Barf Forth Apocalyptica
barf forth apocalyptica => Apocalypse World => Topic started by: Maleficum on January 06, 2017, 04:18:23 PM
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So, we're stuck beneath a north american city, like a comic book-version of New York or whatever. Think 12 monkeys, think caverns and tunnels, and we're afraid to go up. I'm MC, and in the first session we entered the City's sewer and it's still many layers of rubble. We're thinking there could be killer robots, hoverboards and the Savvyhead is trying to make a skeleton key-eyeball, for all the doors/elevators/whatnot that the scavenger-teams meet up with.
So what should we expect? What would be cool to experience? (The Characters call the Psychic Maelstrom "the web", "the blood rivers" and "the shadowrealm/otherrealm". I'm really tempted to steal inspiration from Kaare Berg's SOURCE CODE hack here. We've just played 1st session, I'm certain the communal table-chatter will bring us exciting things, though I'm a little intimidated on performing the MC-job for such a stellar group.
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Other scavengers, whether competing groups from related societies or alien scavengers with incomprehensible cultural priorities. (E.g. they scavenge food but not technology; or they scavenge food and actively attempt to destroy technology. Or they bring all the scavenge in an area to one central point and then just leave it there.)
'Blood rivers' and living below the surface makes me think about the danger of flooding from above, and the intricacies of water tables (psychic or otherwise.) Open the wrong elevator shaft and maybe you let something in, something that's not necessarily visible to everyone. This makes skeleton keys as dangerous as they are useful.
Someone has a dream of the surface, of what the surface could be, that has been keeping them intact all this time. Maybe now is the time to start telling people about it.
Someone else has a secret way to the surface that nobody knows about, that has been keeping them (and their family) alive all this time. They know some things -- some dangerous things -- about the surface that sound crazy when you say them out loud. Will they reveal their secret, if it makes people listen to the warnings?
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Thank you, Daniel Wood, this is, as your prescence on this forum, gold! I'm really looking forward to exploring this, as I really have no clue of what to expect. I'm even contemplating that the underground-milleu isn't part of the real Apocalypse, as that happened to those living in the techwonder city above. I guess we'll find out by playing. Getting in the mindset is nice, I really liked the dreams. I think maybe the infected Cobalt should start to dream of electric sheep... or something similarily innocuous.
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- Sewer Alligators
- Mutant semi-anthropomorphic alligators with a hostile attitude and alien society. They ambush scavengers straying too far into their territory with spears and traps, and eat the dead, both intruders and their own. Not TMNT, but horrifying, intelligent ambush predators. They have pendants and shrines that seem to be dedicated to some kind of deity. Their territory is more or less known (though fluid), but whether they have settlements in there is only rumour.
- When the sewer water turns red, it signifies heavy presence of the maelstrom. Is red water poisonous to normal humans?
- A large chamber not too far from the surface. A huge hole has been knocked/blown up/collapsed from the ceiling, twisted girders sticking from the sides, with the cloudy sky far above. Red rain fails, and red waterfalls careen down the sides of the hole.
- Mole people. Probably not intelligent, and more mole-like than anything else. Digs through the ground and other mole-like, non-person things. But when it looks at you with those sad, human-like eyes, it seems like there is a human trapped in there. Good eating if you don't mind the moral questions. They scream when slaughtered.
- Shadows of people moving along the walls, without a person to cast them. Some say that they can somehow attack people, but it is not a known. Still considered best practice to avoid them.
- Sections of corridor where emotions are trapped, hammering on any who move through. Despair, fear, anger. Those weak of mind succumb, and even those strong of mind may find parts of themselves that they had forgotten or buried deep.
- A Hoarder (like the old playbook), deep in the tunnels. People ask what his goals are, but the real question is: what does his hoard want?
- Electricity runs through the wires along the walls and ceiling of the corridors. In some sections they power the lights. But where does the power come from?
- Trinkets. Pieces of pre-apoc toys. Figurines made from fingerbones. Bits of plastic inscribed with pictures and symbols. You'll find them in the water, in crevices in the tunnel, carried by the alligator-people. Are they connected to the maelstrom? Do they have minor magical powers? Are souls trapped inside?
- Bunkers. Military bunkers. Science bunkers. Two-person fallout shelters. A bunker that seemed to have no way in or out before the wall collapsed.
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Thanks, Rubberduck! This is good and useful shit that will help our campaign grow!