Category: Powered by the Apocalypse: Playbooks

I’m working on a playbook tentatively titled The Drifter, based on a thread I saw either on the Lumpley forums or on Story Games or something. The idea is for a playbook for that person that can only make a session sometimes, you never know when they’re going to be there. Apocalypse World handles these types of players pretty well already, but the Flexible Footprint challenge from last month’s Shortest Month Longest Game design challenge got me thinking about how to make it handle this even better. The playbook is nowhere near complete, but I thought I’d share the rough draft of a couple of the moves.

Leaf on the Wind: When you blow into town after some time away, roll +Sharp. On a hit, you’ll tell the MC about some place you’ve been. On a 10+ hold 3, on a 7-9, hold 1. On a miss, the MC will describe the last place you were, and who’s following you here. You can spend your hold 1 for 1, any time a stranger comes to town to declare:

-You recognize them

-They recognize you

-They owe you a favor

-You don’t owe them a favor

Merchant: When you open up your exotic wares to the hold, roll +Sharp On a 10+ you’ve got some good shit to share with the town. Gain 3-barter and either remove a scarcity for the session or add a surplus On a 7-9 you’ve still got some good shit, gain 1-barter, but not enough to eliminate a scarcity, and trouble’s following you, choose 1: 

-You took your shit from someone else who needed it, and they’re coming to get it back 

-You took your shit from people who don’t need anything anymore, and whatever killed them can’t be far behind you 

-You took your shit from people who had more than enough to go around, but that means they’ve got more than enough resources to come after you too On a miss, the MC picks 2

(Note: This move [Merchant] was formerly triggered by “When you blow into town after some time away,” but I wanted the Drifter to get a chance to help define some of what was “way out there” in the world, sort of like how the Quarantine gets to define what life was like before.)

Outsider: When you read a situation, you can also ask “What aren’t the usual suspects seeing?” When you read a person you can also ask, “What are you so used to that it’s not even noticeable?”