Oh for some reason I was thinking they start with 3-juggling. I wouldn't drop them below 2 I guess is my point. Much more interesting to drop a new obligation in their lap. You're offering them an opportunity, very much with a cost.

You could even just come at the next session playing up the "unworked" option for a new obligation you spot in the fiction, and when they're like "hey why is Doghead everywhere I try to go today??" or "What the fuck, why can't birdie stay out of trouble?" you get to say "Oh shit, looks like you have a new obligation gig" and that gig is "Avoiding Doghead" or "Protecting Birdie" or whatever. The key is that you're basing it out of the fiction and waiting for that moment when they show they're invested in it. If they don't bite, maybe let it go and fish for something else.

Realistically, they have 3 juggling because they've gotten good at doing lots of things at once. If they've managed to settle an obligation gig for good, why should the be less good at that?

Your job is to make apocalypse world seem real and be a fan of the players characters, not deny them things they want or could use.

I actually use the rules straight from the Angel playbook. 4 days unconscious under an Angel's care for 1-harm, 1 week for 2-harm, and roll on an Angel kit if the NPC doesn't die instantly for 3-or-more-harm.

OK, upon rereading this, that makes sense. They are easier to kill, but easier to heal in terms of the severity of their clocks.

Zefir, I would say that the Angel would heal the chopper's gang individually. Check out the example in the book for when a gang takes harm, page 170:

Dremmer’s gang inflicts 2-harm, +1harm because it’s bigger, -1harm for Uncle’s gang’s 1-armor, for a total of 2-harm to Uncle’s gang. ?at means a couple of fatalities and all the serious wounds I want to dish out, plus 2-harm to Uncle himself since he’s leading his gang. With him as its strong, present leader, the gang will hold together just fine through this exchange, and through another one like it. ?e danger to this gang is that they’ll be massacred, not that they’ll break.

“Well, you hold firm,” I say. “Mifflin and Putrid go down — Putrid’s guts are all over you — and Pallor and a couple of others are badly hurt. You take a bullet yourself for 2-harm.

Looks like Mifflin and Putrid are out of the picture, but Pallor and a couple others could come around if they can get to the angel or the angel can get to them. When or if that comes up, "a couple others" get names of course.

This move fucks with players more than almost any other move you can make as MC. Especially old school gamers, who are used to having characters take harm and die, but maybe not used to suddenly not having the thing they had.

I think a good rule of thumb is to use your NPCs to make this move for you. That way you're sure to get a story hook out of the deal, or at least a bloodbath.

Hey all,

I'm sure this varies depending on your GM experience and style, but here's a question. What's your preferred group size? How many is "too many" to run sessions smoothly?

I'm asking because I'm looking to put together a group and I have received more interest than anticipated. I've run Apocalypse World a few times before, and for me the challenge has always been giving people the proper amount of screen time.

Any thoughts and experiences are appreciated!

Both groups (PC+gang) want to go aggro.

Are they going agro... against each other? If weapons are out on both sides, that's seizing by force, yeah? In which case it's totally fine for two PCs to roll the move at the same time, and pick the options from the list as they see fit, then you total up the harm. They can even both roll to interfere with each other, so four rolls total, the same on either side. Could go one of a hundred thousand ways depending on the rolls and the circumstances!

There is also the fact that the Chopper gets, in addition to a gang, a fleet of motorcycles—by default! Another PC may take a gang, but any transport provided is completely at the generosity of the MC and can be taken away just as swiftly. The MC wouldn't fuck with your motorcycles outside of the occasional breakdown or roadblock.

Also, the battlebabe's weak hard score means he or she isn't as powerful a leader as you are. Their gang will follow them and obey orders—to a point. But when given an order they don't like the looks of, a leadership roll will be called for and there is much less chance for success.

The uniquiness as I see it is this: The battlebabe can have a gang, but the chopper IS HIS GANG.

Sounds like it followed the fiction nicely.

Reading a Situation is something you do, when it's your turn to talk in the general conversation. When the MC describes something and then asks 'what do you do?' you can talk about how you're reading the situation, keeping your eyes out, etc. Or you can describe how you're beating the crap out of some NPC because he pissed you off. But once you describe whatever it is, the MC is going to say something, and you don't get to interrupt them to change what it was you were doing, because you don't like what they said.

That sound exactly right. His chance to read a sitch was when the gang encircled the two of them, but he chose to go straight for aggressive instead.