Because Gandhi was weird.

No, seriously. Dude was fucking wacknuts. Went about sleeping next to half naked 14 year old girls, encouraging people who hung blindly on his every word to get the shit kicked out of them, called the nation that tried to kill him "his greatest lover", starved himself, corresponded with Hitler, and.. wait for it... claimed he had magical powers. The magical powers to see through the pain of the world and find something really true beyond it, and once grasping that real truth, make the world better.

Plus, dhoti+glasses is a weird look.

I'm pretty sure I could do a quite accurate Gandhi as a Hocus.

Lets see here:

Name: Bright
Look: Man, tattered vestments, ascetic face, clear eyes, bony body

Cool +1
Hard +1
Hot -1
Sharp +1
Weird +2

Fortunes (Your students, congregate in their own communities, eager & enthusiastic, dedicated, violence, judgement)
Charismatic
Frenzy (just never use it for violence)

Get an advance and probably take Fucking Wacknut and maybe pick up Oftener Right or Spooky Intense. (You can't take the Hardholder because Nehru snatched it.)

And our Gunlugger has a theme song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4BJ1bg5NPg

That's When I Reach for My Revolver, by Mission of Burma.

Once I had my heroes
Once I had my dream
But all of that is changed now
They've turned things inside out
The truth is not that comfortable, no

And mother taught us patience
The virtues of restraint
And father taught us boundaries
Beyond which we must go
To find the secrets promised us, yeah

That's when I reach for my revolver
That's when it all gets blown away
That's when I reach for my revolver
The spirit fights to find its way

A friend of mine once told me
His one and only aim
To build a giant castle
And live inside his name
Cry and whispers sing in muted pain

That's when I reach for my revolver
That's when it all gets blown away
That's when I reach for my revolver
The spirit fights to find its way

Tonight the sky is empty
But that is nothing new
Its dead eyes look upon us
And they tell me
We're nothing
But slaves (That's when I reach for my revolver)
Just slaves (That's when I reach for my revolver)
That's when I reach for my revolver
That's when I reach for my revolver
That's when I reach for my revolver
That's when I reach for my revolver   

And he's back to back with the Skinner whose themesong is "Fearless Love" by Melissa Ethridge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQJlWBU42Q

When I woke up I was 17
You kissed my lips in a bad bad dream
Showed me things aren't what they appear to be
Called me angel and set me free
You gave me life in the cold cold dark
But you ran away in the mornings spark
Made me think that reality
Is not where I want to be

I am what I am and
I am what I am afraid of
Oh what am I afraid of
I need a fearless love
Don't need to fear the end
If you can't hold me now
You will never hold me again
I want to live my life
Pursuing all my happiness
I want a fearless love
I won't settle for anything less

I've walked my path had worlds collide
I lost my way and I fooled my pride
This lover's ache wouldn't feel so strange
If I could only change

But I am what I am and
I am what I am afraid of
So what am I afraid of
I need a fearless love
Don't need to fear the end
If you can't hold me now
You will never hold me again
I want to live my life
Pursuing all my happiness
I want a fearless love
I won't settle for anything less

Now I'm not here to lay the blame
I understand when you hold a flame
Heads will shake heads will turn
And sometimes you just get burned

**********

I foresee really, really simple PC-NPC-PC triangles....

Ben,

Or all your brain functions turn off when they're removing the hat from the fat guy next to them. Piece of clothing, someone else's.

I dunno, this move is the move that bugs me the most of all the moves in the game. Most of the equivalent moves (battlebabes holding people's eyes, hypnosis, etc) have limitations on them that are pretty obvious and often mechanically enforced.

This one doesn't have those limits and it irritates me. Both because of the gameness of it and because of the "Yes sure skinners are hot but fuck, how dumb are these bastards anyway"ness of it.

That skinners are that hot sometimes, in limited situations or with some resistance, that's cool. That skinners are that hot just cause they're taking off their sock? Not so much.

Now, wait for Vincent to come along and convince me that I'm wrong.

See, I never much cared for Aristotle's take on it. I found the Jain savants take on it ever so much more flexible and human. It's complicated to translate from the Sanskrit, but basically it goes like this:

In some ways this game has lasers
In some ways this game has no lasers
In some ways this game has lasers and in some ways this game has no lasers
In some ways this game has lasers, but they are not describable
In some ways this game has no lasers, but they are describable
In some ways this game has lasers, in some ways it does not have lasers, and they are not describable
In some ways, the lasers in this game cannot be said to be or not to be

Personally, I believe that AW is a game that has no lasers, but they are describable. To understand how you just have to look at the Psychic Malestorm rules.

I think I'm in love with this hack.

I personally like "so you're so pissed off about him pressuring you for your fucking car that you need to drive away to cool off. You can totally get out from under it, if you drive off down the road away from the base. Alone. Like way out from the base. Alone. Just get out there and let the open road and your car cool you off. Its not like the Reavers have been spotted out that way, not at all..."

(Yes, I go Mad Max every chance I get, piss off.)

Or, because I actually saw this shit in real life once, "You can totally freak out and slash your own tires and then ask him if he wants to borrow the car now."

I've been looking at this too, as I'm about to be in a cabin in the woods for three weeks with only one other human being within 50 miles of me...

My initial thought is that I might want some NPCs to become a bit less fragile than others, but not at the MCs (sole) discretion. (After all geeks gotta be in the crosshairs.) So, I thought that I might make it based on actions of the PCs, in reward or consequence. Something like...

When you induce major fuckery (in the good sense or the bad) in an NPCs life, and that NPC survives and knows it was you, they get Hx with you.*

When a character with Hx of 1 to 3 is helping you, they give you +1 forward. If their Hx is 4+ they give you +1 ongoing.

When a character with Hx of 1 to 3 is interfering with you, they give you -1 forward. If their Hx is 4+ they give you -1 ongoing.

Characters with Hx take damage more like PCs than NPCs. They’re a bit tougher to kill off. Still in the crosshairs, mind you, but they take a little more harm before their head pops like an extra in Scanners.

NPCs don’t have negative Hx, nor does their Hx reset or anything like that. It goes from 0 to 4, and that’s that.

In the solo game, start off like 3 NPCs (who look like PCs by type but don’t have moves cause they don’t roll dice) with Hx 1 to the PC. The PC can then mess with their Hx as normal.

The Player should probably have first crack at introducing these NPCs, followed by the MC.

*Things that count as major fuckery:

• Fucking them
• Trying to kill them and failing
• Mind fucking them
• Healing them from some painful screaming death injuries
• Killing someone they care about while they're standing there watching
• Healing/saving someone they were good and serious about killing so that that fucker can come back and kill them now, thanks asshole.
• Making an example of them
• Anything that makes everyone watching wince and/or say "Jesus Cripes"
• Doing what Marie would do