Category: Powered by the Apocalypse

PAX East: they haven’t released a schedule yet, but I’ll be there all three days. If anybody reading this is attending I would love the opportunity to sit down at a table and play a one-shot of Apocalypse World. Any takers?

Idea for a playbook suggested by Tim Franzke 

THE SAMARITAN

After the world collapsed, they rebuilt it. They studied the remains, they scoured the cities, they probed the maelstrom, and the resurrected the memories of the fallen. They plotted and programmed and prepared and eventually found a way, they figured out how to fix it. One event, somebody could go back in time and prevent this one thing from happening. One mistake, the domino effect of causality would erase the horrors of the apocalypse and replace it with something new. One shot, they sent you back, but they missed their mark. You’re too late.

NAME

Hero, Miss/Mister, Number [#], Professor, Wannabe

Or maybe everyone calls you Samaritan.

STATS

• Cool+1, Hard+1, Hot=0, Sharp+2, Weird-1

• Cool+1, Hard=0, Hot-1, Sharp+2, Weird+1

• Cool=0, Hard-1, Hot+1, Sharp+2, Weird+1

• Cool+1, Hard=0, Hot=0, Sharp+2, Weird=0

HX

Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.

List the other characters’ names.

Go around again for Hx. On your turn:

• Who was the first person you met on emerging from the future? Tell that player Hx+2.

• Tell everyone else Hx=0.

On the others’ turns:

• Whatever number everyone tells you, give it +1 and write it next to their character’s name. You know how all of this ends.

LOOK

Man, woman, or concealed.

Pressure suit, scrounge wear, or military fatigues.

Ancient face, friendly face, stony face, weathered face, or young face.

Cold eyes, shadowed eyes, clear eyes, steady eyes, lost eyes, or eager eyes.

Athletic body, stocky body, thin body, muscular body, or old body.

GEAR

In addition to your computer, you get:

• a 9mm sidearm (2-harm close loud)

• pressurized body armor (2-armor valuable hi-tech)

• your clothing, but no barter

SPECIAL

MOVES

You get all the basic moves. You get “I Know the Answer” and one more samaritan move.

I KNOW THE ANSWER: when you consult your computer, roll+sharp. On a 10+, you find the answer you’re looking for and you don’t spend battery. On a 7-9, you can either spend a battery and find the answer or not spend a battery and get an impression. On a miss, you will spend a battery and you only get an impression.

COMPUTER

You carry a computer that is loaded with data from the future. You can seek answers from it and it will spill the beans on any sort of secret or knowledge you care to know, unless it’s not in there.

When you find the answer you’re looking for, the MC will tell you exactly what you need to do to solve a particular problem (Ex: talk to Dremmer about being passed up for promotion, cut the rowboats loose from the dock and make sure nobody salvages them downstream, pop all of the tires on Face’s car, get the local Savvyhead to make a remote camera drone and follow Poptart with that). If you follow the MC’s instructions you, and anyone who assists you, will take +1forward on any rolls you make in an attempt to follow the instructions. Deviating from the instructions in even the slightest causes the bonus to go away for good.

When you find an impression of the solution you’re looking for the MC will give you an idea of what you need to do (Ex: somebody in the barracks might have info, make sure nobody can get across the river, stop Face from leaving town, you’ll need to follow Poptart without him knowing) but no bonus will apply.

When you successfully follow the instructions on the computer you hasten the future, taking +1forward on your next use of “I Know the Answer.”

When you deliberately don’t follow or ignore the instructions on the computer you’re changing the future, taking -1forward on your next use of “I Know the Answer” but marking experience.

Your computer starts with 12 battery (two countdown clocks). Once the battery is gone the computer is useless, unless you could find some way to keep powering it up…