Dancers at the End of Time

    I am looking for someone who knows the AW rules backwards and forwards - someone who wants to collaborate on creating an AW scenario that fictionally is miles away from the vanilla AW scenarios - but still adheres to the same rules and agendas.

     Dancers at the End of Time is a book series by Michael Moorcock. Having read them is not a requirement. Michael Moorcock is mostly known for his fantasy series Elric, but in my opinion, Dancers at the End of Time is his finest work.

     The plan is to produce playbooks, moves and whatever else is necessary to make a DatEoT scenario work.

If you are interested, please read the text below to get more information.

Dancers at the End of Time

     This game is about the end of times; mankind has lived for millions of years and have evolved into beings that are not quite human anymore. They are called the Dancers at the End of Time; when the end is nigh, what else is there but dancing?

   The game is based on the book series of the same name  by Michael Moorcock. The series revolve around a curious explorer named JD and the Dancers that he interacts with.

   Life at the end of time is very different from life in the 21st century. The Dancers use Force Rings to manipulate energy and matter in order to change reality to whatever is wished.

This is not magic; it is science. The Rings draw their power from Power Banks and matter or energy. The Power Banks are scattered all over Earth, but no one seems to care about them anymore, because they work and never seem to run out.

The Dancers are few, in the thousands. No one has been born in the last 10,000 years. Instead, cloning and other techniques have been used. However, the Dancers are so different from us: They do not feel the need to reproduce anymore, they no longer have a strict moral code and their frame of reference is usually very limited.

The Rings can transform everything, including yourself: You can walk around as a gorilla or a giant talking head, or you can take on a human shape with crazy hairdos and small variations in height and weight. The preferred form is that of a 2 meter high human, but most Dancers have their own form they stick to.
   Time travel is a big part of being a Dancer. To explore the Earth, the Dancers travel to different times to learn about topics like love, hate and poverty. Living the life of someone in the past is seen upon with great respect.
Curiosity and naivety are adjectives that describe the Dancers’ core psychology. Disease, famine and other dangers have long ago been vanquished. Dancers often take huge risks with their lives simply to experience what it is to be human.

The agenda of the players is this:
1)   Explore the lives of the Dancers
2)   Compete for attention, prestige and energy.
3)   Create fantastic realities only limited by your imagination.

I've written some moves and stuff, but I need someone to collaborate with - if you are interested, or have suggestions, let me know.

I'm curious!

I know AW pretty well, I'd say - having worked on playbooks, custom moves, love letters, and a bevy of hacks.
I don't know the book, but might check it out, time permitting.
The concept very much caught my attention, though.

- Alex

Cool, Alex!

If you'd like to know more, send me a message and I will explain the whole thing.

We can easily use more than one person in the team, so if you're interested, go ahead and message me.

/raises hand to indicate "also interested, might be able to help"

I'm an RP systems design geek, and at this point in my life, *W in particular.  I'm also a fan of Jerry Cornelius and Moorcock in general, but haven't read DANCERS.  I am reminded of a strip that appeared once in Heavy Metal magazine, it was called "Entropics" and I guarantee the artist had just finished reading DANCERS. :-)  Maybe I can dig it up.

This really sounds more like a hack, than a scenario. The basic moves from AW don't seem particularly appropriate to the world/agenda as you describe it.

Which is totally fine, it sounds super-interesting; but you're probably not going to want your Dancers to be concerned about Seizing by Force, and even if you are the consequences of doing so are probably going to be very different.

This really sounds more like a hack, than a scenario. The basic moves from AW don't seem particularly appropriate to the world/agenda as you describe it.

Which is totally fine, it sounds super-interesting; but you're probably not going to want your Dancers to be concerned about Seizing by Force, and even if you are the consequences of doing so are probably going to be very different.

You're probably right; making the moves appropriate is what I need help with.

Here are a rough idea of what we need to do in order for this game to work.

New archetypes (suggestions: philosophers, time travelers, collectors, historians, socialites, actors, etc. - we need to find the best of them)

Redesigning the basic moves: They do not need to be changed fundamentally, but they do need to fit the fiction.

Writing character moves and other custom moves.

Custom moves for power rings (like Create Object, Disseminate Matter, Gather Energy, Change and Distort Reality)

A new way of doing the whole Hx thing - or maybe simply add Prestige in some way)

The stats remain the same, with the possible exception of Hx

I am considering using a system from Monsterhearts called Strings. It would cover personal relationships and some kind of admiration (you get that when you perform something unique and perfect).

Also toying with the idea that PvP is an option; what do you think about that?

Regarding Power Rings, here are some moves associated with them:
•   Disseminate matter into energy
•   recreate something you've seen
•   restructure matter into other matter
    Create Matter from energy
•   change and distort reality, creating an illusion
   Restructure Object


There's much more, but let's start with the basics.

Anyone can help, even if it's just with one specific move, rule or character.

Oh, and we're going to need play testers for this, so if you like the setting, please let me know. You can easily do this even if your schedule is booked. It won't take long, and if you can't, you can't....

Let's get the hack to beta before we start calling for playtesters?  Beside that road many have fallen.

Let's get the hack to beta before we start calling for playtesters?  Beside that road many have fallen.

See that's wjy I was looking for people with experience; to steer me in the right direction.

It's back in Beta, guys!

To clarify what Dancers actually do at the end of time, I've written a short chapter on on the kind of conflicts you find at the end of time.

Conflicts
   So what do the characters do when they have almost unlimited energy at their disposal? First off, Prestige is a big thing for Dancers. Prestige is earned by exploring and impressing people with Creations at the endless parties.

   Prestige is also earned when two or more characters start a  feud.  Feuds can begin with innocent disagreements or bets. But they can develop into regular feuds. When this happens, you create an Enemy.

   Enemies are the threats in Dancers. They are usually very powerful, and can create or entrap creatures to fight for them. Enemies are treated as
   Killing Dancers is mostly impossible, since their  Power Rings bring them back. However, they lose all Power pts, all items and their memory going back to somewhere determined by the GM.


More to come. And please suggest ideas if you get them.