That's fantastic! I like how it changes the premise of the playbook a fair bit while still retaining all the bits that make it what it is - it doesn't contradict the letter of the playbook at all, just its spirit (in a limited way). Very cool.

The Quarantine is one of my favourite playbooks. The way the start-of-session move fills out the history of the Apocalypse, and feels like rediscovering the Quarantine's lost memories, is just beautiful in play.

When I first saw the details of the playbook, though, I was disappointed, because the Quarantine is some kind of highly trained soldier in stasis. I was hoping for a "fish out water" character who doesn't belong, kind of like the Mortal in Monsterhearts. I was never sure what to do about that, until I saw that some of the Solace's moves could actually work pretty well to create that type of interaction with others. I've borrowed a couple to create this:

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My idea for a more "Mortal-like" Quarantine. Instead of being a soldier suddenly released into the world, you're an outsider, a seeker of truth, and a carrier of the values of the Old World.

Most of the playbook is as-is. However:



Your Name

You wake up with a name tag or badge. Do you remember your own name, or is this your only clue?

For your name, choose one of the following:

A regular, boring name from the Old World, a name that carries hope for the future,  the name of a former classmate, the name of a former coworker, the name of an old flame.



Your Background

You've just appeared from stasis; this is entirely new to you. You remember only glimpses - and barely, at that - of your past life. What is this place?

For "when you were released from stasis", choose [] a few days ago, [] a few hours ago, [] just moments ago.


Your Gear

You get:

* A token of the world you left behind (you detail)
* Three antique or high-tech items. Any valuable item might be worth as much as 3-barter, to the right people.
* Fashion suitable to your look (you detail).
* Other than your items, no oddments or jingle: you have to make your own way, right from the first session.

Choose 3 antique or high-tech items:

* A field reporter's bulletproof vest (1-armor).
* A filmmaker's high quality digital video camera (valuable hi-tech)
* An archaeologist's electronic handheld recorder containing encyclopedic knowledge (valuable hi-tech)
* A writer-librarian's small collection of books (antique valuable) you detail
* A doctor's suitcase of antibiotics, medicines, and experimental drugs (valuable)
* A private investigator's small-caliber personal pistol, with laser sight and fingerprint scanner (valuable hi-tech 2-harm close)
* To create your own, think of a profession which no longer exists and an iconic item


Your Moves

You get 3 Quarantine moves.

Favorite of the maelstrom: when you help someone who’s making a roll, take +1 to your Hx with them. When someone chooses to read a person with you as the subject, or any other move which allows them to ask questions in order to learn about your inner workings or lost memories, they can choose to gain +1 Hx with you, or to lower yours with them by 1, instead. 

Self-possessed: when you highlight stats, the MC doesn’t get to highlight one. Instead, you choose one to highlight for yourself.

Alive in the world: when you take your bearings in a landscape or a settlement, ask 1:
• Where could I hide here?
• If I had to make a stand here, where would be best?
• What does this place or these people have to offer me?
• How could I gain access to this place’s  or these people’s secrets?
• How could I gain the undivided attention of all present?
• How could I best become accepted as a part of this place or these people?
• What or who is the source of the most pain here?
Whenever acting on the answer requires a roll, take +1. If you make efforts to dig further into a settlement or group of people, roll+sharp. On a 10+, ask 2 more. On a 7–9, ask 1 more. On a miss, ask 1 more, but you draw unwanted attention, here and now.

A higher standard: at the end of the session, when you would normally choose a character who knows you better, instead, consider each of the other players’ characters and decide whether or not they were good people. All that were, tell them to add +1 to their Hx with you on their sheet. You can tell none of them, any of them, or all of them, as you see fit. If this brings them to Hx+4, they mark experience and reset to Hx+1, as always.
 
Eager to know: when you go to someone for advice, they must tell you honestly what they think the best course is. If you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in the pursuit. If you pursue that course but don’t accomplish your ends, you mark experience.

Inspiring: when another player’s character rolls+Hx to help you, they mark experience.

No takers?

I'd love to hear how people have handled this, what went well, what didn't.

I'm curious about people's experiences and "best practices" for when characters find themselves in charge of a holding or a gang.

When a player selects the appropriate improvement, I have no problem handling that - basically, assuming the fictional details are in place, we just conspire together to make the desired outcome happen, no problem.

But what about when a character maneuvers in the fiction so as to become the head of a gang or a holding? How do you handle it then?

Let's say the hardholder is dead, and a PC steps into his place. "I'm in charge here now!"

In your experience, what's the best timing and approach for "making it official"? Do you give the player the appropriate moves, wait for them to be paid with an Improvement, bank it in advance, or what? To what extent do you try to make the fiction and the moves coincide, if at all?

I can imagine a few different ways this could go, and I'd love to hear a) some examples of how it's gone in your games, and b) how you think it works best or should work.

Thank you!

That's some great stuff from Ebok.

I'll make a briefer point, from a simpler perspective, to add to it:

Take a look at how Vincent describes this in the "Surplus and Want" chapter of the book.

These are the rules for holdings and followers who come to be in surplus or in want.

MC, your job as always is to take these and make them come true. Address yourself to the characters, not the players; misdirect; have names for people in the holding and among the followers, and use them. “Your followers’ society is breaking down” is not the thing to say. “In the night, Marser chops Jackabacka’s hand off because he wants Jackabacka’s 3year-old for his own. Jackabacka’s in your tent now, bloody-stumped, he’s sobbing like a little kid.”

That's really pretty key, here.

Remember that your job as the MC is to be making moves. On paper, maybe it looks like the Wealth move is supposed to be some kind of compass of the state of events in the holding, but, as you say, that doesn't really work. Why does it flip-flop from session to session, for instance?

Instead, think of it this way:

Normally, you make moves in play to set yourself up for harder moves (like "announcing future badness"). When a holding is in "want", though, you don't need to "set up" anything: that's a "golden opportunity" to go ahead and make a hard move.

So, an active "want" just means you have a green light to go ahead and bring to light some bad problem in the holding - no one's going to be feeling caught off-guard, because everyone can see it came from the move's outcome.

Now, to actually *make* that move, look at your threats and *their* associated moves. There's no "describe the hunger of the populace" move. Instead, you must misdirect: pick a threat, let it follow its impulse and make a move. "Everyone's hungry" is so-so. "Marser cut off Jackabacka's hand," now that's a good move.

If, in the next session, the wealth roll is a 10+, then great - there are no new complications. Like Ebok says, though, that doesn't mean no one's hungry. Just means it's not a current problem right now. And, yeah, the consequences in the fiction still hold: Jackabacka is still missing his hand, so what are you gonna do about it?

I didn't realize there was a new one - thanks for pointing it out! I'm excited to take a look.

I haven't seen a ton of discussion of those more "oddball" playbooks. Here's a bit of a recent thread about the Contaminated:

http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=9094.0

As a sidenote, the Marmot was the best playbook? Do you mean just to read, or to play? It's always looked like a bit of a gag to me; I'd love to hear about people's experiences playing it "straight up", and how that went.

Thanks, bonkydog!

How do you describe harm for PCs? I'll give you three answers. But consider, first, that harm for PCs isn't strictly related to the fiction, the way it is for NPCs. One PC could be in a horrific accident, lose a hand, and break a leg, and have one segment marked on their "clock" (because they received care from an Angel, for instance, and now the harm is gradually healing). Another could be in perfectly good health, as best we can tell, in the immediate sense, but have three segments marked off (they got knocked around in a few bar fights, so they have a black eye, but it's been a few days and the harm's not getting better on its own). I was sitting still when someone stuck a bloody axe into my leg for 2-harm, whereas you took a couple of punches in a friendly bareknuckle boxing contest (twice, for 1-harm each time) - do we "look" the same, on screen? Surely not.

Usually, it corresponds to their general physical state, but not necessarily - segments of the clock are an abstract measure of how close they are to death, rather. (Hence the "countdown clock", as opposed to a "health meter" or some such thing.)

Ok, three answers:

1. Ask the PLAYER to describe it to you. There's no downside here, and the player gets to characterize their PC a little further.

2-harm for the Faceless might mean to the player gruesome wounds and blood everywhere - but he just keeps on coming! Terrifying!

2-harm for the Battlebabe, though, running around nearly naked and with Impossible Reflexes, or the gorgeous Skinner, might be a singe on their upper arm where a bullet nearly got them - and the hole in their outfit just makes it look even more eye-catching.

It's a great opportunity to learn more about the PCs and how their players perceive them, stylistically speaking.

"So, you took 3-harm in those last couple of scenes. How are you holding up? Does it hurt like a bitch, or are you in shock, not even feeling it? Do you look like a mess?" That kind of thing is a great question.

I've seen some people write down a line of description next to each segment of harm they take. It serves as a nice reminder of what's happened to your character and how you might play them in any given moment. ("Hmmm, I see I've got a black eye and a bullet to my right shin. I'm probably limping a bit and my face is swollen from last night's debacle. I'm swearing a lot more than usual, too!")

2. In terms of AW's rules, the part of the system which comes into play here is two-fold:

First, note how harm gets better and worse at different points on the clock. This means certain things for your descriptions. For instance, if a punch in the stomach takes me past 9:00, we know the harm is going to get worse with time. That means something bad happened - are you coughing up blood now? It's not the same as 1-harm taking you from 12:00 to 3:00. We have to explain why it's going to be getting worse with time.

Second, the main source of description and detail for harm isn't the harm clock. It's the harm move.

When you make that move, it tells you all kinds of things about what's going on - did you get knocked over, stunned, incapacitated by pain, or what? That's where you should get your description from.

3. If you want more than that, a while back put together various alternatives to AW's "hit points", which is more descriptive, visual, or "visceral". It works pretty much the same way as AW's system in terms of when character's die, but really brings the fiction into focus. Here's one which a lot of people liked and have been using in their AW games (I get some happy reports now and then):

http://ihousenews.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/63408904/Apocalypse%20harm.pdf

Sometime later, another fellow wrote an even more detailed version called "Blood & Guts". You can do a search for that one, too, if you like!