The more unorthodox extended playbooks would be the Child thing and Quarantine, because they bring some immediate impact to the fiction, with the wolves and memories, but they aren't super-crazy like some of the first edition ones (Solace, Maculoso,etc). They aren't more challenging to play, but explain how they work since they don't have that little explanation the core ones have. The Show's pretty nuts but is probably easy to play since it's pure Id.

Something like
The Faceless: Unstable even by apocalyptic standards, the Faceless is a very scary opponent to be around. Remember that you've got some very powerful and +Weird moves, but not the stats to make them reliable. Just think about what's really under your mask.
The Quarantine: An awoken survivor from before the apocalypse, your greatest strength is that you're sane, ethical and belong to a better world. These are also your greatest weaknesses.
The Waterbearer: A leader in control of something precious, and in charge of protecting it from the evils of the world, but without much direct power. Try to stop the world dragging you down to it's level.
The Child Thing: The creepiest fucker in the book. You're going to need to rely on your smarts and weirdness to protect yourself from the wolves, unless you can drag the adults into the hunt.
The News: A social powerhouse with a great sway over the public, but beholden to those above you for barter instead of those beneath you. Decide how important the truth is to you.
The Show: Ruin everyone's lives by being really fucking metal. Remember that all the consequences for cracking open the world are going to get everyone in a lot of trouble.


I had a new player go Quarantine, and it worked pretty well for them. It's a fairly approachable archetype because you don't have to go hard into Crazy Apocalypse Asshole (which is half the fun but whatever) It was a bit of an odd dynamic though since a couple of players set up pre-apoc survivors and were fairly friendly with each other. It's not an especially complicated character to play, just keep an eye on the Start of Session and income rules since they've got some important ones.

When you're playing, what does that "scraping 1-2 barter" entail? Hunting, fishing, farming? When they dress, is it in tatters from the Golden Age, or do they know how to make cloth and leather? When their lives have been upended, what is it they long to get back to?

It's always going to vary from game to game, based on what the players come up with, so I haven't really got an answer in mind. One game's had people manufacturing weapons in a busted aircraft carrier and eating refined seaweed and diseased fish, and when those started running out some PCs started raiding for unopened supply drops from the apocalyptic wars, while the touchstone fermented rebellion. There was a decent marketplace so nobody had a sort of consistent style, although the Threats had old uniforms and similar. Another one had a town run by an npc warlord with a chess motif where they were literally called Pawns, and the only entertainment they got before the skinner rolled in were public executions and crystal meth. The only consistent elements are that they're just scraping by with enough stuff to eat and keep a roof over their head, if something goes bad on a large scale they're in serious trouble, and they'll run to anything perceived as an improvement.

I personally wouldn't go for pure scavenging as a basis for a society. 50 years is a long time, and it's more interesting to me if a tin of spaghetti is a luxury item, but it's a legit approach. Most games descend into cannibalism anyway, in my experience.

Not knowing any first aid, he asked his mask for advice, but Norman (Grotesque - Pain Addict) simply suggested to him that Vega had too many fingers.

Holy fuck dude.

I need one of my players to go Faceless.