with a whimper - review: apocalypse world

Apocalypse World by lumpley games.

Metric: Doomsday clocks.  The use of this image as a health track and for other game elements is one example (of many) of how this game uses design to devastating effect.  It's more conducive than six boxes and Apocalypse World (AW) is chock full of details like this.

Summary: 5 doomsday clocks.  It's not often you read a game that will change how you play RPGs.  While the collaborative nature of story gaming may not be for everyone, there are adaptable ideas - the use of fronts (collaborative threats defined by plot/character relationship arcs), choice- and question-driven interactions, stakes and charged situations can be applied to established games to take them in new directions. This game deals with mature themes and includes sexuality (implicit and otherwise) with survival in a broken world.  Those looking to re-create games in the spirit of early Mad Max, Book of Eli, The Road, The Stand, Earth Abides or The White Plague will find lots to enjoy.

Contents: 5 doomsday clocks. AW is densely packed with innovative content and evocative language.  The design of it shows considerable thought and how effective monochrome is at evoking mood.  It has it's own voice and this shines into how a master of ceremonies (MC), the AW games master interacts with players from the first session to the end of the game.  A series of player moves (basic and specific to roles) and MC principles and strategies enable improvisational play, cheat sheets for fronts and individual playbooks for the roles facilitate planning and juggling this may be intimidating for those unfamiliar with this style of play.

Troubleshooting options for moves are available to help you and your players differentiate between them.  That said, once you familiarise yourself with the methods, the learning curve slackens and you find yourself looking at the game and thinking about how cool it would be if (insert situation here).  Of particular note is the MC love letter, which presents a choice-based decision process, where benefits and consequences are woven with player-provided names and backstory.  Some players may balk at the additional work (and grumble until they get a killer scene) but for email, forum or blog-based games, this format seems ideal.

Layout: 5 doomsday clocks. Monochrome and simple, section artwork is redolent of good parts of the old World of Darkness, like the game itself, it focusses on characters. The only complaint is that the PDFs lack bookmarks - a minor problem mirrored in a lot of PDF products. This is a relatively minor caveat and overall the design and style of the book is quality stuff.

Support: 4 doomsday clocks.  The game is well-supported by it's website apocalypse-world.com including the wonderfully named Barf Forth Apocalyptica forum.   Playbooks, character sheets and planning sheets for first sessions and fronts are available.  The feeling is that more is coming - given the buzz from ChattyDM and Gnome Stew who have both identified how versatile the principles in AW are - it would be surprising if this game fails to endure. There's plenty of noise about Apocalypse World - deservedly.  Vincent Baker is one of the more accessible designers from the Forge and the post-apocalyptic vogue that's hung overhead like hungry buzzards for the last couple of years is a potent setting.

I'm particularly struck by the resonance with early World of Darkness only with better editing, practical advice on developing in-game relationships between characters and without metaplot uber alles. The game begs to be hacked and a profusion of variants can be found on the forum. The book is as much a toolkit for deepening character development and interaction during play as a game in it's own right. In conclusion, this game will elevate your roleplaying - think of it like going to the gym.  Some temporary discomfort and self-consciousness but soon you'll be doing things you hadn't even believed were possible.  You can acquire your copy from the Indie Games Unstore and PDF fans may want to consider the lumpley games bundle for your device of choice.

inns & taverns: the three suns

The Three Suns is a punning name for the three sons of a retired adventurer who decided to take the money left to them and set up a tavern catering to more of the same.  The Three Suns waits at the corner of the marketplace of a busy market town intent on separating the unwary from their money.  The sign is a blue sky with three sunbursts in a row with the words 'Three Suns' underneath it in yellow paint.  The Three Suns is a sizable three-storey building of dressed stone and oak complete with stable and courtyard.  People are greeted at the door by a pair of imposing gentlemen in spiked leather armour who assess visitors on seemingly random criteria (if you look interesting or like there's a story behind your appearance usually) and then grant access with a friendly bit of advice "Watch your head."  They do not engage in small talk but the observant notice the one on the left looking thoughtful from time to time.

The Three Suns is a sunken-level tavern with high ceiling supported by wide beams large enough for a gnome or halfling to sit comfortably.  Three wagon wheels decorated in yellow and gold paint serve as candelabrae.  There are benches and trestle tables capable of seating eight each side lined up under each wheel with sufficient space for two people to walk side by side between them.  The walls show almost no sign of their original plaster having been scrawled on with significant layers of graffiti, leaving a banded effect on the walls notable for bardic doggerel, gnomish puns, halfling recipes and scurrilous rumours about various public and private figures as well as a quantity of magical script that appears to resist casual vandalism.  Those wise to such will discover the inn's patronage by a number of reputable wizards.

Over the bar is a carved slate with the motto "You break it, you pay for it." and a list of beers with prices that are a bit expensive (+15% on normal) ranging from a simple nut-brown to a smoky-red dwarven ember ale to a black stout.  A collection of tankards, some of remarkable provenance surround the slate in a carved wooden case.  The ales kept here are deserving of the price and no less than six beers at any time as well as a collection of liquors and spirits bordering on the obsessive.  A large barrel of rough red wine is also available, served by the jug and watered according to taste.  When it comes to wine, the Three Suns policy is that you have one kind - rough red.  This policy appears to be sponsored by a criminal guild and those bringing in their own learn such behaviour is discouraged.  While salted nuts and pickled gherkins and onions are provided, there are no meals served at the Three Suns.

Obriana the landlady, is a former first mate and natural at her trade.  Scarred, tattooed and full of stories, the cat-o-nine-tails worn at her hip is a well-used warning.  The concealed silver knives remain that way until someone does something stupid.  Five working staff keep drinks flowing and run events like arm-wrestling tournaments, small lizard races and hopboard game tournaments.  All are fiercely loyal, capable of hefting a barrel of beer, holding their own in a fight or talking a drunkard out the door.  They dislike violence but are pretty good at it, each carrying a concealed knife and a sap.  Gambling is a common vice here and the house protects it's own and it's odds.  Most patrons don't mind and those who do find the door quickly enough.

Accommodation is provided on the implied understanding is food is consumed in a number of small rooms (maximum occupancy two people) on the top two floors. Prices are expensive to encourage short stays.  Simple straw mattresses and wooden furnishings are low-maintenance and the walls are regularly re-painted and once a year see some repair due to peepholes being repeatedly drilled into the walls.  The chambermaids at the Three Suns are not discouraged from plying other trades and one seamstress regularly offers to repair clothing as a sideline while working in the rooms. Older trades are tolerated with Obriana and her staff with the help of some off-duty watch officers carrying out an occasional purge to ensure the Three Suns doesn't get a reputation.  This 'turning of the sheets' is almost a public spectacle with screaming women and scurrying patrons seeking to keep their honour. 

Apart from the active gambling, the Three Suns encourages bards to perform.  Obriana has a weakness for music and this has led to more than one minstrel getting a 'lucky break' here.  If a bard has the nerve to ask Obriana for a table, she will take 20% of the earnings for doing so.  The audience is tough and more than one minstrel has left for adventure after a bad night here.  Obriana takes this mixture of fortune in good cheer, often using the minstrels as cover to get rid of beer that isn't selling at cheap prices.  To the locals, the Three Suns can be forgiven it's occasional mis-steps on this point alone.  The presence of bards leads to gossip and as a source of information, few places can rival the Three Suns in terms of value.  This has resulted in the Three Suns becoming the first inn visited by those new in town and looking for work.

autumn festivals

Autumn Festival - A procession through town, marking the boundaries of a community or property towards the site of a trading fair is typical.  Showing off the fruits of this year is normal and competitive streaks are encouraged by nobles to exhort commoners towards excelling in the field.  Martial prowess is also celebrated, after the harvest and before the winter is often chosen by ambitious lords as a season for battle. 

Songs and prayers to Corellon, Erathis, the Raven Queen and especially Sehanine, are offered to celebrate hearth and home, offering thanks for the harvest and acknowledging the oncoming winter.  Offerings are made to honour the dead who have fallen this year and those dear to the living.  Gifts of nuts gathered during this season are often made to guests.  At ports, Kord and Melora are commemorated together. While many sailors batten down for the coming winter, there are games of strength and skill to keep them from sinking into idle drunkenness.  Those lost at sea are also commemorated.

The Burning Weave - In the Feywild, processions are made with great woven effigies of animals led through those communities held by the Green, Gloaming and Winter Fey.  These effigies are finally brought to a stone circle where they are burned.  Reprisals against the fomorians and goblins (who themselves prepare for great sieges) are launched before winter takes it's toll and in Brokenstone Vale, great hunts mark territory.

The Candle's Wake - In the Shadowfell, the procession is a slower affair, almost funereal, each bearing a lit taper in commemoration of those who have died.  The shadar-kai set great wicker men alight holding chained corporeal undead to send them to the Raven Queen and her compassion - some even dare to leap the flames of those corpse-fires in order to feel exhilaration and warmth.

three things: dwarven weapons

Joyous Axe - This +1 battleaxe favours dwarven warriors, when wielded by a dwarf it grows in power and becomes a +2 battleaxe.  When a dwarf wields it in two hands it confers a +2 morale bonus to saving throws and ability checks.  The head of the axe is often crafted to resemble a smiling dwarven head.  The blade or the beard, is patterned after a dwarven beard and the haft carved with glyphs.  Different clans use specific blade designs to identify their craft, leading to some dwarves adopting those designs for their own beards!
Market Value: 16710gp   
Creation: 6th-level dwarf, Craft Magic Arms & Armour, good hope, magic weapon.

Spear of Stala - This +1 spear is narrow-bladed, weighted at the tip and has a triangular cross-section that is designed to pierce mail and armour plates.  It gains an extra +1 to hit against foes in brigandine, scalemail or heavier armour.  Natural armour of scales or bony plates may grant this bonus at DM's discretion but thick hides like those of an elephant do not.  The design of the spear  makes it a poor thrown weapon however, all such attacks with it get a -2 penalty.  Dwarves favour the spear of Stala against foes prone to charging them or when they themselves must rush headlong into battle.  A normal spear cannot be turned into a spear of Stala, these are made from new.
Market Value: 4740gp
Creation: 6th-level dwarf, Craft Magic Arms & Armour, magic weapon, Craft (Weaponsmith) 8+ ranks.

Spike-Driving Warhammer - This +1 warhammer has a stylised head that on a successful critical extrudes a puncturing strike that increases the critical multiplier to x4 and converts the damage to Piercing.  The spike retracts once the hammer swings back ready for the next strike. Though the hammer has been outlawed for personal use by some religious orders, dwarven warriors appreciate the deadly craft involved.  A normal warhammer cannot be upgraded to a spike-driving warhammer, these must be made from new.
Market Value: 4812gp
Creation: 6th-level dwarf, Craft Magic Arms & Armour, Craft (weaponsmith) 8+ ranks, magic weapon, keen edge.