FRONT
IS CALLED: Fire Down Below
EXPRESSES: Decay
DARK FUTURE / AGENDA: Jackson’s town overrun by the Nuka Coil; population turned into Nuka Brood; Nearby missile silo detonation destroys town.
DESCRIPTION & CAST: Sun King, leader of the Nuka Coil

THREAT 1
CALLED: Sun King
KIND: Grotesque (Mindfucker)
IMPULSE: craves mastery
DESCRIPTION & CAST: Sun King is the massively mutated leader of the Nuka Coil. His misshapen, radiation-soaked body glows softly with ambient radiation. His lumpy, day-glo head wriggles with cancerous, snaky polyps, like a Medusa with dry slugs instead of snakes. His tainted brainmeats allow him to fuck with peoples’ minds.
CUSTOM MOVE: When the Sun King focuses on you, he can fuck with your mind: roll+weird. On a 10+, you manage to keep your shit together. On a 7-9, choose two of the following:

• you drop your weapon
• you fall to the ground
• you take 1-harm (ap)
• the Sun King gets to ask you one question from the Brainer list

On a failure, the MC picks three of these.

THREAT 2
CALLED: Nuka Brood
KIND: Brute (Hunting Pack)
IMPULSE: to victimize and kidnap anyone vulnerable
DESCRIPTION & CAST: Nuke Brood recruiting parties
CUSTOM MOVE: Nuka Brood operate as a gang of 5-12 members; 1-armor, with fists and weapons equivalent to 2-harm. Someone needs to roll+weird when engaging a Nuka Brood (if the Hardholder or Chopper’s gang is engaging, the PC in charge rolls this). On a 10+, there is nothing out of the ordinary. On a 7-9, the MC chooses one gang upgrade from the Hardholder list. On a fail, the MC chooses two.

THREAT 3
CALLED: Nuka Coil Compound
KIND: Landscape (Breeding Pit)
IMPULSE: to generate Nuka Brood
DESCRIPTION & CAST: The Nuka Coil Compound is the lair of the Sun King. Once an abandoned nuclear missile silo, this hot mess is a nest of mutated soldiers and random “recruits” from the surrounding wasteland. Numerous levels filled with corridors, sealed chambers, and military salvage would make this a profitable scavenging ground, were it not for the radiation and the threat of becoming one of the Nuka Brood.
CUSTOM MOVE: Simply spending time in the Nuka Coil compound will warp your body and sap your will. Roll+cool at the start of each day in the Nuka Coil compound. On a 10+, you can choose one of the following:

• Learn a little more about the Sun King's domain: ask one question off the Read a Sitch question list
• Discover 1-barter worth of old military tech, fuel, ammunition, or other resources

On a 7-9 you'll make it through the day, maybe only puking once or losing a few hairs. On a Miss, the MC holds 1 and can spend it 1-for-1 to:

• Radiation poisoning – You take 1-harm (ap).
• Whispers in your mind – you are acting under fire at all times until you can escape the Nuka Coil or the Sun King’s influence. The fire is the Sun King focusing on you.

The MC can spend holds 2-for-1 to:

• Mutation – take a debility as the radiation warps your body. -1
• Insanity – you need to roll+sharp to do anything of your own volition (you are also acting under fire); you can still be rescued and rehabilitated, but you are in no position to help yourself.

Once you have suffered at least 3 of the other effects, the MC can spend a hold 1-for-1 to:

• Become a Nuka Brood – You are beyond hope of recovery without massive surgical and technological intervention.

THREAT 4
CALLED: Nuclear Annihilation
KIND: Landscape (Breeding Pit)
IMPULSE: to detonate and destroy this area of the wasteland
DESCRIPTION & CAST: The Nuka Coil Compound has a lone nuclear missile in its launch bay, still operational, and leaking radiation.
CUSTOM MOVE: Trying to disarm the nuclear missile requires 1-barter worth of random tech shit and a successful tech monkey. When trying to disarm the bomb, roll+sharp. On a 10+, you disarm the missile completely, and spend 1-barter of resources. On a 7-9, you disarm the missile, but you must pick one from the following list:

• You spend 2-barter in resources instead.
• You take 1-harm (ap) from a radiation burn.
• You had to scavenge a component from a prized piece of hi-tech equipment. It’s gone.

On a Fail, you detonate the missile, but have time to leave. The town gets irradiated, but you can evacuate everyone. They will be plenty pissed though.

The MC guidelines are fantastic advice, and I have read through them numerous times. They make sense to me on an intellectual level.

When I run my game, I find that am still strangled by inhibitions when I MC (or I'm just really bad at improvising). I feel like Jack Skellington experimenting on Christmas to see what makes it tick.

For those of you who didn't get it at first but struggled to become good MCs:

What tools, mechanisms, techniques or watchwords really snapped you out of the rut of orthodox GMing and into the game of putting your bloody fingerprints on everything?

I have an NPC antagonist who fulfills multiple threat types. Since I'm giving it mind powers, I'm going to go with my gut and call it a Mindfucker, even though it is a radioactive Mutation that is forming a Cult of mutants made from people it has irradiated and broken mentally. .

I suspect the Threat types are meant to be good inspiration, providing a handy shorthand for developing threats, not a means of constraining and limiting Threats. As such, I'm happy to go with the most pertinent threat type.

However, should this be a symptom that I'm making the NPC too complicated, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Or should I perhaps be giving each means of threat its own place in the Front?