AP: The Immaculate Take Manhattan

First session of a new AW game.

Tony's pitched this setting where Manhattan has only partially been apocalypse'd, various neighborhoods are controlled by different warlord-style hardholders, and the rooftops are the nesting places of the spider aliens who can turn people into zombies by plugging them into their web.

Another part of the pitch was that music matters, so John threw out the idea that we were all in a band, Brandon wanted to play the Maestro'D and all of a sudden we were off.  We were originally thinking about the bar-as-flashmob, showing up and just happening, but then changed it to be on a moving subway car that wandered between the various warlord territories on different nights of the week.

The characters are:

- Sliver, the androgynous pimp/chef-tastic Maestro'D, holding court + making deals
- Axl, the vintage music equipment-collecting + guitar phenom Saavyhead
- Ruth, the just-need-my-coffee + country-loving farm chick, bass-player Angel
- Nero, the fast-driving, 4-way seeking, drummer-with-a-car, cool-as-silk Battlebabe
- Ascott, the tight-plastic-dress, megaphone-quickdrawing, lead singer Hocus

Together, we are... IMMACULATE, a band/cult/experience that brings you fashion, scene, and music (as per the Maestro'D's picks) by combining and remixing everything that is vintage, i.e. pre-apocalypse.

Before play started, we established that Axl and Ascott used to have a thing going where they would open their minds to the Maelstrom together with sweet, sweet music and sweet, sweet loving.  Axl has the last guitar Jimi Hendrix ever played and it was certainly involved somehow. That's why they both have Augury.  However, since Axl dumped Ascott -- though the rest of the band thinks it was the other way around -- Ascott can only reach into the Maelstrom through her true fans (followers).

Somewhere along the way, once play started, either Brandon or Ryan said, "What if the Psychic Maelstrom is the past?" and all of a sudden we were cooking with napalm.  Holy fuck, that was cool.

I'll let other folks jump in and tell you more about the game and how the first session went.

Nero loves being in the band and the scene, but he wouldn't admit it. He just wants to get together enough scratch and fuel (and oh yeah, a helicopter) to escape New York and go to California (a mythical land of honey from songs).

Being a Driver would be just the thing, so of course I started him out as a Battlebabe. Gotta earn it, you know. :) I do have a car -- a sweet '72 Dodge Challenger that Axl found for me using his weird psychic connection to the maelstrom and the past. I really owe Axl, which is too bad since he's the person I trust the least.

This is Nero (played by Jamie Hector from The Wire):


Last night, I managed to get the local warlord's girlfriend into my car so I could seduce her (she has access to gasoline) and I blew the roll. She fell for me, hard. Just as the rag-men attacked. Wheee!

So far, this game is awesome. I love the music scene, the maelstrom, Jonathan's hot rocker cult-leader, the whole deal. Can't wait for next week.