Recently started my first time GMing a game of Apocalypse world - Ive been really looking forward to trying it out.
Personally I found the initial creation guidelines good, but I felt like we should have started out doing some more formal world building, throwing ideas around rather than - as the book seems to suggest - hit the ground playing and establish it all from questioning the characters in game. I think we ended up with a world that was lots of fun,i felt we would have benefited from some initial world burning.
I know alot of games do this, the ones I've played before have, but I wanted to try it as written. I think next time id do some PTA style world burning with a new game, set things up in a loose manner somehow.
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Characterwise we have :
Wound - Hocus - Leader of a Savage and Violent Apocalypse cult he calls his Family.
RedFox - Battlebabe
Gabe - Angel (I notice there is another gabe in the other playtest here haha)
Burroughs - Brainer.
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In play I hit the ground running by putting most of the characters on the spot from the first scene, I kinda felt this was a mistake though, as we tended to concentrate more on the scenes taking place than the world burning, something I should have taken from the rules and didnt. Will do differently next time.
However I felt it was a really fun session, we had fights, PCs being hired to fight other players, forming alliances, pushing back against the local NPCs.
After the game we definitely had a local chopper gang who were destined for the home front, as well as some folks in the town Desolation who were interesting NPCs.
As I designed the front I realised I didnt have much in the way of real adversaries, there was a great Warlord character available, so he went straight in. But after that I was drawing a blank a little. His countdown clocks are based around his encroaching madness and self destruction, which will wash out over the entire landscape.
We had created some weird critters in the badlands, and a strange tower the PCs saw which was rumoured to kill anyone who tried, and sinkholes being common in the area. From this I created a Landscape front around this idea, making the worm creatures, the tower and the sinkholes all connected - A Breeding pit. The tower being a source of badness overall and being resposible for spawning the worms and sinkholes. Its destruction will continue to spread out from there, countdown clocks based around this came easily. A custom move around scavenging the ruins exists, ill post it later to get tips from you guys.
The final threat was something I had to come up with entirely by myself, resulting from a lack of good threats coming from my play session, unfortunately. Still with a brainer AND a hocus in the same group, i came up with a Grotesque who exists almost exclusively in the psychic maelstrom, and craves company of others who touch it. Obessesive, stalkerish, crazy company. Still working on his clocks, if any exist.
The overall front I decided was based around a new apocalypse, as all the threats seem bound to destroy much in their path. I chose decay as the main type, not sure if it totally fits, and its dark fate is basically the destruction of life and community for miles around.
Will post more as we play, but fun times so far, I need to work on some of my principles - particualarly making moves seemless and not naming them. However I am having fun with it!