Apocalypse Love and Kisses

I love the tone of all of these.  So amusing and conversational.  Also, it's funny to see where we're emulating the voice of the actual rulebook and where we're injecting our own bits.  Like we all have an "MC Character" we're speaking in.

yeah, it's an interesting tone of voice.  It's both a reaffirmation of your love of the characters, a goad to action, as well as injecting some real colour.  I always have this weird dichotomy of "the MC is sincere in his sympathy/affection/support" and "The MC is messing with your shit and doing so in front of you and fully aware that you can't do anything about it."

It's pretty awesome.

My MC voice is 40% Lt. Frinks from 3:16, 10% Computer from Alpha Complex, and 50% me. :-)

I love the tone of all of these.  So amusing and conversational.  Also, it's funny to see where we're emulating the voice of the actual rulebook and where we're injecting our own bits.  Like we all have an "MC Character" we're speaking in.

Totally. The tone of the book (and therefore game) is very wrapped up in Vincent's writing voice. You can see that voice, whether Vincent's there or not, in any thread about Apocalypse World across the internet, pretty much. I notice that I speak in it while MCing, as well. Weird.

I know exactly what you mean, yeah?

My MC voice is always me but in a really sort of false-sympathetic, goadingly curious way.  Sort of like "awwe, poor guy, you're in a really rough spot, aren't you?  well, grab the dice, let's see how it's going to get worse."

it's really fun.

I'm starting to work on these for the somewhat-arbitrary downtime between "sessions" of my online game.  How do you guys handle these?  Are they actual notes that are private between player and MC, or communal property so everyone can see what lucky breaks or tough luck the other players have? 

I'm starting to work on these for the somewhat-arbitrary downtime between "sessions" of my online game.  How do you guys handle these?  Are they actual notes that are private between player and MC, or communal property so everyone can see what lucky breaks or tough luck the other players have? 

When I used mine (see upthread), I printed out individually; they were actual notes for each player, and handed the notes to the players at the beginning of the session. Then, before they rolled, I encouraged the players to read 'em aloud, so we could all see the consequences for each roll outcome.

In short: they're for the individual player, but they're also communal. It's so much more exciting when we all know how they're going to get fucked on a 6 or rise above it all on a 10. It makes the rolls tense!

I prefer communal.  The other players can throw in their two cents, especially if the MC letter includes some questions to the PC, and very often (usually?) their two cents is much shinier than my two cents.  And I really like it when the letter includes things that the other players know will cause headaches for their PCs.  There's something truly beautiful about players who steadfastly maintain their characters' IC ignorance of brewing conflict when OOC they know the score.

Totally. The tone of the book (and therefore game) is very wrapped up in Vincent's writing voice. You can see that voice, whether Vincent's there or not, in any thread about Apocalypse World across the internet, pretty much. I notice that I speak in it while MCing, as well. Weird.

I know I can't help swearing whenever I talk about Apocalypse World. Not in an insulting way, mind you, just saying "fucking" this and that all the time, which I don't normally do.  :)

I just wrote up my first batch of these for the game that should be happening tonight.  It's been like a month and a half since we played, and I'm not even overly optimistic we'll play tonight, but if we do they should be interesting.  I might post the text of them and how it goes if I use them.

We're adding a new player next session, and this is what I cooked up (comments or suggestions welcome)

Well, Driver, you've been on the road a while. You've been running on ethanol and fumes for so long that when you heard a rumor a crazy old guy out in Grand Junction had a way to cook up oil out of rocks, you headed right on over to check on it. Turns out he was just making biodiesel, but he was willing to trade you a generous supply for help with a little bandit problem.  Roll +hard, and you can use your car.

On a 10+, good job! Pick 3.
On a 7-9, shit went down, but you managed to salvage something. Pick 1.
On a miss…everything went south.

* the old guy made it, and he'll probably trade with you again
* you've got plenty of fuel for yourself, and extra cans worth 3-barter in the back.
* your car isn't damaged
* you're not being chased

Quote from: Hans Chung-Otterson on September 20, 2010, 08:16:19 PM

Totally. The tone of the book (and therefore game) is very wrapped up in Vincent's writing voice. You can see that voice, whether Vincent's there or not, in any thread about Apocalypse World across the internet, pretty much. I notice that I speak in it while MCing, as well. Weird.

I know I can't help swearing whenever I talk about Apocalypse World. Not in an insulting way, mind you, just saying "fucking" this and that all the time, which I don't normally do.  :)

I use Apocalypse World as an excuse to cuss more often than normal, too.  I made a character who REALLY likes to swear and I'm finding it endlessly amusing.  I like to think that in the Time After, words like "fuck" have just sort of bled out their barbs and are a part of the day-to-day lexicon.

Elsewhere on the internets, John Harper writes "Obviously, the character is not receiving the letter in the game world." YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, MAN.

Dear Quarantine:
Hi there! Sorry, by the way, about the nickname if you don't like it. I take full responsibility, I just thought it'd be fun. Don't be surprised if it catches on, although I'm sure if you tried hard you could get people to refer to you by your "proper" name. But there's only so many hints I can drop in our first correspondence! Gotta save some material for future letters. Although I would like to take this opportunity to say that I am avidly anticipating your use of the ?-isolation rig. Especially since you, yourself, shrugged the world's psychic maelstrom off. Which kind of ironically makes you the weirdo here!

But, down to business. Remembering the Golden Age that was in its final days, while definitely one of the awesomer of your many unique qualities, is all fun and games, but sometimes a man's gotta evaluate his present sitch, am I right? Lucky for you, people talk a lot. I'm not gonna confuse you right off the bat by asking you to roll some dice for me, so let's be straightforward. For each of the following five questions, choose: Either you've heard the answer in passing rumors, and the rumors you've heard happen to be correct, or mark experience when and if you find the answer yourself firsthand. Just circle the ones you want to have already heard with that old pencil in your pack, or say them out loud, or something. I'll know. Because I'm always watching you.

* Who is Rolfball?
* Who is the Hive Queen?
* How is "Key" made?
* What's to the North of Death Canyon?
* What's Allison like in the sack?
* Who put that 20-barter bounty on your head?

xoxo, your biggest fan, the MC

PS: If you don't choose for some reason, I'll choose for you! It'll be fun!

~~~

Dear Allison:

Hi! Sweet when an opportunity just drops into your lap, isn't it? Speaking of Mr. Perfect Teeth, if he asks, and you want to say that you get these letters all the time, just part of this crazy mixed up world that you live in, that's cool. I'll back you up. Wink wink, nudge nudge. On the other hand, you could say its your first, too. I'd understand, and can even see the value in such being the "truth". Or maybe he won't ask at all! In which case, who cares? You know what they say about a life unexamined. Or what they did say, before they all died. Ask "Specialist Jackson, Philip C", HE knows what they said.

As you either know or can guess, I dig choices and trade-offs. So let's get down to business, shall we? Roll the two enclosed dice, and add 2 because of how hard you are. If you get a 10+, for each item on the bad list you choose, pick two good things. On a 7-9, for each good thing you choose, I'll pick a bad thing. On a 6 or less, pick at least three bad things, and if you pick four, I'll pick a good thing for you, as I am such a generous person. (Don't worry about returning to sender. Just say your choices out loud or something. I'll know!)

GOOD THINGS
* Your men have found Quarantine's wife, Tammy! Talk about leverage.
* Business is going great! Don't bother with that wealth roll, just go ahead and take the 10+ result.
* A brainer named Iris has come to Haven, and is offering you her services as a kept brainer for the usual rates.
* Some of your boys got to those buggies from Specialist Jackson's little firefight before the Hive Queen's scavengers did. That brings your total working vehicles up to four, I believe.

BAD THINGS :(
* Bad batch of "Milk". About a dozen people are dead, twice that many sick, and you'll probably want to talk to Lee, your pharmer, about what went wrong.
* A couple of guns have gone missing from the armory. Not enough to be a hardship for your gang or anything, but I'd be concerned about the whereabouts of that grenade tube and sniper rifle, myself.
* Some refugees, dirty, hungry, and obviously diseased, are gonna show up on your doorstep, right when you're busy talking to Quarantine. Awkward!
* Remember when you sent two of your boys... let's say Hammer and Blues, to look into that whole Death Canyon thing Sammy mentioned? Yeah, they haven't come back. Spoiler alert: they're not gonna. That's Death Canyon for you.

xoxo, your biggest fan, the MC

PS: If you tear up this letter or otherwise fail to make your choices correctly or anything silly like that, I'll go ahead and make said choices for you! I promise I will make the best of the opportunity.

Just a general MC question:

Do you usually start out every session with a love letter to every character? Or just some characters, or just some sessions?  Or not at all?

To answer my own question, I've found the players really like them and so I've done one for each character every game. Would feel like something's missing without it, but I'm sure that's not the only way to play the game.

I'll usually do one if there's been in-game downtime, or if we've missed a few sessions so people could use a refresher.