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Messages - drnuncheon

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16
Apocalypse World / Re: Apocalypse Love and Kisses
« on: October 01, 2010, 07:03:52 PM »
We're adding a new player next session, and this is what I cooked up (comments or suggestions welcome)

Well, Driver, you've been on the road a while. You've been running on ethanol and fumes for so long that when you heard a rumor a crazy old guy out in Grand Junction had a way to cook up oil out of rocks, you headed right on over to check on it. Turns out he was just making biodiesel, but he was willing to trade you a generous supply for help with a little bandit problem.  Roll +hard, and you can use your car.

On a 10+, good job! Pick 3.
On a 7-9, shit went down, but you managed to salvage something. Pick 1.
On a miss…everything went south.

* the old guy made it, and he'll probably trade with you again
* you've got plenty of fuel for yourself, and extra cans worth 3-barter in the back.
* your car isn't damaged
* you're not being chased

17
Apocalypse World / Re: So how do you get someone to sleep with you?
« on: October 01, 2010, 12:35:24 PM »
I knew I was leaving something out.  Clearly the apocalypse turns me into a bad, bad person.

Is this like the most asked Apocalypse World question or what?

Vx: just curious, do you have the Operator's sex move trigger if they've got a fucking gig?  Or is that "just a gig, no strings attached"?

18
Apocalypse World / Re: So how do you get someone to sleep with you?
« on: October 01, 2010, 12:17:04 PM »
OK, so, you want to have sex with Tum Tum.

If she wants to have sex with you: no roll, you're golden.
If she doesn't, you need to make a move to convince her. So yeah, go aggro, seize by force, or manipulate seem like the most likely candidates. For manipulate, you will need some other leverage, something they want: that medicine for her sister, protection, shelter, hell maybe even "comfort".

If you are trying to seduce someone to do something else (manipulate using sex as leverage) and they don't want your sweet sweet lovin'…then you don't have much leverage, do ya?

19
Apocalypse World / Re: MC mis-steps and how to deal w/them
« on: October 01, 2010, 12:10:32 PM »
Without knowing any particulars of the situation: sometimes when you are heading at top speed for a brick wall you just have to floor it and smash on through.

You said it's the first session, but you also said you pulled something forward "way before it's time"?  How do you know, if it was only the first session?  If you had something preplanned, wrecking it may be the best thing possible.

20
Work's done, and I return to my 1st Session playsheet.  It's pretty sad, really: when I was running the game I completely neglected to put anything on the "eightfold path of evil" aka Wheel of Threat.  I didn't want to stop and try and figure out any of that, and I suck at taking notes while keeping the flow going.

Instead, I'm just going to barf forth some thoughts here, and if more experienced AWers want to comment that would be just peachy.  After that I'll start working up the Fronts.  I've got 2 weeks before the next game.

So from my "I wonders" I've got a list of possible threats:

Amy
Parson
the Eisenhower Tunnel Rats (whoever was running the place before)
Mother Superior
drugs

and from play, we found out that the reason they're in Denver is because the low-lying areas of the country are uninhabitable - great rolling clouds of poison gas, heavier than air, that get blown over the landscape.  I can only imagine it's coming from the oceans.  Who knows what it's doing to the plants.  Maybe sometimes the wind blows it away from a particular area, and scavengers rush in with makeshift gas masks to reclaim whatever they can.

Somewhere I saw a web page that talked about how long man-made things would last without upkeep.  Like, after 3 days this happens.  After a week, etc, etc.  I wish I could find it again.  I know there were a couple of TV programs and a book like that too. Hot damn! I think I found it, or something very like:  http://arcana.wikidot.com/post-apocalyptic-decay

Back to threats and where they fit in.  This is a lot harder when nobody comes with a built-in group of NPCs attached!  I saw the Hardholder and Chopper both get picked up a couple of times, but nobody bit - and the players decided that the PCs were enough of an Operator crew for Fox.  It's a problem I have had in the past with this group - there's a tendency to want to Teflon-coat the PCs.

  • Amy - she seems like she's acting out of Fear right now, but it could be Despair.  Mill was certainly the latter.  You know, before.
  • the Eisenhower Tunnel Rats - "Ambition" is the classic motivation for political entities, but these guys just saw some heavily armed fuckers come into their camp and blow nine kinds of hell out of their leader.  I'm thinking "fear".
    • Mother Superior - here's our Ambition! Mother Superior is a warlord.  I'm kind of torn between Slaver and Hive Queen, or maybe even Collector.
    • Parson - I don't know enough about this guy.  I have a feeling he's political, but what the hell, he doesn't have to be a warlord.  He can be a grotesque - he certainly did the 'seize and hold someone' move to Mill/Amy/Sun.  Mindfucker, I'm thinking.
      • drugs - Despair? Decay?  I'm not even sure what kind of drugs they are.  Seems like papaver somniferum would potentially grow in CO, so it could be heroin.  Or it could be something out of the lowlands affected by the poison.  Maybe it's both.  Gonna say Affliction-Delusion for now.
      • poison gas clouds - Landscape is the category, of course.  Not sure what type, though.  Fortress seems appropriate, but "Breeding Pit" just really says "post apocalyptic" to me.  Maybe it's not poison gas.  Maybe it's spores.
        • winter - damn, almost forgot about this one.  They're in the mountains, in Colorado.  How can this not be a threat?  Landscape-Prison, because it'll be trapping people wherever they are.
        I've got no brutes yet!  Need to think about that, do a little more brainstorming. 

21
So that was session 1: a little short, because I got there late and there were a lot of distractions.

Here's my "I wonder" list from the session.  (Some of them already got answered as we played).

Is anyone after Trey for his act of violence? (I asked how he came by his 1-barter's worth of DVDs.  He was breaking legs for a warlord.)

Why does Trey think Dr. Pity is so pretty? (We're all guys, but the fact that Trey picked the Operator to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with and the 40-year-old, awkwardly angular Brainer as "the prettiest"? Interesting!  I know the player did it just to give the +Hx, but still.)

What happened to the driver? One of the players actually suggested the opening scene, which was them only having half a driver.  But we answered that.

Who has Mill's daughter?  Well, Parson, but we don't know anything about him yet.

What drug is was Mill on? We know he cooks it up and injects it but nothing more.  Pretty sure it's going to wind up on the Threats sheet though.

Who is Parson? (see above)

Who is taking over the tunnel? I asked them what gig they were coming back from, and since one of Fox's is "murders" they picked that - they whacked whoever was in control of the I-70 tunnel because they were charging too much.  Someone's going to pick up the pieces though.

Why is a brothel owner so interested in the tunnel anyway?  Does she really get that much business from the other side?  Hard to believe.

Why is Pity so interested in Parson and the girl? John, Dr. Pity's player, said "It's hard to play acharacter who doesn't care."  I suspect the conflict between him and the money-motivated Fox might be central to the game.

22
So they're outside of Denver, just coming back from a job, when their drivers head splatters all over the hood.  It's Fox who scored them the gig and he's trying not to stain that sweet-ass zoot suit, and Trey who's pulling out the goddamn grenade launcher, and that weird fuck Dr. Pity just looking over at the guys taking shots.

One grenade and it's all over (Trey rolls a 10+ on seize by force: massive harm, take less, and overawe) except for the screaming, and that's when Dr. Pity moves in.  When he touches the guy's face with his glove the guy goes silent - he can't feel anything as the Doctor wanders through his memories.  Mills is his name, he's got a girl named Amy back in Denver, they had a daughter named Sun. Pity watches as she gets taken away by Parson's men.  He watches as Mills waits for Amy to leave before he shoots up.  He aches for her to forgive him and knows she never will. Eventually, he puts Mills out of his misery with a scalpel.

But the fucking driver is dead and the car won't start, so they head back to Denver on aching feet.  Mother Superior owes them for whacking Marco, after all, and the new guy in charge of the tunnel swears to God he'll keep the tolls "reasonable".

Mother Superior is a big lady in Denver, in all senses of the word.  And Fox's player tells me she wears a bondage nun outfit, so its clear what kind of place the Convent is.  Fox digs the sweet little gig that Mother Superior's got going on, and he maneuvers himself into a deal: he and the boys are "on retainer" for the Mother. (10+ on seduce) They seal the deal the old fashioned way (because Fox wants juggling-3).

While Fox and the Mother are "negotiating", Dr. Pity wants to find out more about this Parsons guy.  And who does he run into but Amy, who cleans up the place, you know, after. He quizzes her and finds out that Parsons is using Sun as a hold over her, but He hasn't asked her to move yet.  She's freaked out that he even knows about it, and he blows it when he tries to get her to promise to tell him when Parsons makes a demand: she runs from the room, and you just know she's going to tell Parsons that Mother's brainer is onto her.

The three rendezvous in their rooms.  Fox has a bag full of Convent chits (good for services) which the other two seem content to let him keep.   Dr. Pity begins to tell them about Mills and Amy, and the other two "read a person", both scoring 10+.  Trey's the one that asks the really insightful questions, though: what are you going to do? (eliminate Parsons and free the girl) and how can I change your mind? (convince him that mother & daughter somehow deserve their fate).

The session ends with Hx changes: Trey understood Dr. Pity better after those questions, Fox knows how to keep Trey happy (rooms in a whorehouse plus freebies? Sure!), but Dr. Pity? He don't know Fox, suggesting they go after Parsons-where's the profit in it? Also, Fox picks his three gigs for next time: seeking luxury, keeping Mother Superior happy, and fucking.  Sounds like he's setting himself up as a boy toy…   

23
Apocalypse World / Re: In which we vomit forth apocalyptica
« on: September 14, 2010, 08:26:37 PM »
In some parts of the Apocalypse World, parents tell their children this story: that if they misbehave, then in the dead of winter a great beast named Cinder-claws will creep into the house and take them away, and leave coal for the parents as payment.


They say that snow used to be white.  They say it only came a few months of the year, too.


(This is from a different game I ran, but I think it fits.)
A mule plods slowly in a circle, every step pulling more water from deep beneath the sands. Occasionally the withered fifth leg twitches against the straps that hold it up against its belly, away from the other four. Some people walk clear across the city and push a well-wheel themselves to avoid drinking water drawn by it.



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