any ideas for a softer apocalypse? I’m talking BBC Survivors or The Road: other humans being your worst nightmare, not leather jackets, hair gel, mutants and zombies. Is there a hack? Or how would you tone down AW?
any ideas for a softer apocalypse?
any ideas for a softer apocalypse?
Humans are your worst nightmare in AW already. Just play it exactly as it’s written and don’t describe leather jackets or hair gel or whatever.
I don’t know how your games usually go — but other humans are almost always the main threats in the games I’ve played.
All you would need for a “softer” apocalypse is everyone to agree that your game is set in that particular tone (obviously, especially the MC). Less tech, maybe steer away from the +Weird heavy characters.
I’ve heard of a LOT of different apocali. A sci-fi burnt out world ship, a faerie awakening, self-aware coal people accidentally setting a nuclear winter… There’s a lot of space out there!
Yeah, my apocalypses are almost always just scarcity and harsh environments and people who are awful. I’ve never had zombies or mutants, as far as I can remember.
do you do anything with “weird”? or do you just ignore it? Or do you give it another connotation? If so, what?
I keep weird because its basic move is the most basic way to learn new things about the setting and add neat details. It helps that strange psychic powers, if played low key, really aren’t out of sorts with apocalypse fiction. If you do want just more of a standard survival horror kind of thing, I would suggest looking up End of the World (I believe?). Let me find a link.
jan w here it is https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5K_Bqfr0dqcWDQtMVhYX1dkWEE/preview?pli=1
This is a hack. It’s not straight AW, it has its own rules for everything, but its lightweight. It is not post-apocalyptic though — no semblance of society has risen up from the ashes, a la normal AW. This game is about the apocalypse, an the world is still falling apart as you play.
Alfred Rudzki Thanks! End of the World looks like it intrinsically does what I’m looking for. Good stuff.
The Quiet Year was designed for this.
The easiest way to do this would be to describe the setting and vibe you are looking for at the start of the 1st Session. No way at all does AW require hair gel and leather jackets and zombies!
What Meguey Baker said. You have to read books before you can make judgments about their content. I cannot stress this enough, people.
so I’m not that experienced a roleplayer, ya got me. I played an AW campaign and it was all freaks n geeks. I did read the book, cover to cover, but I’m not used to seeing the rules through the fluff yet. I’m just asking noob advice on how to make the transition easier.
I hear ya but no need to be derisive of the game then, yes? Ok. Meg said it: use the first session for this stuff. World Building in AW is very collaborative, and no one should be forced to play in a gameworld they hate. So discuss this stuff as a group. Don’t let your experience in one campaign color your impression of the game as a whole, because every AW campaign is totally different. It all depends on the people sitting around the table.
How am I being derisive about the game? I’m simply stating my experience, asking for advice. I’m trying to “get” this, but all too often I just get these snark remarks from what is clearly a self-protecting subculture. I’m not allowed in cause I clearly don’t “get” it, so I’m not “one of the guys”. There’s this typical rhetoric hanging around indie rpg discussions that just pisses me off so badly. There’s all this talk about being inclusive and story games are the bees knees and dnd players don’t give the scene a good name, but I get much more friendly responses from mainstream forums than I do here. Unfortunately I like indie games better. Idon’t want to generalise, but there’s always someone who comes swooping in all high and mighty with the “you just don’t get it” comments. Seriously, I’m not slagging off the game and if I was, why wouldn’t I have the right to? And this is just a recurring theme, which is the reason for this reaction. One too many.
Yup. I actually agree with you on that part. But AW is not one of those games that defines itself so poorly that only the self-protecting subculture can understand it. Alfred Rudzki Ross Fulton Adam Drew & Meguey Baker have already said all you need to know. You say you don’t want to generalize. Ok don’t. Read what these people said. FTR, I’ve never had mutants or zombies in any of my AW games either. And hair gel? C’mon.
The hair gel wasn’t meant seriously. Obviously. C’mon. Yes, the others, also Avery Mcdaldno, have been constructive, for which they have my thanks.
Still a question though. If I don’t want any psychic powers or supernatural events at all, how to threat “weird”? Just ignore it and the playbooks/moves that use it? Replace it by something else (I read this sweet idea once to just chance weird to “jacked” to get a hitech feel)?
Yup, totally. But do talk it over with your players. They will have ideas. The maelstrom can be toned all the way down to occasional “psychic hunches” or “drug-induced hallucinations” or “vision quests” or “intracranial satellite feeds” or “nano-intel” (picture Neo’s view of The Matrix for instance)… in such a world you probably wouldn’t have many (or any) brainers (ditto for other classes focusing on Weird). And still, someone else could totally go the other way and make it “prayer” or “magic” or “guiding spirits” etc. The important thing is that there are always some risks involved for anyone who tries to use it willfully.
Good stuff, cheers on that.
jan w you’re fine; I’m pretty sure As If is the only person who got offended that you don’t like leather.
I hope you have a fun game, and I’m sorry if any responses in this thread felt exclusionary. The AW community gets that label more often than I like.
As If just inadvertently touched on another factor in shaping your game experience: choosing the available playbooks.
If you want your game to be more about weird mutants and road warriors, give the players options of a brainer,, a hocus, a gunlugger, a chopper and a driver, maybe a savvyhead and an angel on the table to choose from.
If you want a game more about rebuilding society, go for hardholder, gunlugger, skinner, maestro’d, angel, and savvyhead.
If you want it to be about defending what’s yours and fighting off the hoards, go for a gunlugger, a battlebabe, a chopper, a hardholder, an angel and a brainer.
As the MC, you get to make some influential decisions before the players even sit down at the table. Granted, the players will take what you give them and spin it in unexpected ways, so don’t plan your whole game around it, but the playbooks on the table, along with your opening comments about “I’m thinking you’re the survivors. It’s not mutants, it’s not zombies – it’s just that the water mostly dried up, and you’ve got access to some of what’s left” can go a long way.
jan w and As If, you guys just had a brief, classic internet misunderstanding they nicely settled itself in a constructive way. I don’t think it was symptomatic of the AW or indie RPG culture at large – more like humans attempting to communicate through stupid text on stupid computers.
You both have good points and I’ve benefitted from the ideas here on how to have a The Road-style AW game (which I’m all about!). So thanks!
Yes, jan w and I staged this little display just to show everyone how easy it is to turn things around and come to amenable agreements on teh interwebz. Now you are all our acolytes. Fly forth and spread the newz! 🙂
Forums are just rife with trolls and snarks, and these communities have their share. I don’t think it’s symptomatic for the indie community, but I do think it’s symptomatic for subculture, and indie games at this point in time are just that.
I’m grateful for the constructive conversation had, and glad I’m not the only one needing a little hand getting to grips with applying broad strokes.