Numbers

Just finished running a campaign of AW. Pretty awesome. But rather than talk about the world or the events in it, I kind of want to just compare stats with other games, and talk about that. Sound cool?

Number of players: 5 (one dropped out about 3/4 of the way through).
Number of PCs: 10 in total. 4 retired, 1 died. (not counting the gunlugger the player who retired his character in the final session was going to play, but never did).
Max number of active PCs: 7 for 3 sessions.
Number of sessions: 13
Number of playbooks used: All 11 core, plus touchstone and faceless. Touchstone, skinner, battlebabe, angel, brainer, hocus all used twice.

Character progressions, organized chronologically by player:

Cait
Kite: Battlebabe => Skinner => Retired
Niche: Driver => Faceless
Luca: Hardholder => Touchstone

Chris
Ash: Hocus => Touchstone => Retired
Shade: Skinner

Jon
Domino: Chopper => Gunlugger => Battlebabe => Retired
Must: Hocus

Julian
Burroughs: Brainer => Operator => Angel => Retired
Whitmont: Savvyhead

Steph
Mei: Angel => Brainer => Dead

List of Allies:
Kite had Van Van (confidante), Maryland (representative), Absinthe (lover), and Logan (guardian)
Whitmont had Union Jackoff (guardian) and El Senor (friend)
Niche had Oily Pete (friend)
Ash had Absinthe (right hand)

Do these numbers sound typical for you guys' games? Looking at it now, 10 PCs in 13 sessions seems awfully high.

Any questions about the game? Happy to answer.

This is appealing to the bizarro robot part of my head so I'm going to participate even though I haven't finished a campaign.

Numbers of players: 6 (2 joined at the 3rd session)
Number of PCs: 6 in total, nothings weird happened with that.
Number of sessions: 4
Number of playbooks used: 6, nothing wierds happened yet.

Characters:
Doom Wolf: Gunlugger
Dashell Vega: Battlebabe
Straight Cougar: Driver
Allison: Hardholder
Charmer: Brainer
Ruth: Angel

How did Steph die?

How often did the players tend to roll their highlighted stat over their non-highlighted stat?

What particular metrics do you wish to glean from AW overall?

Steph's (well, Mei's) death was kind of the culmination of the tragic psychic romance between Mei and Burroughs; Burroughs saw that she had been infected with the mind-vine (i.e. was a brainer now) and there was drama that ended with Mei using Direct Brain-whisper Projection to order Burroughs to kill her. Which Burroughs did.

Players rolled their highlighted stats whenever possible, frequently to the exclusion of other stats.

Metrics I wish to glean? I dunno, I kind of just wanna talk about the numbers behind the game. This particular game worked very very well, and it had some numbers that I would not have expected to produce a game this satisfying, you know? So many PCs, and yet they all were total badasses who had their time in the spotlight.

Oh, I suppose another number:

Average length of session: 4-5 hours.

Number of players: 4
Number of PCs: 7 in total. 1 retired, 1 died voluntarily
Max number of active PCs: 5 for 0 sessions (one player has chosen a second character, but hadn't developed her until the end of the session)
Number of sessions so far: 8

Character progressions:

Smith: Battlebabe => Operator

The Colonel: Hardholder=> Retired
Specialist Frank Drake: Quarantine

Kickero: Angel=> Dead
Ultra: Faceless

Navarre: Gunlugger
Tammy M Jackson: Savvyhead (second character)

No allies yet. The only one with advanced moves is the Gunlugger, and ze has -2Hot still.

At 8 sessions and practically a whole new cast of characters, it feels like a completely different game, just with a set backstory. In fact, we haven't been able to play very regularly, so with the new characters, I ran it like a 1st Session, and it went remarkably well.

Campaign 1: Winds of Win(x)field

(This was the first game of Apocalypse World for all of us)

Number of players: 7 (one was a guest player for a single session).
Number of PCs: 9 in total. 1 retired, 2 vanished, 5 died (including the Savvyhead whose mind was blown into the Maelstrom and her body killed), 1 survived.
Max number of active PCs: 7 for 2 sessions.
Number of sessions: 13

DH
Titus: Chopper => Hardholder => dead

DS
Henshaw: Hardholder => vanished
The Major/Burroughs: Faceless => Brainer => dead

LD
Spector: Savvyhead => Hoarder => dead

JD
Fang: Tribal => vanished

RM
Marilyn: Skinner => dead

RK
“X”: Angel => Hocus => survived

SM
Dart: Driver => retired
Rose: Battlebabe => dead

The five PCs that died basically went out in a Mexican standoff in the last session... the Savvyhead had her mind sucked out when the other PCs sided with an NPC against her, then they fought amongst themselves with the Chopper-cum-Hardholder killed outright and the other three PCs all at 11:00, inside a burning building.  They decided to just say some final words before the smoke and flames took them... was pretty intense!  

Made for a bittersweet, but awesome, ending... with the Angel becoming a Hocus with his last advance to try to rebuild things as the holding burned...

"Vanished" characters were PCs simply abandoned by their players either due to lack of attendance (the Tribal played by a guest player) or a desire to play something else (The Hardholder).

Campaign 2: Hyena Rock

This campaign was my send off for my "Gamers-in-training" teenager group, before they all headed off to college... was a real blast for all of us.

Number of players: 5 (no player duplications from Campaign 1)
Number of PCs: 6 in total. 3 died (including the Savvyhead whose mind was partially uploaded to a military AI and his body killed… what a strange pattern!), 2 survived, 1 vanished
Max number of active PCs: 6 for 1 session.
Number of sessions: 6

AF
Lark/Josh: Hocus => Gunlugger => dead

PT
Marsh: Brainer => dead
Thermal: Battlebabe => survived

KG
Bodie: Chopper => vanished

SD
Lemmy Axe (Lemieux): Savvyhead => dead

TB
Allison: Hardholder => survived

This one ended in another stand-off with the PCs arguing over what to do with a recently unthawed Golden Age soldier... it got really ugly... the Battlebabe and Hardholder got the hell out while the other three PCs argued over whether this "Quarantine" was the saviour or their doom... and then they all died as the base they were in was destroyed by orbital bombardment.

Part of the Savvyhead's mind survived... and convinced the military AI that was the Psychic Maelstrom, to increase power to its sensor sweeps... and slowly cook the earth...

Another bittersweet, but awesome ending that left all of us floored!

Just out of curiousity and in case you keep track of that:
How many named NPCs / NPCs that played an important role? How many of them died /survived?
Did the PCs care about it?

Just out of curiousity and in case you keep track of that:
How many named NPCs / NPCs that played an important role? How many of them died /survived?
Did the PCs care about it?

Well, Winds of Win(x)field had about 80 named NPCs, about 40 of them died, and about a third of them played significant roles.

Hyena Rock had about 35 named NPCs, about 15 of them died, and about half had significant roles.

And, yes, the players cared... though not all for the same people... *laugh*

For example, in both campaigns, there was a teen-aged girl named "Five".  

In Winds, Five was this street urchin infatuated with the Skinner.  At one point, she snuck into an establishment to visit the Skinner and saw something she wasn't supposed to and got killed for it when the Skinner didn't step in to save her, since the Skinner hadn't realized who it was that had been caught "snooping"... that death haunted the Skinner the rest of the game and, essentially, caused their death in the end, as it motivitated them to "take a stand" that turned ugly... the players felt horrible about the kid's death... as did I!

In Hyena Rock, Five was the teen-aged, mindfuck, psychic-psycho estranged daughter of the Brainer and also the leader of a cult that was at war with the Hocus's followers and the Hardholder's holding.  Near the end of the campaign, as a big battle was brewing, the Brainer, via Visions of Death, tagged Five as "going to die" in the battle, thinking it a cunning move.  As the battle drew to a close and Five's tragic story was revealed after sleeping with the Savvyhead in the midst of battle, the Brainer's player asked, "Uh... can I take it back?"

They cared... and that made it all the more awesome!

Just out of curiousity and in case you keep track of that:
How many named NPCs / NPCs that played an important role? How many of them died /survived?
Did the PCs care about it?

I think we had about 80 named NPCs. Many died. Sometimes PCs cared. I don't know how to measure importance. Here's an excerpt from a G+ conversation we had prior to the final session (where a whole lot more named NPCs died):

R.I.P.

Harridan, middle-aged, father of Daff, exploded by the Queen of Bleak in the Ring of Coruscation. Your heart stayed true.

Daff, fourteen, daughter of Harridan, branded to death for mutiny against the Torches of Surtur. Your despair was your greatest strength.

Tem, young adult, twin brother of Thao, rider with the Blue Eagles, mouthed off to Kite. Your brother dearly misses you.

Princey, young adult, onetime Keeper of the Flame of Surtur, maimed by Newton, died under Mei's care. We never saw you whole.

Baby, youngest son of Domino, savaged by hummingbird people, died under Mei's care. Catalyst.

Clubs, older, erstwhile leader of Iron Church, died under Mei's care (when Domino opened fire on everything in the room). Your inestimable wisdom died with you.

Mei, young adult, Angel with the Torches of Surtur, rider with the Blue Eagles, spirit tree aficionado, had throat cut by Burroughs. Quested for tragedy. Found it.

Flamingo, middle-aged, erstwhile leader of Iron Church, shot by Kite. Didn't afraid of anything.

Prexy, teen-aged, assistant to Dealbreaker, had throat cut and eye stolen by Burroughs. Your spark never caught.

Dealbreaker, middle-aged, owner and founder of Dealbreaker's Life and Death Emporium, had masculinity seized by Domino. Deserved worse.

Shark Week, adult, citizen soldier of Amara, killed in battle with the New Eagles at the Fridge. Marble Slab will be holding a story circle in his memory tonight at sundown. Bring water.

Captain, leader of the Silver Guard of the Reef, assassinated by Kite. A cog in the wrong machine.

Logan, young adult, slave to the Pole People, gunned down by Whitmont. Finally free.

Magda, Flamingo's right-hand. Loyal and stalwart to the end. Gunned down in the course of Flamingo's murder.

Newton, whose only flaw was ambition, murdered by Kite.

Mangle, leader of a once-great chopper gang. Had not the soul to lead nor the mind to deceive, but the clear and simple consequence to accept a lamentable fate at Domino's hand.

Number of players:4
Number of PCs: 6 - 4 original and 2 taken as second PCs
Max number of active PCs: 6
Number of sessions: 17 so far
Number of playbooks used: Angel, Battlebabe, Brainer, Chopper, Hardholder, Skinner, Maestro'D, Operator, Touchstone

Character progressions, organized chronologically by player:

Vincent plays Barbecue: Hardholder => Touchstone
Jim plays Hooch: Chopper, and Dollarhyde: Operator
Evan plays Burroughs: Brainer => Angel, and Hazel: Battlebabe
Kat plays October: Skinner => Maestro'D

We have about 30 named NPCs, and about a dozen dead ones.Some we cared about, some we didn't.

Wow, it seems crazy to me that you guys don't have any retired PCs after 17 sessions! Hey, look, your Burroughs turned from a Brainer into an Angel too.

I know, right? Every time they get the chance to retire to safety, they just keep doing something else instead! Wacky!

I don't think we've ever had a character retire to safety, over two campaigns and 35+ sessions or so.

I know, right? Every time they get the chance to retire to safety, they just keep doing something else instead! Wacky!

Is this sarcasm?