Has anyone tried to run a game of Apocalypse World in a steam punk retro setting, rather than a modern-day-gone-to-hell Mad Max kind of way?
I was wondering about pitching a game to my friends about an Apocalypse World set in the aftermath of The War of the Worlds (the original story from 1895-7, not the more contemporary films), assuming that the invasion was pretty much on a global scale and that survivors are picking up the pieces with perhaps the capacity to learn from abandoned Martian tech, but also with the knowledge that they’re still up there, watching. But some of the playbooks would likely need a rethink (or at least would require research into the sorts of technology available, such as cars and motorcycles – perhaps horse riding bandits instead).
Not steam, but all of my AW settings have assumed the apocalypse happened in 1988
I don’t think there’s all that much in the “default” setting that assumes any particular time period. Except for the cars and bikes that is.
I haven’t thought of that, but it’s a tempting idea. I like the concept of alternate apocalypses to the standard Fallouty one.
Nice. I wonder if the bike/car options could stat up as horses? (Or hell, make ‘steam train’ an option!)
Have you read the Scarlet Traces comics? They’re set after the War of the Worlds, and a lot of Martian tech is used on Earth. They have spider-legged automobiles and horses:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cmoMeISWzmE/S2v9wDAVrfI/AAAAAAAAA_A/grNEUI35bok/s320/00+Spidercab%2520Front%2520View.gif
we talked about this (sorta) with Domenico Marino
For us, the idea was a mystical gothic apocalypse happened in the 1860s-70s. Never played, sadly.
Christopher Stone-Bush the book does kind of mention in the last few pages that gasoline evaporates really quickly so assume that we converted to biodiesel before the apocalypse and it doesn’t evaporate as fast as regular gasoline
You’re right Patrick Henry Downs. But I think that’s to explain why there are still running cars and motorcycles, rather than an indication of time period.
Yeah, but IIRC the explanation is “assume we converted before the apocalypse and it didn’t save us” which implies a setting post-2012
(however, that has never stopped my “the apocalypse happened in 1988” premise)
I’ve wanted to run an AW that was set after the Trinity explosion set off the end of the world… so all the military stuff from WW2 is all around, explaining all the bullets and diesel and such… haven’t gotten to run it yet though.
I’ve also had “time fractures” apocalypses which, incidentally, explained why there was still gasoline left… nothing changed (except advance technology, which rotted away if unused) unless wilfully used.
i’ve definitely played in an AW game on a train with a 19th century apocalypse
it wasn’t so much steampunk as “on a train”
My longest running campaign was set in Appalachia after mountain-top removal and strip mining had destroyed pretty much everything.
I ran an AW game set in space with minimal hacking. The hardholder became the captain and the holding his ship. Everything else played pretty straight with only cosmetic modifications.
Further down this feed I found a post about Steampunk World that Micheal D is working on getting started. He shared https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/108439627279414945168 as a link to the site.
He also provided a link to the Alpha Document that he has for his Work in Progress on Drive and it looks like it can be found here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRDxotrnPmTSF9DTEdhQk0yRU0/view
Delos Adamski also has a post that is about Apocalypse west on his blog at http://ramblingsofjacobanddelos.com/2015/04/22/apocalypse-west-quick-start/ . While it is not explicitly about Steampunk it does look like it has some playbooks that are linked to it that may be useful to your needs.
I hope that these links help.
I think for my next game I want to do a slightly terminator inspired setting where the apocalypse is caused sometime back in history when the “machine men” come marching through a time portal and destroy everything or something. Keep the details vague and play it with a straight face and see if anyone catches on.
Eric Nieudan I think I have read those comics – but I don’t remember the world being driven to point the point of apocalypse. Still, I might get some good ideas. Thanks for the reminder!
Tom Kollman I’ve also played in a space themed one, run by a guy who was trying to do a Warhammer 40K AW game (to rope in mutual friends who are more into the Games Workshop games than indie games). It worked pretty well, since most of us could visualise that dark future, but the 40K fans had an edge quoting 40K fluff, and the indie gamers were a lot more at ease just running with crazy ideas. Still, we got about three sessions out of it.
Justin Beeh Thanks Justin!
EDIT: Looks interesting – though it does seem to lean towards the Steam Punk and away from the Apocalypse. I’ll have to give it a good read to see what I can use. I suppose I should also pitch the damn thing to my friends to see if they’re interested before I get too caught up in the details. 🙂
It’s not, you’re right. But I’m sure you could still have salvaged Martian tech in an apocalypse scenario.
I think some of the playbooks lend themselves very well to salvaged Martian tech, specifically the one that tap into their weird stat a lot. Might have to make the Psychic Maelstrom some sort of manifestation of a Martian hive mind. Or just downplay it as an external thing, have characters relying on good hunches or internal psychic reserves instead, even if they rely on Martian tech to access it.
The more you talk about it, the more I want to play in that campaign 😉
Simon Brake Steampunk World is definitely Steampunk rather than apocalypse, but would work fine in a post Martian invasion setting.
Also, Steampunk World it is written around more of the co-op (Dungeon World) style of play than AW’s PvP style, so it depends on the type of game you want.
I’ve put a post up in this forum about using technology in PbtA games that may be helpful if you decide to hack AW directly for your game.
ps. thanks Justin Beeh for linking Steampunk World
I’ll certainly check through Steampunk World properly, but will likely go with AP initially, as the players are all familiar with it.
In other news it turns out that motorcycles existed as of the mid 1890s. An Apocalypse World set 25-30 years after the invasion will likely have motorbikes, with or without Martian tech.
I’m currently re-skinning AW play books to be used in a Glorantha- Prax campaign I wan to run based on a Bison Rider clan. Mostly doing whats sort of been mentioned in some previous posts, bikes become bison, weapons all become swords axes etc.. My only quandary at the moment is introducing magic spells – which are sort of a staple in the setting