When it looks like you've finally managed to kill Tank, roll +wierd. On 10+, he's dead all right; it's the last you'll be seeing of him, at least in this form. On 7-9, you've got a few moments to prepare before he comes back at you with his giant metal fists.

When you're chasing Brace Win, roll +sharp. On a 10+, you can catch him without much effort. On a 7-9, choose one. On a miss, MC will choose one for you.
* The little SOB gets away.
* The little SOB leads you right into a trap.
* You catch the little SOB in a situation where going after him will not be simple at all.
* You catch the little SOB, but you're isolated and the chase took much longer than you thought it would.

I actually have a different take on the AW names.

When I run (a PG-rated version of) the game to a group of a teenagers, I use the names in first session sheet, maybe slightly changed to better fit Hebrew phonology. However, since the players themselves usually don't know the referents of the names, they're just names, and convey no special meaning.

When I GM for adults, I use a combination of "normal" names and weird nicknames. I use it to highlight the lack of the State. The names we have now are ours only by the grace of the State that registered us under these names. Without the State, your name is whatever name people give you for whatever reasons. This is also why many low-ranking NPCs have insulting and degrading names.

One session later, the nanobots are already proving to be mega-awesome.

Session started with Joshua the Savvyhead going into NO (which, we established, was actually Albuquerque) to scavenge firearms from a hunting shop. He starts working the locks when he notices a guy called Hugo, wiggling on the floor, vomiting blood, eyes all wide. Joshua kicks him around a little, and the guy dies. He opens his brain, and gets a vision of Hugo entering the city, finding his way into the mall, and scratching himself as he fiddles with the locks of a grocery store. Hours later, he's on the floor, dying. That's when the vision ends and Joshua starts to feel that annoying itch he gets every time he stays at NO for over an hour. He freaks out and leaves.

At the same time, a local merchant called Lala gets an audience with BBQ the hardholder, asking him to look at what happened to her brother Hugo, who took off a few days ago, promising he'll come back a wealthy man. BBQ's player uses OOC knowledge and says, "yeah, this guy, I know for a fact that he was found in NO". "Who told you that", she asks. "Oh, you know, that creepy Savvyhead fellow". So she freaks out. Obviously, she says, that freak killed her brother and left him somewhere in the wasteland, and for some reason the hardholder buys his bullshit story and lets him walk after a mock trial.

Later in the session, Lala barges into Joshua's workspace at the abandoned gas station outside of town, 9mm in hand, and pumps him full of lead. He gets a shot at her weapon hand and makes her leave when his harm clock is at 11:00, and not before she promises to be back with her brothers, and make him pay for what he did.

His driver friend Cobra comes to check on him later to find his friend all pierced and dying. The session ended with Cobra checking Joshua at a local doctor.

The players think that Lala character is crazy but sympathetic, so they want to be on her good side. Cobra's player plans on taking her to NO next session, to see her brother's body for herself and call off her vendetta against Joshua. Surely, when she inspects the body, she'll be able to see that the guy was just the victim of a strange, but natural disease.


Did I mention what a cool idea the bio-degrading nanobots are?

Okay, so we've started a game set in the American southwest. We agreed that the Savvyhead gets by from scavenging in a city called NO (also: "fuck no!" and "hell no!"). It's a huge pre-catastrophe metropolis, with furnished homes and well-stocked stores. It's also squeaky-clean and eerily quiet. No dograts, no concrete-eaters, no megabugs (or even normal bugs, for that matter). Even when the bromide winds are blowing, you can't smell anything foul on the streets of NO.

Problem is, scavenger paradise as it is, nobody in their right mind will enter NO (hence the name); most would rather starve. Except for the Savvyhead, and maybe few other brave individuals.

Now I'm trying to figure out for myself - what's wrong with NO? How can I make some neat countdowns and custom moves to complement the creepiness and danger I want associated with this place?

Hi all,

It looks like I managed to sell my regular group on AW. The only problem is that we've grown accustomed to switching GMs every session, letting everyone have their turn at fleshing out the NPCs, threads and hooks left by the previous GM.

Can this work in AW as well? has anyone tried it?

On a semi-related note, can AW create more episodic campaign, with PCs moving from place to place each session and threats taking a more general nature?