AP: HiRize

Hey, Long time lurker first time poster.

So we ran our first session yesterday and it went really well. I bought AW back in November 10 at Dragonmeet UK and have waited for a window in our busy but infrequent gaming group. As 'trad' gamers AW challenged my thinking and preconceptions about GMing and I had read through the book a couple of times. I was really pleased at how quickly my group got the way the game is played and I enjoyed the discipline of sticking to the AW principles and it was really rewarding. The players interactions, character gen and ideas pretty much generated the setting, npc's and has given me loads of ideas for potential threats.

Because my group have been playing together for a long time (25 years) we definitely have some 'group think' going and our own style of play and in a 3 hour AW session it really has freshened everything up.

So I thought long and hard about how to get them started. I wanted to have a little bit of background but only flavour and before the first session I first though about Apocalyptic imagery and environment and literally barfed forth :

"Temperature: hot, dry
Taste: bitter, burnt, plastic, rust, diesel
Atmosphere: wind, dry, storms intermittent - dust - electrical - wind - sudden - fear.
Colour: black, red, rust, burnt, ochre, concrete, tarmac. khaki."

I didn't want to ground it in a geographic location and wanted the players to decide if they wanted to but I loved the idea of the remains of an ancient civilisation, peeking through the destruction of pre-apocalypse society and was kind of thinking North Africa - sandstone Kasbashs, walled mediaeval medinas alongside rusting pre apocalypse detritis. But decided not to ground it in a location in the end.

So before Playbook gen I read them the blurb about AW 'about fifty years etc...' and the maelstrom stuff and the read them this

"The skeletal remnants of ancient long forgotten civilisations emerge through
the rotting carcass of pre-apocalypse society. Pockmarked and diseased arterial highways sporadically connect the remains of once mighty cities Hardholds meagre in contrast to the now mythological cities appear and vanish as quickly as the violent and changeable weather, dust and electrical storms follow drought and an
all to brief wet season.  Desert to the South, Mountains to the North, more of the same to the east and Rumours of an ocean to the West. and all around you the ever pervading - World's Psychic Maelstrom."

That was pretty much it. Then to break our group think and not telling them why (misdirect) I made them roll randomly and the lowest first got to choose his playbook with the other players out of the room. This was the players first look at the play books and I didn't want the players to negotiate the usual 'if you play a mage/psychic i'll play a fighter/merc'. I wanted them to go with gut feeling or how cool they thought the pics where. Think it worked pretty well.

So sorry this post is a little long but below this is a summary of the setting the players created through the first session from character gen, npc interaction etc. I'll post the actual details of the first session events seperately. I wanted to seperate plot from setting in the post just to hilight how cool a world they created in just three hours.

"The Highrize hardhold is a pre-apocalypse massive multi-storey car
park with a good proportion of the lower levels buried as a result of
the apocalypse. The well defended top levels contain a bustling
commons and is home to some 300 souls. The hardhold’s resources are
based on excavations into the labyrinth of the car park and scavenging
and repairing old tech and re-using broken car parts. Many merchants
travel to high-rise looking for specialised ancient tech and Highrize
is famous for its bustling tech market. Because of the Hardhold’s
defences and guards Highrize is also a haven and stop off point for
caravans, drivers, biker gangs and cattle drivers. With the pit stop
area as much a hub of activity as the market with bodyguards, touts
and guides looking for jingle from the incoming merchants.

Highrize is ruled by Tum Tum, the increasingly irrational and despotic
hardholder and Fleece his gunlugger lieutenant. Tum Tum and his inner
circle, rumor has it, uncovered a haul of pharmaceuticals which they
have experimented with, Stories of constant, wild debauched parties
and increasingly irrational drug fucked decision making from Tum Tum
have added to an already edgy undercurrent. No one knows what decision
will be made next and there is no longer coherent leadership. The
market gossip is abuzz with fears of a leadership bid from within Tum
Tum's inner circle and inhabitants fear what the collateral damage
might be."

Session 1
---------
Ander’s the Savvyhead (PC) has been based in Highrize for six months and
staying in his truck and mobile workshop parked near the main gates
and has setup shop making a fuckton of jingle offering advice,
scavenging and repairing ancient technology for inhabitants, traders
and Tum Tum (NPC) the hardholder’s entourage. With the rapidly changing mood
in the hardhold Anders is keen to move on but the massive off road
tyres on his truck have been sabotaged. Anders suspects Tum Tum
because Tum Tum has indirectly made it known that he wants Anders to
stay and is displeased that Anders intends to move on.

Raistlin the Brainer (PC) has been in Highrize for two weeks and escaped
the near total destruction of the biker gang he was a member of. The
biker gang was slaughtered by the automated permiter defence systems
of an ancient hardhold in a canyon in the wastes. Raistlin has
enlisted the help of Anders in the repair of his violation glove an
artifact he found in the wastes.

Elyze the Battlebabe (PC) and formerly of the now overthrown Hardhold Sun
City, tracked a traitor from Sun City to Highrize who had stolen Solar
technology secrets and participated in the sabotage and ultimate
downfall of Sun City.  She established her rep in Highrize as an ice
cold gunslinger by facing down and calmly killing the traitor in the
Highrise market commons. She has been non-committal to offers from
Fleece to join Tum Tum’s gang and instead has acted as a bodyguard and
guide to Merchants conducting deals in the city. One deal nearly went
south when two low level punks in Tum Tum’s gang, Fuse and Joe’s Girl
attempted to rip off a merchant she was escorting. A spear handed
strike to Fuse’s solar plexus and the barrel of her silenced revolver
against Joe’s girl’s temple persuaded them otherwise.

Ander’s meets Raistlin and Elyze at Gnarley’s, a café in the market
famous for its fresh eggs produced by the battery chickens Gnarley has
in cages along one wall of his café. Anders has approached Raistlin
and Elyze in the past for help securing some new tyres after finding
none in the market. Anders suspects Tum Tum has any truck tyres
secured and hidden away. Elyze and Raistlin agree to help in exchange
for passage out of the increasingly tense Highrise.

Anders works his way through the market looking for anyone who might
know of the tyres he needs in the wastes. Corbett a young cattle
trader based in the pits and fresh in from the wastes says that a
driver he hired, Shazza (NPC), spotted some a couple of days out from
Highrize during their last cattle drive. Shazza is found in the Depth
Charge a music venue in the Pit Stop being chatted up by the bar owner
Princy. The back of the bar is full of old car batteries providing
power to an ancient vinyl juke box that plays a mixture of nursery
rhymes, country and western and heavy metal.

Anders chats with Shazza and senses her unease, reading her he knows
that she is uncomfortable talking to Anders about the tyres and that
she is afraid she will get into trouble, however she is succeptible to
barter.  Anders suspects that Tum Tum has let it be known that Anders
is not to be helped to repair his vehicle. Elyze scans the room and
spots Joe’s Girl eavesdropping on the conversation. Raistlin opens his
brain to the maelstrom and sees a picture of the future and of Joe’s
girl whispering in the ear of a bloated and drug fucked Tum Tum
telling him that Anders intends to track down some tyres with Shazza.
Elyze confronts Joe’s Girl threatening her and telling her not to tell
Tum Tum. Joe’s Girl backs off and returns to her drink looking
nervously at the entrance to the Depth Charge. Anders and Shazza agree
a deal that Shazza will escort them in her Pickup to the old truck
stop in the wastes in exchange for upgrades to her muscle car.  They
shake on the deal as Fuse walks into the bar, he spots Elyze and the
situation becomes charged. Elyze fails her Visions of Death and fails
to react under fire as Fuse draws his sawn off from a holster at his
hip. Unsettled by the dejavu flashback of a recurrent dream of her own
death in a quickdraw situation Fuse gets the drop and empties a shell
into her thigh. Elyze drops to the ground and is disorientated.

Raistlin spots Joe’s Girl rushing Anders with a knife drawn ready to
stab him in the back. Raistlin uses Direct Brain Whisper Projection on
Joes Girl and she drops the knife and backs of with a vacant
disorientated look on her face. Anders acts under fire and stabs Joe’s
Girl in the stomach with his bowie knife, she drops still looking
perplexed and gently rests her head on the side of the bar and she
passes into unconsciousness and death. Fuse stands over Elyze and
reloads his sawn off. Anders rushes Fuse attempting to seize by force
but misses, Fuse smacks Anders in the torso with the butt of his sawn
off cracking a rib. Elyse acting under fire successfully roles out of
the way as Fuse levels the barrel of his sawn off at her and fires
hitting the ground. Elyse returns fire hitting him in the thigh in the
femoral artery (inflicting extra harm). Before he collapses Fuse looks
down perplexed at the arterial spray caused by the silenced round he
never heard.

Princy stands up from behind the bar and with mock gravitas declares
it a fair fight but the house rule is the winner pays for the mess…..