Padriac, J.J., K.K., Barry, Brandy, you probably should not read this.
The Gardeners
Expresses: Seemingly more stability but...at what cost?
Dark Future/Agenda: The Gardeners re-build civilization but eat people on their sabbath day in order to remember the shame of their past and the importance of making, rather than fighting over the left-overs of the old world in a salvage only culture.
Description and Cast: I have thought a bit too much about these people and my main problem is that I kind of like them.
Of course they don't call themselves cannibals; they call themselves Gardeners. They live in the Garden (Jersey is the Garden State, doncha know). Their parents turned to cannibalism to survive and were riddled with guilt about it. The children turned that guilt into a part of their culture, eating weak folk. Weak folk are people who do not produce, people who live by salvage, considered to be animals living off of the corpse of the world that was, unable to move on and build anew.
They have a government, elected officials...but on Sunday, they eat people. People who produce cannot be eaten and of course the Elders decide which vocations are considered productive and which are to be hunted.
The cannibals most people have met outside of the Garden, outside of what Hudson River Valley folk refer to in hushed tones as Cannibal Country are teens, out on a helling, the last murderous mischief of youth before turning to adulthood. Many teens out on their helling have their teeth filed into sharp points, living up to the cannibal stereotypes.
Stakes Questions:
Will the Gardeners convert the River Folk to their traditions?
Will they get the trains running again?
Will they convert any of the player characters?
Will they make a treaty with Dog Head and his blossoming slaver operation?
Will they continue to sell their meth to Gams, as their primary drug dealer up to the Hudson River Valley?
Threat 1
is called: The Garden Elders
Kind: Grotesque, Cannibal
Impulse: craves satiety and plenty
Description and Cast: Boom, Elder of North Garden, Lead Engineer of the Train Yards
Mariner, Elder of Central Garden, Commodore of the Hook Fleet
The Devil, Elder of South Garden, Sheriff of Atlantic City
Custom Move: Not sure there is one. Huh. Thinking about it, suggestions appreciated.
Countdown: Again, don't think there are any, might add some for the Elders' special projects.
Threat 2
is called: The Garden Way
Kind: Affliction, Custom
Impulse: to promote and justify violence
Description and Cast: Man, they have a point, don't they? They've got some electricity and they're making shit. Maybe eating some shmuck once a week to remember the Long Winter, to gather with our family to do something horrid in order to remember how low humanity can get isn't such a bad idea?
Custom Move: Sabbath Meal, roll + Cool
12+ Not only is eating people wrong but choose someone at the table and you convince them that these customs are bullshit.
10+ "Dude, eating people is wrong. This is fucking dumb." You see through the bullshit.
7-9 Choose 1
Miss, whoops, all 3, snap out of it whenever you feel its appropriate.
- You feel comfort in this meal and a bond with the other sabbath-takers. Take +1 on your next roll to help any one of them or the Garden.
- You have comitted a terrible sin in order to survive in the Apocalypse World. Talk about it with your fellow sabbath-takers and you will feel absolved (for now).
- You have the urge to make something, to be a producer and not a salvager. Talk over your plans over dinner to make something that would make the world a better place.
Countdown:
00-03: Some river-folk villages start to make their own long-boats.
03-06: Garden diplomats secretly meet with river-folk villages who are making their own ships.
06-09: Some river-folk families begin to make their way to the North Garden, partaking of the sabbath.
09-11: River-folk families feud over the Garden's offers.
12: The River-folk who are not Gardeners slowly begin to be driven off of the Hudson.
Threat 3
is called: Helling Teens
Kind: Brutes,
Impulse:
Description and Cast: Kids dressed up in their Sunday best, teeth filed to pointy cannibal-chic, guns often pillaged either from a local township gun locker or their parent's garage, out to score some salvage, some meat and some laughs.
Custom Move: Not sure that there is one.
Countdown: 00-03: Some kids leave the Garden, shoot some shit up and get back with some good stories
03-06: Some kids rampage their way through a village.
06-09: Some helling teens show up at Bear, West Point or Kip-town with barter and cause a ruckus.
09-11: Some helling teens kill a warlord, eat his people and leave the rest in fear.
12: Some helling teens seize a piece of real estate, declare themselves a hardhold and settle down for a spell.