Extended Mediography

I thought of a story that is *exactly* an Apocalypse World story and thought it would be good to expand on the media influences given in the rules for anybody looking for some more post-apocalyptic flavor.

The Night of the Long Knives by Fritz Leiber

This is so totally an AW story, I can't believe I didn't realize it until now. It's about sex and murder and finding something small but worthwhile in the bleak and blasted future. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes AW.

I just downloaded this for free on Stanza. I'm going to start reading it today.

Thanks.

There's lots and lots of serious apocalyptic sf that I haven't read. Lucifer's Hammer, for instance. Luke Crane and I compared bibliographies (he's been working on a more immediately postapocalyptic, more serious survival-oriented game) and he was a little bit disgusted at the lightweightness of mine. He's doing serious research, and I'm watching Domino.

Good topic! I've stickied it.

-Vincent

Oh, and I do want to give an actual recommendation from my own mediography, since I specifically don't do it in the book.

If you're able to deal with the intensity of some of the movie's situations, watch Blindness. It's harrowing and utterly on-topic.

-Vincent

Just to stick my own in here.

The Dawn of the Dead remake (you can watch the original if you like, but it's very 80s). Nothing says apocalypse to me like the opening credits of global catastrophe interspersed with bloody screaming faces while Johnny Cash plays The Man Comes Around. Though I think there's material to be mined from the survivors making a mall into a fortress.

Watch out for Stake Land, too. It's not out yet but it's on the way, and it's a post-apocalyptic road survival movie set in a world of Salem's Lot-esque vampires. I am very excited.

I can't think of the name right now, but there's a really good Philip K. Dick story where people are struggling to live (after a nuclear war? I think so) and there are these huge automated factories that just keep pumping out supplies, but the people have lost the ability to tell them what to do or access the factories, so they're getting tons of stuff they don't really need, stuff intended for a rich, industrialized country. Might be a cool schtick to throw into AW.

Also, Philip K. Dick is great for mutants and psychics.

So, I'm curious: 3:16 was listed as an influence, but its influence isn't immediately obvious. What parts of Apocalypse World would you say came from it? (Obviously, this question is mostly directed at Vincent, but if anyone else has insight or a theory I'm all ears.)

I can't think of the name right now, but there's a really good Philip K. Dick story where people are struggling to live (after a nuclear war? I think so) and there are these huge automated factories that just keep pumping out supplies, but the people have lost the ability to tell them what to do or access the factories, so they're getting tons of stuff they don't really need, stuff intended for a rich, industrialized country. Might be a cool schtick to throw into AW.

The title is "Autofac", I think.

The title is "Autofac", I think.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right, thanks! It's one of his earlier works, if I remember right, but good stuff.

We saw The Book of Eli the other night.

It's pretty much a Gunlugger (Denzel Washington) vs a Hardholder (Gary Oldman). 

Eli definitely has NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH.

Reminded me of The Proposition in a lot of ways.

Tank Girl is pretty goofy, but entertaining enough (I haven't read the comic, but I love the artist). Plus, it's got a battlebabe and savvyhead as the main characters, and a villainous hardholder, so it can't be too bad for AW :)

I just noticed nobody's mentioned FreakAngels yet. So allow me! I consider this more or less a must-read webcomic for Apocalypse World, it hits a lot of the same notes as the game, scarcity and suck, weirdness, the lot.

For me I think of the film Hardware (with Lemmy from Motorhead). (Man, was that really from 1990...!)

Hardware had a great soundtrack too I recall.  I'm going to find it again and use it.  It even includes the Story Games/Apocalypse World/Vincent anthem of advanced fuckery: "This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get."

I read The World Without Us a couple years back and AW GMs may find it useful.

My first thought when I saw Apocalypse World was, "Yea!  Vincent made Wasteland, the RPG."