Does anyone know why the Apocalypse World playbooks have two separate name lists? Is it just that two lists, merged, would be too long?
Does anyone know why the Apocalypse World playbooks have two separate name lists?
Does anyone know why the Apocalypse World playbooks have two separate name lists?
Some have three, some have one, but each list seems to share a sort of theme.
The Driver has a “Hollywood” list and a “Car” list.
The Hardholder has a “last names” list and a “title” list.
Gunlugger has a…I don’t know what the first list is exactly but the second list is dog names.
Hocus has “virtues” and “animals”.
etc
So in AW I think it’s mostly to underline the theme.
Some use them as first/last names.
Marshall Miller – That’s what I’m finding with my lists. I just made two lists to copy AW without thinking it through and that’s what’s happening. I’m finding it irksome :).
I had intended to suggest things like Jeff says but then I didn’t put the effort into it :).
Meg and Vincent have been very coy about that detail, saying that there is an internal reason for doing so, but not saying why. I do not have a theory to offer you.
It’s also easier to browse shorter lists.
They also seem weirdly… pseudo-alphabetical? Like, someone tried to put them in alphabetical order but they had shaky hands, or something.
Jeff Johnston The first Gunlugger list = characters played by Rutger Hauer, looks like. Batty (Blade Runner), Navarre (Ladyhawke), Vonk the Sculptor (Turkish Delight), etc.
Knowing Meg and Vincent I expect I’m wrong about this, but if I’d seen this from other designers my first guess would be that they started out with gendered lists and then halfway through realized “wait a minute why are we gendering these?” so they removed the gender labels but didn’t bother merging the two lists into one.
Sebastian Baker – Hahahaha
Wilhelm Norsten some cross referencing show your idea to be correct, characters played by Rutger Hauer, all of them. Some obscure movies in there for sure, but they all match. Interesting
Greg Barnsdale It’s pretty funny. I certainly didn’t catch it at first. Nowadays, the Gunlugger always brings to mind that scene from Split Second when Hauer’s partner is going nuts. “We need some big F***ING guns!”
That’s one I knew about from Vincent giggling about it, but I didn’t remember which playbook it was in.
I can’t believe I missed the Rutger Hauer connection.
So, a functional answer to the question is: Because splitting the lists into two parts allows easier easter-egg-in-joking?
One of these days, I’m going to try and compile some list to try and process the easter eggs in the name lists.