When I ever get to play in an ongoing AW game; here is a thing I would want to do.
Have tons of family members and have them be parts of other PC’s stuff
A brother who works with the Maestro’D, a daughter in the Hardholder’s gang, a kid Nephew who brings junk to the Savyhead and a mother who is the Angel’s supplier.
That probably turns out terrible for that character’s family but it sounds like fun.
I love that technique, and I use it or things like it in a lot of games, but that seems a weird fit for AW (and post apocalyptic play in general). Lots of extended families seem a peculiar setting element – though I suppose it might be a function of the flavor of apocalypse. Do you have something specific in mind, or are you thinking all- purpose?
It’s just a general idea for now.
I realized a couple of years ago that I ss a player am a complete sucker for family as a hook. Have two or more PCs that are related in some way, and I’m all over it. Multiple interconnected families? Absolutely.
Came up with this while realizing that no one of the characters in my AW game has any family (that they mentioned yet).
I’ve had NPCs be cousins and etc of PCs all the time. Holds are like tiny towns, and tiny towns have interconnected families 🙂
Its the opposite of the murder hobo, and therefore a good thing. Hell, you could write up some opening questions to ingrain connection into the setting.
In most games I run, I like to have PCs create connected NPCs up front. Maybe after Hx, you could have them name 2-3 family members that have a really basic Hx with another character (Fiasco relationships?)
Considering that in a typical AW scenario, Old Coots and Quarantines are the only folk who even have a significant chance to remember the world-that-was — and even then with uncertainty — while the demographic majority of overlooked infirm squatters and underused able-bodied souls are huddled around dominant key figures –; like the Hardholder and Hocus, Warlord and Broodmother –; most of these clannish communes are likely filial multigen arrangements in nature, even if they are not shining examples for a Nuclear Family of a Truman-Carter Ideal.
I’d even suggest, that even if the 30-300 odd constituents of some propped up politico regime, are in an abandoned university complex, giving all Hail Marys to the Glorious Divinity of Google, and it’s Holy Eternal Presence of Wisdom and Insight… are expressly restricted to remain within the age range of twelve to twenty-four, wear all black and grey uniforms, never use nouns of any kind in common parlance, while rigidly policed in social expectations to rejoice in being happy they are glad, and glad they are happy, and take their little green-and-purple-pills daily…
…well, they are still brothers and sisters of a classroom, and cousins of a grade level… uncles and aunts to their lower sodality-mates, and nieces and nephews to their sodality-elders… with homage paid to the Grand Mother Oracle and Great Father Architect of them all — are they not?
Now get out there in the arena, and show me how you survive and sacrifice, to feed your family… H.U.A. and F.A.B. sim-citizen!!! :p
(umm… I mean, yep; post-apocalyptic families may be structured more like isolationist clans and militant communes mix-mingled-and-mangled into paranoid compounds and scrap-built castles… but, they are still family… and, ohana means;– no one is left behind, or forgotten!)
I love it! There should be more big families in games, period.
In defense of the Big Families of Big Brother –; Extended is different, not broken…
In support of the small family sustainability –; Nuclear means balanced on central points, not tyrannically toxic…
You say tomatos, I say potatoes, and some other nut says sonic rainbow boom, and a whole chorus line sings supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in the background as an enraptured accompaniment to the awesome spectacle of life’s delights… that diverse essentia humana is what made The Terran Federation Great!
They are doing their part, are you doing yours?
(would you like to know more?)
I think the Hocus has great potential for family being their stuff. You can be in charge of a crazy lot who depend on you to interact with society because their just so fucked up.
The Operator or Savvyhead w/ crew, could as easily represent the able-bodied portion of immediate blood-siblings… the Maestro’D could claim all members of the cast & crew as close-relation kinfolk… an extended family of twenty-or-so blood-&-bond relations, is quite appropriate for both the Hocus and the Hardholder… though the Hardholder can effectively claim a clan of up to a few hundred strong!
But… this is why I’ve frequently called for an explicit family oriented playbook:-
The Homesteader…
(though there is the Brood Mother/Father, if you care to interpret the sitch in that way)
Thing is, I may have failed to really pin a nose on the elephant… it depends on how you define the term family:- because, the meaning of the word family isn’t singularly specific across all cultural boundaries or historical periods.
In some customs, cousins, adoptees, and in-laws (including ritualized agreements between children) are legitimized as part of an extended family… while in others, only genetic parents and siblings count as the core nuclear family, and cousins, co-parented children, fosters, and grandparents, are part of the extended clan family… if counted at all…
So: how wide or narrow do you define this notion of kith, kin, and blood?
In the ravaged landscape of a harsh apocalyptic wasteland;– is a companion of a strange-tongue, that has bloodied themselves in battle, not proven adequate to be called a sister or brother with open arms, and trusted with the mutual freedom of more familiar kinsfolk?
What separates the line between family and not-family;
— household obligations to a hardholder’s fiat clan of favored souls?
— cohabiting residents in consensus of eudaemonic hoc-us-&-poke-us cenobites?
— broods of confirmed bloodlines?
— bonded acknowledgments before an audience of peers or superiors?
— packs of informal because-I-said-so pacts, made formal through mutual respect and shared resources in the wilder wastes?
Who is keeping accurate records of claimed heritage and formal contracts… and what authority cares by what associative-title-of-familiarity them-that-are-not-us calls each other?
William Mims: I would think that, in Apocalypse World, answering the question of “how do you define the notion of kin?” is front-and-center the player’s job! 🙂 Play to find out what happens!
yes, and every player could have a character that defines it differently… in the absence of discussion, abstract chaos creates surreal drama:- nothing wrong with that.
but… these could also be appropriate questions for the worldbuilding phase!