All that stuff seems way overkill.

I've had a good number (all of, actually) my Apocalypse World sessions through simple text chat (and an in-built dice roller, of course), including a crazy game with nigh every playbook used.

After introducing them to Apocalypse World, a number of my scattered friends play it almost every day via nothing but IRC.

For MC stuff - you need what you need, but, well - make a move and never speak its name means you don't have to do any fancy e-versions of it. Paper will suffice.

My guess is that Vincent isn't exactly going to start churning out playbooks and then handing them out to ecret-say uddies-bay all over the continent.

It's more about the "Hack it to hell!" attitude that AW is sporting. Every playgroup can have a different set of playbooks because someone in that group made something unique! They may or may not share, but still... They made stuff, now it's their thing, and the group is now different from another group.

For instance, Drivers in games I run will have a move that allows them to take shortcuts through the maelstorm. How much do you really care about that? Does it deprive you of anything?

So there you go.

A thought occured. Seeing how we don't seem to be exactly likely to be able to show same-place same time, maybe there's some non-sequential way of going about this?

Google Wave, frex. I can't say I really know how to best make use of it (really, I don't know how to make use of it at all)... But people have been using it for such things, mmyes?

Would also go a little way in making more possible MCs accessible to run thing, hopefully.

Good?

The way I do it is that, when NTBFW is in play, you:

1) Do either your weapon's harm or "gang" harm, with weapon's harm being counted from an individual and not a gang (so gang harm takes precedence unless you have a 5-harm+ weapon).
2) Use tags from whatever weapon you're using.

So if you're using a grenade launcher, you'd do 4 harm (either from the individual weapon or the gang harm + gang size modifier), and the 'area' tag would also apply. If you're using your fists and whatever furniture around that can be lugged, well, you still do 4 harm, but your foes have to be at hand range for it to be effective.

The mechanical effect of the other guys taking 4 harm is the same in both cases, but fictionally, you're doing two different things - blowing stuff up from a distance while laughing like a madman versus beating up anyone who dares get close enough.

Having played Echo Bazaar for a short bit, I now believe I can play this hack and amuse my fellows whilst doing so.

I do not, however, have the faintest idea of how I would go about running it. Will you tell me?

Okay, so. You are on a floating rock of an island, clustered together with oh so many people&gods. This means that the following are true:

* Someone is always watching.
* They know who you are and what you're thinking.
* Your actions are judged.

When the dust rages on your rock, none of the above are true.

A lot of the moves will give character a temporary exception to these.

Oh, and "they know who you are and what you're thinking" basically means that anyone, any time, can ask you a read a person question and then act on them... Unless you don't want those thoughts known and succeed a +spine roll.

Oh, and yeah. Characters no longer have health levels - or rather, they will be reduced to good/wounded/pretty much dead for most characters (some characters might be just plain immortal). Instead, they'll get a Face metric... Which should be a bit different for each character (glory for the blooded ones, fear for the dust ones, fortune for the nosy ones...) somehow, but I'm not yet fully sure on how to best implement this... Face damage mechanics (when your honor is insulted and you don't action, roll +blood... On a miss, you lose face.), Face refreshing mechanics (when you help a person in need, roll +warmth. On a hit, you gain face.), some combination thereof? Playbook moves or basic moves?

I found a neat possibility in AW hackspace! Precisely, the possibility of a move that goes in the rough form of:

When you do <X>, something(someone) else can roll with stat+yourstat.

Or, to give this vagueness a bit more meat to sink teeth into...

You belong to a company of mercenaries in a war-torn land. Kings and emperors and sky-scorching wizards come and go, but they all need someone both experienced and expendable to do their dirty work. And, when the price is right -- that's you and your men.

The mainstay of your Company starts out as a rag-tag group of greenhorns armed with whatever weaponry they came from home with and sharpened sticks for pikes.

Cool-1 Hard-1 Hot-1 Sharp-1 Weird-1

You have three advancements you can spend to incrase any stat you wish by a +1. When advancing a stat, pick one thing from the appropriate list. You can pick something twice - when picking it the second time, write down "The finest <...> in all of the lands" or something other to that effect.

Cool{
Archers
Horses
Armour&Shields
Swift men
Cunning men
}

Hard{
Swords
Spears
Axes
Sheer numbers
Ferocious men
Proud men
}

Hot{
Contacts
Secrets
Wines&Vixens
Poisons
Assassins
}

Sharp{
Scouts&Sentries
Grizzled veterans
Hard-ass officers
Engineers&Supplies
Disciplined men
}

Weird{
A keepsake from an old battle
A perplexing device
Luck
Circling buzzards
An old hag
A child prophet
}

A Company has all the basic moves, plus special results on a +12.

Under fire - on a 12+, the company fends off attacks completelly. Hold 3. During battle, any member of the Company can spend this hold by to: save their own skin from imminent danger (or) save everyone from imminent danger with a succesful under fire roll.

Seize by force - on a 12+, the company has broken through and seized initiative. Hold 3. During battle, any member of the Company can spend hold this hold by making a +hard roll. When inflicting harm, you can spend this hold to: add ap, ignore size, fear, s-harm.

Manipulate/Seduce a person - on a 12+, you've got them in your pocket. Pick an ally: threat type and hold 3. Any member of the company can then, at any time, spend this hold to make them make their threat move. This hold can be refreshed by 1 up to 3 by getting back in touch with them and seducing/manipulating them some more.

Read a sitch - on a 12+, the company starts making the sitch instead of reacting to it. Hold 3. During battle, any member can spen this hold after a succesful read a sitch roll to pick a question from the list and answer it as you please ("What's the biggest threat? I AM!").

Open your brain - on a 12+, the company unwittingly sets something into motion in the grand scheme of things. Say what will happen, eventually, and hold 3. Either you or the MC can then spend this hold to show omens of things to come. After all the hold is spent, what's forseen will come true within a day.


And the characters!

The Siegeworker

Barrage - when you're providing cover fire, add your cool to the Company's.

The Slayer

Vanguard - when you're leading a charge and killing like crazy, add your hard to the Company's.

The Layer

Vanguard - when you're making somebody feel comfortable, add your hot to the Company's.

The Tactician

Schemes within schemes - when you make a plan and stick to it, add your sharp to the Company's

The Hedgewizard

Foreboding femur When you get a that feeling in your bones and tell them, add your weird to the Company's.




Obviously, the character/move names could use work and this generally needs some working on, but you get the general idea. You do something which gives the Company extra power right then and there, and then she passes the end result back to the players for them to do with as they will.

Buried deep somewhere in the dev log, there's a note that you should definitelly be able to take "improve stat by +1" as an ungiven future advancement.

Also, I played a -1 Hard brainer with a hardhold once. There were discipline issues. But I solved them with my brain!