Hi people

Hi people

Hi people,

We are having some gang action in our AW game and I just got curious about the rules.

Question #1: In Apocalypse World, character sheets are descriptive as well say the rules. So if you dominate some lowlifes with weapons in the game proper (during a session), you can get a (statted-up) gang, right? Who stats them up? My gut feeling is that the answer in both cases is “table agreement” but I am curious if some of these are sole MC territory of whatever…

Okay, that was the easy one.

Question #2: If you get a gang from the fiction of actual play and not from experience, will it come with some custom move by the MC? Will pack alpha or leadership apply if you already have them? Otherwise, can your gang live with just your basic moves?

5 thoughts on “Hi people”

  1. Question #2: Nope. You’d need to take an advance to get a character Move, but you can use the individual interaction rules on gangs (manipulate them for instance). It’s what the Maestro ‘D has to do with their gang if they take that security option. Also, note that it doesn’t require a special Move to use a gang as a weapon. Pack Alpha and Leadership aren’t necessarily required each time you Go Aggro with your gang.

    That said, it is entirely reasonable to have a special Move for the threat that the gang is represented by. So something like “When you try to get the southsiders to do anything besides snort dream-tar, roll +Hot…”

    Question #1: It should flow from what’s established in the fiction. If the southsiders are ~30 strong and a bunch of decadent, drug addicted ass hats with some nasty weaponry, well that pretty much establishes their qualities. I think it is mostly clarifying what everyone understands to be the case about them, and then encoding that into mechanical terms (including the MC putting them down as a threat).

  2. I agree with Tim Groth.

    When I’m the MC, I’ll give Pack Alpha as a present to basically any PC who wants it, because it’s a fun and easy way for me to deal with their gang. Easier than coming up with custom moves all the time!

  4. How I see it;

    Paid for with EPs says they are the people who will go to the wall for the character, and an extension of the character’s… um… character…

    Paid for in barter, and they will fill their mercenary obligations to greed and survival for that contract…

    Picked up in fiction, they are a threat that is pacified and directable… for now…

    Having a bunch of desperate Souls around, works out as about the same… those paid for in EPs are a cohort of loyal constituents, those paid for in barter are employed by a desired perpetuation of security and comforts, those paying rent are an obligation to be satisfied or recompensed, and those just hanging out in the shanty shacks around the area are a threat motivated by fear and scarcity…

    Game Theory Logic

    NPCs; Better to promote them if you can, kill them if you can’t… right?

    Unforgiving Realistic Probability

    You can’t save everyone… humans are squishy, and go good with ketchup.

    requesting topic added to SplatWorld queue, Richard Rogers.

    Families, Gangs, Crew, Souls, and Believers — The Tougher NPCs.

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