Category: Powered by the Apocalypse: ApWorld Settings

I’ve been brainstorming tons of adventure seeds, threats, weird technological singularity apocalyptica to barf forth for my Big Bad Con game “Dr. Singularity or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Psychic Maelstrom”. http://www.bigbadcon.com/events/dr-singularity-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-psychic-maelstrom/

As it’s a con game, I need to be able to hit the ground running and keep it interesting but I also want to allow it to be a “play to see what happens sort of game”. It’s an interesting balancing act of creating enough different veins of content that I can just wing it with whatever the players throw my way, but at the same time having some overlap so that the different types of threats have possible directions that encourages a plot to develop.

I’m approaching the game intro with a set of questions for the players to answer which both help fill out the game world and set it up for the types of playbooks which are available for the players to choose from. I’ve seen this approach before with questions such as “Who holds on to power?” (Hardholder), etc. My questions are more world specific with multiple choice answers. For each answer I lay out a playbook or two that relates. There is overlap in playbooks available between questions but that’s by design and play is limited to only one of each playbook allowed in the game. The answers and playbooks allowed may still shift but you can see how some of it works below:

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A colony of surviving humans all live around The Stalk, which is the base of a Space Elevator, which remains upright yet is no longer operational. 

Where is the The Stalk located?

1. On a floating sea platform away from the dangerous mainland [Maestro’D with a pleasure/gambling/whatever yacht]

2. On a mountain surrounded by a dense jungle of runaway biotech [Tribal]

3. In the middle of the Glitter Desert, a long stretch of dunes consisting of nothing but mostly inactive, or at least dormant nanomachines [A Boy and His Dog or Touchstone]

4. In the middle of a ruined megacity with once semi-sentiant self repairing buildings distorted by the nano-plague into fractal rats nest of intertwined skyscrapers. [Ruin Runner]

What does the colony of The Stalk have that everyone else wants?

1. Energy (nearly infinite power flows down the Stalk) [Savvyhead or Radio]

2. Fortified (the place is seriously fortified with an armory of leftover high tech weapons; not all of them work but hell) [Gunlugger or Battle Babe]

3. Maker Machines (The town has a couple mostly functioning Makers that help with creating tools, clothing, medicine, booze making, and if you can coax it to food and weaponry ) [Angel or Maestro D]

4. Labor (provided by robot servitors or uplifted animals with servitor implants) [Savvyhead or Brainer]

What is the biggest fear of the residents of The Stalk?

1. Roaming autonomous war bots and nano storms [Gunlugger]

2. Gangs and lawlessness [Chopper or Shieldbearer]

3. Starvation/dehydration [Feral Kid or Touchstone]

4. The AI Machines invading their dreams and coming down from space [Juggernaut with space suit or Hocus]

What do people of The Stalk do for fun?

1. They have pit battles between genemod beasts and or robots [Beast Master]

2. They have gladiator battles between people [Battle Babe or Faceless]

3. They catch a show and engage in vice (gambling/drugs/sex)[Maestro’D or Skinner]

4. They do danger run races into the ruins/wilds [Driver]

What makes the Kult of Kurzweil stand out from the other cults?

1. They have access to strange tech [Savvyhead]

2. They are all obviously mind melded together [Brainer or Radio]

3. They came out of no where instantly gained followers [Hocus]

4. They are otherwise normal and seem to just be looking for a good time [Skinner or Maestro D]

My game submission for Big Bad Con has been posted! I’m excited to run this one just to see how it turns out. I’ll be running it in AW “play to see what happens” style — I’ve got a mind map of awesome interconnected story hooks but no set story. And I can usually count on the awesome people who come to BBC to make whatever I throw at the players golden. After I run the game, I’ll post my Quick Start prep materials I’m creating for this setting… 

Dr. Singularity or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Psychic Maelstrom

Some blame the destruction of the Earth on skirmishes between failing nation states and hypercorps. Others blame the rogue AIs that swept forth in the chaos, crashing networks, releasing war machines and swarms of nanoplagues. And then there’s those crazy Kult of Kurzweil freaks who worship their destroyer/savior Dr. Singularity.

Decades have past since humanity’s downfall. Out in the solar system, a few remaining space colonies scrape by, cowering in fear from the Machines that strip asteroids and even entire moons and planets down to their core for raw material. On Earth, a few pockets of humanity struggle to survive in the few places left that aren’t biological or radioactive hot zones. The survivors look up at night, wary of autonomous war machines and ravenous nanostorms. They tell stories around campfires of what the Moon looked like before the Machines ate it and they wonder how long it’ll be before the creeping wall of blackness shrouds out all the stars.

The Singularity has passed Humankind by but hey you’re still here so you might as well make something of it.

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This is an Apocalypse World game set in a post-singularity future based loosely on the setting of Eclipse Phase and Accelerando but where obviously humanity didn’t fair very well. In AW style, we’ll be playing to see what happens.

http://www.bigbadcon.com/events/dr-singularity-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-psychic-maelstrom/

So I’m gonna run an Apocalypse World game at Big Bad Con that is about a post-singularity apocalypse with humankind trying to survive as hyper-intellengent machines dismantle the solar system for raw materials. The setting is loosely based on Eclipse Phase and the book Accelerando but where humanity didn’t fair nearly as well.

I need a name for the game. Right now I’ve got “Progress, the Destroyer of Worlds” and “Singularity’s Passing Me By”

Anyone got any other good names?