Oh man, my player also picked 60 hyenas and a savage and decadent hardhold. The hell? I guess they figure out the best picks quickly. :)

I absolutely agree, hardholders are awesome. I love it how your hardhold is a big old processing plant - Brilliant! I get vibes from the river levels of Half-Life 2, am I any close? :)

Introducing:
The Hyenas, a 60-something pack of savage warriors loyal to Daimyo. Some of them, and some of the people living outside the fort, has started getting unhealthy fascinated by the Pit, going there and fighting and hunting with the wild dogs. Those who gets something bitten off are called blessed.
Land Eater. Check the second pic from the bottom, that's a bulldozer.
The Scarlands, a tectonic mess of broken land, high plateaus, deep chasms. Cliffs all around!
Rustbelt, a hardhold built on an plateau in the Scarlands, where the only travellable road goes. Very well fortified.
Dust Witch, a psycho warrior bitch with a habit of collecting (adopting) little kids. (What the hell? This surprised me to no end. In a good way! Yeah, it was supposed to be Dustwich. My players first misheard, and then demanded the name stays)
Scream, a warrior-guy who is good at screaming.
A grotesque dog-freak.
Fox, a woman working for Nero.
James, a man working for Nero.
Enough-to-eat, middle-aged woman who runs an eating place where the rule is, everybody eats.
III, some broad who wants to beat up Nero. He once did a job for her. (Yeah, a woman named III wants to beat you up, I took it straight outta the book. Brilliant.)

Second session
In the home base, Nero finds a blue metal flower as a gift from Fox. Why does Fox keep giving him gifts? Apparently because he saved her life once.

What does Daimyo do on his time off? Apparently gets massage and writes poetry. Dust Witch comes in (So, what's she like?) and starts fingering his books and stuff, asking if she can take some of the men out to the pits, she's heard there are good stuff to scavenge there. Daimyo says no. Dust Witch leaves satisfied with the answer, but she acts playful, like she's in charge.

Nero goes to wildest place in town to relax before tomorrows attack. He's hanging out with James, a real trustworthy guy from his crew, who can always get him calmer. On the way to the men's room, he is assaulted by III, who babbles profetic stuff and beats it when James tear her from Nero. Nero is confused.

Canaveral is hanging out at ol' Land Eater outside New Jerk, apparently she just likes it there. She spots Dust Witch riding out at night towards the pit, with a wagon full of her adopted kids. Cannie rides up to Dust Witch, asks her what she's doing, fails a read a person check. Dust Witch shines up like she just got a really great idea, like, they're going to be pals or something. (Dust Witch doesn't come off as very smart. Cunning and savage, yes. Smart, no.) She wants to show Canaveral something.

They ride into The Pit. It's hot here, even at night, dogs are eyeing them. Suddenly some motherfucker clad in dog skins and with dog ears stapled to where his own should be turns up, he and Dust Witch captures Cannie with a net and bring her to a den. They're dancing and howling all night, Dust Witch is totally doin' it with one of the dogs, and dog-freak is cracking one of the puppies right open, smearing himself and Cannie with it's blood, declaring her to be one of them. And no telling!

They let her go at dawn, she heads back. Everybody's been waiting for like two hours, ready to go raid Rustbelt. She doesn't feel like talking about it right now, but she promises to tell later. Dust Witch is eyeballing her.

At Rustbelt, Cannie and Nero and his team are sneaking through the cliffs to infiltrate the place, while Daimyo and his hyenas are drawing the attention to the front gates. Daimyo's player rolls to retro-actively buy a megaphone, and misses. Turns out he's spent a barter for crap, and he adds the merchant to his list.

Nero and Cannie have no problem with killing a little girl to sneak in, and starts to spread panic and confusion inside the walls. Fox takes a bullet in her leg, and Nero digs in to protect her. (That's two times now, Fox!) Eventually the towns defense line breaks, the hyenas swarm them with minimal losses and the leader of the hold is stringed up, Daimyos warriors doesn't kill/rape too many of Rustbelts people. Some kid gets curb stomped, that's when Daimyo break up the party. Daimyo makes it clear that if Rustbelt doesn't start trading in New Jerk, next time there won't be anything left.

When making camp for the night, Canaveral tells Daimyo what happened out in The Pit. Daimyo sure as hell doesn't need any dog worshippers in his pack, so he orders one of his warriors loyal to Dust Witch's to strip her down, and shoots him when he doesn't dare. Daimyo strips Dust Witch, takes away her weapons and orders her on all four, barking. She howls instead, to the full moon.

This all happens in the quiet of the night, with only the campfire lighting the scene. The scene wasn't that long really, but to me as a GM, it felt like every moment of tension and humiliation was drawn out into infinity. Good, good stuff.

Setting:
A blasted postapocalyptic California wasteland, with it's biggest hardhold New Jerk in it's center. New Jerk is a an old military fortress, surrounded by the settlements of 300-something souls. Roads are crap, gas is extremely rare, everybody rides horses. "Welcome, New Jerk" is what the welcome sign says.

Characters:
Daimyo, a 20-something hardholder, who rules the unruly pack of savage warriors inside the fortress with an iron hand. Seem to have some fascination for militaria and culture. Always wears a gas mask out in the hardhold to protect himself from the filthy citizens. Hates and fears the maelstrom.

Nero, a 20-something operator working security and raiding for Daimyo. A rather kind man in a jacket suit (probably the only guy wearing a jacket post apoc.) who seeks to learn what the maelstrom is all about.

Canaveral, battlebabe in her early 20:s. Rode into town and hung around. Got a reputation for being the knight of New Jerk. Carries an ornate gun and spear. She and Daimyo have heard each others names in their dreams, so they've decided to hang around and find out what that is about.

I also had some problems with The Driver- he was cool and powerful and all- but it was hard to get him "hooked" to the world. He just drives around- I can´t really mess with his car, and his true element is on the road, so it´s hard to invent old lovers, friends associates and stuff. Well, maybe it actually isn´t... hmmm..

Anyway, I did feel that it was harder to get the driver into the drama... Any thoughts on that?

Just drives around, doing what? I have some thoughts on the driver, but it would help to know what he's actually doing in play. :)

Getting violent against someone who defends himself is Seize by Force... BBabes are not great at that... Getting violent against someone who is not (yet) defending is Going Aggro. Combined with Ice Cold the BBabe is quite a nasty killer either when surprising someone or after maneuvering the victim to a helpless position.
In contrast to the Gunlugger, the BBabe can do other stuff during combat as well.

I like to think of the Battlebabe as an untouchable, both socially and in combat. Look at the +3 Cool, the moves and the sex move.

oops, double post

I know you're backgrounding the famine right now, but it resonated with me as a policy wonk...

When thinking of the Famine as a threat (or component threats, or whatever), it might be interesting to keep in mind that, in the real world, famines simply *aren't* the result of brute food scarcity, they're results of problems in food *distribution* (see, e.g., Amartya Sen's work on why democracies don't have famines).  You might have a sci-fi situation where you've literally ended up with a population too large to support on any use of the land available, but I think that's the most boring scenario (for all the reasons you implied).  A famine that's the result of not being able to get food from point A to point B, or people not feeling secure enough to farm their land, or a leader forcing folks to devote resources elsewhere, or people selfishly hoarding - it's a lot more nuanced, and gives more leverage for meaningful PC agency.

- Daniel

+1

I agree completely.

Second session in, and the players have razed a rival hardhold. Felt a little uncertain as I barfed forth apocalyptic battlefield violence upon them and called for rolls. If anyone would like to clear these situations up with me, it would be appreciated. Here's how I interpreted the rules in the end:

- Sneaking into the hardhold, you roll Acting under fire. (Getting spotted is the fire)
- If someone spots you and fires upon you with a 2-harm weapon, they inflict 2-harm on you by default, automatically.
-- Fighting them, you roll Sieze by force (And can then choose to suffer little harm, 1-harm instead of 2-harm)
-- Taking cover or running away, do you roll Acting under fire or Sieze by force (Siezing a cover or an escape)? And, if successful, do you avoid harm entirely or what?
- To stat up gangs, I basically give them a harm rating and an armor rating based on their equipment, just as I would with an individual, plus assigning gang size... Right?

Thanks!