Personal anecdote.  A guy I knew always GMed 'solve the mystery' style  play with any game he ran.  He knew what was really going on, and apparently, if the characters examined the right things, asked the right questions and the players deducted the right conclusions from information thus acquired, we could solve the mystery!

It was the most tedious fucking process you could imagine.

Wouldn't this be an example of the GM, possibly, having a Simulationist agenda?  It sounds like the possible tedium and frustration of trying to solve a mystery or crime in real life.

I don't get the meaning of the scaling in absolute values. (Does Hard-1 mean I am puny and/or fragile? Is Weird-1 "normal"? Hot-1? Plane Jane or six-pack?)  This gets even stronger when I am curious about [Stat]+0 or the difference between two positive values or two negative ones. I can make a Driver with a strong body and Hard-2. Probably he/she was not enough agressive, so he became a bodybuilder to compensate.

I don't think there is any "absolute values" to the stats: they're all relative to the other player characters, as only player characters use stats or roll dice.  It's just "I'm as hard as Keeler" or "Spanner is even more weird than Bo!"

And look at the descriptions of the stats: high "Weird" doesn't just mean "freakish", it could also mean "extremely lucky"... their value and meaning comes from how you describe and play your character.

Being postive or negative doesn't mean anything other than allowing an elegant dice mechanic: it could be a range of +0 to +6 and still have the same effect.

So, Vincent released a new Apocalypse World playbook: The Hoarder.

For those who're interested, it's part of a rad $10 charity bundle (which also includes Perfect Unrevised, btw): here.

Seems somewhat humourous to release "The Hoarder" in a charity bundle... *laugh*

I'll see what I and my group can do.

So, MCed my very first session of Apocalypse World last Sunday and it went swimmingly.  Six players and all made interesting characters that I'm really excited to see in play.  I hope to share more details soon, but something interesting came up post-game... I, as MC, got love letters from two of the players!  Was wondering if anyone else had experienced this and what they'd done.

Me, I'm taking them as golden platters and running full bore!  *laugh*

It had been revealed in play that Titus, the Chopper, had killed the previous gang boss, Boss Jim in a duel, but the specifics had not been spelled out, so, after the game, the player suggested that it had been a kind of Kansas City Shuffle where Titus had actually cut a deal with Boss Jim, who was actually in cohoots with a rival hardholder while working security for the PC Hardholder, and had faked the death with a mutilated body.  "And that's the 'obligation' hanging over my gang", was the player's suggestion.

And Marilyn, the Skinner, revealed to me that she wasn't really a she and wanted to be on the run and "hiding in plain sight" from powerful and dangerous pursuers.

I've never had players *ask* for trouble before in other games, so I'm quite excited about this opportunity.

Right. Which means, if I tie you up and go aggro to interrogate you, I'm sort of negating some of the wiggle-room (after-all, how can you barricade yourself, or get out of my way if you're tied up) you have on a 7-9.

Millions gets this hard look in her eyes like steel doors are snapping shut and nothing's going to come out, seems she's resisted torture before... what do you do?  (Barricade)

Kettle's eyes roll into the back of his head and he slumps down, down and out... seems he's suffered torture before... what do you do? (Out of the way)

Speak not its name...

I promise to get back to this thread for reals soon!

-Vincent

*poke*

I love hearing about the "Days Before"...

There's lots of different kinds of slavery out there.  It sounds like you're thinking of something like a Janissary, or someone under a magical geas. 

But maybe you should change the name a bit, the word "slave" in the USA tends to refer to our own shameful history and that's really not what you're talking about at all.

Sorry to resurrect, but I'm new around here.

If you're going the Janissary or "skilled minion" route, how about "The Bonded" or "The Bound"?

I think this could be a rather interesting playbook.

Yes, misdirect and all that, but if a roll is failed, another problem is introduced and for some of my players, they won't roll a Read unless they've felt that they've controlled the surrounding fiction adequately. "I'm not going to read him here on the rooftop 'Let's take this meeting into my fortified office, where I have better control of the surroundings'".

In other words, in some cases, there can develop a un/conscious tendency to actively fight misdirection, as if making it harder for the MC to misdirect will make the hurt less painful.

But doesn't that just allow for more f*ckery?

"Wow, I guess it's true what they're saying out there Keeler, you really *are* afraid of me."