HANUKKAH WORLD
The Apocalypse is Antiochus Epiphanes IV's oppression of Israel.

Hence, barf forth apocalyptica also means to show the misery and oppression of the people

New open your brain question: why are you with the Hammers (the insurgent cell)?

Mark XP when you meet a need of the people or the land.
The needs of the people are vengeance, judgment, and comfort.

When you get to 12:00 harm, you're at the gates of Sheol. Choose one:
Pass through and die (becoming a martyr if you died fighting Israel's enemies)
Ask the GM what the thing looks like that saves you, where it carries you, and what it tells you to do. When you wake up, you still show all the marks of the violence that killed(?) you, and some part of you is weird now: your face shines (you have to veil it out of politeness), you've got horns, your feet are cloven, your eyes are pieces of coal, your skin is 729 degrees Fahrenheit to the touch, etc.

When you open your brain, you open it to the spirit world.
To open your brain, you must fast and/or meditate for an extended time, make a sacrifice, be at the gates of Sheol, or use divination, forbidden or otherwise. Casting lots and consulting with the high priest are not forbidden.
Using forbidden divination puts you under the curse but is really quick. Just find a witch. I hear there's one in the wilderness that was Jerusalem. It will work, but whoever or whatever shows up will not be happy with you.

Angels are not babies or hot chicks. They either look like normal people or freaky fire-beings.
When you see an angel's true form, choose one: fall on your face, run away.

You get a new basic move: take an oath/make a vow: get +1 ongoing to all rolls in pursuance of the object of the oath/vow. Only one oath/vow active at a time. If you do not fulfill it in reasonable time, you suffer a curse: -2 ongoing to all rolls; Heaven rolls a 10+ to interfere with you every time. Persists until atonement is made.

The characters all live in Modiin. They all know each other.

Front: The Oppression of the Land
Expresses: Hunger (for power)
Agenda/Dark Future: to martyr the Hammers and all their people
Stakes: Will the players be revenged upon Alexander? Will IV die a dog's death? Will the PCs retake IV's fortress? Will the Hellenizers be purged from Modiin?
Cast: Antiochus Epiphanes IV, Apollonius & Seron (IV's first two generals, each with a division), Jason (Hellenizer leader), Alexander (commander of the fortress), Lysias (chancellor of IV) and Gorgias and Ptolemy and Nicanor (his generals, each with a division), Menelaus (apostate high priest)
Threats:
Antiochus Epiphanes IV (Warlord: Dictator).
When IV makes a show of force, he has his subordinates:
Hang uncircumcised babies around their parents necks
Set up a Greek idol on an altar and sacrifices swine to it
Burn the scriptures
Execute Jews for keeping the sabbath, keeping the scriptures, circumcising children
Force Jews to strip naked and wash in the gymnasium
Swoop in to steal supplies to restock his fortress in the City of David
Whatever other destruction-demanding depravity you can imagine
The Five Divisions of IV's Army (Brutes: Enforcers)
The Hellenizers (Brutes: Cult)
IV's Fortress (Landscape: Fortress) in the City of David

There's a countdown to Hanukkah. Increase it by one each time the PCs defeat a general's army. There are five generals: Apollonius, Seron, Nicanor, Gorgias, and Ptolemy. Apollonius and Seron are the only ones active at first. When they are destroyed, Lysias sends out the remaining three. Increase it the last tick when they take the fortress at Jerusalem. So, it's like all the segments say "the Hammers defeat a general" except the last one, which says "the Hammers take the City of David."

The characters are:

The Priest (Hocus)
Your cult is the most faithful (or at least zealous) where you minister

The Seer (Brainer)
All brainer equipment is implanted, not worn. You can gain one piece of new brainer equipment as an advance. It's not equipment. It's a supernatural ability.

The Horseman (Driver)
Your car is a horse. Your other car is also a horse (or donkey or camel or wolf).

The Nazir (Gunlugger)
You have vowed not to drink alcohol, touch the human dead, or cut your hair.
Your vow does not count as broken until you violate all three elements.
If you break your vow, you lose all Nazir moves. You can regain them for one fight, after/during which you will die. But your fight will accomplish your intent.
You do 3-harm unarmed. If you pick up an improvised weapon, it does 4-harm; but, at the end of the fight, it reverts to its normal harm.

The Avenger of Blood (Battlebabe)
You are furious, not sexy
You are after someone who killed someone related to you; who?

The Elder (Hardholder)
You are a de facto, popular leader and judge, not a government official.
Your gang is the people who respect you.

The Patriarch (Chopper)
Your gang is your sons, brothers, nephews, cousins, and servants.
You hate at least one of them, and at least one of them hates you.

Your army gains +1 holy when you: satisfy a need of the land

The land needs:
all male Jews to be circumcised (and, if not, exiled or killed)
the execution of rapists, murderers, sabbath-breakers, idolaters, adulterers, sexual deviants, abusers of parents, blasphemers, and kidnappers
idols destroyed and desecrated altars purified
the razing of gymnasia
the expulsion/slaughter of a town's occupiers

Your army loses -1 holy when:
your army gets out of control
you miss a holy roll

When your army gets out of control, there is sin in the camp.

While there is sin in the camp, you cannot win a battle vs a general's army.

To remove sin in the camp, atonement must be made. This usually involves the execution of the involved parties, maybe even their whole family. Open your brain to see what you'll have to do. On a miss, someone you really don't want to be involved is involved and/or you have to go way further than you would want.

When you army gains +4 holy, immediately reset to +1 holy and advance the army:
They gain souls
They get better equipment (weapons or armor, pick one, up to 2-armor and 2-harm max)
You get +1 ongoing to restrain them from a particular vulnerability

When you fight one of the general's armies straight up, once the battle starts and there's no going back, roll +holy:
10+: You rout the enemies of Israel. Trade harm for harm, giving your gang +2 harm and +2 armor for this battle only. You may pursue them and inflict harm, taking none yourself. This counts as the same battle; so the +2s still apply.
7-9: You rout the enemies of Israel. Trade harm for harm, giving your gang +1 harm and +1 armor for this battle only. You cannot pursue them effectively.
Miss: There is sin in the camp. You are routed by the enemies of Israel. You cannot succeed in battle until the sin is atoned for.

Gain +1 ongoing for a battle if the whole people have sanctified themselves for it.

Weak harm means that it is -1 harm versus armor but normal vs unarmored folks.

You start with 12 people in your army, including the PCs (2-weak-harm gang small 0-armor). Cousin Jeroboam has an oxgoad. Your little sister Deborah has a scythe. 

Post-Katrina Six Flags New Orleans

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05/creepy-crusty-crumbling-illegal-tour-of-abandoned-six-flags-new-orleans-75-pics/

About Fronts, what I understand is that they are:

(1) handy categories of bad stuff to throw at the players. You fill the Front with Threats that kind of relate to it.

(2) not correlated with the first session sheet. That sheet is just to get your threats (NPCs & landscapes) down on paper and to start pumping your creative juices for later, when you take those NPCs & landscapes and call them something else: Threats, which are roughly subdivided into Fronts.

(3) intended solely to give you interesting stuff to say and bad stuff to throw the way of the PCs.

You seen Sons of Anarchy? That show is *easy* to make Fronts out of. You might want to do that for practice with SoA or some other AW-conversant media that you're familiar with.

Fronts are there so you don't freeze up. You just look down at your sheet, and you say "Oh, okay, I guess I'll have Uncle go and rape Balls because his impulse is to victimize anyone who stands out." Then you say "So, Bish, Balls comes limping into your infirmary covered with blood and scratches."

So I was nervous about this one. I know it showed. But I had good reason to be.

(1) My core group of two others players isn't particularly indie-conversant. Tim figures why not just play D&D? They've been good sports in the past, though, and were again tonight, especially toward the latter half of play.

(2) I'm a Vx groupie. My other players (Mpose and Tim) know this. I've only gotten to run Dogs, though, and that only once.

(3) I had, like, no prep. I found out at work that we were going to hang out tonight. Then Mpose texted me: "Man, I want to play an RPG." So I figured, why not AW?

I wasn't sure, though. I had a few other options just as unready.

But I'd had time to print out half the character refbooks (Hardholder through Skinner), and I think glancing those over did the trick.

So Tim choose the Hammer the Savvyhead; Mpose chose Uncle the Hardholder.

My improv-fu is at -1, I think. So I was worried about this first session business. I asked questions. Some were answered. A lot were tossed back at me. Player authorship was hard to squeeze out.

"Why can't you just tell us?"

"Because I don't know."

"..."

I thought about calling it off but persevered. I'm glad I did.

After around 30 minutes, we figured out that the characters lived on east bank of the Mississippi in a bustling little market town called Bartertown. It's got good security, but the security force is small. Hydroelectric power + who knows what.

Some scuffles over deals and occasionally some intrusion from a group that calls themselves the Iriquois, albeit with no relation to the actual folks. Some three-eyed fish are popping up in the otherwise okay Mississippi. Eating them gives you the Smellygut. You don't want it. It's contagious and just what it sounds like and more.

Uncle the Hardholder's in his 50s. Nice guy. Trying to make a civilized place where there's trade and justice. Hammer the Savvyhead seems to be an okay dude too. Makes pneumatic stuff somehow. Keeps to himself. Keeps the armory nice and squeaky.

Okay, I thought. That's way too nice. People can be happy here. We've got to make things interesting.

I say, who's your enforcer, Uncle? He says a guy named Saban. I say why's he been stealing stuff from you? Mpose says it's for his wife. I say her name is Tao, and they've got three sons, Bar, Foster, and III.

Now then. I say Hammer, you lock the door when you're tinkering around in your workspace, right? Yeah, dude. Of course. But that apprentice you've got? III? Saban's son? He's kind of an idiot. And he walks in with stuff from your junkyard and leaves the door open behind him, and then these two masked dudes bust in. One's got a crowbar. One's got a 9. They say Give us the protection money. We asked you once. This is the last time, or stuff gets broke.

I figure Tim (Hammer's player) is going to go straight up nuts. He's got a sleeve pistol and scalpels concealed up his sleeves. He always plays the barbarian in D&D. It's blood time, I think.

But no.

He says fine. So I say the crowbar dude is walking toward you. He says We'll start
with that. He gestures at the little cybernetic what's it you've got in your hands. Tim says fine. But, he says, when he reaches to take it, I get slicey with my scalpel. He's blocking line of sight from the other dude.

I say rock. Acting Under Fire. Roll+cool.

Flubs it.

I say you drop the scalpel and get whacked across the face with the crowbar. Harm move: 7. You're layed out on the ground, and dude with the gun comes holds it real still on your head. He doesn't know what to do. He looks to crowbar guy. Do you do anything?

Tim says no. So I say they're going to take what they can and break some stuff. You're going to lose 1-barter if you don't do anything. He says fine. And I say III just kind of slips out while this is going on, and you see him make eye contact with one of the guys. They let him go.

At this point, I was kind of flabbergasted. In a good way. I expected the ultraviolence, but I figured Tim was planning something else.

So, later, we have Hammer going to Uncle when he's sitting down "at court"--really just on some concrete slabs in the middle of the compound. There's a little audience around. Hammer recounts what happened and wants III put on trial.

Then a disturbance. Some crazy smelly guy's walking toward the court. People are scattering. He's eating this three-eyed fish raw and stumbling everywhere. He's getting closer and closer to where Jackabacka, Uncle's little blind sister, is sitting. He nods to the guards. Bam.

Then he gives this little speech about containing the Smellygut: don't eat the fish. If you get infected and start acting like you're a danger to us, that's what happens. I say you're Manipulating the town to not get suspicious of you, to think that you're becoming a tyrant. He buys it and rolls a 8 or something. So I say that the crowd is understandably muted, but he sees some clusters whispering. I note this for later, when they will demand an as yet undefinited "promise" from him per the text of the move.

Back to the court proceedings with Hammer. Uncle says you've got no proof that III's involved. Give me some evidence, and we'll do it. It's just your word against his. But, afterward, Uncle gives Hammer one of his lackeys to help him investigate and for protection.

What's the guy's name? I said. Lackey, Mpose says. And he's missing an eye, Tim says. Lackeye. Har.

Well, Tim says he wants Lackeye to tail III when he leaves work that night. I ask if Hammer's going along. Nah, Tim says. So, wanting to inject a bit of craziness in the mix, I say that Lackeye comes back around midnight with a woman bound and gagged and bleeding. Hammer's all like WTF?

Well, it's Tao, III's mom and Saban's wife (and Saban, as you'll recall, is Uncle's right hand man). And her eye is gouged out for good measure.

Turns out Lackeye is not psychologically stable or possessed of foresight. He followed III, saw Hammer's stolen goods, and went in to get them. Long story short, the oldest son (Bar) ran for it, Foster (the second son) got gunned down, and III huddled in the corner. Bar and Foster were the hooded extorters, and Tao put them up to it, just like she put up Saban to steal luxe schwag from Uncle.

So Hammer's freaking out. He tells Lackeye to go talk to Uncle and get things sorted. Meanwhile, he pays for a medic to come to tend to Tao, planning on suing Lackeye or Tao or both for the reimbursement.

But, in the meantime, Bar's got daddy (Saban), and they're off to see Uncle. They're mad and have big guns and grenades like always. Mpose says Uncles got a couple guards on the roof of his place. He doesn't suspect any danger to himself, though; so, when Saban comes knocking, he heads outside to see what's up.

After a tense exchange of words, Lackeye shows up. Things get tenser. Guns get drawn. Uncle is unarmed. Mpose says Time for Leadership. He gets a 7. Whew. Just barely. He didn't want a bloodbath. We interpret Uncle using his gang to fight for him (vs Lackeye) and show mercy to a defeated enemy (i.e., Lackeye). I mean, they've got like 6 guns trained on him. Maybe it's a stretch of the rules, but everyone seemed happy with it.

That was a really tense moment. But it's strange: we weren't worried that Uncle was going to bite it. He wasn't even involved. We were suddenly invested in Mpose's particular investment in Uncle's investment in there being no more bloodshed in the town.

And that's where I called the session.

I wasn't sure what the other players would think, but Mpose (Uncle the Hardholder's player) was pumped about the next session. He said he was going to lose sleep over thinking how to keep the town from falling apart. Wow. That's a testament to the game and certainly not to my GMing. Even Tim (Hammer the Savvyhead's player) said he'd be up for another session.

Guess that means it's Fronts time.