Explain the attraction of Apocalypse World mechanics

I won't really say 'sell me on', because I'm not sure I want to be. It's been cropping up more and more lately in its various incarnations as a recommended system, so I did some looking around to find out more.

What I'm seeing is a system that defines various character professions in great detail to the extent that it's recommended that nobody run the same one as anyone else. That makes me skeptical, as I prefer more open approaches, but I'm still curious. Then I hear that you can unlock certain abilities by having your character have sex with other characters....w...t...f...???

There's got to be something good about this considering the number of recommendations I'm seeing...what am I missing?

A lot. Actually the two things you mentioned are actually quite peripheral to the game.

The core of the game is fiction first. We focus on what the story is about and the system does not devote time to things that are extraneous to that. The moves (which are the actions your character can take) describe only those cases where it is interesting for us to roll some dice to determine success.

The dice system has an interesting set of results (hard hit, soft hit, failure) where each one helps push the plot forward. Hard hit (10+ on 2d6+stat) and you get what you want generally. Soft hit (7-9) and you have some compromise, perhaps less than you wanted or some other complication. Even failures drive forward the plot by giving the MC (game master) license to make harder moves.

From the MC side, the game is great for the advice. I think the MC moves (semi-structured description of things a game master can do) are a great delineation of what a game master should be doing in a game and how they should do it. The game is easily hackable which allows you to customize it with less effort or worries than many other games.

As to your concerns, I would not consider playbooks "professions" but archetypes. Gunlugger is closer to Fighter than "guy that shoots people for a living". You can quite quickly branch out of them in play as you gain experience and new moves. They simply serve as a narrative starting place for you which a pre-established niche. Any character can ultimately take on a new playbook with enough experience.

From a customization stand point, a lot of what would be described in skills, advantages, merits and what-not in other games is just description. The core of a character are their stats and moves. Most of the moves you will use in regular play are the 6 basic moves anyway so the choice of playbook is not a straitjacket.

For example, I'm playing an Operator in my current game (because I hadn't seen one used and I wanted to play with the barter and Gig system). By the numbers I think Operators are a bit low on starting moves. But in play I found my guy Waters to be one of the more effective characters so much so that NPCs tend to think he is in charge of the local hold (we have no Hardholder). He's shows himself to be an impressive warrior, organizer, and low down mercenary.

As for the sex moves, I consider them fairly peripheral. In the 3 games I've played   with 11 players, 20 characters, and about 24 sessions they've come up 8 times, half of those with NPCs (and 2 from a mental linkage that was like ultimate intimacy...Savvyheads can get up to weird stuff). So PC on PC sex happened like twice.

Why was this exact OP posted on RPG.net back on 09-22-2012? You haven't learned anything about the game in the last year and half? What are you still curious about?

Point: NoClue.
Next up?

Nice catch noclue. Looking over Nitishajack prior posts I see they appear to be verbatim from other forums. Weird. Brilliant spambot or strange troll? Seriously I'm confused.

That is strange, isn't it. It's a lot weirder than I thought, especially that Tribe 8 post.

No need to speculate. Nitishajack, what's up?

-Vincent
forum moderator

I won't really say 'sell me on', because I'm not sure I want to be. It's been cropping up more and more lately in its various incarnations as a recommended system, so I did some looking around to find out more.

When you post on a forum Nitishajack inquiring about AW, please roll+Weird. On a 10+ you'll get good information and maybe Keeler won't come looking for you, 7-9 Keeler certainly is looking for you but before she finds you, you learn more about AW. On a miss, damn I was about to tell you about AW but it looks like Keeler already found you...I'll get the mop.

Nah I'm kidding, I am actually a pretty new player to AW and thought I'd at least give you my thoughts on your inquiry. If not for you at least for others that may be wondering too, from a newbie's perspective. The above scenario and custom move is a basic demonstration on how certain scenes would play out. The results are very easy to interpret using 2 d6.

What drew me to AW was first, it's simplicity in some respects. Don't get me wrong, there are still things I just don't understand quite well just yet  because of its abstract nature, (which is why I am going to ask about vehicles and the operator's crew shortly after this post) but what I've seen is, once you get the system or a certain mechanic or how a certain abstraction works, you don't have to look up the rule a million times anymore. I experienced this in other RPGs where the mechanics were so specific or complicated that I would have to continually refer to the rule over and over even after understanding it. Interestingly if you do look up a rule or a move you are normally looking it up to refer to a pre-outlined list of options for certain moves, it doesn't really slow down the game very much.

To me, while it can be, it isn't a combat oriented game. If you really want your players to roleplay more than roll dice continually for everything they do, try this game. If you enjoy narrating but not predetermining everything, try this game. If you want number crunching to a bare minimal, try this game.

You mentioned the sex moves, yeah they exist. However it isn't the main part of the game, nor do you even have to use them, which brings me to my next point. This game is one of the more friendly games I have ever played that made it so easy to customize, sometimes even on the fly. I personally don't use sex moves but I did customize them with something else (mainly because of some of my players, I don't want to make uncomfortable, nor do I really care to narrate such scenes myself), this is why you see so many "hacks" based on the system. It is easily customizable and skinnable.

Lastly, I enjoy that you truly don't need much other than dice, paper and pencil. Many newer mainstream RPGs require special dice, miniatures, grids, status trackers, initiative and HP trackers etc etc. I got really tired of that crap personally, some enjoy it, but it is high maintenance and I have a family--I don't have time for that stuff anymore. Prep is pretty light compared to say D&D and other d20 variants. My d20 games take an entire box to store, AW all I have is the print outs and dice, the paper all goes in a neat notebook. :)

Anyway peace.