[AW] Apocalypse World - Tales of the Waste

[Trithemius]

APOCALYPSE WORLD
Hi all,

We have:

• Bish, the androgynous Angel (TeaPartyAdvocate)
• Fluffy M(urder), the Gunlugger who says "play nice" but who doesn't (Archivaria)
• Kite, the leather-clad sexy-violence-man Battlebabe (Bryce)
• Cob, the rootin' tootin' straight-shootin' Driver (AtheistCrusader)
• Pinkie, the gruesomely-accessorised Chopper (Steve)

For those of you that are curious, and for the players to start having a think, I have added some descriptions of the roles available. Players, please don't pick now - just have a think about the ones you are interested in; remember we can't double-up.

BRIEF INTROS
Use these when the players are curious about a character but can’t figure it out just with a quick casual look.

Angels are medics. If you want everybody to love you, or at least rely on you, play an angel. Warning: if things are going well, maybe nobody will rely on you. Make interest-ing relationships so you’ll stay relevant. Or sabotage things, I guess.

Battlebabes are good in battle, of course, but they’re wicked social too. If you want to play somebody dangerous and provocative, play a battlebabe. Warning: you might find that you’re better at making trouble than getting out of it. If you want to play the baddest ass, play a gunlugger instead.

Brainers are spooky, weird, and really fun to play. Their moves are powerful but strange. If you want everybody else to be at least a little bit afraid of you, a brainer is a good choice. Warning: you’ll be happy anyway, but you’ll be happiest if somebody wants to have sex with you even though you’re a brainer. Angle for that if you can.

Choppers lead biker gangs. They’re powerful but lots of their power is external, in their gang. If you want weight to throw around, play a chopper — but if you want to be really in charge, play a hardholder instead. Warning: externalizing your power means drama. Expect drama.

Drivers have cars, meaning mobility, freedom, and places to go. If you can’t see the post-apocalypse without cars, you gotta be a driver. Warning: your car’s going to be awesome, but you’ll be at a pretty significant disadvantage when you aren’t behind the wheel, so be prepared for that.

Gunluggers are the baddest asses. Their moves are simple, direct and violent. Crude, even. Anyway if you want to take no shit, play a gunlugger. Warning: like angels, if things are going well, you might be kicking your heels. Interesting relationships can keep you in the scene.

Hardholders are landlords, warlords, governors of their own little strongholds. If anybody plays a hardholder, the game’s going to have a serious and immobile home base. If you want to be the one who owns it, it better be you. Warning: don’t be a hardholder unless you want the burdens.

Hocuses have cult followers the way choppers have gangs. They’re like a cross between a brainer and a skinner: strange, but social, and they’re more public, less intimate, than either. If you want to sway mobs, play a hocus. Warning: things are going to come looking for you. Being a cult leader means having to deal with your fucking cult.

Operators are freelancers, moonlighters, odd jobbers, schemers and fixers. They’ve always got one thing cooking, one thing in prep, and one thing on the verge of going wrong. If you play an operator you’ll always have something to do; unlike angels and gunluggers, you make your own business. Warning: your life is half getting ahead and half going under. Expect to swallow your share of water.

Savvyheads are techies. They have really cool abilities in the form of their toyboxes, and a couple of fun reality-bending moves. Play a savvyhead if you want to be powerful and useful as an ally, but maybe not the leader yourself. Warning: your toyboxes depend on resources, so make friends with someone who can scrounge or pull scratch.

Skinners are pure hot. They’re entirely social and they have great, directly manipulative moves. Play a skinner if you want to be unignorable . Warning: skinners have the tools, but unlike hardholders, operators and hocuses, they don’t have a steady influx of motivation. You’ll have most fun if you can roll your own.

[Trithemius]

In response to some questions about whether we played...

Oh yeah! We did! I'll fill out the first post in a bit with the principle cast.

We met our ragged band of associates in the holding of Gunshow, domain of MIRV the local hardholder, which perched up in the highlands that ringed the edge of the wastelands. We went on a fuel-run into the wastes with Cob and Fluffy M.; tried to deal with problems of public health with Bish; looked sexy and dangerous and kept our cool during negotiations with Kite; and robbed some innocent travellers of their grenades and oddments with Kite and Fluffy M.

The group is heading south to a holding that Bish knows about where they have better filtered water, to try and barter for their techniques or tech in order to bring it back to Gunshow and sell it to MIRV. Whether Gunshow will be there when they get back - or whether Doghead and his as-yet-unmet Lord will annex it - is unknown.

And what about those fuel-mutants and their black blood of the earth?



As it was the starting session I didn't have Fronts yet so I had no really neat moves to respond to the players fuck-ups with. However most of them happened in a gun-fight so the consequences were fairly easy to work out!

At least one of the players has said it was cool, so I am counting it as a win. We'll be back, same time/same channel!

[lexifab]

Awesome - although I only understood about half of what you just said. I think I'd better go and read up on the game mechanics if'n I'm going to follow this one.

[Luminous Tedium]

As I understand from vague thread-reading on S-G, the GM has particular things they're allowed to do? And is, in a way, on the players' side?

I think I'm going to have to follow this one, if only to keep up excitement for the AW hack Dead Weight. (Because parkour + zombies = awesome.)

[Steve]

Thanks for taking the time to post, John. I think I'm going to have another read of the Master of Ceremonies Playbook too.

[Trithemius]

Players have a set of "moves" (as in "make a move, punk!" I think) that they can pull when they want to achieve things. The GM has a set of moves too, that get invoked when players moves give him the opportunity to use them. Interestingly, only the players ever roll dice so GM moves are phrased [success] = [avoid], [failure] = [bad shit].

The AP is a bit confusing since it was introducing a lot of things and establishing a bit about the game. The players are mostly itinerant jerks for hire, they are run by a operator called Talbot, and they all had some gigs at Gunshow. Now the gig is up, and they are looking to do some freelancing by going to find some useful junk to flog at an inflated rate to MIRV (he's named after the nuclear weapons delivery system for some reason) the leader of Gunshow. Now I have been making my Fronts based on the stuff introduced or vaguely inferred (a bit like IAWA character lists but a lot more structured) and am armed with moves and options to bring in as the players do stuff.

[Trithemius]

I think I'm going to have to follow this one, if only to keep up excitement for the AW hack Dead Weight. (Because parkour + zombies = awesome.)

As for hacks: my brilliant idea if hacking AW to play Rogue Trader/Dark Heresy, the WH40K games. I find their systems a bit cumbersome and I think they'd fit AW perfectly. Repairing shit uses Weird, there is an all-pervasive psychic maelstrom, and violence is a frequent problem-solving tool even for social challenges...

[Luminous Tedium]

...and violence is a frequent problem-solving tool even for social challenges.

"The Terminators seem to listen to what you're saying to them."

"Fantastic! I'll-"

"And then they declare you a heretic."

"Ah. Um..."

[Trithemius]

...and violence is a frequent problem-solving tool even for social challenges.

"The Terminators seem to listen to what you're saying to them."

"Fantastic! I'll-"

"And then they declare you a heretic."

"Ah. Um..."

Precisely! I imagine Dark Heresy as easily working under Dogs in the Vineyard too. But with a lot less player restraint.

[Trithemius]

More stuff!

This week the gang learned a series of valuable lessons - in and out of character. Chief among them were:

• [IC] Religious kooks do not actually like being called religious kooks
• [OOC] The system is deliberately kind of punishing
• [OOC/IC] Screwing things up is just something that happens

Story-wise, the gang negotiation the Wastes to reach the holding of Pure's Spring, near a wide dried-up river-bed. The settlement was religious in nature, and particularly well provided with clean water for drinking and irrigation. Despite it being full of weird religious gun-toting pseudo-hippies. When asked about the water, the cultists talked a lot of religious gibberish about miracles and their prophet "Pure". Cob was put on edge, and fucked it up with them, and they decided to drag him off for purposes unknown - whereupon Cob freaked out. Kite bribed a guard with sexual favours to get Cob released but Cob still lost it enough to shoot a cultist-dude's leg to fragments with his sawn-off. Bish sorted the leg out, Cob ended up free, and Bish and Cob bribed their way in to seeing the kooky prophet.

BIsh also opened his/her mind to the psychic maelstrom, asking it "What does Pure want from us?". On a miss, Bish started seeing water everywhere and heard a roaring - the refilled river rushing past. Rushing out to wade in the flow Bish knew the answer: Pure wanted Cob. Kite and Cob both attempted to bring BIsh back to earth but Kite just managed to share the vision too. Cob's slap [help!] was enough to bring both back under their own control again though.

Bish and Kite found Pure weird, and developed a terrible thirst while sitting near he/she/it and talking. They agreed to prove themselves worthy of the cults water secrets ("clean and pure!") - starting by taking a trio of missionaries and some containers of clean water back to Gunshow. The gang agreed and set off back to Gunshow.


Gunshow's market seemed quiet for the first time in memory, although some of Cob's kin - a cousin named Herb, were there. Herb reported that the trading routes north were getting "tighter" because of the "city fascists" and that he planned to hole up in a hidey until the city torn itself to bits again, noting "this totalitarian shit never lasts". Some chat with MIRV, some chat with locals, some chat with a mute Savvyhead who fixed Cob's damaged car (did I mention that? oh well!) later and the gang set off with Herb to rob a moonshiner of their grog (and still?!) in order to trade the grog for fuel with the Wastelanders (aka "thuh fuel muties"). The moonshiner backed down, but the gang decided not to risk blowing themselves to chunks by trying to rip off his still. As they bailed, they spotted a trike tearing off north - giving chase they blew it up and headed back to Gunshow [Kite showed that, mechanically, he might be good at making threats but he was a bit shit in an actual gunfight]. The gang hauled out to see Ketel, a mutie (or is he?), for some fuel and spotted some glinting of glass from a clifftop. Heading back to Gunshow first they returned with Gnarly (MIRV's headkicker) and some goons and found an abandoned sniper's nest. Assaying the site it was unsure whether the occupants were (a) northern jerks linked with Dogtown who fell afoul of the muties, or, (b) just suspicious muties.


In wrap-up the gang traded their gear and decided what they'd learned. BIsh learned about Kite and Kite about Bish thanks to their shared vision. BIsh also learned more about Cob for some reason that escapes me right now. Alas, we were down a Fluffy Murder this time - but she'll be back!

[Trithemius]

Welcome to Steve, who will be joining us as Pinkie the Chopper. Ick!

[Trithemius]

First of all: HEED THE LIZARD!!!


Story-stuff
Everyone started off kinda hungry this time. People gotta eat, you know?

Cob got himself a trailer full of parts and gear to haul behind his wheels, and a dude named Foster to keep it running - some kind of deal with his kin Herb that actually turned out good for once. Bish did something.

Pinkie turned up in Gunshow with gang of savages this time around, although Fluffy was down and out with some kind of sickness (drinking the wrong water maybe?). Turns out that Pinkie got his gang's bikes recently - for up north. A mysterious benefactor sympathised with Pinkie's desire for justice and order in the world and so hooked him up. So that's how come Pinkie owes Doghead anyway.

Bish decided that MIRV hadn't paid him/her/it(?) enough for sorting out the people ill from water-sickness so got an audience on the strength of being an employee and started negotiations. MIRV wasn't having it, calling Bish greedy, but Bish won him over with a suggestion she lead her buddies north and start some trouble for the jerks putting pressure on Gunshow and it's trade partners. MIRV couldn't say no and so out came the chest of guns again... Bish scored an UZI, tried for some extra ammo, and good booted out into the yard.

A big column of dirty black smoke could be seen out East in the Wastes. Worried about whether his trading buddy Ketel was in trouble, and supported by Pinkie's weird Judge-Dredd-like concepts of justice, the Cob said they should head out to check into some shit. Bish wanted to head north straightaway, but the gang compromised and said "later". Bish didn't push any luck and took it. Pinkie's gang was monstering the Clean cultists who were dishing out free water again, trying to steal a big 40L container of it from them. Pinkie fed Exit, one of the gangers, a cup and the rest of them fell into line. Everyone rolls out, ignoring their rumbling stomachs...

Pinkie turned out to be less good at guiding than Cob and nearly lost his shit - just losing his shotty instead. He jacked one of his boys Magnum instead and was good to go though.

The smoke was a burning trio of pumps and some burned out buildings. Charred, oil-covered, corpses could be seen lying around and a big slick of black fuel was forming around a fountain of the stuff that was spurting from one of the wrecked rigs. Cob took a shufti in his truck and took a bullet from a sniper. Kite looked around on foot and nearly got jacked by a mutie... who decided to talk when Kite jammed his autoshottie in his face.

Makers the fuel-mutie Waster told the gang that some highland assholes had turned up, blown the place up, stolen their fuel, and dragged off some of their kin. He then told the gang where they could go, i.e. to hell. Kite got sick of Maker's BS and wandered off to try to tune in to the universe but ended up keeling over in an oilsick and hearing creepy-ass voices. Pinkie was displeased with the slavery and robbery and said he'd go north with his crew and bring the Waster people back - Makers just needed to give him and the crew some food. Makers told him to fuck off so Pinkie and his crew took the food.

Ambushing by molotov-wielding Wasters ensued, followed by a hasty retreat with a stockpile of canned goods from one of the blasted buildings.

A stop for the night, some medical care, some mercy-killings, and some cans of stew later and Pinkie was saying they should go jack the raiders. Somehow Pinkie thought that they'd got the food so they should follow through on the deal with Makers... not that Makers saw it as a deal... Everyone thought this was mental, but no-one had the stones to call Pinkie on it and so it was so.

They set off in the morning, Cob leading and the bikers eating dust, on the trail. Cob screws it up and chooses to lose the trail rather than inconvenience the bikers. The gang finds an older ruined rig and tries to check it out for clues. Kite tunes in again, breaks through the psychic oilslick this time, and instead saw a vision of a weird curved squat tower belching smoke. The smoke-cloud turned to rain, which turned the ground black, spread wider, rained, and turned more ground black. As Kite watched the rain fell around him, painting him and the ground at his feet black. Staring at the dust he saw the black rain write a name: Ribbon, his murdered sister's name. The first family-member Kite ever killed. The rain washed away the name and Kite came out of his trance.

Everyone else gawked at the freakshow staring around like a crazy-dude but no-one fronted.

Cob managed to spot the trail from the top of the wrecked rig while he and his new bro Foster demolished it for parts. The trail was super-obvious, even the bikers could see it, so Cob got some smack-talk. Pinkie said Cob owed them for refueling next time. Cob fronted, then Pinkie fronted back, then they both let it lie - for now. The crew headed off along the trail and hit the highlands before sundown...


Non-story stuff
So, BIsh and Cob both advanced early on so they worked out what they got. Graham picked a garage for Cob - a trailer with a bunch of tools and crap in it that he can haul around Optimus Prime-styles. I forget what Bish picked.

ASIDE: It's hard to keep Kite and Bish apart in my head - possibly because Kite is a battlebabe and so is probably bishonen or something... anyway...

Pinkie is already causing trouble and tension and stuff. I keep having fun with the gang too - using it do random acts of violence when Steve isn't having Pinkie pay attention to them and calling Pinkie names when he doesn't put Cob the truck-driver in his place. Two wheels good! Four wheels baaaaaaad!

I also introduced a new threat in earnest this time around - the Lizard King! Can't say too much about it right now though except for: heed the lizard!

Also gave the players a lesson in taking on big gangs of pissed off mutants with (a) lots of flammables (b) networks of tunnels and (c) nothing to lose!

Looking forward to the next one!

[Archivaria]

Tomorrow - I Drain the Lizard. Wait... what?

[Trithemius]

Tomorrow - I Drain the Lizard. Wait... what?

100%! (Please bring your own lizard)

[Trithemius]

More AP from Tales of the Waste; although it could have been Tales of the Wasted this time around!


Story-stuff
The crew found itself at a crossroads this time around - literally and... the other way...

BIsh the Angel said to abandon the search for the missing Wasters and bear west towards Dogtown - to commit acts of terrorism, sabotage, and trouble-making and earn reward from MIRV. He/she/it enlisted Cob with her coherent arguments re: greed, Pinkie's lunacy.

Pinkie thought it best to press on and check out a smoke-column nearby. Smoke in the highlands suggests settlements and the trail of the raiders might be picked up there. Kite, sensing greater opportunity for violence with Pinkie and the chance to diss Cob set off with the chopper and his gang.

First, Kite and Pinkie...
The holding of Tyrefyre was wreathed in the poisonous chemical smoke of the eponymous fire. All of the inhabitants wore masks - the powerful had good ones, the poor and weak wore dirty rags across their faces.

The holder, Rice - a gas-masked goon with the soul of a merchant, let the gang in and mistook their inquiries as interest in purchasing slaves. Pinkie pondered impressing some slaves to make up the numbers in his gang while Exit, one of the current members, grumbled audibly. Exit proposed, in forceful and profane terms, that the gang should just take the slaves, loot the holding, then march west and sell them to the mysterious buyer there. Pinkie remonstrated with Exit ineffectually and the gang took up Exit's cause, shot Rice's guards, and began to cut loose. Pinkie seized control again, determined to free the slaves, and - buoyed by Kite's murderous "advice" and "encouragement" - sent the slaves running towards the gate. The breakout became a massacre, then a battle, as the freed slaves swirled around part cover and part threat. At the end though a third of the slaves remained alive and those few of Rice's gang that had survived holed up in the main building with their loot and guns.

In the fracas Kite forsaw the death of Last, Exit's brother. Last didn't like the way Kite was staring at him but did like his leather armour and so resolved to get it. Getting the drop on Kite, Last got Kite's submission (but not the armour) and then got a nail-board through the back of his head from a crazed slave.
You can't dodge fate it turns out...

Meanwhile with Cob and Bish...
Setting off west the dynamic duo decided to jack a slow moving caravan. Getting into position, and finding it was a van leading three strings of bound slaves at a walking pace, Cob proved unwilling to open fire with his jeep-mounted gun through the slaves. A traditional gunfight ensued between the slow-moving vehicles with the result a draw: one slaver dead, and Bish down, bleeding, and disfigured after a bold - but ultimately failed - move. Burned by their failure, the two headed back to the settlement of Tyrefyre to stock up Bish's rapidly depleting angel-kit.

The crew, together again!
They arrived and saw the remnants of the carnage. BIsh narc'd up and lay back while the kit did it's work and Cob rapped with Pinkie and Kite. Pinkie had impressed the remaining slaves into his gang, failing to inspire their sense of justice and honour the fell back on the old stand-by of threatening to kill them all if they didn't sign on, and was gearing up to take out the stronghold of the survivors and loot it good. Kite was in, obviously, backing up Pinkie's plan to kill. Cob wheeled up the Cob-Mobile and started laying down HMG-fire, but only managed to piss the gangers off. They replied with a pop from a 'nade-tube and the Cob-Mobile and Cob both got blown up and disfigured. Sucks!

Pinkie led the charge, and seized the enemy position though - mutilating and gunning down the survivors from Rice's gang. Pinkie's boys went wild, looting, maiming, burning, and drinking stuff. Pinkie and Kite got a nice haul of trinkets while Bish tended to Cob and Pinkie traded a trunk of medical supplies + a solid yo-me to Bish in exchange for BIsh's ministrations for a week.

The crew settled down to recuperate for a week, trashing the holding good and proper over that time. Many minor acts of savagery were perpetrated on the fringes over the week and, by the end, the crew and the vehicles were in good shape. The former slaves had been pared down by various... activities... and Pinkie now had a larger, but less loyal, gang.

THe rest of the crew sought to persuade Pinkie to come to Dogtown and waste Doghead - but Pinkie, who owed Doghead for his bikes - was hesitant. Persuasion was attempted, but Pinkie is a hard man to phase and agreed only to go to Dogtown and confront Doghead with the accusers. Pinkie's kook-justice required that a man defend himself from such allegations. The crew hauled west and reached the Ruins, following a mysterious trio of riders from a distance for part of the way.

Dogtown was just one of several enclaves squatting amongst the blasted Ruins, beneath the lowering bulk of the the Tower. Locals called it Smoking City or Smoke City. Kite saw the Tower, as it Smoked, and knew it was the Tower from his Vision.The narrow rubble-strewns lanes were ideal ambush spots, but the crew only saw youths ambushing and harpooning feral dogs as they drove through. Dogtown was jumping since Doghead was home - the playing field of the former school played host to the wagon circles of his gang's combat-modified RVs and buses. Packs of chained dogs barked while others roasted over crackling fires.

Bish, Cob, and Kite went to the Dogtown market, trying to get some meth to spike Doghead's gang with. They met Newton, a kook in a labcoat, who said they could get the quantity they wanted from his "facility" nearby. The implication was that the market for meth locally was good, and that maybe they'd need to pay for it...

Other stuff that happened although I forgot precisely when
- Bish tuned into the the cosmos and heard the truth: To undo Doghead, turn his dogs against him. Teach them to love the flesh of their master.
- Kite also walked amongst the spirits of the ghostworld but unfortunately I forgot the kooky nonsense that I replied with. [SOMEONE REMIND ME PLS?].
- Pinkie slept, and dreamt, and saw himself on a shiny steel steed leading his followers West. As they rode across the blasted landscape it became ordered, fertile, and good... (Yeah right!)
- Pinkie advanced and got Harder!


Non-story-stuff
This time around people got messed up. Both BIsh and Cob took debilities to avoid being unconscious in a bad situation. Bish might be able to deal with this someday if he/she/it gets the Infirmary improvement but it might be kind of gross (got some good ideas from Bryce! Ta Brycicle! ). It's easy for your best-laid plans to go awry in AW - but that just means you need to do something every more crazy and dangerous to claw your way back.

The players are playing their characters as pretty psycho. No attachments yet. I think I need to hit them in the home-front a bit to see if they are just rugged pragmatists or genuine psychos.

No-one got beaten with the clan regalia but a good time was had. I think... I had a good time at least.