Quote from: Arvid on August 18, 2010, 06:24:23 AM

I've watched the Bad Romance video extensively, lately. It gives me inspiration for Apocalypse World.

The Alejandro video has me convinced Lady Gaga is a Brainer with Unnatural Lust Transfixion and Preternatural At-Will Brain Attunement. It's the only explanation.

(Skim to 2:18 to see what I'm talking about. Although a handful of the other outfits she wears in the video aren't bad for apocalyptic wear in general. The gun-bra might be over the top, depending on your game.)

Yeah, and the AW cover looks like something out of her next video! :)

Or s-harm!

Yeah! You could deal 1 s-harm to everyone present and hostile.

You could even make it a roll, +wierd, +sharp or +cool, I don't know. On a 7-9 you deal 1 s-harm to everyone present, and on a 10+ you both deal the s-harm and also make your entrance by killing an NPC of your choice.

I've watched the Bad Romance video extensively, lately. It gives me inspiration for Apocalypse World.

One thing I love about Apocalypse World is how self-respect, humanity and the value for human life cannot be taken for granted, and I see the same thing in the freaky-decadent images of Bad Romance, particulary in the end when Lady Gaga seem to degenerate into desperation: "I don't wanna be friends!" she wants the hurt and the misery that comes with love. This hunger, this loss of integrity is what comes to the people of earth who've lost society. They've lost their norms, their safety and what it means to be human. They're lost themselves.

From the custom ship moves thread:

Cartograph Department: To get anything useful out of the ship's cartography department, roll Charming. On a 10+, they'll send you an accurate map. On a 7-9, they'll send you a map, but choose 1:

• It's inaccurate.
• They demand a shipment of luxuries.

On a 12+, they'll actually tell you where they are located on the ship.

Hey, is this a unique move for your playgroup, or have you considered adding moves to ship options? Like, if you want a big chapel in your ship, maybe that gives you a custom move to protect against insanity, or gain inspiration, or whatever.

Or if you have an ancient powerful engine, there is a move for going there. On a miss, you get lost, on a hit you find what you were looking for, and maybe something new and interesting. That would be awesome!

Not strictly folk, but Johnny Cash's American Recordings 3 and 4 work very well indeed.

Yeah, strictly folk is probably too upbeat anyway. This is Apocalypse World, after all! :) Johnny Cash strikes an excellent balance between somber and soulstirring, too bad I can't seem to find the American 3 and 4 on spotify.

PC's going to hit the road with hope in their hearts and purpose in their stride. Once I heard Ain't No Grave I knew I was going to have to play it.

Wayfaring Stranger too, probably. In some version.

What else is good in american folk? Instrumental, a plus. My usual mood music consists of Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method and The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull by Earth, and the soundtrack from Dead Man, now I'm looking to add a little more hope and community to that. You know, folk.

Introducing:
Dubs has a big gun, Nail is a shifty fellow, Topple is the kid. Together with James and Nero, they make up Neros team.
Rose has an establishment outside of New Jerk, an old roadside restaurant remade into a classy and private restaurant where you can get real meat.
Jackabacka has an old trailer outside of New Jerk where he distills liquir. He keeps to himself.
Bill, a lonely disease vector.

Session three:
When the PC's come back to New Jerk, the holds want is disease, and Neros crew has botched both compound defenses (these would turn out to be related) and finding out about the Maelstrom. They're riding right in, dragging Dust Witch behind them. Exit, the medic, is pleading for more medicine, which s/he gets. Rustbelt medicine.

Oh, and when in Apocalypse World, even having a cup of freshly raided tea can end in total catastrophy. The PC's are having their well-earned tea in the fortress when Daimyo just, sort of, zones out. He just stops in the middle of conversation and his head drops. The first Open your brain-move!

Which he fails miserably.

I ask him about the Maelstrom, and the player describes a flat and barren landscape of black, cracked ground (asphalt?) from which a great tower rises, built from stone, and then metal, and then alien metal, and then flesh, and then metal again. It rises into a dark cloudy sky, and the clouds turn electroblue around it.

From this landscape, part huge Hyena and part Land eater races towards him. It stops in front of him, inquiring whether he wishes to ride it. It sees his hesitation and laughs - No, I'll ride YOU! it decides, and scoops him into it's belly with it's rolling and roaring bucket wheel mouth . I tell the player that Daimyo comes to after doing something totally savage he will totally regret. So he goes to get Dust Witch.

Followed by the first PC sex, followed by physical abuse, and then he starts shooting at her kids for sport. She's howling. Nero and Canaveral doesn't really feel like finding out whats going on. (I wonder if our game is a tad bit misogynic?)

Canaveral rides out with Dubs and Topple. James has found a lead for Nero, some outsider who wants to talk to him, and Nail has gotten an audience with Two Moon for him later that night. Nero goes to see the outsider at The Grill, the place he met III. At daytime it's all empty, but all of a sudden this freak in rags and boils, Bill, attack  him, trying to embrace him, kiss him... Nero tries to avoid violence, but it ends with him putting a knife in Bill and Bill putting a needle in him. Just as Nero's trying to open the door, the sleepy medicine overcomes him.

When he comes to that night, he's bound to a chair, and the wounded Bill wants him to sing a lullaby, at which he performs admirably. He gets out of the chair, wakes Bill up, finds an exit, and then Fox and James burst in, securing Nero and executing Bill. Poor guy. (No plan behind this, just a desperately lonely person)

Daimyo sends Dust Witch to Exit for spaying. Scream takes Daimyo to Rose's place to cheer him up.

Canaveral rides through The Pit safely, but is spotted by the dog freak before she spots him, with Dubs and Topple spread out. He's even uglier in daylight, and he takes her horse out. They have proper staredown, and then they fight, a fight which Cannie wins. She takes his dog ears away from him, and hangs Dust Witch's severed ears around his neck, and drag him into town.

Nero goes to see Two Moon. She and her followers have a temple in one of the caves just outside town, where New Jerk gets it's water. It quickly becomes clear that Nail has joined the cult and is really happy about it. He's looking forward for when Nero will join too!

Two Moon blesses his eyelids with water, and asks him to look into the underground lake. He sees the maelstrom in the water, a swirling black water, in which he sees III wandering around, looking for something missing from her. Birds with locks of her hair in their beaks are tied to her with fine bands, but all the bands burst as the birds fly away from her.

I get to ask Nero a question as well, so I ask if he's happy. He says it's hard to tell, he wouldn't know. He has nothing to compare to, but he supposes things could have been in another way. Aw man, I can't really capture it, but it was brilliant. Poor Nero. Jonatan, you're welcome to re-tell it here.

Nero is welcome back later. 

When Daimyo comes back, dog freak is tied up in the courtyard and Canaveral is guarding him. All of Daimyo's people are eyeballing her, in this weird "bid for alpha of the pack" kind of way (which she don't like at all) and looking at the chained up dog freak in this "oh shit" kind of way. Yeah, they're his boys.

Daimyo fails to read the sitch. I tell him one of his men can tell that he just doesn't know what's going on anymore. That guy is giving him a look that just says that he is going to be trouble.

Daimyo has him brought forward and orders him killed.

And that's one drop too many for the dog worshipping warriors. Suddenly someone goes "Fuck yoooooouuuuuu" and flings a bottle his way. Daimyo draws a gun and starts shooting, and all hell breaks loose on the courtyard. Some of his men are shooting at him, some are rushing to defend him, some just doesn't know what to do, people are coming out of the fortress... Daimyos player declares that he doesn't care how much Harm he takes, he's going to exterminate every freaking one of those filthy dog worshippers who's tainted his fortress. He just stands straight up in the crossfire, sending bullets into their flesh and fear into their hearts. Dog freak is executed in the process.

A pocket of loyal soldiers starts forming around Daimyo, the dog worshipping ones are getting pinned down and decimated. Dust Witch has come running from Exits tent, she drops down from the wall, with her fingers around Daimyo's neck. Canaveral disarms her and Nero, Fox and James catches her when she's trying to escape. The surviving dog worshippers surrenders in exchange for Daimyo sparing their life. When the firing stops, Daimyo gets a feel for how hurt he is (10 o'clock) and is rushed into his fortress, with Exit working like an animal to keep him alive and well.

"Did you have to go and almost die the same day we got an epidemic on our hands?!"