Barf Forth Apocalyptica
barf forth apocalyptica => Apocalypse World => Topic started by: Bret on June 29, 2010, 08:53:29 AM
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My Monday night group gathered last night for our first session of Apocalypse World! The heat was ghastly so quickly before everyone got there I cranked up the AC and sealed the gaming area shut. I also made some salsa, because nothing says apocalypse like salsa.
We have two Matt W's in the game so if I need to specify I'll call them Matt1 and Matt2. Matt2 posts on this very board and is hacking AW, so you know him. Matt1 I've gamed with at conventions before and digs BW and various indie games. Also in the group is Carly who is my girlfriend and has a little experience roleplaying - mainly college D&D and a few games we've played together like Breaking the Ice, Maid, and The Final Girl. Joe is a friend Carly introduced me to who is a huge Doctor Who fan and whose prior experience with gaming seems to be exclusively with D&D, WoD, Call of Cthulhu, etc. I think he'll do fine.
Matt1 is playing Ozair the Savvyhead. Covered in robes and goggles and tools. He has a workshop on the edge of Longneck that's a converted mobile home.
Matt2 is Proust the Operator. He has some surveilance, infiltration, and scavenging gigs going on, and is a wheeler and dealer.
Joe is Sorrow the Hocus. His followers are a cult who believe him to be a god-prophet, and depend on him completely.
Carly is Iris the Brainer. She lives in an old train tunnel dug into the cliffs that sit at Longneck's back. She had a twin who died when she was younger, and has been in touch with the maelstrom for a decade. Maybe more.
We only got a chance to go round the table for a handful of scenes once we were done with character creation. Ozair's young assistant, Lemma, let him know that she was thirsty and that the town's water supply had gone to shit. It was a stream that burst from the wall of the cave and had it's source above the cliffs. He wanted to make a filtration system, but would need someone to climb upstream and find what the source of the pollution was, and bring back a pure sample so he could develop a method of chemical separation. He went to Proust to see if someone in his crew could help.
Proust was at White's, who is Longneck's primary poultry provider. They negotiated getting one of Proust's crew up the cliffs. Proust nominated Jesus, one of his crew.
When they weighed the dangers, Proust got reluctant to send Jesus after all. The trip would probably be a day out and a day back, and Jesus was ill-equipped. But Jesus wanted to anyway. Not having water to drink is a big deal.
On the other side of Longneck, Sorrow woke up to the supplications of Tumtum. Apparently, the followers were starting to get sick and Gnarly had started puking and shitting all over himself. Nobody knew what to do and they needed Sorrow to guide them.
Meanwhile, Iris climbed out of her cave and tried to get a read on what's going on in the town. Reading the situation, she saw that the town was already getting antsy, and she knew that White had some stores of water for his chickens and their preparation. He was sitting on either a big opportunity or a pile of dynamite.
And that was it. I wish we could have gotten further, but at the same time I was relieved to have the opportunity to take what I had and do some prep. A lot of things got hinted at that I could develop, and the players gave me a ton of material. I only wish I had gotten some more scenes with Iris - I got a bit of ribbing after the game since she only got two minutes of screen time.
I'm excited about putting fronts together and getting things motoring next game. The characters are already pretty damn cool. Oh, and Iris has metal pasties.
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My favorite part last night was when I showed up and said, Hi Bret, nice to meet you in person, and he says, we've met, we had a beer together at Dexcon.
So I've been at his place, what? like fourteen seconds and already I'm an asshole. Jesus.
Anyway, it looks like it's going to be nuts. Three weird-focused characters, and then me. That oughta be fun. Guess who they all have the most Hx with?
It was very satisfying to be able to say no when another character tried to recruit me into some sort of "adventure seed." You know how in games of yore that's the moment where you think, okay, this is how we get the party together to go on the GM's quest? Instead Proust gets to politely tell Ozair to fuck off because WTF does he look like a mountain goat, and he can have one of his crew help instead. That was nice. I'm playing him as if he's real, right? And there's no way he's climbing a cliff. Not as long as there's someone else he can get to do it for him. Or as long as there's some other job that pays better.
Dear Vincent Baker: I like you a little bit less because I had to deal with those goddamn playbooks last night. If I did holiday cards you would still totally get one, but the xo would maybe be written a little smaller.
Bret makes kickass salsa. Holy crap.
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Salsapocalypse World
Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes, cored
1/2 large white onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 sarrano pepper
1/2 cup cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Dump it all in a food processor and blend to desired chunkiness. Just as tasty chopped up with a knife and dumped into a bowl, just more time consuming.
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We played our first session with fronts. Full frontal apocalypse?
I love the multiple fronts thing. It reminds me of good TV/books/etc where multiple storylines are rolling at once.
As I was hoping, the good stuff really kicked in when we botched rolls.
So here's what went down.
There was that whole water problem, yeah? So Ozair the savvyhead has hired one of my crew (Jesus, who looks like Jesus in The Big Lebowski) to climb a fucking cliff, because fuck if I'm doing it. Iris the brainer is assisting him a bit, but the dude, White?, who has his own sort of fast food operation, has approached Iris to help keep the nutjobs away while there's a water shortage, so they can both profit from it.
Proust the operator has been working his jobs, and Fleece, who's the closest the tent city has to a mayor, is all worried about a couple newcomers who apparently have turtle shells on their backs. She's all, Proust, grab one of them or both so we can question them. Proust convinces her to come clean about what's really going on, but he has to keep it to himself. She's seen them before, picking over the ruins of some kind of nasty carnage, and she thinks they're responsible, probably a scouting party. Probably the player characters from that other guy's game.
Iris and Ozair both tap into the maelstrom. Iris says it's like trying to get a signal with an old television, where you have to stand just right and move your arms a bit. You can help by taking her hand and then holding a coat hanger covered in foil in your other hand. Ozair sees things as blueprints. When Iris tries to help Ozair later, she suffers some kind of feedback and her cloak--made from a shower curtain--catches fire and melts.
They both see that the water problem is from some before-time thing up on the cliffs that's leaking from a broken container. Ozair is given what looks sort of like a treasure map in his vision, marking a spot to the south.
When Jesus finally comes back down from the cliffs, he's carrying a jug with some nasty looking shit in it, and he decides that what Ozair's paying him isn't enough. Ozair panics and tries to bully him into giving it back. That goes HORRIBLY WRONG and Jesus grabs the gun out of his hand and accepts it as part of his additional payment. Then he walks to Ozair's workshop and helps himself to Ozair's worth in barter. So that was fun.
Proust decides he wants to drug the newcomers so he doesn't have to fight them. He goes to the special camp of the followers of Sorrow (who wasn't present this session). Manages to convince Sorrow's second to give him a dose of that crazy shit they use to have their weird visions. So he shows up at their campfire, Lala and Bill, and he's all "hey, I'm the guy who can get you work, etc" and shares some mickeyed water with them, giving the dose to Lala so he can drag off Bill in the chaos.
This goes HORRIBLY WRONG.
Bret was about to say, okay, so you drug one of them, and I say, man, I thought you were going to make me roll for acting under fire. And Bret says, oh... hell yes you're acting under fire. So I get a 5.
So Lala starts mumbling like a crazy man, and Bill is all WTF did you do to him? And then Lala stands up and starts freaking out, shooting into the crowd. Like, killing people.
I'm thinking, oh fuck, not good. Okay, I have that move, eye on the door. Fuck this, I need to get away. So I say I'm diving toward the biggest crowd of panicked people and using the confusion to make a break for it. So I get a 6.
Amalia -- one of my crew -- comes to my rescue just a little too late, and she pops Lala. Lala is dead. Oh hey, he and Bill are clearly a couple.
Suddenly Bill is all "Where the fuck do you think you're going?" She has her gun in my face and drags me off into the desert, waving Amalia off.
At the moment, I'm hog tied, under a blanket, at least a day's walk from the tent city. Who knows what the fuck is going to happen to me. Bill seems like she might be sad about how I totally got her partner killed. We seem to be headed toward some ruins.
And one more thing: what's up with that brightness on the horizon. It almost looks like the whole world is on fire, and it seems to be getting closer.
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Oh, here's a thing. Because who wants to do day-job work? Not me.
I was just reading the NPC triangle thread and thinking about how our three characters are all on different parts of the map at the moment, or gonna be as soon as Iris sets out with Ozair's assistant.
Got me wondering how that's going to kind of slow-burn the triangles. My crew are back where Ozair is, and one of them has already fucked Ozair over. His assistant is going off on a trek with Iris. NPCs spending a lot of time with other PCs. I think that might plant some good seeds.
And I forgot to mention a thing with Ozair. His assistant, who's like a 12-year old kid that Ozair has dressed up like a mini-me, is being all rebellious and wants to work on the cure for the water problem. Ozair tries to convince her/him to focus on given instructions, and assistant (Lemma?) has a little tantrum, starts smashing equipment. That was funny.
Okay, I'm really going to try and work now.
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Still getting grips on rolls. I think I'm finally "getting" acting under fire as a catch all "oh shit things are kind of crazy can I pull this off" sort of roll. My brain keeps thinking in like skill charts or something. Stupid brain.
Iris has fallen in with White who wants to use the water shortage to get some sick profit since he's sitting on some water stores. She agreed to put her name on his sign which will be enough to keep some people away for awhile. I'm really not sure if she's planning on making good on her agreement to help him if he gets into some deep shit but we'll see. Oh and just now she is getting ready to set out on an expedition with Lemma and tells White about it. She's like "Yeah we're trying to fix the water problem," and he's like, "Are you crazy?!" So then she promises that she's getting a secure source of fresh water and he'll be the beneficiary here, like she's scamming Ozair so they can profit more. Doubt it, but White's bought it.
Oh and Sorrow's Children are all fucking with Iris and sneaking around her cave. Tumtum who is like Sorrow's second has a beef with Iris. Sorrow was laid up since Joe couldn't make it to game, so he was in the sick tent leaving Tumtum to figure out what to do. Obviously Tumtum has no idea what to do since Sorrow does his best to make them all dependant on him, so they're getting kind of weird.
I love Lemma. S/he's like, "Fuck watching this rope waiting for Jesus to come back, I want to do some SCIENCE," and just wanders off. S/he's right at the age where s/he's gonna push his buttons and Ozair seems like someone who is not a people person typically so how is Ozair gonna deal with that.
Nobody's fucked anybody yet though. I feel like a failure as an MC.
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There was that whole water problem, yeah?
I love how people lapse into swearing and/or (what I see as) Vincent-speak when they talk about Apocalypse World. I feel like I do. Or maybe it's just an east coast thing. It makes me think about game rules as meme medium. Behold the wicked awesome power of the game designer! ;-p
This game all sounds wonderful so far. A water supply threat is a great threat; it wants such immediate response.
I might try making that salsa for Thursday night. It's going to be 98 here.
Please do inform us when Jesus says, "Nobody fucks with the Jesus!" yeah?
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I did actually describe him as John Turturro.
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Nobody's fucked anybody yet though. I feel like a failure as an MC.
We usually have some PC sex show up every other session or so. You got time.
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Guess we'll see tonight!
I can't see Jesus as John Turturro. Every time I picture him in my mind he looks like Jon Seda.
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Iris the Brainer! Yes! My favourite part of Apocalypse-World-Online-Discussions. I have an Iris the Brainer, also. They seem very different.
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I think the highest I rolled last night was a six. It was crazy fun.
Poor Bret. "You failed again? I'm running out of bad things to do to you!"
Last night the shit really hit the fan, I gotta say. Frenzied mobs tearing people to pieces, painwave projectors, freaky omens. Yeah, it was good. I'm sad that I have to wait a whole week.
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Yeah, Sorrow wakes up from his beauty sleep and decides to rile up a mob to kill White and take over his water stores. Proust gets a claw hammer in the back from this tribe of folks who wear these sort of shell coverings over their back and then runs through the desert. Iris in-brain puppet stringed Lemma and abandoned her in the middle of nowhere. And Ozair managed to get some water filtration working and struck a deal with White, just before White got mob-murdered. Oh and Iris managed to get the water filtration system away from the mob by setting off her pain wave projector in the middle of it.
Yeah, I know there were some successes last night but coming up with move after move to make against Proust was straining my mental capacity. Guy needs to catch a break.
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(http://gillan.coopster.net/apocalypseworld/iris.jpg)
Iris the Brainer, drawn by Carly. Those are metal pasties over her nipples.
I love the shower curtain cape.
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I look forward to this game all week. I really need to have two.
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So, four sessions in, it seems like the game is starting to cook and I'm getting more comfortable MCing. I still fumble with some of the rules but the Matts are there to help me steady the craft.
Man I can't even remember what all happened last night. Iris got the shit kicked out of her by Shan, Balls, and Amy until Sorrow called them off. I was like, "Are you sure you want to go into town? You set off a pain wave grenade in a crowd, like, an hour ago." She went anyway, and they're on The List now.
Ozair ran around like a madman trying to make some preparations from this crazy fire, electrical storm on the horizon. It blew through town setting everything on fire. So he convinced Sorrow to get a crew to set about building a wall while he made some lightning rods. So there was this big wall of sand and then these fuckers with shell things on their back (we just called them the turtle people) show up and start making demands.
So the biggest fucker of all of them is standing on this rock and is like, "Bring me Fleece! Bring me the body of Lala! Bring me back my claw hammer!" and Proust shouts, "Fuck off!" and fires the magnum that he just bought from Jesus and the guy goes flying off the rock. A crazy gunfight happens and Ozair is trying to set up the lightning rods at the last second and gets shot in the leg, and Proust takes a bullet while providing covering fire. Sorrow's Children and Fleece's gang manage to find a common hobby in violence and surge towards the raiders and just completely murder them.
Ozair drags one of the wounded raiders behind cover and is like, "Tell us what this firestorm is?" because he knows they're related somehow, but the raider is dying, and like all of a sudden Ozair sees the guy's body as blueprints and schematics and pulls the bullets out of him. The guy spills everything.
And the fight is pretty much over and the wall of fire hits and a hole opens up where Ozairs rods are, and the wall passes over the town and the hole closes. Then Ozair remembers that Lemma's on the other side of it.
Oh and also this game Iris fucked Joe's girl who's this creepy nude medic, and she overloaded his brain and he screamed and went unconscious. So that was cool too.
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Last night's game was... ehhh...
So, Sorrow is Hardholder now and things are getting set up there. He's got a gang. He's become less creepy weirdo and more serious leader.
A caravan from Criner's hardhold came. They're all burned from the firestorm that came through. Shit seems bad at Criner's, they need water and medical supplies.
Proust makes a move to scavenge a bunch of medical supplies. This guy Ula knows where to find some and Proust and his crew and a few new recruits go. They find some medical supplies, but then Jesus shoots Ula in the head because he thinks that's a good idea.
Iris is still getting tons of shit from Sorrow's children. She tried to get Sorrow to help but he's like "nah nothing I can do really" and she's thinking maybe she should cut her own eyeball out to make things right since Dremmer is one of the children that psycho hates her since she set off her pain-wave grenade and he lost all vision in one eye.
Things were slow. I'm not calling for enough rolls. That's no good. Jesus shot Ula in the head and later Proust's player is like, "You know I would have wanted to do something to keep that from happening," and Iris's player is starting to get frustrated at Iris being, like, hated and isolated from the rest of the community to the point of not really wanting to play Iris anymore. So it seems like things are fucking up a bit and I need to correct course.
I'm rereading the rules and that's helping some. At some point in the last few sessions I think I've lost the flow of moves and rolls and need to pick that back up. I also think I need to do some hard-thinkin' about PC-NPC triangles and stuff. I was trying to establish some not-horrible relationships with Iris but they go awry. White was her ally but he got killed, and then she fucked Joe's Girl but made his eyes bleed. I don't know, I might just need to talk to Iris's player and figure out what's wrong because I think a part of it is she doesn't feel like Iris has a strong direction and is muddling through, and she's not feeling like the way she plays Iris matches her vision of the Iris she wanted to play.
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I think, after pondering a bit, I think that the last session really needed more announcing of future badness, especially when that future is "in two seconds." But in general more future badness. Stuff that prompts panicky gut reactions like "Jesus has drawn his pistol and is pointing it at Ula's head. What do you want to do?" and also more planning things like we had leading up to the fight with the turtle people. That session worked really well, and I wouldn't back away from that for a second. When you said "I wanted to slow things down after last session," my thought was "but last session was perfect!"
Not sure how to address Iris, but I don't know what she intended for the character. "All of Sorrow's followers think she's a demon" might, in hindsight, be a bit rough of a threat for one character, but considering what she can do, I dunno if they're going to be throwing shit and rocks at her.
Even so, she can totally hire Proust as a bodyguard. I go aggro with +3 cool now, and let me tell you, if any one of those fuckers even thinks about throwing shit at me, I will shoot first and go aggro second. If Sorrow can't control them, then the population needs thinning.
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Yeah I am still new to running AW (this was our fifth session I think?) so please give me a little slack.
I did have a hard time coming up with panicky gut reaction stuff. Next session I think I need to sit down and review the moves and the threats before game and come up with ideas. I know technically I'm only supposed to prep fronts, but coming into the game without having at least gotten some basic ideas of some ways to incorporate the moves into the Fronts makes things rough.
Iris's player is pretty new to roleplaying, and I think is struggling with how to interface what she wants and what she wants Iris to be with the system and with the choices she makes in the game. Maybe we can have a quick pregame chat about it next session or something. I mean, I'd rather she keep playing Iris and I don't think that's actually the problem, but it's her decision.
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My overall feeling is that, sure, sometimes you have a slow session, with MC missteps. It's just part of the game, especially just part of learning the game. I know I've run sessions like that.
There've been a couple times when custom session-opening re-situation moves have really saved my butt. For instance, if Iris is getting bogged down in a thing her player hates just because her player can't see a way out of it, a custom re-situation move might really help.
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What's a custom re-situation move? Like the letters you wrote to your players after the break in the book?
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Yep!
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I, too, can vouch for the re-situation moves. They worked wonders in our game.
My advice is to write the letter and the move, then let it sit for a few days. Come back to it later and see if it's hitting the situation the way you want (i.e. the way that will shake things up for the player in a good way). My own first stabs at the re-situation moves were kind of meh, but the second drafts rocked.
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Edit: Wait, new thread.
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Also, don't forget the two special moves John Harper mentioned in some other thread (which I wouldn't mind seeing listed as Basic Moves in his excellent handouts, even.):
When you have a concern, issue, or comment about the game, go ahead and say it to the group.
When someone has something to say about the game, listen to them respectfully.
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Unfortunately, since this is like the second campaign she's ever played in, she hasn't gotten enough advances to get that first move yet.
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The last session of Apocalypse World was session six and, man, did shit get interesting.
Proust and his gang came back from the wastes will medical supplies to trade to the caravan from Criner's hardhold. On the way through the market he ran into Roof who let him know that any supplies that could make it to Fleece's gang would be much appreciated. In an effort to maintain good will all around, Proust traded half to the caravan and kept half (turning down the offer of some slaves!) to trade to Fleece. When he got to her tent, Fleece called him out on his dealings with Sorrow and questioned how she could trust him. Proust put on his charms and the two got cozy.
And what of Ozair? He went to check on the fusion engine he fixed up for Jacka Backa and made plans to keep the barter rolling in. An engine needs maintanance to run proper after all, and what good is an engine without a car? Or perhaps a train? Jacka Backa is dreaming big and who knows what he and the Savvyhead will get up to.
Ozair had more on his mind than just engines though. His young assistant had found water out in the wastes and he put plans in motion to collect a team to go and scout out the situation. But even before that is the puzzling situation of the assistant herself. Lemma had wandered back to Long Neck at the height of the battle with the Turtle-backs while the electro-fire storm raged through the town. At the end, she was sound physically but her mind was changed and stripped of its defenses. Sounds like a situation where a Brainer could be useful. Perhaps after Lemma is finished making out with Baa, the Turtle-back Ozair rescued.
And speaking of Iris, she was busy taking precaution against Sorrow's Children who have been becoming increasingly violent towards her. Fleece was willing to trade armor and a rifle from their stockpile. The gun's owner was initially upset to part with such a fine weapon, but some but with a little flirtation Norville even agreed to provide some private lessons that night.
Eventually the paths of these three crossed and it all began with with an explosion. Sorrow's Children were getting fighty amongst themselves when a nearby train car went flying in pieces with a thundering bang. What could have caused it? Dremer, the angry one-eyed bastard, assembled some of the Children that were still standing and decided that whoever it was, they were gonna pay. Ozair showed up and tried to diffuse the situation which ended with Dremer marching on Fleece's encampment with Ozair tending to the wounded from the explosion. As he did so, the effects from psychadelics that the Children use began to creep into Ozair's mind and sent him into a hallucinatory rage. When Ozair came to, he was in his workshop standing over a bloodied Baa. Uh oh. Better take Lemma off to see Iris.
Dremer's folks had meanwhile made their way to Fleece's camp and had a stand-off going on. Dremer had his gun trained on a weaponless Norville and the rest of Fleece's gang had their weapons pointed at the Children. Iris had been making her way to Fleece's camp while avoiding the Children, and upon seeing Norville in danger, used her abilities to cause Dremer to drop his weapon. Then Fleece's gang opened fire and dropped them all to the dust.
Proust poked his head out from Fleece's tent and after some debate, Fleece and her gang grabbed their weapons and started off to retaliate against Sorrow's Children. As Proust marched off with one of Fleece's units, Iris headed back to her cave to wait in safety until Fleece needed her assistance. On the way there, she took a bullet to the side.
Instead of bleeding to death, Iris was healed by Ozair. But then the maelstrom got involved and now they can't see colour. What? And as it turns out, Lemma is definitely messed up in the head. Why? Not even the Brainer could figure that one out entirely.
-That all took too way long to summarize. If I left out anything I apologize and feel free to add it in.
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There was a moment when Proust stepped out from Fleece's tent wearing only boots, and Iris was there. At the end of the session Bret suggested that I should give +1 Hx to Iris for "knowing me better."
Enjoyed seeing Iris the brainer being all "enough is enough" and loading up on weapons and armor from Fleece's crew.
Oh, and Ozair failing his bullshit and making dremmer mad. Dremmer is about to beat Ozair senseless, and Ozair says, "uh, fine, you really want the truth? Okay!" Fuck, um, what is the truth? I open my brain to the maelstrom.
And another moment where simultaneously all three characters say, "oh fuck fuck fuck" under entirely different circumstances.
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I liked when Iris read Lemma's brain and saw everything that she had been through and gave her a hug.
And I liked when Proust tried to reason with Fleece about counterattacking Sorrow, and then went along with her anyway.
And I liked when Ozair decided he told Jackabacka he was going to build him a tank, and is now apparently going to build him a robot.
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So under a spray of gunfire, Sorrow is taken completely by surprise. He dives behind cover but takes a bullet and his bodyguards drop. He's all alone and unarmed. In areas nearby him his gang fires back. It's a night fight so all he sees is muzzle flashes and the pangs of bullets hitting metal. He ends up stripping one of his dead bodyguards who's in woman-type clothes, and makes a run for it. The sniper who has a bead on him lets him go, thinking he's a wounded civilian.
He beat feet to Joe's girl who originally planned on drugging him and taking him to Fleece, but Sorrow talked him out of it. He paid him extra for his silence and Joe's girl said he would stay out of the power struggle.
Sorrow's followers end up surrendering to Fleece after a night of nasty fighting. Fleece's people round them up into cages and then Criner's caravan, which mysteriously disappeared during the fighting, returns to Longneck after Fleece fires a flare. Fleece sells Sorrow's followers to Criner.
Before that happens though, Fleece asks Iris to get inside the brains of one Sorrow's followers. His body wasn't anywhere and she wanted to know where he is. Iris reads the follower's brain and finds out that he can't take responsibility for his own actions, he needs someone to tell him what to do. She tells him, "Don't say anything," and tells Fleece that Sorrow headed off into the desert. Iris tries to bullshit Fleece and gets a 7-9, so Fleece tells Iris to take some people including Norvell, Iris's lover, into the desert with her and find Sorrow.
Oh, before this happens Ozair fixes Lemma by using some kind of psychic coils. He (I am using 'he' but Ozair's gender is indeterminate) shields her from the psychic maelstrom and makes it deep and persistent. He also shows her how to operate the coils herself to fix herself up.
Ozair also has a long talk with Ba who begs forgiveness through broken teeth and split lips. Ozair tries to explain that getting it on with someone who's, like, 14 is wrong. Ba doesn't get it, but he does get that if he does it again he'll get his face smashed and he understands that.
Around now Iris shows up and is like, "So I lied to Fleece about where Sorrow is. I want you to hide him if you find him, and also what should I do." Ozair says, "Come up with a plausible lie about why Sorrow is not in the desert."
So Iris heads out into the desert but Norvell figures out that Iris is full of shit. Iris begs Norvell to back her play, and Norvell is like, "Okay, but you need a plan." The plan is to find a body in the ruins west of Longneck and say that its Sorrow.
So this is where I'm like, "What the hell kind of roll is it to find a dead body resembling someone else against all odds?" Ozair's player is like, "Make it a custom roll. +sharp. 10+ they find a good-looking body. 7-9 they find one but there's something pretty wrong with it." Iris rolls double-sixes. The find a male body, recent, clothes and meat ripped up, face shot off but same build as Sorrow and same hair. The rest of the group buys it so they make a sling and ring the body back for Fleece who also buys it.
Meanwhile, Sorrow is sneaking around town. He gets to Ozair's workshop and is like, "Oh shit what do I do?" Ozair tells him to hide in Iris's cave which he does. He rests and heals and recuperates and Ozair brings him some food. The rest of the town thinks he's dead since what everyone thinks is his body is hanging in the middle of the market.
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So, what happened this game:
Something weird is going on with the Maelstrom. Proust blacked out and when he woke up he was covered in these static maggots. Ozair goes into the maelstrom to find out whats going on and gets trapped inside a black and white TV. He pushes his way out of the TV and into some different Maelstrom paradigm and ends up getting the shit kicked out of him by a crew of stockbroker looking guys.
Sorrow goes into the Maelstrom after him and drags him out, but they bring some of the stockbrokers with them somehow and they appear as static phantoms.
Meanwhile Proust is confronted by Amalia about being in cahoots with a slaver, so Proust confronts Fleece about it and calls her out. No more slavery. Fleece makes a not-so-subtle threat.
Ozair, back relatively safe, uses the iCoils in his workshop to make Longneck safe from the psychic maelstrom. It's not going to hold up, but it'll work until things can get fixed.
Proust, Sorrow, Iris, and Ozair start scheming to deal with Fleece. Sorrow gets a disguise and is planning a trip to Criner's hardhold to get his follower's back. Iris is going to use her connection to Norvell and maybe get some in-brain puppet strings. Though her connetion to Norvell might be a bit fuzzy after they got it on and psychic feedback made Norvell have a seizure and gave her a nosebleed.
So, out of game, I've recognized I'm having a problem ratcheting up intensity. I've talked to a couple of the players about it and reviewed the rules, and I think my problem is primarily with the Moves Snowball and using moves to set up harder moves. I suspect I do a lot of announcing future badness with no follow-through. I'm gonna start looking at moves as initiation a series of moves rather than one-offs and before I drop one at least consider how it could be used to make a much harder move.
We have about two more games left before Ozair's player leaves us. Then we'll see what happens.
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Well, Bret keeps bringing the epic tension to the table. Last night was once again awesome.
So anyway, Proust and Sorrow have decided to follow Ozair's critically awful advice and head to Crine's hardhold, where they hope to free Sorrow's former followers. Proust has patched things up with Amalia and Jesus, and the four manage to sneak out past Fleece's increasing patrols.
Iris wants to try and patch things up with Norvell, but Norvell isn't having any of that bullshit: "normally when I fuck someone I don't get a 6-hour nosebleed afterward! Leave me alone! I'm cleaning my guns!"
Ozair encounters the mysterious "static man" again and convinces him -- after Proust and Sorrow have left, mind you -- he convinces the static man to go and invade the people at Crine's hardhold and leave Long Neck alone.
So when Proust and Sorrow arrive at the slavers' fortress, they're besieged by three people apparently possessed by more of the static men. Proust is relieved to find that they're afraid of his big-ass magnum, and he waves them back. Sorrow opens his brain to the maelstrom, and he can see dozens of these weird beings climbing the holding walls, inhabiting other bodies, etc.
Criner, it turns out, has heard of Proust. Because you know, Proust has a reputation and stuff. It also turns out that he's heard of Sorrow and thinks maybe he should just throw Sorrow off the roof of the tower. Sorrow tries to convince Criner that these invisible static men are invading his home, and says, well, if this is true, then maybe I won't kill you.
Iris goes to try and convince Fleece that Crine's hardhold is a threat and she should attack them, but Fleece isn't having any of that. What she does want is for Iris to find out about this robot that Ozair's been building. She wants it from him.
Ozair finishes the robot and announces to the crowd that it's for sale, to which Jackabacka says I beg your fucking pardon, this is mine. Fleece's expression is unreadable.
I probably forgot a few things.
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Next session will be our wrap-up session! Then we'll probably be starting a new campaign. I am excited about next session and also about the new game.
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Last night: TEH FINALE!!1
Sorrow's player wasn't able to make it until very late, so poor Proust (poor, poor Proust, oh woe) is basically in among the crazy slavers all by his lonesome. So he manages to convince Criner to ride out to Long Neck and demand tribute, with his whole gang.
By the way, I wish AW had a "they believe the lie" move. We were talking about this in play. There's no way to convince an NPC or another player. I mean, you can read a person and find out if they're lying, but there's nothing that sweetens the deal for believing what they say. Maybe nobody in AW trusts anyone by default, but how do I play a smooth talker without having to be one?
Anyway, so Proust ALSO convinces Criner that the slaves he got from Long Neck would probably gladly fight by his side if it gave them the chance to exact revenge. So his gang is bolstered by a good 40 people, all like fuck yeah let's kill those fuckers.
Back in Long Neck, Fleece has captured Baa, who knows way too much about Ozair and Iris' plans. Fleece tells Iris to scan his brain and find out the truth. Iris sees all the hate in Baa's soul, how he wants Proust to suffer, like, a lot. So she uses that info to spin a lie (another lie to sell) about how Baa is just trying to take revenge and mess everything up in Long Neck.
Iris goes and buys a fancy thing and gives it to Norvell in the hope that it will convince Norvell to take her back. And it does. No matter what the MC thinks.
So here's this big motorcade of death, rolling up on Long Neck, and Criner says to Proust, go and be my herald. So Proust rides up on his motorcycle, with Amalia riding behind him (if you picture that as looking totally hot, you're picturing it right). Just as he pulls up and takes in the situation, some jackass former follower of Sorrow gets antsy and starts shooting, and OMG it all just goes to shit. Proust tries to make a break for it, all "RRRRRRRR" on the motorcycle, but Amalia takes a hit and falls off, so he has to turn around and go back for her. And there he is, in the middle of a fucking battle, crouched behind some old industrial A/C unit.
Iris is up in one of the towers with Norvell and Fleece, and she unleashes some fuckery on those who would try to storm the tower. Let's just say when you try to climb up the ladder, you put yourself and your fingers and eyes in a very scalpely position.
Proust sees that Amalia is fucking dying! Dying! So he can't just sit out the battle. He grabs her, throws her over his shoulder and charges toward the wall, toward the only medic he knows, inside Long Neck. He gets shot up a bit but manages to get through a weak point during the fighting, where Joe's Girl finds him, and just as Ozair shows up and does his neat Angel-style healing.
Ozair tells Proust that both leaders need to die or this is all for nothing, so Proust heads back toward the battle. Criner is at the foot of the tower where Fleece is entrenched, and Ozair fires a couple pot shots at Criner so Proust can sneak around and flank.
Sorrow's player shows up at just the right time and makes his move, frenzying his loyal followers to deliver Fleece unto him! Proust jumps out of cover and tries to blast Criner, but Criner ducks inside a tent.
Ozair fires up the robot and tries to go after Criner, but Isle, Criner's #2, jumps onto the robot and is all hacking at Ozair with a big knife. Proust says fuck it and charges into the tent, guns a blazing. Criner jumps him and they struggle, but Proust manages to shoot Criner dead.
At this point, with both hardholders dead, Proust marks experience and chooses his sixth move: a new playbook. He becomes the new hardholder of Criner's old place with Amalia as his queen, or something like that.
When Fleece, Norvell and Iris are captured, Iris says "fuck this shit" and fights her way out with Norvell. They end up roaming the wasteland happily ever after.
Ozair leaves Long Neck in the hands of Sorrow and joins Proust at his new hardhold to help make it a functional, non-slavey kind of place.
THE END!
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I felt like there were too many happy endings, but you should have seen how these guys were rolling. There were only 3 rolls the whole game that were not a 10+. It was crazy.
I am trying to convince Carly to scan the drawings she did of chibi Iris and Norvell.
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I felt like there were too many happy endings
Man, I dunno. I think we earned it. I didn't think Proust's life was in much danger, as PCs are pretty tough, but I worried that Amalia would die, and I think Iris worried about Norvell.
That's my takeaway for the wednesday game. Don't aim directly at the characters. Aim next to them.
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Oh, I think you earned it too. And I was happy the dice were in your favor when it counted.
Also, I forgot the goddamn harm moves again.
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I love it when you manage to time that last advancement so that you can turn a situation into something really cool - like becoming the new Hardholder with the old ones dead!
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Bret, it's useful seeing you fret about the things you think you're doing wrong. Thanks!
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Hahaha. Oh geez.
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Last night: TEH FINALE!!1
By the way, I wish AW had a "they believe the lie" move. We were talking about this in play. There's no way to convince an NPC or another player. I mean, you can read a person and find out if they're lying, but there's nothing that sweetens the deal for believing what they say. Maybe nobody in AW trusts anyone by default, but how do I play a smooth talker without having to be one?
"Seduce or manipulate" wouldn't work? The leverage might be the NPC asking the PC to go with him.
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The way we've been doing it is either a manipulate or an act under fire (where the fire is the NPCs discerning ear for bullshit) depending on what the PC is trying to accomplish.