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Apocalypse World / Custom Moves for Apocalypse Space
« on: January 30, 2014, 03:39:18 PM »
So, I've been thinking about a minimal-effort hack to do Apocalypse Space. A Hardholder can have a space station, a Chopper has a fleet of space fighters, that kind of thing. I've got two custom moves I would like to present for your consideration and feedback.
Supplies
Supplies are a type of barter that are explicitly useful. Ration packs, modular circuits, medicine and spare parts. Supplies are not pre-Fall literature or artworks or holorecordings of classical opera, but given a well stocked trading post you can swap one for the other. I wanted to make the division between the two general types of things nice and clear.
Here's the other one:
Hyperspace
Have you seen Gene Rodenberry's Andromeda? They travel between stars using slipstream. Get to an appropriate zone in a star system, turn it on and you go barrelling through a transdimensional rollercoaster that spits you out at your destination. I'm thinking that kind of thing. You need to have a map your navicomp can read, or at least some kind of galactic coordinates to make sure you're pointing in the right direction to start, but once you hit the stream it's instinct and luck. You're basically surfing the psychic maelstrom with a starship.
When you jump to hyperspace roll +weird. On a 10+ pick 1, on a 7-9 pick 2, on a miss the MC may offer a choice: either pick all, or drop 1 for 1 psi-harm. Player gets to pick which one to drop.
Here are my thoughts:
Jump takes days - if you're carrying something to trade, someone could beat you to market, if you're carrying news, someone scoops you, if you're carrying a message - well, your client should have paid for a rush job.
Stress damage - MC picks something, it breaks. Anyone that can fly a ship has a basic grasp of how to fix these little issues, you just need time and 1-supply. Like, it's not like the life support is down, but the condenser coil is out, so the atmosphere gets unpleasantly humid if it's not fixed. And if you don't fix it and let it stay that way, something else will break later, and that might not be so minor.
You emerge in a bad place - the MC puts you in a spot. I would suggest being careful with the crosshairs here. You can't put one character (or the entire party) a single Act Under Fire away from splattering across some random moon. It's not fun. What you can do is offer them opportunities, like a hard burn to swerve out of the way, but that will cost you in stress damage and supplies later. Or maybe you can slingshot it, but that will add several more days to your trip while you turn back around again. If your pilot hits the Act Under Fire with a 10+, fair enough.
The jump is hard - why is this a hold instead of just -1 forward? Well, it may seem a little mean, but I don't want players burning off their -1 with a poker game for chores they don't want to do. Or maybe it should just be -1 forward, I'm not certain. Any thoughts?
Supplies
Supplies are a type of barter that are explicitly useful. Ration packs, modular circuits, medicine and spare parts. Supplies are not pre-Fall literature or artworks or holorecordings of classical opera, but given a well stocked trading post you can swap one for the other. I wanted to make the division between the two general types of things nice and clear.
Here's the other one:
Hyperspace
Have you seen Gene Rodenberry's Andromeda? They travel between stars using slipstream. Get to an appropriate zone in a star system, turn it on and you go barrelling through a transdimensional rollercoaster that spits you out at your destination. I'm thinking that kind of thing. You need to have a map your navicomp can read, or at least some kind of galactic coordinates to make sure you're pointing in the right direction to start, but once you hit the stream it's instinct and luck. You're basically surfing the psychic maelstrom with a starship.
When you jump to hyperspace roll +weird. On a 10+ pick 1, on a 7-9 pick 2, on a miss the MC may offer a choice: either pick all, or drop 1 for 1 psi-harm. Player gets to pick which one to drop.
- The jump seems to take moments for the crew and passengers but actually days have passed for the outside.
- The ship takes stress damage. Minor repairs will cost 1-supply.
- You emerge in a bad place, in the mass shadow of an asteroid or moon, or about to hit planetary atmosphere.
- The jump is hard on the crew. The MC holds 1 on each PC to be redeemed for -1 forward due to nausea, dizziness, blurred vision and hallucinations. Alternatively, 1-supply of drugs from the medbay will clear that up for everyone.
Here are my thoughts:
Jump takes days - if you're carrying something to trade, someone could beat you to market, if you're carrying news, someone scoops you, if you're carrying a message - well, your client should have paid for a rush job.
Stress damage - MC picks something, it breaks. Anyone that can fly a ship has a basic grasp of how to fix these little issues, you just need time and 1-supply. Like, it's not like the life support is down, but the condenser coil is out, so the atmosphere gets unpleasantly humid if it's not fixed. And if you don't fix it and let it stay that way, something else will break later, and that might not be so minor.
You emerge in a bad place - the MC puts you in a spot. I would suggest being careful with the crosshairs here. You can't put one character (or the entire party) a single Act Under Fire away from splattering across some random moon. It's not fun. What you can do is offer them opportunities, like a hard burn to swerve out of the way, but that will cost you in stress damage and supplies later. Or maybe you can slingshot it, but that will add several more days to your trip while you turn back around again. If your pilot hits the Act Under Fire with a 10+, fair enough.
The jump is hard - why is this a hold instead of just -1 forward? Well, it may seem a little mean, but I don't want players burning off their -1 with a poker game for chores they don't want to do. Or maybe it should just be -1 forward, I'm not certain. Any thoughts?