Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?

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Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?
« on: September 08, 2015, 12:14:59 PM »
Hello hello!

I've been running a DW game for most of the summer, and we just came to a nice stopping point. (The city they were fighting to save has been sacked by the undead, half the party has been killed, everyone is terribly scarred—a great success!) I've been reading AW and really want to start running it. The atmosphere is irresistible, and I have a couple players who are obsessed with controlling NPCs who will flip to play as a chopper or hardholder.

My question is, do you think I should wait for the second edition to start play, or just dive in now? I suspect I already know the answer—that the changes in 2e will be gradual, and that we might as well get going rather than waiting around for something that doesn't (I don't think) even have a release date.

But those of you who have seen previews of the 2e material, are there any drastic changes I should brace for? Are there any moves or playbooks that are in for drastic change, which I should warn my players to stay away from? Or should we just charge in to the first edition, and plan on shaking things up a little bit when 2e drops this autumn?

Either way, I'm very excited, and looking forward to getting to know the apocalypse. Seems like a fun place.

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Ebok

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Re: Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2015, 01:04:22 PM »
I would start to play now. There may be things in the next edition that you love, and there may be things that you don't. The only way you would be able to know one edition from the other is to have experience with both. Being as AW is so modular, you'd be able to cherry pick from both to satisfy whatever happens to flow better around your table.

I won't talk about what is or isn't there, you can pay a dollar for that information if you are curious. I will say that there is nothing preventing a switch from one edition to the next in mid-game, even if a playbook is gone or defunct, you just start a new playbook and move over the moves that make sense in the new edition. Even if a move triggers differently from now on... it doesn't effect the story. What I consider the biggest changes are mostly around conceptualizing AW, not really the act of playing in an AW world. I would keep to the core playbooks however, that way you don't have to fiddle with rewording anything on books that wont be under Vincent's purview as guesswork, at least during the immediate switch. I'll be honest though, I pretty much welcomed everything and a tiny amount of money to support the games development was worth it for me. I immediately put in many of the things shared behind the scenes. 

All that said, AW games are a blast even if they're only one week long, my favorite games have been six to eight weeks, and the rare ones that extend longer are functional with the right group. AW moves much faster then traditional games, you'll start to see how much the other systems create lag.

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lumpley

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Re: Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2015, 05:23:32 PM »
Don't wait!

-Vincent

Re: Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2015, 11:45:05 PM »
I came here because I had a question similar to the OP, as I have been fascinated with trying AW since I first heard about it, as with several members of my playgroup. The problem is I can't find a copy of the book anywhere. I've been searching for a while, the only ones I can find cost much much much more than the original.

Is there anywhere selling the book currently? Or anyone who has extra copies? I have several games on PDF, and I must admit, I hate reading on PDF's. Hurts my eyes and I don't have a beastly printer that can handle printing a book with art. I have no idea when 2.0 will be out, or else I would just wait. But I really want to make the jump as the game sounds so so fascinating, and my buddy played a game at GenCon and even now still keeps bringing it up. I saw on here the comment that it's worth starting now, I just don't want to buy the PDF if there's another way.

Not trying to steal the thread, just didn't want to start a new one as my question was pretty similar to this one.

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Ebok

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Re: Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2015, 04:23:39 AM »
The book is not currently in print until the next edition. These are player made games, so funding printing and production probably happens upfront in large batches. When the batch is sold out, its time to run another reprint. But doing it so close to the next release is bound to leave bundles of the older game copy unsold. This isn't really economically feasible.

If you cannot find someone re-selling the book for a reasonable cost you've only got a few solutions. Wait until the next edition anyway. Get someone else to buy the pdf and read over the rules, printing the play-books and such for you to peruse, or just printing the book anyway. Really the art in this book is chapter headers, and its just black and white. Ancient printers from the 90s can handle this. I'd just be worried that the front would print ginormous, since these aren't full sized book-pages to begin with.

Alternatively, buy the pdf and have some professional printing place make you the copy from it. Though that might not fly with the little copyright symbol on it.
 

Re: Should I Wait For 2e to Start Play?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2015, 05:31:56 PM »
Don't wait!

-Vincent

All right—I won't!

Thanks!