I was just reading the AW2 book at lunch and came across something saying the apocalypse happened 50 years ago. I tend to talk through all that with the players before starting so it’s different each time. It also makes for some really unique apocalypses which is also cool. However, that little statement about 50 years got me thinking. Has anyone played with that same timeframe while taking into consideration the life expectancy of fuel and ammo? Gasoline remains good for a few months or most of a year if you put a stabilizer in it. Diesel last around a year if kept dry though it can go a few months beyond that. Ammo can last a bit longer before it gets really dangerous coming in around the 10 year mark. If the apocalyplse happened 50 years prior to your game and there are no active refineries or people making powder for ammo, how would that make the game play? It would really hit the chopper, driver and gunlugger the hardest. How else would it change things?
Just an idea to spark some more unique apocalypse settings. 😉
Also, in general I just play with some hand-wavium and go for cinematic. There’s no sense in crippling some playbooks (especially the gunlugger my fave).
It hadn’t dawned on me until now but if gasoline goes away then some drugs also vanish. Something to ponder.
/sub
I’m pretty sure this issue is knowingly glossed over in the default setting.
Mad Max has Gas Town and the Bullet Farm to deal with it and you could assume there were similar sources until recently enough, or that there are distant sources such supplies are obtained through by trade. Vehicles could be electric, using advanced battery tech and solar for recharging.but ultimately trying to come up with rationalisations can just lead to more questions. Is it a road you really want to go down?
Hand-wavium to the rescue! (Have done that, to be sure.)
Or we assume that the Apocalypse happened 50 years previous, not 50 years ago. Maybe it’s a timeline in which gasoline was much better stabilized for some reason. Perhaps ethanol fuel was the most common type (and any idiot with a still can make ethanol). Perhaps solar and batteries were the most common energy source by the time of the apocalypse, and all you need is a good 5-hour charge in full sun.
Regarding ammo, I think there probably are people making new ammo somewhere between Truckers Graveyard and Pocked Plains, probably in that old military bunker.
There’s actually a direct reference to the gasoline problem in the text. P. 294, or p. 297 of the PDF. Vincent suggests that if biodiesel works better for you, then use that instead. He doesn’t mention bullets.
For me, I always make fuel refining a thing I mention during setup. I try to figure out how its done within the fiction (sometimes its just a biodiesel farm/factory, sometimes it’s much weirder). Bullets, I’ve never spent much time on. Obviously someone needs to keep churning out shell casings which implies all sorts of things: copper mining and smelting, industrial machine presses.
Mad Max: Fury Road obviously dealt with these issues at arm’s-length, by making Bullet Farm and Gas Town named places in the setting, but then placing the action elsewhere so we didn’t have to worry about the details. That’s another easy way to do it. “Oh, yeah, Dremmer runs the fuel plant. It’s about a day’s hard drive there and back. Monsoon, don’t you owe him a favour for something?”
You could make fuel and bullets part of Barter, or you could give players countdown clocks relating to their stock. Maybe even make some custom moves inspired by the Angel’s stock moves (or by the Harm moves) related to fuel and ammo. “Alright, that was a hard-fought battle. Roll + stock and let’s find out what it cost you…”
The World Psychic Maelstrom somehow sustains gasoline and ammo just for the fun of watching us shot each other over fuel.
Sometimes I’d like to play out an AW game where everyone thinks apocalypse happened about 50 years ago, but it actually was 5 months or so.
(Mario Bolzoni, and others. Didn’t Adam Koebel run a game on twitch/YouTube where the Maelstrom messes with memory like that?)
I can see a conclave making bullets as their means of staying alive and I like the idea of batteries or a super-fuel for vehicles. Bio-diesel is an excellent choice. I think it’s easier to make with resources that are more available.
I like making those hard to make resources a challenge for the players. It’s all about resource control. haha
azlath I love that!
Mario Bolzoni That’s also an idea. The psychic maelstrom could just have the character blind to the time frame.
Slade Stolar That was his flooded world with the weird time bubbles.
Victor Wyatt
That’s the one!
You could also say that, while modern fuel and bullets are gone, people have managed to develop alternatives. Cars could be converted to be steam-powered, or run on wood or pretty much anything that burns, and guns that keep the propellant separate from the projectile (e.g. potato cannons) will shoot pretty much anything you can cram down the barrel.
In Mad Max: The Road Warrior, guns are rare and not always reliable, but everyone has crossbows and dart-launchers. If you replace the guns in most playbooks with lower-tech equivalents, that could actually make the Gunlugger more special: They’re one of the few people who actually has a (reliably working) gun.
Sebastian Baker I love that!
I’m getting really excited to run a game now. haha
In our road trip game, we have a Savvyhead whose workshop is the back half of an old prison bus, and he’s got facilities for creating biodeisel. It’s effective enough that he can occasionally sell the excess for a bit of walking around jingle.
Ben Morgan Sounds like a great way to blow up a nice ride too. I like the idea though. It adds a bit of flavor.
If you’re interested in running a lower-tech apocalypse, you might want to check out Apocalypse World – Fallen Empires: http://apocalypse-world.com/AW2ndEdFallenEmpiresPreview.pdf
Sebastian Baker You seem to have spelt “definitely” as “might” there…
I think I’m going to look for a PbtA Twilight 2000 hack too. The idea struck me on the trip out of town today. I think I’ve seen one on the big Google sheet list. I love that resource for finding PbtA games.
In the back of the first edition there is a little footnote stating that, yes, realistically fuel and ammo would be bad by then. Baker’s response was basically either 1) roll with it or 2) Use a different form of fuel that would last longer (like bio-diesel) or 3) Roll it into your story, who is making the fuel and ammo now?
I prefer 80 to 100 years. I allow the Quarantine playbook. The Quarantine player should be the only person who remembers first hand the world before the apocalypse. It is something that makes that PC unique.
Strong alcohol is easy to make, and internal combustion engines can run on it. The quantities that can be made and the time it takes to make it would prevent it from becoming a common commodity. This leads to distillers as an important producer of a valuable and critical element in any economy.