Upcoming Play by Post Apocalypse World Game

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I threw a status post on my wall about running a Play-by-Post game here and it seemed to have generated a little interest. I'd like to expand that discussion to a broader audience and perhaps find a few people interested in participating - if only in this, as yet, theoretical, discussion. Apocalypse World seemed to garner a bit of interest, so I figured we could start the discussion there. I like AW as both PbP and I think it fits well in the EcchiDreams pathos as it has sex moves baked in, and I expect there will be at least a little of that going on.

The rough plan is to run AW PbB in a new RP Club. There's been some interest expressed in a posthuman or transhuman milieu, which I'm entirely ok with. Now, rather than write a complete hack of AW I think it might be easier, especially given the rules-light nature of PbP (go look up Eros Angel's old Black Crusade game if you want an example of why you want to pare rules down) to cobble on a spare stat and a mechanic to allow dropping weird in favor of a boost in hot, sharp or hard.

Here's the rough notion:

Add "stack" as a stat, -2 to +2, same as any other stat - this is to represent the ability to resleeve successfully. What that sleeve looks like is going to be entirely in game, it's just a matter of how much Hx you bring over. However, MC decides what the cost of stack is - maybe lose a move, maybe see some other stats lowered - everything is a transaction in the barter economy of influence...

Barter stays in place but gets renamed influence - which you might want to get a decent new sleeve.

Now, augments. There's no good way for that to stand as a stat of its own, so, when you drop in (which I think I may use to describe resleeving into a new body) you can move +2 around, but it comes off weird - which is still going to be used for Maelstrom rolls.

So, I'll open the idea to discussion. Please, feel free to make suggestions to rules mods (or if there's a transhuman Apocalypse Engine game, point me toward it) or thoughts about what you'd like to see in the setting. If you'd like comment on what you might want to see in changes to playbooks or moves as well.

Thoughts? Comments? Hell, well entertain the complaints too.

[Cute_Bro]

You can count me in on any PbP style game. Mind sending me any source links to whatever AW is? So I can get a read and feel on what it is and how to do some basic stuff around it? That way I can better give an input on how you want to run it here.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

http://apocalypse-world.com/

The two minute class is:

4 stats (5, with me adding stack) hot, hard, weird, sharp all rated at -2 to +2. 2d6 die rolls govern success or failure.

6 or less, miss - not necessarily fail, but don't get what you want or get it at a high cost

7-9, hit - probably not exactly what you want, but close

10+ hit with style

Rolls don't actually happen often. Only if you use a move.

Characters are defined by playbooks that are essentially archetypes (in this case from post apocalyptic fiction) one of each playbook at a time is the basic guidance. The ones I can remember off the top of my head: driver, brainer, maestro d', skinner, savvy head, angel, gunlugger, battle babe, chopper, and hard holder. There are some extended playbooks like the show, the faceless, water beareer, child thing and some other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Each playbook has specific moves they can make. From the angel (healer):
Infirmary: you get an infirmary, a workspace with life support, a drug lab and a
crew of 2 (Shigusa & Mox, maybe). Get patients into it and you can work on them like a
savvyhead on tech (cf ).

The various playbooks start with 2 or three of their special moves and a everyone gets the basic moves:

• Do something under fire
• Go aggro on someone
• Sucker someone
• Do battle
• Seduce or manipulate someone
• Help or interfere with someone
• Read a situation
• Read a person
• Open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom

There's a list of battle moves too. But for the most part, you say it and it's true. The world is very player forward, in that the GM (referred to as the Master of Ceremonies, in the rich tradition of every fucking game having to have a cute name for the referee) asks the players about a lot of it.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

There is a softer sci-fi transhuman PBTA game called Farflung - I will dig into this later.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Ok, this idea seems unpopular.

Easy day. Barring some high fantasy stuff - I have no interest in D&D, Pathfinder or any of the endless versions of those games - what seems interesting to people?

[Cute_Bro]

I think honestly Sci-Fi is a good theme...there is a Cyberpunk-themed TTRPG that could work too...if I could only remember the exact name to help you out...for the record though I quite liked this Apocalypse idea, just sadly have not had the time yet to check those sources out than you sent.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Cyborg comes to mind. But there's a PBTA one too, called The Sprawl.

[Cute_Bro]

Oh? And what's that one about?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Those are both cyberpunk games that are better suited to play-by-post than either Shadowrun (which is a game I confess to being one of the three people on the planet that don't like it) or Cyberpunk/Cyberpunk 2020/Cyberpunk Red.

Cyborg uses the same highly streamlined rules that power Mork Borg but reskin it for a cyberpunk doom. The Sprawl uses the same 6 or less, 7-9, 10+ and playbook engine that drives Apocalypse World. There's a whole mini industry in TTRPGs that use the Apocalypse engine called Powered By The Apocalypse (commonly abbreviated as PbtA).

[Cute_Bro]

Oooh, The Sprawl could garner more attention if that's what you're looking for, while still maintaining that original desire for an Apocalypse system

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I actually picked Apocalypse World because it's well-suited to play-by-post and has baked in "sex moves" that trigger when characters have sex. ED being what it is, that seemed a really great fit and a way to leverage the site's tendency to erotic role playing. Cyborg would be the easier to adapt to forum play since it doesn't use playbooks to define when to roll dice.

 

[Cute_Bro]

Oh that works even better, no need for like having to roll, just based on stats or smth. But yeah built in sex moves works best for this site I would hazard to say X3

[WritesNaughtyStories]

PbtA games generally assume that what the players say goes unless it's a very specific MOVE the it's a simple roll of 2d6. It's possible to run it diceless, I suppose, but PbtA moves are clear in intent and the 6 or less, 7-9, 10+ scaling means that a player can narrate the results as part of the post the causes a roll.

The existence of if x has sex with y then z moves is extremely well suited to ED. Se moves (this is the Chopper's (they run biker gangs)

Quote

If you and another character have sex, they
immediately change their sheet to say Hx+3 with
you. ey also choose whether to give you -1 or +1 to
your Hx with them, on your sheet.

Hx is a measure of how well characters know each other - not like each other, but know. And it's asymmetrical - so I can know you better than you know me. But Hx can be used to aid or interfere with other characters. So the existence of sex moves encourages both sex and broader social interactions by virtue of providing Hx.

Which is all great IF we don't mind hacking it to be a transhuman game or we want to play a post apocalyptic game.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

For anyone who's been reading this or following along - is anyone familiar with Inscrutable Cities? It's a solo journaling game but includes adaptations for group play. It seems like it's related to Microscope but leans into dense, descriptive prose and less on structure and placement.

Would it be worth really digging into that to play here?