Hey, Long time lurker first time poster.

So we ran our first session yesterday and it went really well. I bought AW back in November 10 at Dragonmeet UK and have waited for a window in our busy but infrequent gaming group. As 'trad' gamers AW challenged my thinking and preconceptions about GMing and I had read through the book a couple of times. I was really pleased at how quickly my group got the way the game is played and I enjoyed the discipline of sticking to the AW principles and it was really rewarding. The players interactions, character gen and ideas pretty much generated the setting, npc's and has given me loads of ideas for potential threats.

Because my group have been playing together for a long time (25 years) we definitely have some 'group think' going and our own style of play and in a 3 hour AW session it really has freshened everything up.

So I thought long and hard about how to get them started. I wanted to have a little bit of background but only flavour and before the first session I first though about Apocalyptic imagery and environment and literally barfed forth :

"Temperature: hot, dry
Taste: bitter, burnt, plastic, rust, diesel
Atmosphere: wind, dry, storms intermittent - dust - electrical - wind - sudden - fear.
Colour: black, red, rust, burnt, ochre, concrete, tarmac. khaki."

I didn't want to ground it in a geographic location and wanted the players to decide if they wanted to but I loved the idea of the remains of an ancient civilisation, peeking through the destruction of pre-apocalypse society and was kind of thinking North Africa - sandstone Kasbashs, walled mediaeval medinas alongside rusting pre apocalypse detritis. But decided not to ground it in a location in the end.

So before Playbook gen I read them the blurb about AW 'about fifty years etc...' and the maelstrom stuff and the read them this

"The skeletal remnants of ancient long forgotten civilisations emerge through
the rotting carcass of pre-apocalypse society. Pockmarked and diseased arterial highways sporadically connect the remains of once mighty cities Hardholds meagre in contrast to the now mythological cities appear and vanish as quickly as the violent and changeable weather, dust and electrical storms follow drought and an
all to brief wet season.  Desert to the South, Mountains to the North, more of the same to the east and Rumours of an ocean to the West. and all around you the ever pervading - World's Psychic Maelstrom."

That was pretty much it. Then to break our group think and not telling them why (misdirect) I made them roll randomly and the lowest first got to choose his playbook with the other players out of the room. This was the players first look at the play books and I didn't want the players to negotiate the usual 'if you play a mage/psychic i'll play a fighter/merc'. I wanted them to go with gut feeling or how cool they thought the pics where. Think it worked pretty well.

So sorry this post is a little long but below this is a summary of the setting the players created through the first session from character gen, npc interaction etc. I'll post the actual details of the first session events seperately. I wanted to seperate plot from setting in the post just to hilight how cool a world they created in just three hours.

"The Highrize hardhold is a pre-apocalypse massive multi-storey car
park with a good proportion of the lower levels buried as a result of
the apocalypse. The well defended top levels contain a bustling
commons and is home to some 300 souls. The hardhold’s resources are
based on excavations into the labyrinth of the car park and scavenging
and repairing old tech and re-using broken car parts. Many merchants
travel to high-rise looking for specialised ancient tech and Highrize
is famous for its bustling tech market. Because of the Hardhold’s
defences and guards Highrize is also a haven and stop off point for
caravans, drivers, biker gangs and cattle drivers. With the pit stop
area as much a hub of activity as the market with bodyguards, touts
and guides looking for jingle from the incoming merchants.

Highrize is ruled by Tum Tum, the increasingly irrational and despotic
hardholder and Fleece his gunlugger lieutenant. Tum Tum and his inner
circle, rumor has it, uncovered a haul of pharmaceuticals which they
have experimented with, Stories of constant, wild debauched parties
and increasingly irrational drug fucked decision making from Tum Tum
have added to an already edgy undercurrent. No one knows what decision
will be made next and there is no longer coherent leadership. The
market gossip is abuzz with fears of a leadership bid from within Tum
Tum's inner circle and inhabitants fear what the collateral damage
might be."