AW kickoff, or "Who's the _____?"

Running AW in the near future for some people as yet unfamiliar with it, and in one of the con-game prep threads I saw a suggestion for dispensing playbooks that I really liked, and hope to take advantage of: "Who's the one in charge?"  Whatever player says so first gets the Hardholder, etc. tossed down in front of her.  "Pick one of these."

What I'm interested in is how many and what kinds of categories the ever-expanding selection of playbooks might fall into.  Who's the badass?  Who's the troublemaker?  Who's the go-to guy?  Who's in charge?  Who's the jackbooted thug?  Who's the rebel?  Does the Hoarder qualify as a scary psychic mindfucker?  Can the Chopper be the one in charge?  Is the Touchstone the thorn in everyone's side?

'Course I have my own ideas, but I'd be glad of some input.

~Gary

While that's one way to do it, I prefer to scatter the splats I want to be possibilities in my game across the table and let the players choose based on what they are drawn to name-wise or art-wise. I can see doing that for the first question, and picking your Hardholder that way, but after that, it feels like you're narrowing the options of the splats in artificial ways. Sometimes a gunlugger is your go-to guy, sometimes she's your jackboot thug.

And saying "who's the gun lugger? who's the battle babe? who's the no-shit driver? who's the brainer? (etc, etc) " seems pretty clear already. A couple - faceless, angel, hocus, operator - yeah, you maybe need a bit more explanation, but reading the back of the splat will do it. If you're set on asking questions, I'd say definitely pull them from the back of the splat, rather than scramble for some other new definition.

I don't know the con prep thread in question, but were they using all the playbooks? It seems like those sorts of questions make the most sense if it's a scenario where you know you have a hardholder, nobody else is going to be in the role of "in charge", and you need someone to play it. Like Hatchet City.

The other problem you might have is that splitting out the playbooks into categories sort of suggests that you want the players to pick one book from each category. One violent bastard. One person in charge. And so on. But that isn't necessarily the case at all!

Hey, I'm curious as to your ideas, as to what you think the playbook groups are. What were you planning?

I think the con prep mentioned here was John Harper's, but I might be wrong. It was two questions: "Who's in charge?" and "who's the thorn in his side"?

Based on that setup, here's my take on distributing the first two playbooks.

Who's in charge? [to that player] Why? Is it because you own the place (Maestro D')? The whole town, maybe (Hardholder)? Is it because you can offer people hope (Touchstone)? Cash (Operator)? Protection from your thugs (Chopper)?

If they chose the Maestro D':
So you've got this place, sure, and you have people working for you. One of them you can't bear to be without, but damn if you trust him. Who is it? [to that player] Is it because you're just too sexy for his own good (Skinner)? Too tough to give a damn (Gunlugger)? Way too freaky (Brainer), or carrying way too many freaks around him (Hocus)?

If they chose the Hardholder:
So it's your town, and you call the shots. But it's never so simple. Who's the biggest thorn in your side? [to that player] Is it because you don't take orders and you don't take shit (Battlebabe)? Is it because you always want what others have (Hoarder)? Or are you full of too much ambition, always working your own angle (Operator)?

If they chose the Touchstone:
So you've got the vision, but that's never enough, is it? You depend on someone else to make your vision come true, and you don't like it one bit. Who is it? [to that player] Is it because the people who follow him listen to you instead (Hocus)? Because the world speaks to you in ways that he can never hear (Brainer)? Because you're the only one who can build and understand the tech that'll make it all work (Savvyhead)? Or are you simply the one with the guns, who won't be afraid to shoot anyone for the sake of the vision, not even him (Gunlugger)?

If they chose the Operator:
You've got this operation, and it keeps you afloat. You've also got this team [points at the group] working for you. Who's your right-hand man, and why does he scare you shitless? [to that player] Is it because scary is the only word that describes you (Faceless)? Because you don't take orders, and you don't take shit (Battlebabe)? Because your only real loyalty is to the road (Driver)? Or is it because your body is the real bread-winner, and without you he'll be nothing (Skinner)?

If they chose the Chopper:
Okay, so you're big and scary and everybody [points at the group] knows you're the boss. One of them has a problem with it, though. Who is it? [to that player] Is it because you're bigger and scarier than him (Faceless)? Smarter (Savvyhead)? Is it because you're the one who has to clean up after his violent shit (Angel)? Or are you taking your orders from a higher authority (Hocus)?

----

Afterwards, spread out the rest of the playbooks before the other players and ask, "what about you? what's your story?".

Oh now that sounds like a good set up and a good way of tying people together. The two least satisfying campaigns of Apocalypse World I've been in were that way because the player characters weren't sufficiently entangled. This sounds like a fabulous way of easing the players in to really being a part of each other's immiediate worlds.

Running AW in the near future for some people as yet unfamiliar with it

I realize you're asking for advice for running with people unfamiliar with AW, but that made me think of something possibly crazy-cool when starting a new game with people who are familliar with AW:

Putting the Master of Ceremonies playbook into the mix...

Oh, we were sitting around last month and I friend of mine decided to run AW having never played it, read the book, anything.

Did awesome.

elkin, I really like your decision tree.  That's going to inform my first session.  The organizational part of my brain wants to codify that in a flowchart, while the easygoing part accuses me of wanting to gild lilies.

As it stands, I'd figured on asking the who's-in-charge question, and tossing down the Hardholder, Maestro D', and Operator playbooks (with the Chopper and Hocus set aside if none of the first set provoked glee).

Next, "Who's the badass?"  and asking Are you the enforcer?  The opposition?  The zapgun for hire?  while putting forth the Gunlugger, Faceless, Battlebabe, Chopper (if not used above) and offering the Touchstone as an alternate.

"Who's the go-to?" accompanies the Angel, Savvyhead, Driver, Skinner, and Quarantine -- with an appropriate 'why' for each.

"Who's the thorn?" and offer up Brainer, Hocus, Hoarder, and Touchstone & Skinner if not previously snagged, and again with the 'why'.

The go-to and thorn groups are loosely based on a broad measure of how useful or inimical I think the playbook can be to the other characters, from moves to specials to NPC influence.  Stipulated that any playbook can be bad fucking news in a bottle to any other playbook.