Apocalypse World: Red Rover

Thursday, 23 June 2011

1 pm: Apocalypse World: Red Rover -- WARNING: NC17 rating for profanity, violence, sex, and general in-game nastiness! Skip if easily offended or grossed out.

For PCs, I'm listing the player, if I know him, the character's name, and the character's archetype, followed by a definition of the archetype.

• GM: Evan Torner
• Me: Core, Angel (healer, doctor)
• ???: The Colonel, Hardholder (leader, ruler)
• ???: Duke, Gun Lugger (gun lugger)
• Ross Fulton: Lavender, Skinner (entertainer, NSFW)
• ???: Nails, Savyhead (techie, gearhead)
• Derek Guder: Big Fucker, Faceless (mask wearing thug)
• ???: The Fox, Operator (fixer, merchant)

I'm still not entirely sure how Apocalypse World works. This was a fun session, with good gamers, but there were two sticking points.

1. If, as Vincent says -- and I have no reason to doubt him on this -- it takes six sessions before things take off, there is simply no way that a single session of Apocalypse World can demonstrate what the game is all about.

2. Evan explained that Vincent had told him that he shouldn't try running the game with seven people, and so, of course, Evan decided to run it for seven people. Now, Evan's a good GM, and the players were good players. But, Vincent was correct. The number of players meant that we could not all grab for the limelight.

It did not get ugly, you understand. We worked together. This included knowing when not to grab for individual limelight in ways that would slow things down. Given another two or four hours, I would have played some things differently, getting in other PCs' faces. I'm not sure if there's some unspoken indie rule that says I should have done that, and damn the consequences, but I think I made the right call.

There was also too little sex. While sex does not need to be described in any detail, whenever a PC has sex, things about the character change. This is an important part of the game.

Another important part is that there is no predefined world. There is a genre, or a set of assumptions. This is a post-apocalypse world. The world is broken. The details about that are up to each group to decide. Certain types of decisions are made by certain archetypes, which meant that the Hardholder's player defined certain things about the holding where everyone lived.

In addition, Evan had letters for each PC, addressing him or her in character, and asking questions that both established certain facts about the PCs and required their players elaborate on these facts. This was awesome because it meant that we generated a web of relationships between the PCs and some NPCs very quickly.

GM: Oh, and by the way, _please_ swear!

Swearing is a part of the game, yes.

Things we established:

The Holding was an old football stadium, with a market on the field. There were about 200 - 300 people. It was Tall, Deep, and Mighty. The holders scavenged and made weapons, but had no good source of water. The holding paid a mad biker gang for protection. The payment was in weapons, which is why the bikers had the good weapons and the holders didn't.

The holding's problems were: Hunger, Disease, Idleness -- due, it was decided, to drugs coming through -- Famine, and Reprisals. At least, that is what my notes say. I'm not sure if Hunger and Famine were actually different items.

The Colonel wanted a pilgrimage for water, and he had enlisted Nails, the Savyhead and Fox, the Operator to find him a way out from his situation.

We decided that the biker gang was the Lizard Tongues. The gang's favored method of torture was ripping out the victim's tongue and stapling it to personal armor. The Lizard Tongues have good water, leading us to wonder where they got it from.

The Colonel's secret was that the holding was almost out of food. Duke and Fox were also aware of this. There was, however, a newly discovered food supply. They had broken through to the sewers under the stadium to discover strange mushrooms and small alligators. Duke was supposed to get this food.

Big Fucker knew about the food supply. That is, he already knew about the sewers, but had no idea about the food problem.

GM: You from sewers?

Big Fucker: Nah, it's just a killing pit, fun to watch.

The Operator, Fox, was the one who delivered the guns to the bandits. Fox used to travel with a Hocus, basically a charismatic preacher type. He sacrificed his life of luxury with the Hocus, where he had sex, water, food, and a life of luxury, to go the holding. I don't recall why, as this was back story. It may be that the Hocus died, but I'm not sure.

If Fox were in charge, asked his letter, what would he change?

Fox: Well, I wouldn't give our best guns to the gang!

He also sold someone named Dremer into slavery pre-game, for +3 barter, 1 barter being the basic unit of currency. Dremer was Nails' assistant. My notes say that Lavender is the one who has not let it go, but I'm not clear on what "it" meant. I don't think it meant Dremer, but I could be mistaken. Lavender was one of Fox's friends, and Duke was the other. Or perhaps they were Dremer's friends. Again, I'm not clear on that.

Duke preferred antique guns. The one person he loved whom he couldn't save with guns was the Colonel's wife, Annabelle. The letter specified there was one such person; the player decided who that person was. Duke didn't like Big Fucker, as the Faceless had discovered the sewers, but not told people when they were short of food. Duke had an objectless rage because Dremer was gone.

Core's letter asked why Core was here, not somewhere better. Well, it's dangerous out there. Annabelle was one person Core couldn't save, and Annabelle had access to a car. There had been a plan for Duke, Annabelle, and Core to go away in the car. I have a note about Lavender and the mushrooms in the sewers, but I don't recall what it means. Core was down medical supplies because Nails' brother, Rothschild, had stolen some. Core's cousin Sundew was Big Fucker's lover.

I think the only note I have on Nails' letter and back story is that he had a working hulu dancer.

The androgynous Lavender danced to improve morale in the holding. The letter asked how Lavender preserved culture against entropy.

Lavender: Poorly.

That said, Lavender polished flash pieces on equipment.

Lavender: Take _pride_ in stuff. This stuff _is_ you!

Nails: Hallelujah, Sister!

Lavender created a work of art, the water tower. It was full of holes and worthless for other uses. Nails and Fox helped Lavender. Lavender thought that only Nails really knew how to take care of stuff.

The rowdy son of the Colonel had issues till he started getting laid. We agreed that this son was none other than Big Fucker, and that Lavender had hooked Sundew up with him. (I had considered having Core go to Lavender at some point to say that she'd gone along with the Sunder-Big Fucker hook up for the good of the holding, as Lavender had asked, but that she now wanted help getting her medical supplies restocked, also for the good of the holding. There were various reasons that this didn't happen.)

Lavender knew everything about the holding, including the food situation. The Colonel considered Lavender his lucky charm. and the skinner was one of the ones who'd been with him from the beginning.

Big Fucker's letter asked why he was with the Colonel, not Fox.

Big Fucker: Because the Colonel's the only one who saw through the mask and wasn't disgusted or afraid.

Bur the Colonel can't provide family or be fatherly. Big Fucker brought back memories of Annabelle.

Someone apparently had some vision of Duke with the corpse of Annabelle while Core removed organs, and another one of the hold being empty of people. This might have been Nails, but I'm not sure.

Lavender once disappointed Fox by promising to get food for the holding, and then not being able to do so.

Fox: Turns out you can't seduce a robot.

Big Fucker's relationship with Sundew did have some tension in it.

Big Fucker: Sundew wants to know the person beneath the mask, but that's not gonna happen, cuz that ain't how the world works.

The Colonel's elite forces, such as they were, were called the Brigades, now shortened to The Brigs. Core and Duke both have hats, we noted, as both players specified their PC had a helmet. We decided that hats were a sign of favor from the Colonel.

Somewhere north was the City of Mothers. Three wise women, like Samurai Nuns, traveled. Folks who made trouble for them tended to wind up dead very quickly.

At Lavender's request, Fox brought musicians to the holding, a group called the Rolling Banes.

Someone: What counts for music these days?

GM: It's a jug band!

Fox: No, I think I'm bigger than that. The skinner _asked_ for a jug band.

The band wasn't from the holding, nor was the strange red jeep. The man whose jeep it was asked Fox if he wanted anything. Fox asked for amphetamines. The man said he'd get those, but it would take a day or two, and, in return, Fox should guard the store, i.e., his hot dog stand, until he returned.

Fox agreed, having no intention of keeping this promise, but found himself doing so anyway.

Quote whose context and speaker I forget: Can you _afford_ this? (about an ivory headed elephant cane)

Description of Nails' van: White interior -- well, it was, at one point. It's brown, now.

I think this had something to do with the man who had the red jeep asking Fox to ask Nails about himself. I forget the details, but Nails was not pleased that some stranger was prying into his affairs.

Meanwhile, the band was playing, and people were having a good time. Some of the Lizard Tongues were enjoying themselves, and Duke and Big Fucker decided to try to grab one to interrogate about where the Lizard Tongues got their water, if I recall correctly.

Both Duke and Core decided to Read a Sitch, aka Read a Situation, aka roll some dice and see how much information could be learned, in terms of questions asked.

Core: What should I be on the lookout for?

GM: The Lizard Tongues' friends.

Like, say, the guy with a beard wearing a Lizard headdress.

Duke: What enemy most vulnerable to me?

GM: That fourteen year old.

Big Fucker tried to get the fourteen year old and two of his friends into a drinking contest, or at least drinking, and they were willing. They were also happy to talk about such recent pulling off of tongues as they had done (they only had one or two, as they were relatively new at this). But, the guy in the lizard headdress tried to corral them and get them back home, and things looked like they might be getting ugly.

I think what happened next was that Duke grabbed the fourteen year old during some kind of distraction. I don't know exactly what happened -- maybe the lights cut off. Whatever it was, it worried the audience, but Lavender assured people that this was just intermission, and that things would be back quickly and even better.

And, indeed, they were. Lavender danced and fed people the mushrooms from the sewers, wanting people to be happy and to return to their friends outside the holding with tales of the Colonel's wealth and generosity, as that way, more folks would want to join the holding. Fox was particularly entranced by Lavender's dancing, erroneously convinced it was for him in particular.

I forget whether these two lines referred to something Big Fucker was planning or to Sundew planning to have sex with Big Fucker. I'm not sure if they prompted Core's line.

Core: That's a good idea.

Sundew: So, that's permission?

Core: Sundew -- just -- don't lick the blood.

Nails was in some amount of pain, as he'd tried to open his brain to the world maelstrom for some reason I forget. Core healed him, but demanded a barter or two, saying he could thank his brother, Rothschild.

Nails counteroffered information about where Rothschild had the drugs. He'd given them to his girlfriend, Jenny, and Nails had no problem with Core doing whatever she pleased to get them back. (This was one reason Core didn't go to Lavender. She had a trail to follow.)

Meanwhile, Big Fucker was sad because his father, the Colonel, wasn't happy. The Colonel had a visit from the leader of the Lizard Tongues who warned that if the missing fourteen year old weren't found and sent home, he'd have no choice but to order an attack on the holding. Nothing personal -- he found their arrangement profitable -- but, it had to be done.

Colonel: Bring me this lizard guy leader's head. That'll make me happy.

Big Fucker (perking up): Really?

Big Fucker went to Nails with the news.

Big Fucker: Wanna go fuck something up?

Nails listened to his story.

Nails: I could help you build a bomb.

In return, Nails wanted him to rip off the dick of the nosy guy asking questions about him. However, he named the leader of the musicians, not the man with the jeep. We did double check with the player on that, and he decided that the mistake was appropriately, gruesomely amusing.

Big Fucker: So, you wanna talk to him while he's bleeding out?

Nails: No, I just want him to die slowly and painfully.

Meanwhile, Duke interrogated the kid. I think all he learned that wasn't already known, was that the Lizard Tongues got their water from the City of Mothers. Despite a sick sort of bonding experience between torturer and victim, the kid died during the night.

Duke: Tough luck, kid.

Someone (pondering what to do about this and the impending Lizard Tongues attack): We could just douse him in gasoline and light a fuse.

Meanwhile, Core went to confront Jenny.

Core: Bitch, drugs -- where?

Jenny said that Rothschild had the drugs, and Core read the situation. Jenny was hoping that Core would go away so she wouldn't have to attack her.

I forget exactly how it went, but Core tried to appeal to Jenny's sense of community by saying that if drugs were missing, well, folks at the top would still get healed when they needed it. It was the folks at the bottom who'd suffer, as in folks like Jenny. Alas, as one player noted, and the GM immediately had Jenny say, Core herself was at the top, and not exactly in a position to be making moral judgments. The dialogue was snappier than this paragraph.

When Core tried to get by her to see Rothschild, Jenny attacked. I didn't do very well on the roll, and we discussed options for interpreting it. We went with Core having to kill Jenny messily, bludgeoning her with the washboard (I think it was) that she'd hit Core with. Rothschild was in a drugged out stupor, having pretty much taken most of the meds he'd stolen. Anything he hadn't taken wasn't in a state to be usable. I forget whether Core smothered him or made him die of an overdose or what. Probably smothered him, as she didn't count him worth the meds or a bullet. I'm fairly sure we decided she'd hang a sign around his neck proclaiming him a junkie and thief.

So, I don't feel that I didn't have enough time onscreen. And I don't feel that I didn't get to be properly cool, indie, sick, or whatever. But, what I chose not to do was make this a mess that expanded out to other PCs. As I said, I think this was the right call, for while Core was dealing out her own brand of justice, or at least, judgment, all heck was breaking loose.

Big Fucker found the band leader, confirmed his identity, and did indeed remove the poor man's penis, chasing him around. At about the same time, the Colonel told Duke to commandeer the red jeep. This he did once the owner returned with Fox's amphetamines.

To Duke's surprise, the man handed him the keys without complaint, and he found himself thinking well of the man. He did resist the voice in his head telling him to run down either Big Fucker or the fleeing band leader, and this did some mental damage to him.

Nails was discussing art with Lavender, who didn't consider Nails' Creepy Jesus especially arty.

Nails: You're saying my opinion of art is less valid than yours?

Lavender: Yes.

Meanwhile, Big Fucker was ecstatic.

Big Fucker (running to Nails' van): One day, Dad's gonna love me!

GM: This guy is waving around a penis!

Nails: Awesome! The bomb is yours!

Big Fucker: You're gonna love me, Dad! Oh yeah!

So, the forces of the holding set out for a secret ambush of the Lizard Tongues. The Colonel, Big Fucker, and Duke were along.

Meanwhile, the Colonel sent Lavender and Fox to find food and water. He was going to send some men with them and the car, but Fox insisted that this wasn't necessary, and Lavender was okay with that.

Nails stayed in his van. Core had a new patient: the wounded band leader. Alas, she was unable to keep him from dying.

The Brigs met the Lizard Tongues. The Colonel explained that the boy couldn't be found, but there was a refrigerator of meat as compensation. This was actually the bomb, which exploded satisfactorily.

Meanwhile, Core read the sitch.

How could she escape her dead end situation? Use her abilities as healer.

What should she look out for? Slavers, like the ones attacking now, since all the Brigs were out.

What was most vulnerable? The entire holding.

She worked with Nails fighting the slavers.

Meanwhile, Lavender and Fox drove off.

Lavender: Once we're over the horizon, we're fucking, cuz that's his plan and mine. We don't know there's _that_ much excitement going on. And then the earth moves.

That was the bomb going off, of course.

Lavender: Don't stop! (clarifying) Don't stop the car! We've got somewhere to _be_! What are we gonna do, crash off of the desert?

Eventually, they paused briefly, stopping the car where the Sisters from the City of Mothers were.

Sisters: Why don't you come with us? You managed to scrounge a vehicle. That's something.

Lavender: Why _don't_ we? Can you hang on just a minute?

Lavender and Fox discussed the situation, concluding that the Sisters were always the winners in any battle, and they agreed.

Someone: The two who made off like bandits made out like bandits.

Meanwhile, Duke was willing to listen to the voices in his head as far as driving away from the Colonel and the Brigs, but not necessarily to kill the Colonel.

GM: You're a better man than he is.

Me: Annabelle thought so.

GM: Annabelle thought so. (to me) Thanks!

Duke drove to the Slavers' stronghold and rescued Dremer, but left the other slaves behind. Dremer told him that Fox was the one who sold him to the slavers.

Meanwhile, Big Fucker pulled the arms off the Lizard King and rescued his father. They wound up back at the holding, where many people were dragged off by the slavers. Big Fucker (re?)invented by using the Lizard King's arm as a club against the slavers.

Duke and Dremer decided to leave for the City of Mothers. So, Lavender and Fox pulled in, in their car. Then, the man Fox had sold into slavery arrived alongside him, in the jeep driven by Duke. And, on that note, we ended the session.