I like countdown clocks for keeping track of fronts and threats, things the PC's might avoid or change.  Birth doesn't feel like a

I would have the baby born when the fiction demanded and use it as an excuse to bring out all kindsa cool apocalyptica. 

"Yeah, you peer into the psychic maelstrom and there's someone there with you, clinging to your belly, looking at this psychic mess in horror."

For the game I am MCing set near Hoover Dam, I just wrote down the names of towns and counties in the nearby states and I'm using those as names and its working really well, especially if I eff with the names just a touch.

Desert Junkies Attack

Doc was looking over the Chemist's people and found Lander, an old hired gun with a bullet wound that had healed over but the bullet was right near his spine.  He had to go in before the damage grew worse and he was further paralyzed.  He called in Shigusa and Mox for the surgery.

He blew 6 units of meds because the Chemist pledged to replenish whatever he used.

"Lander was with me when this town was nothing but a Liger-infested ruin."

He rolled what would have been a failure but because of the +6 to the roll (did we do that wrong?) Lander pulled through.  I described it as an eleven hour surgery where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong short of the patient dying.  No, he was fine and would pull through but would need medical care for 36 hours.  The Croaker's crew would be hanging around for a bit.

That night the Chemist's compound was attacked.  They heard small arms fire and heard the grenade that blew the perimeter wide open.  Cybelle was in her new room and she Read a Sitch.

"What's the best way outta here?"

"Harlan in the Interceptor is the best way outta here, without a doubt."

She found Harlan.  Doc refused to leave his patient and Shigusa and Mox refused to leave the Doc.  They stayed with Lander.  Harlan and Cybelle made for the basement parking lot.  The Chemist's wife and kids were already in the back of the Interceptor but the parking area was already infiltrated with desert junkies looking to score.  Sub-machine gun fire cut them off from the Interceptor, pinned behind the Croaker's engine compartment (both got 7-9 on Under Fire roll).

Harlan goes into the Croaker and hits the lights and sirens.  He Seizes by Force and drives them into the streets where Pima's soldiers cut them to ribbons.

Cybelle looks in the back seat and the kids are asleep and Mari looks calm and cool.

Doc is stubborn

Shigusa and Mox are having an amusing argument about who should hold their newly aquired AK-47.

"I should hold it."

"Honey, the safety's on."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes," Mox says, "It is."

That was about when a dirty kid with a pistol walked in, cut off from the rest of the desert junkies.  He had a pair of jeans wrapped around his head to keep the desert sun off of him.  He held a gun on the Doc and Shigusa pointed the AK at the interloper and just froze.

"Give me the drugs."

Doc starts sputtering, reaching for his tazer.  He rolls to use it but when I give him a tough choice, when I tell him that tazing the kid will mean his finger contracts and a bullet will be let loose in the room, he thinks again and doesn't do it.

He hands the kid some aspirin.

"What is this?"

"Its good, the best stuff...Purple Tarantula, its called.  New shit!"  and he jumped on the kid and took the gun away.

Right?  Is that how it happened?  Now I can't remember.  Shit.

The kid was sent away, knowing that if they kept him around, he'd be killed by the Chemist's troops.  Doc tried to hand the kid some food but the kid just cussed him out and left.

Purple Tarantula?

I love it.

Harlan's New Ride

After coming back from his mission in victory and with a semi-truck to boot, Harlan was a hot commodity.  The Chemist wanted to hire him on something ferocious.  A few delivery-runs back, Hum had run over a kid in RV and Pio wanted him to sit trial.

"It wasn't his fault, Pio."

"He should stand trial.  Its Rim Law, says so in the Charter."

"The Charter burned down with the Library."

The Chemist would love for Hum to retire from driving and have Harlan take over but Harlan's not having it.

But man...the Interceptor.

Hum is threatened, he takes his knife to the religious 3's Harlan painted on the Interceptor and crosses them out.  Harlan catches him and they face down.  Hum pulls a knife, Harlan pulls a gun.

Go Aggro.  Harlan wins.  Hum doesn't want a shotgun blast in the face at the moment.  He backs the fuck down.

"Tell you what, Graham, I just did you two solids.  If I hadn't driven the jackals out of your joint, things would have gotten worse.  I road out on a mission and came back with your stolen drugs and with a semi.  I want the Interceptor as a bonus."

I let him roll Manipulation and he get's a 7-9.  Graham is not convinced.

"Okay, I'll drive every other delivery run for ya."

But here's what I like about Harlan.  He goes to Hum and and explains that he is going to be driving some delivery runs to keep the heat off of him.  He explains that it isn't a smart move for Hum to be on the Rim right about now.

Its dawn, right after the raid and Hum starts crying, "Man, I killed a kid.  Didn't mean to.  Some jackals tried to take our shit and bullets were flying.  I heard a soft thump but I figured it was just a coy-dog or some shit.  What the hell was a kid doing in the middle of a firefight?"

"Listen, after things cool down, you'll come and I'll teach you how to drive, to really drive.  And the first lesson is that these aren't just ways of getting around, they are the most potent weapons we have and as you learned, they are deadly."

NOTE: This is a paraphrase of the first thing my father, a race car driver in his youth, taught me when I was 16 with a driver's permit.

And that was a night of gaming.  Fun.

Cybelle's New Job

Yeah, Cybelle took the job.  She spit in her hand and he shook it and it was her Violation Glove hand.  Dammit.  She found out on her 7-9 roll that Graham craved forgiveness from his children, whom he feels he dragged into a dangerous situation in an effort to keep them safe.

Sidenote: The pre-game banter is always interesting too while folks get their shit together and ducks in a row so that we can game.  Found out that because of near-starvation, Cybelle doesn't menstruate.  *shrug*

The deal is she will work for Graham for a month and at the end of that month, she'll get to read the SPEC OPS MANUAL on Psychic Warfare. 

"Why do you want me to work for you?"

"Because your skills are valuable.  A Brainer can head off trouble before it happens."

"You want me for your own purposes..."

"That is like saying I want a gun only because it shoots bullets.  I'm hiring you for what you can do."

Doc's politics

Anthony picked up Reputation for the Doc and rolled shite in trying to see if the Chemist had heard of him.  Yeah, he'd heard ,he'd heard that there was this doctor on the Rim, sniffing around Hoover, looking for the best, safest deal he could find.

Doc spent a whole lotta time sniffing around, seeing how many armed folks the Chemist had (around 40) and how things worked.  He asked lots of questions of both the Chemist and Saint John about the Engineer-in-Chief.

Saint John said something like, "There are nomad-cults that believe souls actually move toward Hoover when they die...do you believe that shit?"

Cybelle nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that and Doc and Harlan exchanged knowing glances.  Only Cybelle knows that the Engineer-in-Chief can electromagnetically imprison souls/brains and she has her own parents and feels guilty-as-fuck about it.

Doc is weighing his options...hospital in Hoover?  Hospital on the Rim?  Set up shop in Vegas?  The Chemist let him know that if he sets up on the Rim, the Chemist will build him a joint.

"Why?"

"A strong Rim suits my needs..."

Harlan said, "A strong Rim means a healthy market; he's a business man."

Doc preached about how much folks will be needing medicine more than they'll need drugs but the Chemist seemed unconvinced.

"Pima, this is a late model, Chevrolet Interceptor.  It has a 5 point 5 liter V6 engine.  Which means it can crank out 600 horse-power.  It goes from 0 to 60 in 3 point 6 seconds.  It has steel breaks, rather than ceramic, which were popular in late model Chevrolet's.  That means it can go from 120 to 0 in 4.7 seconds.  That generates enough force, that you'd throw up.  Its got a reinforced suspension, which means I can take corners at 72 miles an hour, 12 miles an hour faster than other muscle cars. 

"Its got a carbon-poly-mimetic skin over a titanium alloy frame.  That means when impacts occur at ninety degrees to the skin, it ripples like throwing a pebble on a lake.  The front and rear fenders are designed to crumple and fall off if impacted.  The wheels are a solid carbon, rather than inflated - to resist punctures.

"And it was made by the all-mighty GM, so it'll last us.

"So, when I'm behind the wheel, you have to follow some simple rules.  You don't question what I'm doing and I can guarantee you as long as I am behind this wheel, I will get you in and out alive."

Newton's Fate

Newton was unconscious on the stretcher in Saffron's place in West Point.  It was Saffron, Bullet, Dent and two guns from the Green Mountain Boys, one of whom is the top gun, a gal by the name of Lake in denim, a shoulder holster and a hip holster.

They talked a bit and in the end Lake shot Newton where she reclined.  Saff was pissed that she shot in her joint.

"Someone clean this shit up!"

One of the new girls cleaned it up.

Up in Kip-town, Baby's engagement party had begun.  Izzie had stitches over his eye and one of his eyeballs would always be a bit dis-colored.

The Blacksmith and the Midwife

Before the party started Dent and Baby interviewed their latest refugee.  Rook said he was from the Five Points Empire.  He had led groups into small towns, collected tribute and at times, wiped out towns that were not able to pay.  He was called a Sargent.

"They're going to send you an agent, someone your 'hold needs - a doctor, a smith, an engineer or a gun.  They'll be open about where they are from and when the empire wants to take in your 'hold, the agent will be the go-between, the diplomat and by that time, they're already a member of the community, probably respected.

"But they might not do that with Kip-town.  They don't like it when women are in charge.  They're having real trouble with Mrs. Dubya up in Albany on account of that and with your killer rep, they won't like you at all.  We're...they're descended from prison guards and prisoners...they just don't value women in power much."

Baby shrugged, unconcerned, "They don't like women...too fucking bad for them."

Right after Newton was shot, a blacksmith showed up in West Point.  He had kids with him and his wife, a midwife and bone-setter was with him too.  Cort introduced himself, shook hands, asked to rent or buy a building to set up shop and explained where he was from.

Bullet was cautious.  Dent didn't like that, not at all.  The family didn't stay in West Point long, just long enough for Dent to incite Cort into an act of violence.

It has been a while so we started with some winter letters.

The Hudson River Valley shuts down as the river freezes up and the squid-eaters hole up in their villages for the winter.  A few squiddy families have sled dogs and will run messages up and down the valley but never into the city.

Dear Driver,
West Point is in pretty good shape.  Your main enemy for the winter is complacency.  The lumberjacks turn to drugs, gambling and worse.
When winter grips West Point, roll + Sharp:

On a 10+ pick 3 from the fireplace.
On 7-9 pick 1 from the fireplace.
On a miss, we’ll start our game with big problems.

The Fireplace:   
•   You keep Rubbin out of trouble for the winter, away from the crazy-bad shit the lumberjacks are getting themselves into.  +1 forward when you roll concerning Rubbin

•   You manage to regulate the lumberjacks, keeping their depravity from becoming too damned out of control.  +1 forward when you roll concerning the lumberjacks

•   You spend your free winter time bonding with a player character, which one?  What do they learn about you and what do you learn about them?  +1 Hx with that character

•   You cut a good deal with the dog-squiddies and keep the market place stocked with goods.  +1 barter

He rolled over ten and chose to keep Rubbin safe, keep the lumberjacks from going too far off the deep end and keeping the market place stocked.  In hindsight, this was kind of a boring move.

Dear Chopper,
Winter closes in on Kip-town, roll +Hard

On a 10+, some people die and some live and you had to make some hard fucking decisions but you deal and can choose 1 of the following:
-   The Kip-town guard is back up to muster, all 40 of ‘em to replace the Demons.
-   The Boys have their bikes primed and ready to roll for spring.
-   You have, Rook, a defector from the Five Points Empire and he is willing to spill all kinds of shit about those folks for a promise of protection.

On a 7-9, shit doesn’t go so well, choose 1:
-   You hold it together but you are in debt to Albany’s Mrs. Dubya, owing her five barter.
-   Half of the population either up and leaves or up and dies.  Them’s the breaks.
On a miss, Kip-town is a fucking starving mess.

She rolled great and elected to have 2 that I don't remember and also Rook.  Yay, Rook!

Dear Brainer:
The tribe has asked you to find other people native to this continent by traversing the Psychic Maelstrom.
When looking for other tribal folk in the Psychic Maelstrom, roll +Weird:

On a 10+ you make contact with other shaman in the Pacific Northwest, in the far, far north and the Yucatan Peninsula.  None of them is having an easy time of it but you can contact them with some difficulty if need be.

On a 7-9, you make contact but something/someone/what-the-fuck followed you back and is now stalking you whenever you open yourself to the Psychic Maelstrom.  You can feel it scratching at the membrane between the world and the maelstrom.

On a miss you don’t find shit and that thing found its way into one of your people.  Shit, shit, shit.  Which one?

This was the weakest one.  He rolled over ten.  Ah well.

Dear Maestro’D,
Winter is an odd time.  Folks have little to barter but everyone wants to eat and fuck even more.  What is a gal to do? 
When you seek to balance your joint’s books for the winter, roll + Sharp:

On a 10+, you notice some outstanding debts that are owed you through the eating and fucking of their gang-members/representatives.  Choose 3 people who owe you 1 or 2 barter.
-   Mrs. Dubya from Albany
-   Millions from Pole
-   Baby from Kip-town
-   Marsh from Bear
-   That Squid-eater asshole who drives the big garbage boat the one whose dad committed suicide after that nonsense in Kip-town.

On a 7-9, one person owes you and another you owe.  Choose from the list above.

On a miss, the MC chooses someone on or off the list and you owe them.  How the fuck did that happen?

She ended up missing this roll, so she owed Baby.  I was considering making it Mrs. Dubya but for some reason, having it be a player made more sense to me.

Dear Dent:
How is married life treating you?
When you try to make good on your married life, roll + Hot:

On a 10+, life is fucking good.  Lee has taken up as the Demons’ den mother and you are finding that your bride fits into your lifestyle really well. +1 forward when dealing with the Demons.

On a 7-9, man, relationships are fucking work and Lee is a whole lotta work.  Something is wrong and you need some fucking advice.  Take +1 advice if you talk to someone other than just your mask, an actual living person (stacks with the +1 from your mask’s advice, if you do both).

On a miss, shit at home is bad, something is really wrong.  Until you sort it out, when you go home, you roll Under Fire.

He rolled 7-9 but hasn't sought out anyone for relationship advice...yet.

The tone was set.

Things to write about:

Marsh sees Baby's lovers fight
The Blacksmith and the Midwife
The Demons do their thang
Bullet's coma