So I've been listening to the Gorillaz a lot lately and really getting an interesting Apocalypse World vibe off of them. Especially one song, "Kids With Guns":
Kids with guns
Kids with guns
Taking over
They won't be long
They're mesmerised
Skeletons
Kids with guns
Kids with guns
Thinking about that and reading recently a Financial Times columnist talking about the war between cops and gangsters in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro who said that the government would never regain control of the city "until they did a better job than the criminals of providing essential services," it got me thinking.
You actually don't need all the post-apocalyptic trappings of toxic mists and radiation zombies to make an Apocalypse World, it could totally be a huge city on the ragged edge of collapse anywhere in the developing world, Mumbai, Mexico City, Lagos, take your pick. All the threats still work, pretty much, the Warlord from five blocks over, the Cult that's stealing babies, the Barrier that won't let you get to the river, the Brutes that rule your neighborhood.
There'd probably have to be an outside force of some sort, the Cops or Federales or occupiers who keep the people from rising up and seizing the good things from the rich people.