I found this; a good representation of the aesthetic of Lancer's Lot. Enjoy!

http://izzet-chaosmage.tumblr.com/post/152071455689/theghostoffawkes-elijayne

Second session report! (Oops, seems I was lying when I said these would be shorter. Oh well)


We kicked off right back in the action with our captured Savvyhead, Spector. I didn't want him to just Bonefeel out of there in the first scene without squeezing a bit of drama out of it first, so starting with him made sense. Threats and questions were immediately flying at him, a woman with a sledgehammer glaring at him and wanting to know who he was travelling with ("This is Newton, she's in charge of this hold and the Wild Dogs gang. You know her by reputation; small, wiry, and angry like a chihuahua" Warlord - Slaver). When he attempted to shrug off the questions, she threatened to break his kneecaps, to which he said "Go on then." With that opportunity served to me on a silver platter, Newton did indeed smash him in the knees with her hammer, and following a bad roll on the harm move, he was gagged and blindfolded and dragged away, thrown in the back of a truck. After a series of awful rolls on the dice this session and the last, the player was afraid to make moves in case something bad happened, so I broke from play for a bit to remind him that I wasn't out to get him, and that while waiting passively meant his was less likely to have bad stuff happen to him (but not no bad stuff) it also meant less good stuff and a generally less interesting experience.


Back with the other players, Nif withdrew into the maelstrom to heal his wounds and Vega led the rest through the alley towards the holding. With three blocks of flats around them, Rhythm opened his brain while the others made a beeline towards someone standing by a dog kennel. Failing the roll, the horrible, discordant music in Rhythm's heart began to blare out across the courtyard, driving the dogs in the kennel mad. Phoenix attempted to threaten the information out of the dog-handler, but he ran away, so they followed him into the building. Finding some locals, Stomp tried to be nice to them, which somehow worked, and they found their way to Newton in the underground parking lot of the building. One unsuccessful attempt at bartering for the savvyhead later, Phoenix tried to ram Newton with a car, despite his comrades standing right next to her. On a partial success on Go Aggro, Newton got the hell out of the way and took off in the truck. Stomp tried to dodge, but was too slow, Vega didn't even attempt to get out of the way as she tried to shoot Newton in the back. I probably should have looked up the rules for vehicle damage beforehand, but with 5-harm (ap) from a direct hit, Stomp's life became untenable and Vega was at death's door.


Leaving the two others bleeding on the floor, Rhythm and Phoenix followed after Newton. Spector wriggled free of his blindfold and leapt from the back of the truck to the pursuing car, being barely caught by Rhythm. Nif popped back into existence just in time to see the two vehicles careen past, but just shrugged and went off scavenging in the nearest building. I introduced a custom move, which I've used a variation on before in another game where scavenging was important: When you try to find something in the ruins, roll +Sharp. On a hit: you find something. On a 7-9: something or someone finds you. On a miss: you don't find anything useful, but something or someone finds you. Nif hit the roll on a 7-9, so found some valuables to pay his way for another couple of sessions, but the truck - now missing its cargo - came back, and he realised it was a wolf (wolves are machines under their disguises).


Vega left the parking lot, but didn't make it far before succumbing to her wounds. Stomp woke up shortly after, and followed a guide presented by the maelstrom (Landscape - Mirage) to Vega's body. Not knowing any first aid, he asked his mask for advice, but Norman (Grotesque - Pain Addict) simply suggested to him that Vega had too many fingers. Spector used Bonefeel to get into the scene to help, but found that the "right tools for the job" in this case consisted of a tourniquet and a pair of boltcutters. Unable to stop Stomp, Spector just sat and watched as Vega woke up screaming and missing a pinkie. Stomp apologised profusely, very upset at what he'd done; weirdly, cutting off Vega's finger seems to have gotten her interested in him (relationships are strange in the Apocalypse World).


Phoenix pulled up in the car -having already rescued Nif from the wolf - and the roadtrip continued. Nif ate Vega's missing finger as a light snack. Yum.


They stopped at an old hospital to scrounge for medical supplies, and all managed to patch themselves up to varying degrees. Spector grabbed a pressurised canister of some unknown gas to take with him. At this point, the sound of bike engines and a distant "Huzzah!" reached Phoenix's ears; Lancer's Lot (Brutes - Enforcers) showed up. A biker gang based out of a history museum, wearing plate armor and wielding lances, swords, and WWI rifles. The players loved these guys and gals, so they'll definitely be appearing again. Evidently, the players were on their territory; however, wanting to avoid a confrontation, Rhythm and Phoenix rode out to give them a mobile concert and draw them away. Unable to outpace the bikes, Phoenix thought fast and led them back to the rest of the group to talk it out. The players agreed to leave peacefully, and rode off into the sunset.


Finally arriving at the power station they set out to find, they got pinned down by a sniper on a gantry. Spector used the tank of gas he had taken earlier as a very makeshift mortar, taking some serious damage from the explosion when he knocked the cap off the canister but managing to scare away the sniper. We finished there and then.


That was an incredibly fun session. I'm slightly worried that it seems to be playing like a traditional, party-based adventure, but the players are having fun and I'm having fun, so I'm not that bothered. I'm loving the relationships the players are forming between each other, I can't wait to mess with them using PC-NPC-PC triangles when they're not constantly running away from all the NPCs they meet.


The new players are definitely getting the hang of the syste - the small changes in wordings and rulings for the most common moves make it much easier to teach than I was expecting, especially Seize by Force. The 2nd edition "Road War" moves are a godsend, so thank you very much Vincent; I suggest you always keep them in mind when playing with vehicles in your games. It's hilarious and brilliant how much awesome gameplay has come out of a power station I made up due to an Augury roll and a gang and holding I made up because of a failed Read a Sitch; play to find out is an important agenda for a reason. Oh, and with regards to the levelling: the rate seems about right for now, though Stomp and Vega got a hell of a boost from that +5-Hx with Phoenix when he ran them over.


See you next week!

Everything you need is in the core book, but it's worth printing off the playbooks and references, found here for free: http://apocalypse-world.com/ApocalypseWorldBasicRefbook2ndEd.pdf
The only other things you need are at least two 6-sided dice (preferably a pair for each player but two will do), a pencil and an eraser.


The playbooks are character sheets, and tell the players all they need to know to play the game. The MC (the one who runs the game) needs to be familiar with the core book but the other players are fine without. The references are sheets with  commonly used rules so you don't have to keep looking them up in the core book. Browsing this website once you've read the book is a good idea, a lot of people point out ways to fix common problems, and the author of the book is very active on the forums (look for Lumpley).


Hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions if you have them.

It's been a long while since an AP was posted on these forums, but I always found them helpful when preparing for a session, so I thought people might appreciate a playthrough of 2nd Edition.

Our setting is based loosely on the city we all live in (Sheffield, UK) which is famous for its steel industry, and surrounded by the rolling hills and valleys of the Peak District interspersed with the occasional village. Let's meet the cast!

Phoenix - The Driver, cool as a winter morning and willing to do whatever it takes to make a quick buck. Once tied someone to his pickup truck and played tug of war as a form of torture at the behest of...

Stomp - The Faceless, wears a face of leather, which was probably other peoples' faces at some point. Utterly deferential to his mask, Norman, and very self-conscious of how scary he is. Gets along well with those that aren't frightened of him, such as...

Nif - The Child Thing, nobody quite remembers when or how he showed up, but he's often seen wandering around the place, following balls of twine nobody else can see. Gets into places no matter how well they try and fortify them, and has used this to steal from...

Vega - The Hardholder, reluctant ruler of Forge. Once a no-nonsense freedom fighter, she overthrew the warlord who used to run this place, and then ended up having to take care of it when nobody stepped up to the plate. She was got all the arms and armour for her resistance movement from...

Spector - The Savvyhead, likes weird and wacky weaponry. Currently trying to find a battery strong enough to power a machete taser. Built a huge, automatic shotgun, which is the favourite instrument of...

Rhythm - The Show, attempting to cross-breed 80s synth-pop with hair-metal, even though nobody knows what those things mean anymore. Phoenix currently holds his leash, and does his best to look after this strange musician who seems to have become attached to him.

That's it for now. It's a big group, which is proving a handful, but I think it's working out alright. I'll write up a short summary of the first session and some lessons learned later today. Let me know if you're interested!

Not sure I agree with the "Any time you deem right" section. You make a move as an MC whenever there's a lull in the conversation or everybody looks to you to say something which already gives you plenty of options to influence the story. 

The example given is to "introduce the villian’s [sic] new sidekick/horrible weapon/escape plan immediately as the player’s move resolves, without waiting for a failed roll" if it looks like they might defeat your villain too early. This doesn't really seem to be looking at everything though crosshairs and flies in the face of always give the players what they work towards. It's probably something else new MCs miss a lot - that while you never roll any dice and your moves are all very open-ended you can absolutely still cheat, which isn't fair to your players.

The correct thing to do in a situation where they're killing your villain "too early" is to let them, but put your bloody fingerprints all over it. Have the villain's daughter run up to the body and start crying and hugging it. Skip forward in time a few days to when refugees from the villain's hardhold are showing up demanding food and water, since you killed the guy who was providing them with it up until now. Have the bigger, badder chick from out across the burn flats show up, moving into the power vacuum that was left. None of this fails to make your players life not boring but also none  of it denies them what they worked towards.

What you should never do is have the villain survive just because you like them, especially when the players are involved (if it's between NPCs, sure - having them show how badass they are is fine, but they're never more badass than the players). I did that for the first game I ran, had one of the Solace's "Wolves of the Maelstrom" be a young girl called Grandma who'd taken over an army base and filled it with obedient soldiers using her ability to command people to do what she wanted straight into their brains; awesome character but she nearly ruined the story, because all the players kept being like "Oh, well I want to go do this awesome thing, but if I do then Grandma will have me killed."

Sorry if I seem overly critical, the rest of the article is fantastic; just that last point that seems exactly the opposite of what PbtA games are supposed to be. If you meant something else, then let me know, but if that's the case then it could do with wording better so nobody interprets it the same way I did.