AP: Welcome, New Jerk

Setting:
A blasted postapocalyptic California wasteland, with it's biggest hardhold New Jerk in it's center. New Jerk is a an old military fortress, surrounded by the settlements of 300-something souls. Roads are crap, gas is extremely rare, everybody rides horses. "Welcome, New Jerk" is what the welcome sign says.

Characters:
Daimyo, a 20-something hardholder, who rules the unruly pack of savage warriors inside the fortress with an iron hand. Seem to have some fascination for militaria and culture. Always wears a gas mask out in the hardhold to protect himself from the filthy citizens. Hates and fears the maelstrom.

Nero, a 20-something operator working security and raiding for Daimyo. A rather kind man in a jacket suit (probably the only guy wearing a jacket post apoc.) who seeks to learn what the maelstrom is all about.

Canaveral, battlebabe in her early 20:s. Rode into town and hung around. Got a reputation for being the knight of New Jerk. Carries an ornate gun and spear. She and Daimyo have heard each others names in their dreams, so they've decided to hang around and find out what that is about.

Introducing:
Two Moons, the leader of a cult of peace and water, opposed to the decadence of New Jerk and the violent rule of Daimyo.
Barker, beardy asocial techhead on the outskirts of town. Usually double bent over a pile of technical components. Has a kid assistant by the name Balls.
Kettle, a skinny pissed-off guy.
Daff, a scavenger with keyring piercings in his face. Always grand plans, but with a poor attention span.
Matilda, mayor of Bricktown. Supplies New Jerk with clay.
The Pit. A breeding pit of evolution gone wrong. A huge maze of wild dogs, eating, fighting and fucking.

First session
We kicked of with a meeting, Daimyo, Matilda, Daff. Daimyo needs clay for his hardhold, to repair a brewery some teenagers smashed last night. (want: savagery) Daff has already bought everything from Matilda for "a new genious plan". I just described how Daff looked and asked why Daimyo hates him, and went from there, establishing everyday routine and that Daff is stupid.

Nero has apprehended the rapscallions, so they're thrown in the fighting pit for the peoples amusement. As his reward, Daimyo secretely plans to have the winner executed to send the message across. The winner climbs up to Daimyo and starts demanding his reward. Before things get messy, he is shot in back by Canaveral. Two Moons and her cultists turn up and starts yapping and stirring up the populace on how they're savage and violent, led by a prophet of violence. Canaveral and Daimyo has her back off.

Canaveral goes to visit Barker for armor maintance. Kettle turns up with two goons, pissed as hell since a clock he got from Barker blew up (Man, I don't know) in his sisters face. Cannie stares him down and sends him off.

The party prepares for a raid on an outskirt hardhold called Rustbelt. They have a new leader, religious woman, and are refusing to trade/pay tribute with New Jerk.

Introducing:
The Hyenas, a 60-something pack of savage warriors loyal to Daimyo. Some of them, and some of the people living outside the fort, has started getting unhealthy fascinated by the Pit, going there and fighting and hunting with the wild dogs. Those who gets something bitten off are called blessed.
Land Eater. Check the second pic from the bottom, that's a bulldozer.
The Scarlands, a tectonic mess of broken land, high plateaus, deep chasms. Cliffs all around!
Rustbelt, a hardhold built on an plateau in the Scarlands, where the only travellable road goes. Very well fortified.
Dust Witch, a psycho warrior bitch with a habit of collecting (adopting) little kids. (What the hell? This surprised me to no end. In a good way! Yeah, it was supposed to be Dustwich. My players first misheard, and then demanded the name stays)
Scream, a warrior-guy who is good at screaming.
A grotesque dog-freak.
Fox, a woman working for Nero.
James, a man working for Nero.
Enough-to-eat, middle-aged woman who runs an eating place where the rule is, everybody eats.
III, some broad who wants to beat up Nero. He once did a job for her. (Yeah, a woman named III wants to beat you up, I took it straight outta the book. Brilliant.)

Second session
In the home base, Nero finds a blue metal flower as a gift from Fox. Why does Fox keep giving him gifts? Apparently because he saved her life once.

What does Daimyo do on his time off? Apparently gets massage and writes poetry. Dust Witch comes in (So, what's she like?) and starts fingering his books and stuff, asking if she can take some of the men out to the pits, she's heard there are good stuff to scavenge there. Daimyo says no. Dust Witch leaves satisfied with the answer, but she acts playful, like she's in charge.

Nero goes to wildest place in town to relax before tomorrows attack. He's hanging out with James, a real trustworthy guy from his crew, who can always get him calmer. On the way to the men's room, he is assaulted by III, who babbles profetic stuff and beats it when James tear her from Nero. Nero is confused.

Canaveral is hanging out at ol' Land Eater outside New Jerk, apparently she just likes it there. She spots Dust Witch riding out at night towards the pit, with a wagon full of her adopted kids. Cannie rides up to Dust Witch, asks her what she's doing, fails a read a person check. Dust Witch shines up like she just got a really great idea, like, they're going to be pals or something. (Dust Witch doesn't come off as very smart. Cunning and savage, yes. Smart, no.) She wants to show Canaveral something.

They ride into The Pit. It's hot here, even at night, dogs are eyeing them. Suddenly some motherfucker clad in dog skins and with dog ears stapled to where his own should be turns up, he and Dust Witch captures Cannie with a net and bring her to a den. They're dancing and howling all night, Dust Witch is totally doin' it with one of the dogs, and dog-freak is cracking one of the puppies right open, smearing himself and Cannie with it's blood, declaring her to be one of them. And no telling!

They let her go at dawn, she heads back. Everybody's been waiting for like two hours, ready to go raid Rustbelt. She doesn't feel like talking about it right now, but she promises to tell later. Dust Witch is eyeballing her.

At Rustbelt, Cannie and Nero and his team are sneaking through the cliffs to infiltrate the place, while Daimyo and his hyenas are drawing the attention to the front gates. Daimyo's player rolls to retro-actively buy a megaphone, and misses. Turns out he's spent a barter for crap, and he adds the merchant to his list.

Nero and Cannie have no problem with killing a little girl to sneak in, and starts to spread panic and confusion inside the walls. Fox takes a bullet in her leg, and Nero digs in to protect her. (That's two times now, Fox!) Eventually the towns defense line breaks, the hyenas swarm them with minimal losses and the leader of the hold is stringed up, Daimyos warriors doesn't kill/rape too many of Rustbelts people. Some kid gets curb stomped, that's when Daimyo break up the party. Daimyo makes it clear that if Rustbelt doesn't start trading in New Jerk, next time there won't be anything left.

When making camp for the night, Canaveral tells Daimyo what happened out in The Pit. Daimyo sure as hell doesn't need any dog worshippers in his pack, so he orders one of his warriors loyal to Dust Witch's to strip her down, and shoots him when he doesn't dare. Daimyo strips Dust Witch, takes away her weapons and orders her on all four, barking. She howls instead, to the full moon.

This all happens in the quiet of the night, with only the campfire lighting the scene. The scene wasn't that long really, but to me as a GM, it felt like every moment of tension and humiliation was drawn out into infinity. Good, good stuff.

I didn't really felt 100% finished with "first session" so the second session was kind of a 1.5st session. :)

We had a great flow all through the session, I even forgot to take breaks even though I had intended to. I felt confident that this would be a very good and accepting (in the improv sense) group with a very good and accepting game. 100% correct, at least so far.

In fact, I had probably a bit too high expectations, I wanted everything to be perfect from the start!

The players felt satuated in Apocalyptica, and I was asking questions like crazy. Huge success!

I was a little overwhelmed by trying to figure out exactly how harm and gangs work, I think the players got away a little bit cheaper than they otherwise would with taking a heavily fortified hardhold. Oh well, that one is on me!

Oh yeah, and we really went into adult territory with our game, and Dust Witch's two scenes. We've never really done that, but it worked exhiliratingly well. Awesome.

That all looks solid. Glad you are having so much fun with it! I like the close feel of Damiyo's hold - he's tough, but some kids bashed a hole in the pub! And how it all seems to spin out of his control all the time - this feels very familiar to me.

That all looks solid. Glad you are having so much fun with it! I like the close feel of Damiyo's hold - he's tough, but some kids bashed a hole in the pub! And how it all seems to spin out of his control all the time - this feels very familiar to me.

It works great. I have experience in improv theatre, and it feels like there's finally a game that works just the way I like it. Yeah, I love how he's not really in control, it's like he is trapped inside a fortress with these scary vicious murderers, but he can't leave, because then they'd do whatever the hell they felt like.

That all changed in session three, though.

There's a session three already? Do tell! Also,yeah, it's clear his choices are either teach folks a serious lesson to get them in line, or find his allies and dig in. Which was it?

Introducing:
Dubs has a big gun, Nail is a shifty fellow, Topple is the kid. Together with James and Nero, they make up Neros team.
Rose has an establishment outside of New Jerk, an old roadside restaurant remade into a classy and private restaurant where you can get real meat.
Jackabacka has an old trailer outside of New Jerk where he distills liquir. He keeps to himself.
Bill, a lonely disease vector.

Session three:
When the PC's come back to New Jerk, the holds want is disease, and Neros crew has botched both compound defenses (these would turn out to be related) and finding out about the Maelstrom. They're riding right in, dragging Dust Witch behind them. Exit, the medic, is pleading for more medicine, which s/he gets. Rustbelt medicine.

Oh, and when in Apocalypse World, even having a cup of freshly raided tea can end in total catastrophy. The PC's are having their well-earned tea in the fortress when Daimyo just, sort of, zones out. He just stops in the middle of conversation and his head drops. The first Open your brain-move!

Which he fails miserably.

I ask him about the Maelstrom, and the player describes a flat and barren landscape of black, cracked ground (asphalt?) from which a great tower rises, built from stone, and then metal, and then alien metal, and then flesh, and then metal again. It rises into a dark cloudy sky, and the clouds turn electroblue around it.

From this landscape, part huge Hyena and part Land eater races towards him. It stops in front of him, inquiring whether he wishes to ride it. It sees his hesitation and laughs - No, I'll ride YOU! it decides, and scoops him into it's belly with it's rolling and roaring bucket wheel mouth . I tell the player that Daimyo comes to after doing something totally savage he will totally regret. So he goes to get Dust Witch.

Followed by the first PC sex, followed by physical abuse, and then he starts shooting at her kids for sport. She's howling. Nero and Canaveral doesn't really feel like finding out whats going on. (I wonder if our game is a tad bit misogynic?)

Canaveral rides out with Dubs and Topple. James has found a lead for Nero, some outsider who wants to talk to him, and Nail has gotten an audience with Two Moon for him later that night. Nero goes to see the outsider at The Grill, the place he met III. At daytime it's all empty, but all of a sudden this freak in rags and boils, Bill, attack  him, trying to embrace him, kiss him... Nero tries to avoid violence, but it ends with him putting a knife in Bill and Bill putting a needle in him. Just as Nero's trying to open the door, the sleepy medicine overcomes him.

When he comes to that night, he's bound to a chair, and the wounded Bill wants him to sing a lullaby, at which he performs admirably. He gets out of the chair, wakes Bill up, finds an exit, and then Fox and James burst in, securing Nero and executing Bill. Poor guy. (No plan behind this, just a desperately lonely person)

Daimyo sends Dust Witch to Exit for spaying. Scream takes Daimyo to Rose's place to cheer him up.

Canaveral rides through The Pit safely, but is spotted by the dog freak before she spots him, with Dubs and Topple spread out. He's even uglier in daylight, and he takes her horse out. They have proper staredown, and then they fight, a fight which Cannie wins. She takes his dog ears away from him, and hangs Dust Witch's severed ears around his neck, and drag him into town.

Nero goes to see Two Moon. She and her followers have a temple in one of the caves just outside town, where New Jerk gets it's water. It quickly becomes clear that Nail has joined the cult and is really happy about it. He's looking forward for when Nero will join too!

Two Moon blesses his eyelids with water, and asks him to look into the underground lake. He sees the maelstrom in the water, a swirling black water, in which he sees III wandering around, looking for something missing from her. Birds with locks of her hair in their beaks are tied to her with fine bands, but all the bands burst as the birds fly away from her.

I get to ask Nero a question as well, so I ask if he's happy. He says it's hard to tell, he wouldn't know. He has nothing to compare to, but he supposes things could have been in another way. Aw man, I can't really capture it, but it was brilliant. Poor Nero. Jonatan, you're welcome to re-tell it here.

Nero is welcome back later. 

When Daimyo comes back, dog freak is tied up in the courtyard and Canaveral is guarding him. All of Daimyo's people are eyeballing her, in this weird "bid for alpha of the pack" kind of way (which she don't like at all) and looking at the chained up dog freak in this "oh shit" kind of way. Yeah, they're his boys.

Daimyo fails to read the sitch. I tell him one of his men can tell that he just doesn't know what's going on anymore. That guy is giving him a look that just says that he is going to be trouble.

Daimyo has him brought forward and orders him killed.

And that's one drop too many for the dog worshipping warriors. Suddenly someone goes "Fuck yoooooouuuuuu" and flings a bottle his way. Daimyo draws a gun and starts shooting, and all hell breaks loose on the courtyard. Some of his men are shooting at him, some are rushing to defend him, some just doesn't know what to do, people are coming out of the fortress... Daimyos player declares that he doesn't care how much Harm he takes, he's going to exterminate every freaking one of those filthy dog worshippers who's tainted his fortress. He just stands straight up in the crossfire, sending bullets into their flesh and fear into their hearts. Dog freak is executed in the process.

A pocket of loyal soldiers starts forming around Daimyo, the dog worshipping ones are getting pinned down and decimated. Dust Witch has come running from Exits tent, she drops down from the wall, with her fingers around Daimyo's neck. Canaveral disarms her and Nero, Fox and James catches her when she's trying to escape. The surviving dog worshippers surrenders in exchange for Daimyo sparing their life. When the firing stops, Daimyo gets a feel for how hurt he is (10 o'clock) and is rushed into his fortress, with Exit working like an animal to keep him alive and well.

"Did you have to go and almost die the same day we got an epidemic on our hands?!"

This session wasn't exhilirating in the way session two was, but I really liked it anyway. The tempo is settling nicely. The game is starting to feel long term - Not as explosive as in session two, but it sets your appetite for a long series of sessions. Daimyo's player has already started planning for uniting California as a proper kingdom. That's fascinating! If they succceed, a whole new scale opens up. I'm going to have to draw a map of the whole west coast.

When Daimyo wanted a man executed just for looking at him funny, I felt I had to have them take action. I took a really hard move when I had a proper rebellion on his courtyard, so I'm quite happy that Daimyo's player shared the same expectations on Apocalypse World as me, so to speak. I really like how I'm instructed to clarify consequences and then ask for confirmation of the PCs actions.

But he swore to never open his brain again.  

I really like Nero's maelstrom scene. There is a tender side to this character, and his player too, I daresay.

Maybe the player's beat one of my fronts today, I'm not sure.

Blood and screams. One covering the courtyard of Fort Daimyo, the other bouncing off the concrete walls and echoing down towards New Jerk.
The townspeople were slowly getting out of cover, curiously egding closer to the aftermaths of carnage. Canaveral could see their bloodthirst faltering at the sight of the mutilated bodies in the yard. Maybe this day could still be considered a victory for decency if it finally made the Jerkers flinch away from the needless brutality that had been the hardhold´s trademark for so many years.
 
Daimyo had been playing along for too long. His pack of hyenas had been allowed too much freedom. But they had paid the price from out of their own flesh now, and with No-Ears dead ans Dustwitch captive once again the dog-cult would not rear it´s ugly head in New Jerk again anytime soon. It was a good thing, Daimyo would have more time to actually build his little piece of the world to a safer place now that he didn´t have to keep his dogs in check. Hopefully Scream and the other survivors would prove loyal to the Hardholder now, even though they probably never would be to Daimyo what Fox and James was to Nero. Well. May be that Scream had the potential, Canaveral had seen him survive the fight even before it started, the loud man had important things to solve with Daimyo before he went.
 
Canaveral slowly moved over the blood-and-worse-splattered courtyard, her seemingly indifferent gaze picking up the details. No-Ears corpse still chained to the whippingpole, the bloated hulk of a body shot to rags by Daimyos more loyal subjects, Dustwitch´s severed ears on their string still visible against the massive chest.
Against the walls of the inner fort a pile of Dustwitch´s mad whelps lay dead, their eyes open, their maws frozen in snarls and howls. They had blood on their little hands, blood in their young faces.
 
What turns the children to such savagery? What turns the men and women of this land to celebration of the ripped flesh of other people? A bad taste in the back of Canaverals mouth at the thought of Rustbelt. They had not been soldiers, they just tried to protect what was theirs. But too late now to dwell on that day. To late to re-light the fire in the dead Rustbelters eyes. One could only hope that Daimyos next step would be a better one, built on true good intentions instead of the lies the Hardholder had told so often that he had started to believe them himself.
 
Out of the corner of her eye Canaveral spotted Nero as the man was making his way from the inner fort towards the open gates. His worn red jacket had splotches of darker red now, but none of it seemed to be his own. His right-hand man James was beside him, as was Dubs with the heavy gun and the young Topple. They all shared some kind of comforting aura in the middle of this slaughterhouse, relying on each other to stay on top of every situation. For a moment, Canaveral had thought to adress the freelancer concerning Nero, but she hesitated. That community was not for her.
Maybe the best thing to do was wait now, for a couple of days, and see what would emerge from this bloodbath. She let Nero and her men keep to themselves, scanned the compound one more time and then returned inside the fort to keep her eyes at Daimyo.

I get to ask Nero a question as well, so I ask if he's happy. He says it's hard to tell, he wouldn't know. He has nothing to compare to, but he supposes things could have been in another way. Aw man, I can't really capture it, but it was brilliant. Poor Nero. Jonatan, you're welcome to re-tell it here.

I think what I said was essentially that I didn't know what happiness is in the context of Apocalypse World, so Nero wouldn't either. Of course the word and concept of happiness exist, but noone save characters content with a very simple life on a farm (a group which really doesn't include many PCs) would experience "a life in happiness". I took the question as being about Nero's life right now, so I was all "I think this could be happiness, maybe, but I'd thought it'd be more, well, happy." It feels like he's trying to reach something more, but doesn't know what. Which actually stems from me not knowing exactly what to do with the character... But I still very much enjoy playing.

Martina's piece makes me want to play more... now!

Jonatan, don't worry about not knowing where you're going. Play to find out what happens! Cultivate a curiosity towards your character and let him surprise you. :)
When doing improv scenes, if you can't come up with a scene, you can start by just move your foot, or your arm, and then figuring out why you're doing that, act on the impulses. What I think I see, is you acting on your impulse of feeling slightly lost, giving Nero a feeling of being lost himself - Was life really supposed to be this way?

I like that.

Oh man, two more days until session four...!

*skips around in anticipation*

Well, seems like Arvid hasn´t had the time to update on last session. I figure I leave that bit to him, though, and just give you the very last scene...


There were too many of them for Canaveral to handle by herself. Surrounded by grave men and women just a few steps down the street from The Oystercatcher, and both Nero and Fox gone as if swept away by the salty wind. Brace, Newtons rugged second-in-command, reached for her weapons, but she locked eyes with him (or at least fixed her eyes to his single one) to keep him at bay until the warlord himself reached the centre of the crowd. The red button sewn to the lieutenants empty eye-socket reflected the sharp coastal sun.
A few of the soldiers scattered at a short command, went in search of the other two Jerkers.
Newton shifted his attention to Canaveral, her own gaze still focused at Brace.
"You realize we can´t let you return to the holder at New Jerk." The voice was calm, matter-of-factly, as the warlord went on. "I think he´s not a good man, this Daimyo."
Canaveral answered him without looking away from the one-eyed lieutenant.
"Your information might be outdated. Daimyo is changing."
Even as she spoke the words she found herself doubting them. Was Daimyo really so much different now from when she first heard about him, or was it just her wishful thinking? She bore hope for the man she had seen through her dreams before they met, and she had this feeling she was supposed to stay in his service until something happened to point her to new horizons, but she was still not sure about his true intentions.
"Maybe so." Newton replied, "But i still can´t send you back to him yet. You will have to come with me, with us, for the time being. Please surrender your weapons."
"You would not take my oath not to harm anyone or try to escape, was I to keep them?" was Canaverals immediate answer.
Newton gave a quick chuckle, maybe a bit startled to find that kind of chivalry in someone working for Daimyo.
"I´m sorry, but I do not know you enough to take that kind of promise from you."
Canavereal shrugged, it had been a shot in the dark. Newton obviously was no fool, but he also had seemed like a man who stood by his word and could trust others to do the same.

The soldiers who had been searching for Nero and Fox reappeared, out of breath and with slightly baffled looks on their faces. A short report of failure to their warlord. Apparently Nero had been to fast and sly for them, invisible to their eyes even in his red jacket.
When Newton motioned for his second lieutenant to take her weapons, Canaveral broke her contact with Brace and offered them to the large woman voluntarily. There was no need to fight someone who was not your enemy, and Nero would be more than able to report back to Daimyo. Yet still she felt a sting of loss when she handed her spear and gun to another´s grip.
With a melancholic smile she turned to Newton. "Shall we?"

Oooh, I love your texts. I can hear the seagulls! (Are there seagulls in Apocalypse World? We never touched if the sea is still pure, or a festering black liquid, or something in between)

I also love how you guys find interest and nuance in the relationships to each other and NPCs, making it Apocalypse World feel like a real and living place, and very lovely to build PC-NPC triangles from. (=An NPC which two PCs have different relations to, basically)

 

Well, seems like Arvid hasn´t had the time to update on last session. I figure I leave that bit to him, though, and just give you the very last scene...

That I shall!