

What I didn’t do was ask Paul to describe his experience, and further, I didn’t ask any follow up questions to find out what he was getting at. I just assumed he wanted a way out of the situation to keep his status in tact. And what I gave him was weak sauce. “Be friends and people will follow you.” That isn’t even horrible advice, but it could have at least been delivered with some specific leverage “The president needs this, offer it to her and you can both get what you want.”

Plans for next time: Well the obvious is to read my own move. The not as obvious is to add in “The MC will ask you a question or two”, which will leave me leeway to clarify if the description given to me doesn’t lead to any specific advice.

One dimensional struggles

A pervasive theme through the game was characters that had no empathy for each other. Many of them interacted only on a hierarchical level, trying to assert dominance and authority over each other.  This quickly became stale as the characters all wanted to be king of the hill and had no reason to relent.

Plan for next time: Make sure the Hx creates relationships that go beyond the obvious of where characters fit in a social hierarchy. Make sure the have emotional connections to each other.

Also it’s worth considering only offering either the President or the Commander, but not both. That way there aren’t two dogs wrestling over the same bone all game.

Game improvements

The players pointed out a few things the game needs:

A move to form a connection with someone. Something that happens all the time in the show and isn’t seduce or manipulate. I’m looking at the way strings work in Mosnterhearts and considering what else I should take out or change to make room for it.

The president’s moves are too abstract. They operate on the Crisis (Front) clocks and not in the immediate fiction. I’ve got to revamp that playbook to be more actionable, especially in the short term.  That also means taking the Crisis Clocks back to the MC side of the table, which I think is probably a good idea anyway, it was too much paperwork for a player.

The president needs to be operating on a scarcity of good will. I think the campaigns can offer that (any of them that is in want indicates a lack of good will) but I will need to revisit them to make sure they are tuned to do that. Also, the president should have an obligation campaign of  “health”, to emulate the cancer Laura had (if someone wants to do that).

The commander playbook works great for playing a hard as hell Saul type, but not so well for a moderate Adama character. There should be some more flexibility to create that.

More playbooks should have fewer moves automatically selected and more options. Right now a good half of the characters have moves pre-selected and only get to choose one or two. I should probably try to have no more than one move built in and give more options. Options are fun.

Not a total flop

For all that the game wasn’t a total flop. The President took the commander by gunpoint. The activist/Cylon crashed the Condor into the Battlestar Argonaut and blew the hell out of both of them. The CAG released her viper pilots to destroy the ship that had the activist (that she loved) on it. We saw Cylon red spine in the brig sex. And at the last moment, the president was killed by the XO and the commander jumped the fleet with a known threat amongst them because we found at the very last moment… he was a Cylon too!

 Thoughts on this game

While I was disappointed with it in terms of performance, I learned a lot from it. I doubt there will be another opportunity for it, but if I had a time machine I’d like to run this game again, with those thoughts in mind and see how it would go.

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