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« on: June 22, 2012, 12:02:16 PM »
I was looking for something else and I happened upon this old post of mine at Story Games. I thought you all here might be interested. Pardon my crankiness; it was topical at the time but no longer.
-Vincent
Co-MCing Apocalypse World
Preface 1, in which I am cranky:
Co-GMing is fun, easy and good, but it's not like it's the pinnacle of roleplaying or anything.
Preface 2, in which I am still cranky:
If you and your friends want to co-GM Apocalypse World, you should. I don't know what's stopping you.
But since you ask, here's how I'd do it:
1. Setup: everyone makes a PC. Everyone gets a first session worksheet and as many front sheets as they want.
2. The conversation stands. There's still no turn taking, just the casual turn taking of any conversation.
Within the conversation, moment to moment, interaction to interaction, you'll be a player, an MC, a fellow player but not currently talking, a fellow MC but not currently talking, or pure audience. Don't try to formalize or keep track, they overlap and come and go.
3. The player agenda - play your character as though she were a real person - stands. That's your agenda with regard to your PC.
The MC agenda - make Apocalypse World seem real, make the characters' lives not boring, play to find out what happens - stands. That's your agenda with regard to everyone else's PCs.
4. A new co-MC agenda: share graciously. You aren't a solo MC; you've agreed to be enthusiastic about your fellow MCs' visions and ideas.
Divvy MC duties by fronts. You have your fronts that you're advancing, the other MCs have theirs. I own the water cult inside the holding, Em owns Dremmer and his raiders, Meg owns whatever it is that's going on in the old subway tunnels.
Coordinate fronts with your fellow MCs only when they really do interfere with one another. Ask first. "Hey, Meg, do you figure that what's going on in the old subway tunnels affects the water cult in any way? Anything I should know about that?" Since fronts in Apocalypse World aren't mystery- or backstory-intensive, this shouldn't be a problem.
Share the home front.
4. A new always-say (or rather, a never-say), for all co-MCs: don't have a conversation with yourself. Don't make the other players have conversations with themselves.
When you're playing your PC and you would normally turn to the MC for an answer, input, or to say what happens, instead turn to the rest of the group. Don't answer your own questions.
When someone turns to the rest of the group for input, one of you has to provide it. If you have something, say it!
When your PC comes with NPCs, have your fellow players play them, don't play them yourself. When someone else's PC comes with NPCs, play some of them.
5. The MC's principles and moves stand. They're how you relate to your own NPCs and to your fellow players' PCs.
6. The first session. You all know that the first session isn't a session, it's a process, right? You ask questions, begin to arrange relationships, play NPCs, look for stable and unstable situations in the PCs' lives, start to apply pressure to them, and ultimately create fronts and threats. Occasionally throughout play - especially as the PCs' interests grow in scale - you return to the first session process, to establish what's going on now, here at this new scale.
Each of you, as co-MCs, will go through this process at your own pace. By the end of the first session of play, at least one of you ought to be ready to start making fronts, but probably not all of you will be. That's fine! Go at your own pace.
My recommendation:
If at least two of you have MCed Apocalypse World before, your group can co-MC Apocalypse World, no problem.
If you haven't, you still probably can.
If you want to try it, do!
That's it! Have fun.
You know I love to answer questions. If you've got 'em, ask 'em.
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