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Apocalypse World / Re: Increasing difficulty? PC's never fail?
« on: July 04, 2012, 04:26:37 PM »
One of the fronts I used was a disease. But, this being post-apocalyptical, there wasn't actually that much sympathy for NPC's. So, rounding up the sick and using them on the front-line of a military action on the nearby hardhold and then quarantining the survivors was how they resolved that. They were willing to work on improving their (the sick) living conditions and trying to get them some medicine, but they weren't going to shed any tears when they had to start stacking and burning the bodies.
Also, without the "we give a shit about the lives of NPC's" then having a PC-NPC-PC triangle becomes problematic. "Hey Cutter, the woman you took on as an assistant medic has been secretly seeing the Touchstone and reporting your secret medical experiments to her." - "Oh, really? I blow her fucking head off and turn to the rest of my assistant's with a warning, 'Keeping your gob shut you gits!'"
Further, in a setting in which there is no law and order or a well organized and effective martial force, then being able to punch people in the face and take their stuff is a pretty effective way to deal with need. Let's be honest, the primary reason why anyone, anywhere, negotiates or manipulates or seduces, is because "taking by force" is too expensive and risky. When you're at HARD+3 with an extra +1 from someone else's move then you're only going to miss getting a '7' on a roll of 2. Some armor, a medium sized gang to back you up, and a couple of badass PC's to help you out - and suddenly you become a lot less likely to negotiate with the farmers in the next valley or the savvy heads sitting on a stockpile of antibiotics.
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In the end, I'm just not good enough at GM'ing to deal with this. Maybe I'm too brain damaged by years of traditional game systems and I'd probably need to sit in and play in an amazing long-term campaign of AW to learn how. In any case, this campaign is over. We pulled the plug last night. Maybe we'll pick it up again in a few months or a year, and someone else can give it a go.
Also, without the "we give a shit about the lives of NPC's" then having a PC-NPC-PC triangle becomes problematic. "Hey Cutter, the woman you took on as an assistant medic has been secretly seeing the Touchstone and reporting your secret medical experiments to her." - "Oh, really? I blow her fucking head off and turn to the rest of my assistant's with a warning, 'Keeping your gob shut you gits!'"
Further, in a setting in which there is no law and order or a well organized and effective martial force, then being able to punch people in the face and take their stuff is a pretty effective way to deal with need. Let's be honest, the primary reason why anyone, anywhere, negotiates or manipulates or seduces, is because "taking by force" is too expensive and risky. When you're at HARD+3 with an extra +1 from someone else's move then you're only going to miss getting a '7' on a roll of 2. Some armor, a medium sized gang to back you up, and a couple of badass PC's to help you out - and suddenly you become a lot less likely to negotiate with the farmers in the next valley or the savvy heads sitting on a stockpile of antibiotics.
---
In the end, I'm just not good enough at GM'ing to deal with this. Maybe I'm too brain damaged by years of traditional game systems and I'd probably need to sit in and play in an amazing long-term campaign of AW to learn how. In any case, this campaign is over. We pulled the plug last night. Maybe we'll pick it up again in a few months or a year, and someone else can give it a go.