Dammit, Wilson.  The Seattle crew was just talking about starting a new AW game set in a semi-flooded world.

Your game sounds way hot, tho.

There's a selectiveness in deciding who gets access to what to prevent the characters from blurring into one another.

Definitely, but it's been interesting to note how the extensiveness of niche protection seems to be different between different campaigns.  In some games, players seem to shy away from taking moves that other PCs already have, even though it's definitely allowed by the rules ("take a move from another playbook").  Where, in other games, it seems very common for a bunch of PCs to have the same moves.

I can understand, if you're really worried about niche protection and blurring, Bret, why you would be worried about assigning playbook moves based on fictional developments, but it does work really well in other campaigns that aren't quite as worried about those things.  There's still enough differentiation between characters, in my opinion.

Take the situation where one PC switches character types to become the same type of character as another existing PC.  Now you definitely have two Choppers or two Gunluggers or whatever.  And that's definitely in the rules, yeah?

Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on that.  Right now, if I revise it based on the suggestions here, the only thing it requires is for violent deaths to leave brief echoes in the Psychic Maelstrom, which doesn't seem too restricting on individual groups.  Or am I missing the wider implications?

Yeah, I'm leaning towards making it more ambiguous whether the Valkyrie actually collects ghosts or whether she's just crazy and siphoning echoes of dead people off the Maelstrom.  In the end, she shouldn't be any more supernatural than the Brainer, I think.

The slaver parallel you mention is interesting, Joe.  I really like the sex move where you swap / inflict spirits on someone, though, which wouldn't be possible with a slaver.  Maybe that should be a class move and not a sex move?  Not sure.

I think a lot of things will get clearer when I come up with better stats for the Ghost Army, including the different options you can select from at start.  There's probably one where the Valkyrie is basically a serial killer and collects souls of a particular type.

Here's a new character type I've been thinking about, based loosely on the "Broken Rainbow" post-apocalyptic valkyries-on-hovercycles game I ran this past year using Mouse Guard.  We probably should have used Apocalypse World, but I wasn't aware of it then.  This is me making up for it.  Right now it's a hack of a bunch of different existing character types, but it may move in a more independent direction.

Suggestions and feedback are most welcome, of course.

THE VALKYRIE

They're either the bastard daughters of some long forgotten god or a coven of death cult witches.  All I know is that they call the Maelstrom "daddy" and cackle to themselves like fucking hyenas. Do not enter.

NAME TBD

LOOK TBD

STATS

Pick from the Hocus sets, for now. Probably eventually create a new set that leans towards Hard and Weird.

VALYKRIE MOVES

You get these 2:

Soul Ripper: (variation on Seize By Force, for now) when you have time and physical intimacy with a recently deceased body, you can stick your fingers in its flesh and assert your mastery over their lingering psychic essence. Roll + Weird.  On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 1:
* You take definite hold of their soul, drafting it into your ghost army (see below)
* You can force the deceased spirit to truthfully answer 1 question.
* You suffer little harm.
* You impress, dismay, or frighten the soul.

Ghost Wrangler: (Pack Alpha / Leadership / Frenzy hybrid, for now) when you try to impose your will on your ghost army (see below), roll + Weird.  On a 10+, all 3. On a 7-9, choose 1:
* They do what you want
* They don't fight back over it
* They unite and fight for you (2-harm gang small invisible invulnerable)
* You don't have to make an example of one of them

On a miss the ghosts turn on you or make you vulnerable to your enemies.

Might be other optional moves, to choose between.  Specifically I'm thinking of one with some real fictional positioning, like "Dark Wings: when you attack from a higher position, take +1 forward."

BIKE

Identical to Chopper, for now.

GHOST ARMY

By default your army consists of about 15 fucking poltergeists that you ripped untimely from the violent womb of the Psychic Maelstrom. Likely, you murdered at least half these fuckers personally, with your bare hands, and for half the rest you were watching appreciatively as the killing was done.  They don't rightly believe your promises about riding out to glory in the end times, seeing as how the end times have come and gone without no glory to be had a'tall.  And the best part is: no one can see these fuckers but you, the occasional dog, horse, or child, and madmen who ain't full right in the head.

GEAR

You get 1 custom hand weapon, as per Battlebabe.  Valkyries generally like to do their murdering up front and personal, where they can enjoy the wetness of blood between their fingers.

VALKYRIE SPECIAL

If you and another character have sex, you make them vulnerable to your ghost army. Roll + Weird. On a 10+, you decide which ghosts leave your army and begin haunting the other character. On a 7-9, as above, but the GM can make one change to your muster order, shifting one additional ghost or preventing one from leaving your service. On a failure, the GM decides who the ghosts leave with.

DESIGN THOUGHTS

I really like the way that Wants and Obligations work and am still thinking about how they might work with this character type.  Does the Valkyrie owe her ghost army anything to keep them relatively satisfied?  Or does she just exert her will on them?  Is she driven by a drive to prepare for the end times, when she will lead the army to glory in the final battles?  Is she trying to collect as many souls into her army as possible?  Not sure yet.  Maybe some of these are decided in play, by individual players, and don't need mechanical backing.

A mock-up of a 11x11" booklet cover spread.
http://plays-well.com/firmament-cover.jpg

An example of what a starting map might look like, generated by the players before play begins in earnest.  The faded lines are pathways that are known or marked but not actively practiced and familiar to the group. I'm sure we'll come up with a much better map in playtest.
http://plays-well.com/firmament-atlas.jpg

Forgot one more aspect of transparency:

• the way the MC is actively encouraged -- and more importantly, shown how -- to create custom moves; AW really embraces the GM's role in engaging with the mechanics as a designer as well as an interpreter.

That's pretty significant, I think.

No, you're totally right, Daniel. Part of what will make the hack feel super lonely is having Fronts and core issues that have nothing to do with other people and in fact pull you away from them.  Ruins are part of that, definitely, but they're still man-made.

But there should still be ways to model, say, a Cartographer's impulse to map the unknown heavens.  Last night I played a Hocus for the first time and really liked how Fortunes is a more complex version of the gig rules.  Something that like, which a Cartographer could invoke multiple times a session rather than just at the beginning... that could be really cool.