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Announce badness!!

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NilsH

  • 79
Announce badness!!
« on: July 18, 2010, 02:44:10 PM »
We recently played our second and third session of AW and it always keeps me up all night reading the rules, thinking and dreaming about the next game- happy days!!

As MC I have had some fears of repeating myself- I mean the world is much about shooting and fucking other people. I haven´t experienced any repetition in game -but anyway I started to think about what kind of badness there is to announce or get to hear about off-screen...

The obvious is a gunshot, or a firefight somewhere in the hold.
A fire in a house
Someone screams in pain
Something is blown to pieces
A gang of ragtags is coming towards the hold
A flood is closing in...
An airplane passes over
Disease- people are getting strange boils on their skin
A friend is wearing a new mysterious tatoo
An alarm is set off
Strange music from a distance
A comet crashes down

What else have you been using? (I haven´t used all of the above- thats just the things I could think off...)
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NilsH

  • 79
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2010, 01:45:56 AM »
dead fish in the water reservoir
a hologram in the sky speaking in foreign language
earthquake
a note on the bed- "I´ll soon come to get you- bastard!"
a flyer in the wind- speaking of eternal happiness in the Sunshine cult
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Margolotte

  • 335
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2010, 03:35:55 PM »
"Also, you're going to have to find new shoes, 'cause the left one just busted."
"Bish reports: We've got a caravan on the way in; looks like they got chewed up pretty hard out there."
"Oh, and while you're dealing with that, your mom calls. You forgot to come for dinner last Tuesday, and she's pissed."
"While you're on your rounds, you see your ex flirting with the new guy."
"What the hell is that rash??"
"Yeah, sure I can have this for you by Friday. But it'll cost you."
"The puppy looks at you with total love and adoration."

I think a key with Announcing Future Badness is to let the player's brains gnaw on the possibility of how it could be bad. It's not always about the major super BADNESS, it's just, y'know, not boring future badness. Also, each of those are total future badness:

"Also, you're going to have to find new shoes, 'cause one's just busted." - you're lame-footed, at a movement disadvantage, and now you've got to find shoes that fit. In Apocalypse World. Which probably means dealing with someone who will have you over a barrel.

"Bish reports: We've got a caravan on the way in; looks like they got chewed up pretty hard out there." - And they bring with them disease, or drugs, or paranoia, or lead trouble right to your doorstep.

"Oh, and while you're dealing with that, your mom calls. You forgot to come for dinner last Tuesday, and she's pissed." - Don't tell me that's not badness. And god only knows how that will unfold. In our game, it led all the way to matricide.

"While you're on your rounds, you see your ex flirting with the new guy." - PC-NPC-PC triangle waiting to happen! Even if the other PC is not 'the new guy'.

"What the hell is that rash??" - Disease, illness, weirdness all in one.

"Yeah, sure I can have this for you by Friday. But it'll cost you." - Badness! And now your write up that NPC as a threat, if you didn't already have them listed.

"The puppy looks at you with total love and adoration." - Ok, maybe not this. Unless it pees all over your stuff or turns out to be a hell-hound or eats something you need. Like your keys.

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Jeff Russell

  • 325
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2010, 04:13:33 PM »
Quote from: Margolotte on July 19, 2010, 03:35:55 PM
"The puppy looks at you with total love and adoration." - Ok, maybe not this. Unless it pees all over your stuff or turns out to be a hell-hound or eats something you need. Like your keys.

See, I saw this one as the best on your list! Because the puppy isn't the badness. It's all the complications that come out of your attachment to that puppy that will cause badness (well, if you and your character care about the puppy and become attached to it, at least). Plus the idea of being hyper violent and sexy in Apocalypse World while keeping your pooch out of trouble is compelling to me.
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Margolotte

  • 335
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2010, 04:23:49 PM »
Precisely! ^_^
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NilsH

  • 79
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2010, 01:11:09 PM »
Good stuff Margolotte! Definitely made me think in new way. Doesn´t have to be obvious badness or a gun in your mouth badness... Think I´ll prepare myself before next session- not with a list of badness to come, but with a list of different kinds of badness, something sweet, a minor event, something in the family, and so on... Thinking it´s a skill to be trained- coming up with different kinds of badness.

« Last Edit: July 20, 2010, 01:16:04 PM by NilsH »
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fnord3125

  • 277
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2010, 01:17:55 PM »
Oh man!  I've GOT to have one of the PCs in my game find a litter of puppies.
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Jeff Russell

  • 325
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2010, 02:28:37 PM »
Is there some media/meme/whatever that I can't think of that generated the image of a badass gunlugger type shooting scores of people all while protecting a basket full of kittens under his arm? Maybe the ridiculous baby scene(s) in Shoot Em Up? Anyway, heh.
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Margolotte

  • 335
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2010, 04:15:56 PM »
Well, there's Lone Wolf and Cub, and the hospital scene in Hard Boiled(Maybe? It's been awhile since I've seen it. The Cho Yun Fat movie. You know the one.)
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John Harper

  • 473
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2010, 04:41:04 PM »
Hellboy does it in Hellboy.
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Jeff Russell

  • 325
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2010, 04:43:15 PM »
Of course! D'oh.

Seriously, though, I probably wouldn't play something like that for the comedic value in AW, but I think the idea of protecting something small and vulnerable that your character cares about deeply with massive amounts of violence would fit right in.
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NilsH

  • 79
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #11 on: July 21, 2010, 06:38:37 AM »
A list of badness

I have been thinking about a tool, a list to help me in play so I don´t repeat myself with the badness. So here´s different kinds of badness. One of my questions as a new MC- do you guys think it would be valuable to build a list of this kind? Why, why not?

Simple violence
  • A gunshot in the distance
    Something is burning
    Someone has been hurt
    Someone prepares to hurt you

Other people plan too
  • A gathering of a gang
    Hidden poison
    A love letter is found- with promises
    A threat

Innocence
  • Someone fragile asks for help
    Someone fragile and threatened is not asking for help
    Someone clumsy whreks the whole thing (on purpose?)

Puppy love
  • Something untainted is put in the lap of the characters
    Someone shares their inner hopes
    A glimpse of the possible paradise future
    A glimpse of the paradise past

Family

  • A calling to a gathering
    Family members asks the ch to be the “judge” of a situation
    Infidelity
    Love between siblings
    Someone steps out of line/ out of their family role- (a mother abandons her kids)


Mundane common “I need a new shoe” life

  • Something is broken
    Flies everywhere
    Justice is called for, over a minor thing
    Food needs to be gathered
    That guy got the same kind of scissors I lost last week

Power
  • Something ridiculously powerful is put in the lap of the characters
    A jurisdiction is given
    Someone give their life to the character- “do with me what thou will”

Mystical things in the distance
  • A plane flies by
    An unknown alarm goes of
    Mystic voices are heard
    A weather thing
    Strange notes everywhere

Love and sex
  • Someone is flirting
    Someone gets paid for sex
    Someone is doing it in your bed
    Someone gets married (?)
    Someone gets pregnant
    Someone declares their love
    Someones love is denied
    Someones love is not answered back

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jmzthefish

  • 4
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2015, 05:01:08 AM »
Smoke
Blood
Approaching Storm Clouds
Bullet Ricochet (or someone nearby is hit)
Sparks
An Explosion
A Scream
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derendel

  • 68
Re: Announce badness!!
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2015, 11:25:30 AM »
  • The birds stop chirping (immediate, something is coming)
  • Growls in the dark corridor up ahead
  • Something moves in the water beside your feet
  • At an obvious ambush point you find signs of an explosion. Lots of blood but not enough body.
  • Tern (member of your gang) keeps heading to the workshop where those pain addicts hang out.
  • Fire draws a gun and says there's only one thing her father will listen to.
  • Lafferty (top guy in your gang) says he'll drag one of the "deserters" back to you to learn their lesson (you don't actually intend violence).
  • Two women are arguing outside your workshop.
  • Members of the local hardholder's gang have decided to join your project to found a new holding.
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