Hey all.
Post apocalypse due to nuclear war - but these nukes also had the weird side-effect of creating a persistent nucleo-psychic maelstrom high above the earth's crust in the atmosphere. End result? A screwed-up hellhole of a world with influences taken from Borderlands, Mad Max, Fallout, Shadowrun, and even Warhammer 40k.
Setting: 100 years post-nukes Twin Cities. Specifically, you're starting out as a resident of Walker's Hold, a Stronghold located in the ruins of the Walker Art Center. The first Hook will be investigating a nearby Vault that was discovered to have recently opened underneath Loring Park.
Game style will be sandboxy - I want curious players who want to explore and find out the hidden treasures of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. As a lifelong resident of the Twin Cities, I know a lot of places that could be a lot more interesting if they were suddenly a lot less civilized - Hell's Kitchen, Nicollet Mall, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Mall of America, First Avenue, the Capitol Building, and the Skyway Network just to name a few.
Character sheets can be found here. The character sheets explain how the rules work in a large degree.
The system uses the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. It features dice-rolling checks for challenging situations of 2d6 plus a relevant stat. Results of 10+ are successes, while 7 to 9 are a partial successes or hard choices, and results of 6 or less allow the GM to make a move. A notable feature of Apocalypse World is the inclusion in each class's playbook of a special rule for what happens when a character of that class has sex with another character.
The stats are Cool, Hard (Violent, Intimidating), Hot, Sharp, and Weird (Psychic), with each PC having Hx (History) with every other PC. The default playbooks include the Angel (medic), the Hardholder (gang leader), the Gunlugger (badass gun-nut), the Battlebabe (mixes high lethality with high charisma), the Driver (Mad Max anyone?), the Operator (plotter/manipulator), the Hocus (Cult Leader), the Brainer (Psychic), the Savvyhead (Mechanic/Inventor), and the Skinner (artist or stripper).
I've never DM'd Apocalypse World before, but I have 3+ years' experience DMing Dungeon World on these forums. They use similar systems and I welcome newcomers to Apocalypse World. Let me know if you have questions.
Hey Booshy, are you going to be switching over to the 2nd edition of Apocalypse World that is currently up on Kickstarter? - I think most of the playbook changes are public.
I wasn't aware of the 2nd ed in the works. The new playbooks were easy enough to find, though: Here.
Looking through them, I like the changes. So sure, we'll update to AW 2nd Ed. Anyone who wants to join (I welcome everyone) should use the 2nd ed character sheets and not the first ed.
The 12 basic playbooks are:
• The angel: a medic, based on our years of working in health care and human services, with social workers, EMTs, nurses, MHCs, and ED PAs. As an angel, you care deeply, but you also know what to care about and what to let go.
• The battlebabe: cool, violent, provocative, unpredictable, dangerous. As a battlebabe, you're the unknown factor in everyone else's plans.
• The brainer: a weird creepy psychic, unsettling and subtle. As a brainer, you know everyone's secrets, and keep your own.
• The chopper: pack alpha, boss of a motorcycle gang. As a chopper, you have a lot of violent weight to throw around, if you can keep it in hand.
• The driver: mobility, freedom, the wide horizon and the road war. As a driver, you have your eye on the door and your other car is a war rig.
• The gunlugger: sometimes, when all you have is a hammer, your problem IS a nail. As a gunlugger, you are the baddest ass in apocalypse world.
• The hardholder: a compound boss, a warlord, matriarch of Hatchet City or commander in chief of the Rag Wastes. As a hardholder, you get to create your holding and rule it hard.
• The hocus: a cult leader, a wild prophet, an oracle, a priestess of doom. As a hocus, you get followers, weird insights, and the ability to incite the mob.
• The maestro d': owner and boss of the best place in the world. As a maestro d', you get to create and run an establishment, whether it's a bar with a band, a pit fight arena, or the only coffee shop left on Earth.
• Quarantine: a person from our time, a soldier, held in suspended animation through the apocalypse. As quarantine, you get to keep your head in a world that's lost it, and you have a stasis pod full of tactical backup if you need it.
• The savvyhead: a techie, mechanic, engineer. As a savvyhead, you get to crack open the world, examine its workings, and see whether it's fixable.
• The skinner: breathtaker, heartbreaker, master manipulator, beauty. As a skinner, you have the social power and ability to stay on top of things, no matter whose bullets fly.
There will be a Hardholder ruling over Walker's Hold regardless if it's an allied NPC or if a PC wants to be the Hardholder there.
So is this the fallout setting or homebrew?
It includes, but is not limited to, Fallout.
In other words, it's homebrewed, but Bethesda could probably sue the pants off me if they cared to. The idea for the campaign originally stemmed from my desire to play Fallout 4 in multiplayer. You'll see synths, super mutants, ghouls, and power armor-clad soldiers - but not JUST those.
Wow, Moosh I've been playing PF here on the boards for about a year and a half. Frankly I've never played "APOCALYPSE WORLD" nor "Fallout" nor been to Minneapolis or Saint Paul. But who doesn't want to play a gunlugger in the Twin Cities a hundred years after the apocalypse? Whatever a gunlugger is and in whichever twin cities they are? Seriously though, dotting, if you don't mind a newbie and If I can figure out how to work another game in. Either way I will we reading along to see what happens.
No problem at all Robert! You can call me Moosh, yes. I welcome newbies wholeheartedly. My only requirement of players is that they try to post once a day if they can. No foreknowledge of the Twin Cities is necessary - they're vastly different now anyway!
I'm interested! I saw the post on /r/apocalypseworld. I'm new to Paizo, played only a tiny bit of Fallout, been to Minneapolis once in my life, but I am an Apocalypse World veteran. :)
I'm thinking Maestro d' -- no one wants to face a day in Apocalypse World without some f&+*in' coffee first, right?
Too right! I'd welcome a Maestro d' player, it's great to have a locale all your own in the rough and tumble world of Minnesota. Glad to have found an AW veteran too, I'm sure you'll be able to help me out at times!
I've told you before, Scarlet, it's not murder if you're getting paid for it.
Oh... in that case, put down 'waitress, part-time assassin and murderer'.
Yeah. That sounds better.
You're welcome to join! There are 9 of the original 12 base classes still available.
• The angel: a medic, based on our years of working in health care and human services, with social workers, EMTs, nurses, MHCs, and ED PAs. As an angel, you care deeply, but you also know what to care about and what to let go.
• The battlebabe: cool, violent, provocative, unpredictable, dangerous. As a battlebabe, you're the unknown factor in everyone else's plans.
• The brainer: a weird creepy psychic, unsettling and subtle. As a brainer, you know everyone's secrets, and keep your own.
• The chopper: pack alpha, boss of a motorcycle gang. As a chopper, you have a lot of violent weight to throw around, if you can keep it in hand.
• The driver: mobility, freedom, the wide horizon and the road war. As a driver, you have your eye on the door and your other car is a war rig.
• The gunlugger: sometimes, when all you have is a hammer, your problem IS a nail. As a gunlugger, you are the baddest ass in apocalypse world.
• The hardholder: a compound boss, a warlord, matriarch of Hatchet City or commander in chief of the Rag Wastes. As a hardholder, you get to create your holding and rule it hard.
• The hocus: a cult leader, a wild prophet, an oracle, a priestess of doom. As a hocus, you get followers, weird insights, and the ability to incite the mob.
• The maestro d': owner and boss of the best place in the world. As a maestro d', you get to create and run an establishment, whether it's a bar with a band, a pit fight arena, or the only coffee shop left on Earth.
• Quarantine: a person from our time, a soldier, held in suspended animation through the apocalypse. As quarantine, you get to keep your head in a world that's lost it, and you have a stasis pod full of tactical backup if you need it.
• The savvyhead: a techie, mechanic, engineer. As a savvyhead, you get to crack open the world, examine its workings, and see whether it's fixable.
• The skinner: breathtaker, heartbreaker, master manipulator, beauty. As a skinner, you have the social power and ability to stay on top of things, no matter whose bullets fly.
Here is the Google Map coordinates of the Walker Art Center, AKA Walker's Hold, your starting home base. There are about 70 individuals and a handful of families that make their home there, growing what precious little food they can in the ruins of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden out back. The Hardholder of Walker's Hold - whether it's a PC or an NPC - will have accumulated supplies, money and power from trading away or charging to see the art pieces that survived the bombs' fall inside the Art Museum.
Nearby is Loring Park, once a thriving community with parades and festivals held regularly, now a blasted-out shell where not even grass can grow properly. There have been earthquakes coming from that direction lately, and some are saying it's because a Vault is opening up.
Further to the northeast can be found Minneapolis' downtown civic area, with theaters, fine dining, educational campuses and nightclubs as far as the eye can see. Each landmark is dramatically changed from how it is now, in today's world.
You're welcome to join! There are 9 of the original 12 base classes still available.
Hey there! I saw your recruitment post over on Reddit. Are there still slots open? I'm very familiar with Dungeon World and would love to try AW out. I'm perusing the 2nd Ed. playbooks now to see what I'd like to play.
Still have openings! Play by post games have natural player attrition so I won't close recruitment unless I hit like 7 or 8 players. That being said, I'd be ready to get the campaign kicked off with 4-6 players that are confirmed. Just make sure to coordinate your classes so you don't overlap!
I'd be interested in trying it. I'd like to play an Angel.
"The name's Doc. You got wounds that need healin'? Or maybe a touch of something to get those voices in your head to quiet down."
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Chief is the Maestro of Wolf’s, a gathering spot in Walker’s Hold. He is a man in casual wear, with an expressive face, frank eyes, a lean body, and nervous hands.
My stats: Cool+0, Hard+1, Hot+2, Sharp+1, Weird-1.
My moves:
- Fingers In Every Pie: put out the word that you want a thing, person, somethin-somethin, and roll+hot. On a 10+, it shows up in your establishment like magic. On a 7-9, your people make an effort and close is close, right? On a miss, it shows up in your establishment with strings wicked attached.
- Everybody Eats, Even That Guy: when you want to know something about someone important, roll+hot. On a 10+, ask 3 questions; on a 7-9, ask 1. On a miss, ask 1, but they hear about your interest in them.
- how are they doing? what’s up with them?
- who do they know, like, and/or trust?
- how could I get to them, physically or emotionally?
- what or who do they love best?
- when next should I expect to see them?
My establishment is called Wolf’s. It used to be the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Walker Center. It’s primarily a coffee shop and meeting place (during the day), and drugs and sex are readily available there as well (at night). It offers velvet, shadows, intimacy, and intrigue. There’s a small common area with a coffee bar, a few tables, and a prominent sign on the wall reading “NO STIMULANTS AFTER 5 PM”. The rest of the space is a maze of red velvet curtains with private booths, low lighting, plenty of cushions, and so on.
(I've got a ton more info on Wolf's, including no less than 13 NPCs, but I'll let other players get a word in edgewise before dropping that info bomb.)
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"Doc" Evans has a haggard face with sprouts of grey hair and a scraggly grey beard. His body is rangy and thin. He wears a plaid shirt, vest (with countless pockets), and cargo pants.
His stats: Cool-1, Hard+1, Hot+0, Sharp+2, Weird+1
His moves: Infirmary, Healing Touch
Doc has his own infirmary in Walker's Hold. He spends most of his time patching up wounds or mixing up chems for the locals.
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Okay, here's the beginnings of my Savvyhead, "Volcano" (his nickname, trying to figure out a basic name):
Volcano is a savvyhead with a bald head and bushy beard, wide appraising eyes and a hunched build wearing utility wear plus tech. He maintains the faltering and pieced-together tech in Walker's Hold.
Stats: Cool+1 Hard+1 Hot-1 Sharp=0 Weird+2
His workspace includes a Garage, Skilled Labor, and Machining Tools. His assistants handle the commerce side of his shop and are learning from him, but he'll often shoo them away from something so he can work on it personally.
Moves: Things Speak, Spooky Intense
If it were possible, I'd be interested in doing something bad to his leg, since Volcano's inspiration is the Roman god Vulcan/Greek god Hephaestus...
Look: Woman, casual wear, sweet face, indifferent eyes, slim body
Stats: Cool+3, hard-2, hot+1, sharp+1, weird+1
Gear:
Anti-material semiautomatic shotgun (3-harm close messy AP)
Glaive (3-harm hand area)
1-armor
2-barter
Moves:
Ice Cold (Go Aggro using Cool)
Perfect Instincts (+2 when acting on MC answers from Read a Sitch)
Here's just the stats. Chief, need a waitress/bouncer at Wolfs? Scarlet wouldn't be... ahem... servicing any of the customers, but no doubt a young lady with a glaive and a shotgun should be able to get work somewhere around here.
Oh, you're totally hired, Scarlet. Try not to kill any paying customers. I mean unless they need killin'.
I'm torn between a Driver and a Chopper! I'll sleep on it and burn something up in the morning.
On one hand, we already have a Hocus, which would mean there would be some significant competition over human resources if you went Chopper. On the other hand, that would be f*cking awesome.
ok Moosh, here is the crunch for my "gunlugger" How much fluff do you want, the "book" said to pick a name, not sure I'm sticking with Navarre, but it was the one name on the list I liked.
Still trying to sort out the rules, will need help, I'm sure. Curious to see how you handle the HX
Name: Navarre
Look: man, battered old armor, bony face, Mad eyes, stringy body,
Stats: Cool+1 Hard+3 Hot-2 Sharp+2 Weird-1
Moves:
Cool: do something under fire
Hard: go aggro; sucker someone; do battle
Hot: seduce or manipulate
Sharp: read a sitch; read a person
Weird: open your brain
Gunlugger Moves:
Battle-hardened: when you act under fire, roll+hard instead of roll+cool. When you make a battle move that calls for you to roll+cool, you can roll+hard instead.
Insano like Drano: you get +1hard (hard+3).
Gear:
Weapons:
F+$$-off big guns (choose 1):
mg (3-harm close/far area messy)
Serious guns (choose 2):
magnum (3-harm close reload loud)
grenade tube (4-harm close area reload messy)
Backup weapons (choose 1):
machete (3-harm hand messy)
armor worth 2-armor
The armor is very old body armor passed down from generation to generation.
oddments worth 2-barter
not sure what to put here
Hey, Mooshy, can you put up the gameplay thread soonish? It helps me relax if I can check all the games at the same time, ya feel me? We can probably use it to Hx.
No sweat, here it is! If you've made a character consider yourself accepted! EVERYONE, GET IN HERE!
I'll be firing up the campaign itself early in the next week or so. You all should know that I try to post 5 times a week, and I take the weekends off except for minor updates like this one.
I'll be explaining the rules as we go along, as needed.
I'd like to have a go as a Brainer. i like to bring the weird. As for fallout flavor, it reminds me of the psychic trees in Fallout 3.
Is there anything against playing a ghoul? are there even race stats?
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CHOPPER
Name: Dog
Look: man, scrounge biker wear, rugged face, calculating eyes, sturdy body
Stats: Cool+1 Hard+2 Hot=0 Sharp+1 Weird-1
Moves:
Cool: do something under fire
Hard: go aggro; sucker someone; do battle
Hot: seduce or manipulate
Sharp: read a sitch; read a person
Weird: open your brain
Chopper Moves:
Pack alpha: when you try to impose your will on your gang, roll+hard.
F$#+ing thieves: when you have your gang search their pockets and saddlebags for something, roll+hard.
Gang: (2-harm medium 1-armor)
+ your gang's well-disciplined. Drop savage
+ your gang consists of 30 or so violent bastards. Medium instead of small
- your gang is in significant debt to someone powerful. Vulnerable: obligation
Gear:
Bike: (power+1 looks+1 1-armor weakness+1 massive 0)
Strengths: fast, responsive
Looks: roaring, muscular
Weakness: guzzler
Weapons:
crowbar (2-harm hand messy)
smg (2-harm close area loud)
Oddments:
silver chain (1 barter)
broken pocket watch (1 barter)
Fashion:
Padded and reinforced biker gear scrounged from a$$holes who didn't deserve it (2-armor)
Oddments:
silver chain (1 barter)
broken pocket watch (1 barter)
I'm going to carry a mostly destroyed book instead of the silver chain.
Hey Mooshy, this looks fun.
Is there room for a driver?
Part Frank Martin from Transporter,
part Kowalski from Vanishing Point,
part Smokey from Smokey and the Bandit.
He gets what others need.
There is only one problem;
He does not know who he is.
Amnesia has him searching for clues to his past.
He has this tattooed on his right shoulder...
Mysterious Tatoo
Welcome aboard! Start making connections with the other PCs in the gameplay thread.
Is there anything against playing a ghoul? are there even race stats?
Is there anything against playing a ghoul? are there even race stats?
Rules as written don't allow for anything other than human (though there are optional playbooks for a marmot detective and a dolphin in a mech suit). PCs are expected to be part of a community of some kind, so you've gotta establish what a ghoul is and why we should let one in the door. The Brainer playbook is certainly the easiest to imagine a ghoul in, certainly.
ah, gotcha. yeah i just figured since it was heavy fallout flavor a ghoul should be fine as they are generally accepted (barring certain areas), and it wouldn't have surprised me to find they have very little, if any hard statistical difference except in situations like radiation.
Tenro's submission, Pallor the Brainer.
I like it!
And also since I am just now chiming in on the Ghoul situation - Ghouls are widely known as just people that are suffering from advanced radiation sickness. It destroys your ability to reproduce, and makes you ugly as sin, and you always risk descending into the madness that is going Feral - if you eat too much rads. But small amounts of radiation that you find in the Wastes doesn't affect normal Ghouls much, like it does humans. Their lifespans are also hugely extended in the Fallout lore; I don't have a problem with that either, since I don't have a problem with elves in my fantasy games being deathless.
As a minnesotan this is awesome, what classes are left?
Basically just the Quarantine and the Skinner. Amazingly, I have 9 players active in the campaign at the moment.
Maybe I'll make a skinner.
If you're still entertaining new players, I'm up for giving a Quarantine a try - as I've never even heard of Apocalypse World, his ignorance will be my own; I am familiar with a wide array of popular post-apocalyptic fiction (my personal favorite is A Boy and His Dog.) Your two links explain the character class concepts, but not much of actual game mechanics. Is there somewhere I can find them? Do I need to? Are you even still accepting players?
Ok, so I actually read the whole pdf rather than skimming it and found the rules section at the end. Let me know is there's room for one more.
I'm sorry I never replied to this! We're still accepting players if you're interested, Bane and Goodwicki. I can accommodate a large number of players in this game. :)
I am interested! Only played Dungeon World, so I'm intrigued to try it's apocalypse 'father'.
Can I be a quarantine character player?