The bloody shootout as Rhyme and Third barreled into the Rave blasting Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" was maybe the most gratifying moment of payoff I have ever had in an RPG.

As an MC, Dev is definitely much nicer and engages the rules less than I am used to (of course, I am used to Vincent, who is a beautiful and brilliant sadist when the system allows him to be). I wasn't always on board with where Rhyme's story was going, but I'm okay with where it ended up.

Looking back, I see it as almost kind of a "coming of age" story for most of the characters - trading idealism for cynicism. Except for Smith, who was always kind of a realistic cynic, and WAR, who basically learned that his life's philosophy will always pay off.

There was this awesome scene where a bunch of people who come to Rhyme for advice or just to talk were looking all over for her - she wasn't at the RV, and since Smith put out the welcome mat in front of Smith's truck, eleven people ended up banging on his door at four in the morning thinking Rhyme had moved, or was spending the night at Smith's. The people were just worried and looking for Rhyme, but Smith was totally confused and sleepy and ended up beating the shit out of an old man to send a message: Smith likes to sleep in.

Nope! Josh and Chris M can't make it every week, so we're flexible. WAR was off doing his own thing last week because Josh was gone, and Third slipped into a cancer-coma at the end of this session (or was it an Opening Your Brain coma? Maybe both) because he'll be gone the next two sessions. So it all worked out well.

So here's my favorite thing that happened with Rhyme last session, and when I have email I'll point the other players at this thread and see if they want to chime in about their stuff.

So Rhyme has a crappy RV that she lives in. Its main distinguishing feature is a doormat that is pristinely-kept astroturf - always gleamingly clean and lushly green. Whenever someone knocks on her door she just yells "Wipe your feet!" It's her version of a supplicant thing; anyone who enters, herself included, needs to acknowledge they could be cleaner.

So Smith found the stasis pod that held Third's fiancee ("What's a fiancee?" "As far as I can tell it's a fancy word for the person you're sleeping with." "But she's dead!" "Hey, I'm not judging."), had to shoot the people who were worshipping it and dragged it back to to camp to try and negotiate a trade.

Third doesn't really HAVE anything of value, and is tiny and weak and has been coughing up blood a lot lately, so Rhyme is pretty livid that Smith is trying to negotiate for an actual HUMAN BEING. After they argue for a while - Smith sees a shiny piece of tech that Smith had to kill people to get, so Smith wants theirs. Smith starts angling to get Third to work for them, and Rhyme thinks Smith is kind of a terrible human being, so... Rhyme offers to trade her RV for the stasis pod.

Smith thinks. "Does it come with the welcome mat?"

Rhyme: "Yes."

Smith, trying to get at Rhyme: "What about half the welcome mat?"

Rhyme, tightly: "Take the whole thing. I'm feeling generous."

Everyone is completely confused by why Rhyme would offer such a generous trade. Smith is even MORE suspicious of why Rhyme is trying to keep Third under her wing, but hey, free RV.

So we're playing a weekly game here in the south (SF) bay area, and it's probably the best non-Vincent AW game I've been able to play in. The idea is that the apocalypse was tied into technology, and now anything sufficiently advanced sends people into an obsessive, crazy trance. So no one has tech beyond shitty vehicles that still run on gasoline and guns, and as a society we're back to being scared shitless of the giant ravening wolves outside of the firelight. The cast so far:

Saffron: (Played by Shreyas) A Maestro 'D who is always in the middle of an unnamed personal crisis. She runs a traveling rave and wears immaculate chef's whites and a stainless steel mask of her face (as armor, mostly, not decoration). She is currently unable to pay her debts to

Winona Augustus Rockefeller, AKA WAR: (Played by Josh HB) A Hoarder who hits this perfect tone that's halfway between senior management at a faceless corporation and apartment complex manager. He keeps his hoard meticulously arranged in a series of antique safes. He has a battery that never drains, and that might be why he's a little creepy. He is currently indebted to his hoard, which will call things even if he can procure the bike of

Nile: (Played by Sarah) A Chopper who doesn't take shit from anyone, especially not her teenage son Half-Pint. While everyone's pussyfooting around and talking about their feelings and getting into trouble, she's quietly tripling the size of her gang and bristling under the watchful eye of

Smith: (Played by Liam) A gender-ambiguous Battlebabe who fancies themself second-in-command of Saffron's crew. Smith is innately suspicious, kind of a smartass, and likes to make sure everyone traveling with Saffron is fully integrated into her crew, and therefore, under Smith's command. Which is why Smith has problems with

Rhyme: (Played by me!) A Touchstone who believes that there used to be a thing called God, but everyone got all fucked up about it and here we are. But now there's something newer and weirder that could fulfill the same purpose, as long as everyone is disciplined about it and doesn't fuck it up. Rhyme has a clear vision of a world without violence that's based on mutual respect and help, and when she Opens Her Brain, she communes with a man who's face she can never remember with eyes like static and calls him God as shorthand. She's currently taking care of

Jordan Abraham Matthews the Third, AKA Third: (Played by Chris M) A Quarantine who froze himself, his bodyguard, his fiancee and his nurse because he was very rich and very terminal with lung cancer. He woke up, his bodyguard and nurse were dead and his fiancee's pod was missing. Other than his recent coma, he's been in surprisingly good health other than a drug-induced beatdown from

Sandalwood: (Played by Chris C) A Gunlugger who works as a bouncer for Saffron, as well as main hunter for sustenance. He's a barbecue enthusiast who's learning how to butcher animals properly (according to Leviticus) from Rhyme. He's also paying for Half-Pint's continued education at the feet of WAR as an apology for almost killing Half-Pint with a grenade launcher.

I'm going to be running this at JiffyCon at the end of the month.


There once was a world of crumbling glory; a place of peace and harmony that had been burned away. The glossy scars of war are still fresh upon the world's surface and its people. Some, the Tamers of the elements, are blamed whole cloth for the atrocities committed in the name of conquering— or preserving— the world. Those without the ability to tame Fire, Air, Earth, or Water are left to pick up the ashes of their lives.

Occasionally, they must ask the Tamers for help. That is when they resent the Tamers most of all.

You and your friends are a group of people trying to make the world a better place. Maybe you're Fire Tamers, looking to atone for what your people have done to the world you love. Maybe you're all from different nations, some of you Tamers, some of you not— just looking to bring peace back to the world. Maybe one of you is the legendary All-Tamer, the one destined to bring peace back to the world— and reviled most of all for the ability to tame all four elements, when even the most feared Tamers can only tame one.

***

Unlike A:TLA, this setting is more straightforwardly and diversely brown— the Air nation is alive and well and inspired by India, the Water nations are Korea-in-winter with fur-trimmed hanboks, the allied nations of Earth cover southeast Asia and the Fire nation is China, of course. The game is called "The White Lotus" as a nod to the Paisho tile/secret society, and also because the map of the world is sort of shaped like a lotus and is called.. well, you get the idea.

Basic changes so far:

Fire = Hard
Earth = Sharp
Air = Cool
Water = Hot

There's no Weird. Instead, there's Taming, which is a yes/no switch. If you can Tame an element, you can use that element to do tasks which would normally require a different element, but you get a different result.

I'm going to check out that song. What is it with Apocalypse World and Music! Last night I was listening to my iPod on Shuffle and Leonard Cohen's "The Future" came up. That's offically the theme song of our AW game. "I have seen the future, brother, it is murder."

Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
Stuff it up the hole
Inside your culture

That'd be quite the AP report.

A baby bassinet made of a length of truck tire, suspended by chains.

I feel like Weird is basically using Something Else's Sharp.