I’m running an AW game over the hangouts. We played the second session this week.
So, between the first and second session, I thought about fronts and threats or whatever, and before the second session started I sat down and filled out a couple of front sheets, but I was having a hard time conceptualizing how all the things that were on the sheets fit together.
To sort out my ideas, I also made a basic R-map that had most of the NPCs that I was interested in on it, and the different ways that what they want from the PCs intersected.
In play, I never looked at Front sheet, but the R-map was super, super helpful.
Am I missing something critical about Fronts if I don’t really bother?
R-map?
(sorry)
R-map = relationship map, circles with peoples names in them and arrows connecting them to each other with notes about the relationships involved
I have had the same issue before, and i thik Claudia Cangini Clais having it right now.
You’re not missing anything super critical? The Front sheet, at its simplest/most useful is for you to look down when someone misses, notice one of your Countdown Clocks and fill in a segment because — well snap — one of your PCs just pushed it closer to completion.
The Front sheets are kind of an eyesore, in my opinion, and the explanation in the book doesn’t help out a ton because it has two or three inter-related dangers, and moves for each, but the moves aren’t where you’d want them to be (in my experience) and its a hassle.
It all got tons easier for me when I stopped worrying about everything plugging together and just treated it as a fancy spreadsheet for notes:
Here are my countdowns, I’ll fill those in.
Here are NPC names, so I don’t confuse Six-Pack with 6pence.
Here are my moves, for when my normal moves get boring.
At least, that smoothed it out for me.
As long as you can incorporate the various effects of the fronts in your R-map, you’re not doing anything wrong. The most useful thing about Fronts sheets, IMO, is the countdown clocks. Tack those into the relevant places on your R-map and you’re probably good to go.
Front sheets are great for structuring your thoughts after the first session, and I’d say check back on them at least every other session or so, to be sure you don’t overlook anything interesting, or something’s not relevant anymore.
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So far, the PCs have jumped one countdown clock by just murdering the guy involved. Whoopsie!
I’m not sure I get the utility of the clocks, but ill try to use them and see how it goes.
I have had similar issues in the past. I think threats are super great, but the way fronts group threats together seems less interesting, IMO, than the way I group them together in my own head or with a relationship map. I’m not sure if I’m missing something, but haven’t had much trouble running AW with less formalized fronts. Just keep some clocks running on the side, add new clocks to track new things as appropriate (since, yeah, the PCs may wreck most of them), and remember to increment the off-screen fiction occasionally.
I don’t really use fronts at all, but I hella use a giant r-map that accomplishes the same thing.
Players tend to be driven by goals. They want things, and move in lines with those wants.
Fronts for me are mostly reminders of what the world wants.
The PCs may not care that there is a gang they pissed off a while ago, but that’s been brewing. The PCs are really interested in who the NPC ends up with – but the lack of goats and general hunger is starting to make folks sick.
In general, R-maps are great for drama, and drives. Fronts are sort of the world-clock for me. I find that I keep things like that in my head, but depending on how often you play, and how much stuff is generated per game you might find yourself going ‘oh yeah … there IS a gang of bikers still stewing huh’. Eventually who the NPC ends up with resolves, and you’ll need to remember which ticking clock is next up on making things interesting. That’s when you look at fronts.
How you encode this (giant R-map, front worksheet, or my own personal revised sheets that keep things ordered for me) is of course best left up to you and how you draw on what you need.
Stras, I’d love to see your revised sheets, if you feel comfortable sharing. I have been meaning to make some for myself, but haven’t gotten around to it quite yet.
Mine are hand drawn (I’m old-school) and I just photocopy them as needed. Give me a bit to see if I can digitize them.
I’d love to see those, too! I found filling out Fronts a helpful procedure, but don’t refer to them much (maybe ever?) in actual play.
Remember that Apocalypse World is designed to collapse toward fun and successful play. Fronts are like the peripheral moves of MCing.
I may use something I’m developing for a different game in place of countdown clocks, simply because a linear progression/forcast makes more sense to my brain than the clock.
Thanks for all the responses, I will cheerfully continue using my R-map!
It’s funny hearing people be all “oh fronts what I don’t even” because when I MC Apocalypse World I am always looking at them, mid game, for inspiration and world-movement. Like, the PCs say “we take a day to rest off the gunfight” and I’m instantly all over my Fronts being like “A WHOLE FUCKING DAY?! ALRIGHT!”
I’m right with you +Adam Koebel. My fronts are open in front of me so I can the clocks in all their “about to ruin your days” glory.
I remember the glee on the players faces when I had to take a pencil and strike out an entire tri-fold panel because they took out the lynchpin NPC (and I wasn’t going to rewrite the front mid game — no that’s for later).
I also remember the players faces falling when I filled in an entire clock, closed the front and went with it. It was fun times.
I will say though, +Nathan Paoletta, that the clock is a linear progression and a forecast all at once. It’s just in a pie circle because apocalypse clocks everywhere or whatever. It forecasts what your NPCs want (so make moves to hit what you label your pie slices with) and fill them in as they happen (progressing toward their objective).
Once I played enough AW, I would sometimes ditch the clock and just write bullet points, so it wound up looking more like Monster of the Week or Dungeon World.
Not trying to persuade you one way or the other, of course! Do whatever works best for you, ya know? Just continuing to talk about the clocks.
Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s not that the Fronts aren’t useful in play: it’s that I got a lot of mileage out of writing them down (after the First Session), but once the game is on, I don’t really need to refer to them. I can hold that information in my head. I can see that changing as the game gets longer (or sessions get fewer in-between), though: when I haven’t played for a while and I need to get ready for the next session, it really helps to look over the Fronts sheet again. That’s why it feels more like a “prep” tool than a “in the moment” tool. But, of course, it’s both.
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