Hello humans!
A while ago, Jonathan Walton offered to write a playbook supplement for anyone who would give him some AW playbooks he wanted. I traded him the playbooks, so he wrote this! I think it’s awesome! Maybe you will also think so.
A little backstory…
One of the playbooks I traded Jonathan was a playbook supplement I had written (the Devoted) that was based on the second character I had played in Apocalypse World. A Brainer who had fallen in love with the Psychic Maelstrom.
Honestly, I’m not sure if the Maelstrom was intelligent or personified in that game, but it sure was to that guy!
So, when asked for a topic for a new supplement, I turned to the FIRST AW character I played, a Gunlugger who was also involved in an ill considered romance.
So, here’s a supplement about Gunluggers who are falling in love and making bad decisions because of it.
Nice.
Oh, and just in case people were curious, the Devoted is here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwlzs00rtoz_ODZkYjY4NTctMDUyZS00MjA4LThiMjctMWJkMmQwZGQzOGZj/edit?authkey=CNjcsNkE
This is really cool, I love the idea that a secret crush is eating away at somebody internally and affecting their abilities. Except I don’t see how it’s specific to Gunluggers, this seems like it could be used equally with any character.
It totally could be used for any character! I think it’s for Gunluggers because my original example character was a Gunlugger, and because I think Gunluggers are excellent fodder for this kind of story because they tend to be well equipped for causing trouble/violence and poorly equipped for dealing with feelings and relationships.
That said, I don’t think either me or Jonathan will try to stop you if you want to use the supplement for your Chopper, Hardholder or even Skinner!
The only suggestion I have is to inflict it on a character that doesn’t start with Cool+2.
Oh man, I want to play a Skinner who falls in love, now.
I want to play a battlebabe who doesn’t.
Yeah, it might still be fun to successfully roll all the time to keep your shit together. Because everybody at the table would know, right? Even if you didn’t let on.
Yeah, it makes the failures that much more poignant.
It’s so cute but tragic. Will definetly bring that to the next session since the GL talked about having a Crush on Lena but never did anything with it really, she is now part of the crazy peace cult so this is interesting.
Mechanically it seems sound from a glance.
I don’t like the theme of “Romantic emotions will make you make bad decisions.” and the lack of seperation between gross creepy possessive crushes and non-gross crushes. I think its sex-negative.
Well, it IS focused on the crushes of people who are violent and poor at dealing with their emotions. I don’t think EVERYONE who has a crush makes bad decisions.
Note that you can erase your countdown if you ever consummate or abandon your crush, so it’s up to the PC to decide if they want to stop being vexed and creepy. You’re right that this is intentionally a depiction of a not-entirely-healthy obsession, but one that doesn’t have to end in tragedy if it’s dealt with early on in the cycle. That’s up to the players!