I didn't consciously limit the rolls, but either I failed a lot of times in recognizing an action as a Move, or they did lots of thing that were not Moves. Also, I think they do things knowingly to avoid Move, as I feel it : they poisonned calmly and with a great plan a NPC, and so there were no Seize by Force of Go Aggro. All I could do is say "ok, it works" because nothing in the rules seems to prevent it.
I feel like it kills the suspens and the drama, when a situation gets resolved without rolls.

There's never a great plan in Apocalypse World.

Ever.

There's a great idea, a great proposition, but dammit if things don't get in the way.

Poisoning a dude? A million ways for that to go south! Remember that your agenda is to make the characters' lives not boring. Straightforward plans that go off without a hitch - periodically, rarely, every now and then, they're great, they're a breath of fresh air - but they are boring. If you can't outright see a complication, make one up!

How did they get the poison? Who wants a favor for giving it to them? Did they find it? Who did it belong to? Who wants something for having it taken? Did they make it themselves? Where do they get supplies from? The ingredients? Who accidentally inhaled fumes or particles? Who's showing signs of having been poisoned themselves?

How did they sneak in to drop the poison? What did they poison? Who was there? Who walked in at just the worst moment? (make it an NPC connected) How do they escape?

Look at the minute-by-minute details if you need to. Every question you consider could be a problem - and hell, those above are just Act Under Fires! Who knows what else can happen? You're not trying to stop them from doing what they want to do - poison the motherfucker, awesome - you just want to make it interesting to do.

If your players are getting too buddy-buddy, well they're basically allies but you want some friction there, right? You want there to be some in-fighting, some bad thoughts, some petty grievances, all developing naturally, maybe turning into fights, screaming arguments, outright murder attempts? Well, up to you how far you want to push it, but yeah. There's some fun things you can do for that, but it's ultimately up to the group and the circumstances. Why not talk a little bit about them?

Typically it's: blasted, flat, and gray, like a desert on the moon. Now it's frosty, expansive, and scary.

Culturally, though, I'm drawing on my hometown. I live in Savannah, GA, and we're a weird combination of rustic / historic, haven't-changed-since-the-fifties buildings and corner shops, old civil war houses and architecture, and progressive, new era hippie art movements. You'll see an old department store that's still got the same signage and charisma attached to it from being the first Macy's, or whatever, but now it's a Quizno's. Imagine if half your town was in one time period, and the other half was eagerly embracing the future. It's weird.

So my Apocalypse Worlds are all like that: flat, open area with lots of landmarks, dotted with cultural hubs and a surprising (for the setting) amount of technology. Go meet the tree-people in our current game: they're savage hunters in the snowy forests, simple traders, but they've got night-vision goggles and stealth tracking equipment, and like, walkie-talkies.

Anachronistic is the word, maybe? Not quite.

There's history everywhere, too. Dig deep enough, and you'll uncover ancient cities, or relics of a bygone era. But everyone knows about that, they're just so accustomed to it being there that it's not even a thing.

Quirky.

So I've been experimenting with different prep sheets and different ways of organizing / teasing information from what comes out of the session. Thought I might share some things with everyone!

All this comes into play strictly by the second session, never the first. I let everything learned from the first session sink in before worrying about all this. Kinda like fronts!

1.) Barf Forth Apocalyptica Sheet
This is all done in a spiral bound notebook, all of these are. Target had some clearance notebooks on sale, and they were selling a bunch of them for 3 cents a piece! I loaded up.

Anyway, after getting a handle on what kind of world / environment we're dealing with (in my current game, it's a frozen-over wasteland), I fill this out with details. It helps me when I need apocalyptica, mainly by keeping it focused and consistent.

At the top of the sheet I write DESCRIPTORS, and I think of three words that best sum up the Apocalypse World our group has made. For this one, I've got: "cold, mists, wind". They're prompts, basically. I try to tie in a lot of my apocalpytica with those three words, but at the same time, I don't force it. If I can come up with something that deals with the cold, with mists, or with wind, then there you go - if not, no big deal. But these are a reminder of what the world is known for, and what will tie in consistency with the group. They're prompts that say, "Don't use these exclusively, but use them often."

Under that, I write QUESTIONS, and these are pretty much like the I Wonder... part on the first session sheet. Here, I write things I want to find out or that jump to me. I always write: "What's the maelstrom like, and what do people call it?" on there, as a rule. Treating the maelstrom like an NPC, giving it a name, description, and self-interests - and oh boy, PC-NPC-PC triangles! - stops it from being a faceless answering machine.

Other questions I have are:
- How does the cold weather impact travel?
- What do the mists obscure?
- What's carried on the wind?

These aren't stakes, but they very well might end up as such! But no, these are things I look for in the PC's answers and descriptions of the world, and in what the apocalyptica is shaping to. Most of this is just bits of flavor that don't have the weight of stakes or I Wonders..., but instead make intriguing set dressing. Notice how, though, I've got "How does the cold weather impact travel?" We've got a Driver in the group, so that's totally going over to the 1st session sheet. Sometimes it happens, and it's cool.

What do the mists obscure? Very open-ended. Could be any given thing at any given time. Could be symbolic or literal! But they're mists, and they're damn sure obscuring something, and I want to know what. What's carried on the wind? I know that sulfurous, smelly, salt-water-garbage air is one answer, but what else? Sounds? What kind of sounds? Animal howling? Gunshots?

The last thing on the sheet is APOCALYPTICA, and these are pre-generated color statements for when I need one quick but I'm drawing a blank. They tend to follow as possible answers from the questions above, but they don't always have to.

- The tree-people, who wear thick furs, hides, and human skins.
- Frozen-over landscapes just barely hinted at in the sunlight, buried deep, deep down.
- Bumping into something large and scary in the mists.

So I'll just cross them out when I use them and apply them to the situation at hand. "Boxer, you're trying to find your way back to the station? It's thick as all hell out here, you can't see anything. Then, like, you're slamming into something hard and heavy, and you fall on your ass, and you look up to see gleaming red lights eight or nine feet above you."

Miscellaneous features include a memo: "Remember to Digress!"

2.) Questions Sheet
For asking provocative questions!

Up at the top, I remind myself: "immediate and intimate details of their experiences," and under that, "sometimes follow-up questions that promote character development or antagonism." With that last part, when I feel like, I ask a related questions, but try to cut deeper into the character. Or sometimes I ask someone else something, see what it reveals about them. It's really cool to see how someone else's answer to a question fleshes out YOUR character. And then sometimes, I try to start shit between people in the group - "Hey, Pallor, which of these guys is the easiest to kill, do you think?"

Anyway, under that, I've got question prompts. I have a small list, but enough room to add more as we play. They're prompts that I think best bring out intimate and immediate details. Just like the ones listed in the book, pretty much! Sounds, tastes, specific details, history, thoughts and feelings. That's so you can ask, "Why is Stork Row surrounded by walls?"

"What does the mist smell like?"

"How do you combat the cold weather?"

And, as I said, plenty of room to add more prompts if I suddenly go, "Man, what about emotions? Huh!"

Then down underneath that, at the bottom, the PROCESS:

1) barf apocalyptica on it
2) refer to it later in play
3) use it and its implications to inform your aesthetic

Just a reminder!

3.) Play Sheet
This sits right next to my 1st session worksheet. It's basically where I write my notes, answers, and scribbles before finalizing it anywhere else.

Up at the top I've got the DOCKING BAY, which is where, when I ask a question, I write the answer down. "How do you combat the cold?"

"Thick jackets, furs."

And room to write down which PCs this applies to, as well as extra space to barf apocalyptica on it - and then, later on in play, I can scan the list and reincorporate it! This helps facilitate the Process from the previous sheet.

Thick jackets and furs - PCs: Boxer, Jag - how to keep warm. Dirty but warm jackets, stretched animal hides and mottled fur, little spines and grooves on the skins. Maybe little tassels or rabbit's feet or something hanging from them?

I also put plans or objectives the PCs undertake: Pallor went to go find a medic for Boxer. Jag wants to avoid Winkle. Boxer needs medical attention.

None of those need to be connected, don't look at it that way. Sometimes they are. But look at each one as its own individual thing. I only put stuff that gives me a chance to respond in a big, interesting way, or things that might take some time - like if I could jump to a new scene before resolving it. But it's there so that I can scribble down some notes:

How could I respond with fuckery?
What apocalyptica applies here?
Does this beg some questions?
How will this invoke any PC-NPC-PC triangles?

Lastly, at the very bottom, there's OFF-SCREEN ACTION. If I'm thinking, "Brace Win is totally going to gather some people, start some trouble," then I'll write it down there. I'll bring it in when it seems appropriate. Any "Announce off-screen badness" goes here, as well as any open-ended "Announce future badness."

4.) NPCs

Lastly, on the back of Front sheets, I write down some things about my NPCs.

Name - current self-interest - how does this NPC engage in a PC-NPC-PC triangle?

Here's Krin. A basic run-down, Pallor the brainer froze her in place with Puppet Strings, and kinda forgot about her, so she had to stay and watch while he raped and abused the love of her life (he did it for the Deep Brain Scan sex move, for a job) - so now she tries to attack him whenever possible, and enlists powerful people to help hunt him down (like the group's gunlugger, Boxer!):

Krin - wants to torture Pallor - shows undying love (to her dead boyfriend) and strength to Pallor, and shows desperation and need to Boxer.

The goal of these sheets is to help facilitate the prep, which sometimes, when things get hectic, I run into trouble doing! When I go to make a move, I pick one, and see if anything in the Docking Bay or off-screen action needs attention. Then I dress it up with apocalyptica. Then I ask questions! It's not for everyone, and it's a lot of paperwork, but it's helpful.

I've got some!

1) How do you deal with a player having two of their own characters in the same scene with each other? I asked this in the AW forum, but I'm still experimenting. Do you avoid it, or is there a special system involved? Do you think there's an issue of players pulling their punches against their own characters in that kind of situation, even if they don't really mean to?

2) What about sharing characters, or trading them off? I take the character this session, and you play him the next? Or even later on that session? Have you dabbled in that, and what's that like? Ever pawn off a character for someone else to play, and take on a new one?

3) Ooh, or what about multiple GMs? How is that like, passing the reins from one player to another? I'm thinking, like, In a Wicked Age here or something. Or have you ever tried one main GM and another co-GM or anything like that?

PLAYING 2 CHARACTERS

__ create a second character to play, so now you’re playing two

Oh like it’s such a big shocker or so difficult to do. I mean, shit,
you’re the MC, you have 30 characters at a time, and your players
shy away from playing 2? The real question is, why don’t people
usually play with more than 1?

(I ask specifically about your games, figure this would be the right forum for it? Apologies if not!)

I'm curious! Vincent, can you talk more about playing more than one character in games other than Apocalypse World?

1) Have you or the groups you've taken part in done it, how often, and with what systems - things like that? It was a completely alien concept to me before AW, so I'd love to hear more about it. What's good about it when it works, and what can make it go wrong?

2) Would you say this works in any of your other games? Could a player go into Dogs with two characters, or IAWA with multiples? What do you think the pros and cons of such an approach are? Would any rules need to be tweaked?

3) And lastly, are there any games out there that you think are really, really good when a player plays multiple characters, regardless of whether or not the rules encourage it?

That's a funny problem!

Of course it's okay.

The technical, picky answer is, you added a custom move to the home front that says "when play jumps forward a bunch of time, somebody can introduce a new character," but that's so technical and picky that I'm embarrassed to mention it.

Haha, why?

That's actually rather illuminating as to what potential custom moves have.

Was thinking of putting together a big gallery of Apocalypse World pictures - some for each class, then some for scenery, then some for threats. If I kept it for private use in my own games, and then maybe shared it here, is that violating anything or causing any trouble - because I damn sure just snatched up the pictures I had and didn't ask.

Also: deviantart is good for Skinners, Brainers, and Hocus...es.

Not a rules question! Just curious about what people have done when they or someone in the game they're MCing pick to play two characters.

Do you generally have a player who plays two characters play them in the same scene, like just interacting, or do you send them apart and have them interact with other people but not really with each other?

As well, what about rolling against each other? The two characters don't get Hx and can't help or interfere with each other, but what if one player wants to go aggro or manipulate their other character?

Again, not looking for any rules clarifications, because I'm pretty sure it's up to the MC and the players, but just seeing what guidelines everyone else came up with before I go further.