Quick intro/general discussion

Gravitas is, put simply, a space opera hack of the regular Apocalypse World game. In terms of changes, we've reflavored and renamed the classes, and come up with a few minor mechanics changes to incorporate spaceflight and space combat.

For the most part, the classes remain unchanged. The Driver, Hardholder, and Chopper got the most changes, but at their core, they remain the same. As we go, we may expand on these.

We don't have the classes quite ready to post for this forum, so those will be forthcoming as we get them reorganized.

The overall setting:

There was a golden age, once, when the empire still existed. A time when the lanes were safe and well-traveled, when new ones were opened with each passing day,when Captains belonged to fleets, when the stations were waystations, not bastions, when Semper Fi still meant something.

But then it all went to hell in a handbasket. For one reason or another, the empire fell. Its military fell to infighting. Warlords claimed entire systems for themselves, pirates took over the lanes and killed the merchant business, and the keys to the Gravitas got lost in the chaos.

These days, it's all a guy can do to get by. The empire is done, and it won't be comin' back. But at least the lanes are still workable. The Gravitas never went away, after all. And for the enterprising spacer, there's always a niche to be filled.

I'm a little perplexed by this. It looks like you're just re-naming the stuff from standard AW. Barter = credits. Hardholder = Captain.

Seems to me that a space adventure game would have a different vision for play and would therefore need new moves, new character types, new... everything. If the vision for play actually is the same as regular AW, then we can just play AW, yeah?

What's gained by saying we're in space instead of the wasteland, or on a spaceship instead of in a holding, if the game is otherwise unchanged? I don't get it.

That is, essentially, what we're doing. Renaming things, reworking the fiction.

Apocalypse World, as it stands, has a particular fiction going on, and that is a post-apocalyptic setting on what is, essentially, Earth, 50 or so years after the maelstrom ended the Golden Age, or whatever ended the Golden Age created the maelstrom. The setting is flexible, sure, but still limited to planetside.

To take it into space, you need a few things: ships, rules for ships, a different setting history, a definite change to the fiction of each class. "Angel" works in the vanilla AW setting, because of the kind of culture that arises in an "After The End" situation. It doesn't work quite as well in the Space Age, though you could use it if you wanted to. In our group, we wanted a different fiction, but the core of the game works just as well within the new setting, with a few minor changes, and we didn't want a different game, we just wanted a different fiction surrounding it.

Consider it like a campaign module for any tabletop RPG. We aren't mucking with the core mechanics, we're putting up a new setting with a few setting specific things, and anyone can play with it as they please.


In addition, you can consider this the foundation. This is the quick and dirty hack, the rough draft. More stuff will be added as we get around to it, and maybe more/different moves will put to the classes as we figure out what still works and what can be changed.