I’m running a AW game inspired by Fallout (loosely). Tomorrow is our second session, and I just put together fronts. If you’re in that game, you shouldn’t read this post. Spoilers.
This is my second time putting together fronts, and I find the process really rewarding. I went from some ideas based around play, to dark histories and some serious problems that are only solved if the PCs deal with it.
I’m going to write those fronts down here, and hope they make sense. I’d appreciate any feedback. Seriously. What do you all think?
Background – The Quarantine (playbook) has been in the world for a few weeks, and has kept her sanity. She’s hooked up with an Operator and Driver. In the first session, she was worried about building technology to redeem the apocalypse, and finding Tammy, who left the Quarantine with her and has disappeared. In play, we found there relationship may be deeper than her superiors know — and that Tammy has been taken by a chopper gang.
The Operative owes money to, and does jobs for, the NPC Hardholder Murphy Sawgums. Murphy sent The Operative on a job to find out why Second Chance had stopped sending food to Pentslanding. He brought the Driver and Quarantine. Together, they found Second Chance is a group of Amish who distrust outside and who pay protection to the largest gang – which is no longer Murphy.
That’s about where we stopped. The fronts I’ve got are:
Front 1: Against Pentsrising
Expresses: Ambition
Dark Future: With another power up North showing itself, Pentsrising will need to mobilize to stay afloat. They can’t stand on their own against The Northern Clave, and will be cut off & starved unless Murphy gives over control.
Stakes: Will food come in from second chance? Will Pentsrising starve? Will Q be accepted by Pentsrising? Wlll the Operative pay off his debt to Murphy? Will Pentsrising maintain itself?
Countdown 1 ends with food riots and cannibalism within Pentslanding.
Countdown 2 is Murphy response to the Northern Clave. Eventually, he’ll send his goons to take Second Chance, but the Northern Clave will respond will terrible force.
There’s a bunch of threats, with plenty of blanks. The NPCs are Murphy (Warlord, Collector), the Amish (family, brute) and the Northern Clave (Grotesque, mindfuckers).
Front 2: Overwhelming the Southern Clave
Expresses: Despair/Envy
Dark Agenda: If Hardrin (NPC chopper) gets information from Tammy (NPC from the Quarantine that went missing), he’ll be able to raid the Quarantine for laser guns & advanced bikes. He’ll leave very little standing, and take out everything he can.
I’m a little proud of one of the threats — Tammy. I’ve got her s a grotesque, pain addict. When she was exposed to the psychic maelstrom, it broke something inside her. As she breaks more, she’ll willingly give more information to Hadrin until she helps him destroy the Enclave. Hadrin’s pretty normal, just an Alpha Wolf.
Those are my two fronts after a couple hours of play. There’s a few NPCs on the home front.
As large scale as some of this sounds, a lot of it is really – Will the Quarantine get her girl back? Will the Operative stay afloat?
If you’re still reading, do please comment.
Sounds cool. What’s the quarantine’s facility like? I’m curious what the effectiveness of laser guns are.
Jason Martinez Thanks! We haven’t seen the facility yet, but we know they know what caused the apocalypse. And they have a medlab. I’m hopeful she gets an isolation rig, or else Tammy is going to have a rough time.
For the laser guns – I gave all her equipment the high-tech tag, and we’ll find out what her laser rifle does when she shoots it. So far, she’s only used her sidearm, which is high-tech by way of having a sight that looks around doors.
Sounds interesting, love the Fallout universe, also found it humorous that Google+ tagged the post with food…
Nice!
I reckon it should be a WHEN rather than IF Hardrin gets info from Tammy. Make it an triangle. I’d also make Tammy’s descent a countdown, with perhaps her Dark Future being a stake? Like what’s gonna happen when she really loses it to the maelstrom? Treat those NPCs like stolen cars though – look at ’em through crosshairs when ever you get the chance.
Nathan Roberts YES, you’re right — its definitely a WHEN. They can stop it, but at what cost? Good ideas on Tammy – if they do nothing, she’ll become a creature of the maelstrom. I can’t wait to see her on screen – maybe today.
Tevel Drinkwater Yeah, the tag was odd.
Game in a few hours. Thanks for the feedback. Always open for more.