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Topics - dhalgren

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Apocalypse World / Mad Max never needs the loo
« on: April 20, 2011, 12:22:44 AM »
That is, it's generally true of both RPGs and the media they're drawing from that the heroes just ignore minutia like using the toilet, eating, drinking, bathing, etc. But in AW, scarcity of any of those things (even privacy) can be a threat. So how do you handle that in-game? Making the PCs tell you every time they need to pee, or asking them to roleplay lunch, isn't exactly making their lives interesting. But suddenly springing (for example) a water shortage on them, when they've never had to think about water before, seems too heavy-handed.

My first thought is to use NPCs to present the problem: have the PCs walk into the middle of a water riot or something. But what if the problem is closer to home? It's not like they wouldn't have noticed it before it got to the riot stage. Can I just bring it up out of nowhere, like, say "it's been a while since it rained, and this morning when you went to the well the bucket came up dry. What do you do?"

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Apocalypse World / Landscapes as threats
« on: March 23, 2011, 12:47:13 AM »
Meg said elsewhere:
Quote
I find the key to landscape moves is to really think of the landscape as an NPC - what does it want? If it's following it's parts around, what does it do?

Can anyone give me some examples of this in practice? I think this is exactly what I need to make the landscape active, rather than just harsh (which seems sort of randomly punitive: There's a sandstorm, what do you do? ... Argh, quicksand! What do you do?) But I'm having trouble making the idea concrete. What /does/ a desert want, anyway? And what parts does it follow?

Thanks!

-bh

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Apocalypse World / Custom moves
« on: March 23, 2011, 12:35:27 AM »
Quick question: how do you introduce custom moves? Say you've made up a threat as part of prep, and given it a custom move, something like "When you spend the night in the Waste, roll + hard...."

Do you tell the players up front that this move exists, so they can decide whether or not to risk spending the night out there? "So you've been scoping out the desert, and it looks like bad news. Spending the night out there would be tough. In fact, there's this move for when you decide to make camp..."

-bh

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Apocalypse World / Being a fan while making them unhappy
« on: February 18, 2011, 12:27:17 AM »
OK, so I'm having some trouble finding the balance between being a fan of the characters and springing sudden unhappy revelations on them.

For example, let's say the PC Goldie has just gotten his hands on a working radio set--something he's been after for a while. Of course, he gets jacked by Junker's gang on the way back to the hardhold, and now he's holding the radio while Junker has him at gunpoint. The player reads the sitch, and asks for his best escape route.

First thing that comes to mind? "Well, you could throw the radio at him and run. He'd have to choose between shooting you and catching the radio, and he'd probably choose the radio." That's an unhappy revelation, just like the book calls for.

But then I think: getting the radio was a success, and I'm supposed to let the PCs have their successes, right? It's also cool stuff, and I'm not supposed to take away their cool stuff. So is it OK to threaten the radio? And if not, what would be a better unhappy revelation (as an example)?

A related question... When the PCs have connections with NPCs, fuckery is easy: set up an NPC-PC-NPC triangle and let rip. But one of my players is playing a Savvyhead whose most meaningful relationships are with his stuff--electronics, machines, etc.; it's all very detailed, and very much a part of his character. I'm having trouble figuring out how to make the character's life interesting without fucking with his cool stuff. I can't just say, "you get back to your workshop, and your EKG machine is gone--nothing but stripped wires sticking out where it used to be attached," right? Should I bring in an NPC, just to be an intermediary: "you get back to your workshop, and Dog Head's there trying his best to jimmy the EKG out of it's rack. What do you do?"  Is that too much of an agenda, creating problems for the PC just to give them something to fight against?

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Apocalypse World / AP: At The Gates
« on: February 11, 2011, 05:20:40 PM »
This is my first MC attempt, so I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions as we get into the game. One of my players MC'd a game a couple of months ago, and he really wanted a chance to play, so I stepped up as MC. The first session, we did character generation and ended up with:

Grave, the Maestro'D (played by Michael)
Bran, the Savvyhead (played by Dylan)
Storm, the Skinner (played by Joe)

We kicked around some worldgen ideas, and got inspired by the photo of some offshore forts someone posted in another thread here. This, plus a little Waterworld, gave us the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll club At The Gates, built on a floating platform and moored over a sunken city. Grave oversees a stable of dancers, including Storm, and Bran (who was discovered in the bowels of the platform when Grave took over) maintains the machinery and the all-important desalination machine. Bran also supplies the drugs, in the form of a hallucinogenic mold that he grows in his workshop. A few other ideas were left to be fleshed out in play: the burning sea, the ruins on dry land, other floating communities (which supply At The Gates' patrons).

First Session
--------------

It's nightime at the floating club At The Gates, and the party is in full swing. Storm, the Skinner, is up in his cage dancing when he catches sight of his mom Rolfball in the crowd. Rolfball has words with this guy Gams, who (supposedly) hates the club, and Rolfball gives him something hidden by the shadows. Gams tries to split, but Storm works his sexy magic and makes Gams come over to the cage. Gams shoves a can of food at Storm and manages to run off, and it turns out Rolfball has vanished as well.

Meanwhile, Chin and Bar stumble across Bran the Savvyhead out on a balcony while looking for a place to fuck. Bar's wasted, and he threatens Bran with a knife. Bran tries to defend himself with a handy crowbar, but Bar knifes him in the shoulder and knocks him off the balcony into one of the pumps running the generators. His fall snaps a steam pipe and the lights flicker, but he manages to hold it together with his bare hands. Grave, the Maestro'D, sees the lights flicker and sends his guy Putrid to see what's going on. Bran manages to convince Putrid to hold the pipe together while he gets his welding kit (1-harm hand reload) from his workshop, where he's got a bunch of old ham radio gear and a tidy little drug farm growing psychedelic mold.

When he gets there, Storm's waiting for him. They flirt for a bit, and Bran tells Storm about the knifing, then leaves to fix the pipe. Storm returns to the dance floor, where he sees that another dancer named Princy has taken over his cage. Leaving in a huff, Storm searches for Chin and Bar, whom he finds having sex in an alcove on the upper floor. The two of them invite him to make a threesome, which he does, but while they're making out Storm pulls a knife and bloodies Bar's face. Unfortunately, Bar's too stoned to be properly intimidated, and Chin starts screaming. This gets the attention of everyone else on the floor, and since everyone's packing, there's soon a crowd of armed patrons ready to do some harm to Storm. Storm thinks fast and realizes he can dodge through their legs if he takes off now, so he runs. As he goes down the stairs, though, he sees that the club's bodyguard Junker has seen the whole thing.

Junker's having occasional sex with Storm, but he's also afraid of his boss Grave, so he tells Grave about the fight. Grave sends him to get Storm and bring him back to the office, and Junker confesses to Storm that he ratted him out. Storm promises Junker some sexual favors if he'll take back his story and blame the fight on Princy, which he does. Grave's skeptical, but he sends another dancer named Fuse to give Bar some free drugs by way of apology. Grave then confronts Princy in the dressing room and makes him confess...to a totally different crime. Turns out Princy's been hiding income from Grave, especially a pre-apocalypse doll he got from a patron. Princy breaks down and gives Grave the doll, promising never to do it again.

Bran, down in his workshop, sees a little kid lurking outside the door. He invites the kid in. The kid says his name's Wisher, and that he's totally fascinated by all the cool stuff in the workshop. Bran realizes that something's up, and he figures the kid's after his drugs. He's right, but it doesn't help; although he tries to threaten Wisher with his crowbar, the kid snatches a double handful of mold and runs out the door. Bran chases him, but he decides to take the time to lock his workshop door, giving the kid the chance to get away clean.
-------

And that was it for the first session. Lots to think about, with some good detail to build fronts, I think. From my perspective, I can see already that it's going to be hard to keep track of everything that's going on. What with throwing in named PCs all over the place, the cast is already getting large. I'm used to using "Random Shopkeeper A" in D&D; giving that shopkeeper a name, and making him a threat, makes things significantly more complicated!

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