Balmas
2019-08-02, 01:35 PM
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If you’re lucky enough to know one of the Ancient ones, you might be privileged to hear tales of the times before the End—tales of when there were entire buildings filled floor to ceiling with nothing but food, and a person could go their entire life without ever being shot. They’re fantastic stories, especially in the context of a dead and dying Manhattan. But what nobody knows—nobody can answer—is how it came to this. How the Bronx sunk into the sea. Why Queens is locked to us forever. Why Jersey taunts us with visions of prosperity from across an irradiated river.
But we’re New Yorkers. And New Yorkers are hardy folk.
Welcome to Tales of Albion, an Apocalypse World campaign journal. Here, I’ll be compiling and sharing my first forays into GMing a game of Apocalypse World. I’ve been a player in multiple games in this system before, but this will be the first time I’ve sat on the other side of the screen.
For those of you who’ve not played the system, Apocalypse World (henceforth AW) is a highly streamlined pen-and-paper roleplaying game designed from the ground up for emulating a Mad Max / Fallouty kind of feel. Resources are scarce, inter-player conflict expected, and everything you see is either a target or a threat.
A GM in this system (or Master of Ceremonies, as the game calls it,) takes on a much different role than what a person raised on D&D might expect. A D&D Dungeon Master is responsible for authoring the world—the town, the adventure, the villain, the dungeon, the monsters—from whole cloth, usually singlehanded, and then the players interact with the world the DM has created. In Apocalypse World, the MC takes on much more of a role of a referee; the players create the broad strokes world, the threats, the interpersonal relationships between PCs and between PCs and the threats they face. One of the explicit rules of the system is that the MC should not go in there with a story they want to tell, as that’s a surefire way to fail. My job, as the MC, is to make the world seem real, make the characters’ lives seem real, and play to find out what happens.
With that in mind, let’s jump straight into introductions.
Perhaps the central figure in our little drama is Barbecue, the king of Albion. Barbecue is a Hardholder, a playbook archetype that centers around the rule of a settlement through an iron fist and a handy army of goons. (Think Immortan Joe, and you’ll be pretty close.)
Albion, in this case, is not England, but the crumbling remains of the Empire State Building—specifically, twenty-five floors that are still standing. It is, in many ways, the center of Manhattan. It contains a market, walls that make it nearly impregnable by outside assault, and a weapons factory painstakingly collected from the wastes and reassembled piece by piece. Pair that with its fortress-like construction, its quick access to both power and water substations, and the convenient access to the subway tunnels, and any gang would want to take it for themselves.
In other words, it’s the target of every gang south of the now-submerged Bronx. Even the Marconi Syndicate, their current ally and trade partner, is maneuvering for an Albion takeover. And from within the depths of Albion come rumblings of what could happen if the gang is ever displeased with the direction their leader is taking. Barbecue has compensated for this last one, at least, by setting himself up as the sole provider of food to Albion.
That factory was installed by Specter the Savvyhead. As a savvyhead, Specter is the resident tech wizard, capable of building anything and everything if fed enough time and resources. Technically, Specter is not an Albion resident, instead preferring to live in a subway-tunnel workshop underneath a nearby museum. In theory, Barbecue is paying for Specter to develop a nuclear bomb; in practice, Specter is more occupied with completing a cloaking project for a competing gang and tinkering with Stumpy, the disembodied talking head of a pre-End battle robot. Nevertheless, he is perhaps Barbecue’s oldest confidant and friend.
Blastershell, on the other hand, is a relative unknown and Albion newcomer. As the Battlebabe, they represent a disruptive androgyn-fatale force in the highly regulated Albion. Not much is known about Blastershell, save that they’ve already proven a thorn in Barbecue’s side by stealing food and trading in weapons for information on the Blackout gang.
The final actor in our little play is Rictor Von Scale, the Brainer. As the nephew of Don Jesus Marconi, he’s a useful pawn for the Marconi Syndicate: prestigious enough that his murder would provide a casus belli for an invasion of Albion, but not so important to the Syndicate’s succession that his death would be terribly inconvenient. Knowing that he has no hopes of ever taking over the Syndicate on his own, Rictor has taken to using his mindrape powers for his own agenda.
There is also a fifth PC, a driver named Mustang. The Driver is the Mad Max of this system, most at home behind a car’s steering wheel and with a horizon to chase. In this case, Mustang is an urban legend, a gang cryptid, a vigilante devoted to saving outlying communities and driving off into the sunset. However, as the player is moving to Scotland after the first session, Mustang is quietly moving to Elevated NPC status.
But these are only the PCs. And as I said above, the PCs also create the threats that they face.
Perhaps the largest of these, purely by numbers, is the Marconi Syndicate. Located to the north of Albion, the Syndicate owns the single greatest source of food in Manhattan: Central Park and its acres of farmable land. Currently, Albion and the Marconis are allies—Albion provides weapons and ammunition to the Marconis, and in exchange the Syndicate provides enough food to feed a hold with three hundred people in it. Both sides know that this delicate balance will last only until the Marconis feel they’ve accumulated enough weaponry and slaves to take Albion without immediately falling prey to either of the other major gangs.
Those other two major gangs would be Ouroboros and Blackout. Ouroboros is, in essence, what you get if you take a biker gang and filter it through sixty years of oral tradition and a tribal structure. Each tribe of Ouroboros is a family of nomads, only united by their desire to hold onto their monopoly on gasoline. Blackout, on the other hand, is largely a mystery. Rumors abound that they are secretly the remnants of the government, or a Vault-Tec analogue holding Manhattan prisoner. Either way, their fortified Brooklyn Bridge home is one of the only ways in and out of Manhattan—and they aren’t sharing it.
But of course, the major gangs aren’t the only threat. Unaffiliated gangs—Beaters, in Albion parlance—roam the wild, plundering, raiding, and scavenging as much as they’re able. Divided, they’re not a threat to any of the major gangs, but they’re a constant worry for people traveling between them.
Almost as bad, though, are the Stingers and Barkdogs. Stingers: because when Cazadors aren’t bad enough, you can upgrade to the six-foot-tall mutated tarantula hawk wasp that also happens to be attracted to electronics. Barkdogs are admittedly a joke suggestion that got taken seriously: a werewolf-sized dog capable of barking loud enough to cause tissue damage. (We play at a house with a very excitable bulldog-mix, who is the best doggo.)
As part of character creation, each player character takes turns going around in a circle and establishing relationship details between everyone. This is meant to tie people together, and measure how well each person is able to help or interfere with other players’ actions.
Going down the line quickly:
Blastershell has helped Mustang out of trouble in the past
Mustang has caught Barbecue staring out towards the horizon, dreaming of the day when he owns all of Manhattan.
Specter has been friends with Barbecue since before he even set up Albion, and helped Barbecue to transport his weapons factory from the wastes into the depths of Albion.
Blastershell has been caught stealing food from Barbecue before.
Blastershell is able to relax and trust around Rictor and Mustang, but not Specter or Barbecue.
Despite the above, both Mustang and Barbecue have occasionally used Blastershell as a useful infiltrator and enforcer in the past.
Specter finds Blastershell to be the weirdest person he knows, and also probably the biggest potential problem. This is saying something, since he also spends time with Rictor.
Rictor has been watching Barbecue publically in his role as Marconi Ambassador, and Specter in secret.
Barbecue despises Rictor, resenting him as a symbol of a foreign aggressor.
Players have also messaged me details about their past involvement with the gangs.
Mustang has done work for Ouroboros in the past, and is reluctant to pick a fight with the people who give him his gas.
Blastershell has a bone to pick with Blackout, and will more readily trade her goods for information on them than for anything else.
Specter was raised and taught engineering by an ex-Blackout agent. It’s been at least twelve years since they last saw each other, though.
Soon: Session One and Two notes!
If you’re lucky enough to know one of the Ancient ones, you might be privileged to hear tales of the times before the End—tales of when there were entire buildings filled floor to ceiling with nothing but food, and a person could go their entire life without ever being shot. They’re fantastic stories, especially in the context of a dead and dying Manhattan. But what nobody knows—nobody can answer—is how it came to this. How the Bronx sunk into the sea. Why Queens is locked to us forever. Why Jersey taunts us with visions of prosperity from across an irradiated river.
But we’re New Yorkers. And New Yorkers are hardy folk.
Welcome to Tales of Albion, an Apocalypse World campaign journal. Here, I’ll be compiling and sharing my first forays into GMing a game of Apocalypse World. I’ve been a player in multiple games in this system before, but this will be the first time I’ve sat on the other side of the screen.
For those of you who’ve not played the system, Apocalypse World (henceforth AW) is a highly streamlined pen-and-paper roleplaying game designed from the ground up for emulating a Mad Max / Fallouty kind of feel. Resources are scarce, inter-player conflict expected, and everything you see is either a target or a threat.
A GM in this system (or Master of Ceremonies, as the game calls it,) takes on a much different role than what a person raised on D&D might expect. A D&D Dungeon Master is responsible for authoring the world—the town, the adventure, the villain, the dungeon, the monsters—from whole cloth, usually singlehanded, and then the players interact with the world the DM has created. In Apocalypse World, the MC takes on much more of a role of a referee; the players create the broad strokes world, the threats, the interpersonal relationships between PCs and between PCs and the threats they face. One of the explicit rules of the system is that the MC should not go in there with a story they want to tell, as that’s a surefire way to fail. My job, as the MC, is to make the world seem real, make the characters’ lives seem real, and play to find out what happens.
With that in mind, let’s jump straight into introductions.
Perhaps the central figure in our little drama is Barbecue, the king of Albion. Barbecue is a Hardholder, a playbook archetype that centers around the rule of a settlement through an iron fist and a handy army of goons. (Think Immortan Joe, and you’ll be pretty close.)
Albion, in this case, is not England, but the crumbling remains of the Empire State Building—specifically, twenty-five floors that are still standing. It is, in many ways, the center of Manhattan. It contains a market, walls that make it nearly impregnable by outside assault, and a weapons factory painstakingly collected from the wastes and reassembled piece by piece. Pair that with its fortress-like construction, its quick access to both power and water substations, and the convenient access to the subway tunnels, and any gang would want to take it for themselves.
In other words, it’s the target of every gang south of the now-submerged Bronx. Even the Marconi Syndicate, their current ally and trade partner, is maneuvering for an Albion takeover. And from within the depths of Albion come rumblings of what could happen if the gang is ever displeased with the direction their leader is taking. Barbecue has compensated for this last one, at least, by setting himself up as the sole provider of food to Albion.
That factory was installed by Specter the Savvyhead. As a savvyhead, Specter is the resident tech wizard, capable of building anything and everything if fed enough time and resources. Technically, Specter is not an Albion resident, instead preferring to live in a subway-tunnel workshop underneath a nearby museum. In theory, Barbecue is paying for Specter to develop a nuclear bomb; in practice, Specter is more occupied with completing a cloaking project for a competing gang and tinkering with Stumpy, the disembodied talking head of a pre-End battle robot. Nevertheless, he is perhaps Barbecue’s oldest confidant and friend.
Blastershell, on the other hand, is a relative unknown and Albion newcomer. As the Battlebabe, they represent a disruptive androgyn-fatale force in the highly regulated Albion. Not much is known about Blastershell, save that they’ve already proven a thorn in Barbecue’s side by stealing food and trading in weapons for information on the Blackout gang.
The final actor in our little play is Rictor Von Scale, the Brainer. As the nephew of Don Jesus Marconi, he’s a useful pawn for the Marconi Syndicate: prestigious enough that his murder would provide a casus belli for an invasion of Albion, but not so important to the Syndicate’s succession that his death would be terribly inconvenient. Knowing that he has no hopes of ever taking over the Syndicate on his own, Rictor has taken to using his mindrape powers for his own agenda.
There is also a fifth PC, a driver named Mustang. The Driver is the Mad Max of this system, most at home behind a car’s steering wheel and with a horizon to chase. In this case, Mustang is an urban legend, a gang cryptid, a vigilante devoted to saving outlying communities and driving off into the sunset. However, as the player is moving to Scotland after the first session, Mustang is quietly moving to Elevated NPC status.
But these are only the PCs. And as I said above, the PCs also create the threats that they face.
Perhaps the largest of these, purely by numbers, is the Marconi Syndicate. Located to the north of Albion, the Syndicate owns the single greatest source of food in Manhattan: Central Park and its acres of farmable land. Currently, Albion and the Marconis are allies—Albion provides weapons and ammunition to the Marconis, and in exchange the Syndicate provides enough food to feed a hold with three hundred people in it. Both sides know that this delicate balance will last only until the Marconis feel they’ve accumulated enough weaponry and slaves to take Albion without immediately falling prey to either of the other major gangs.
Those other two major gangs would be Ouroboros and Blackout. Ouroboros is, in essence, what you get if you take a biker gang and filter it through sixty years of oral tradition and a tribal structure. Each tribe of Ouroboros is a family of nomads, only united by their desire to hold onto their monopoly on gasoline. Blackout, on the other hand, is largely a mystery. Rumors abound that they are secretly the remnants of the government, or a Vault-Tec analogue holding Manhattan prisoner. Either way, their fortified Brooklyn Bridge home is one of the only ways in and out of Manhattan—and they aren’t sharing it.
But of course, the major gangs aren’t the only threat. Unaffiliated gangs—Beaters, in Albion parlance—roam the wild, plundering, raiding, and scavenging as much as they’re able. Divided, they’re not a threat to any of the major gangs, but they’re a constant worry for people traveling between them.
Almost as bad, though, are the Stingers and Barkdogs. Stingers: because when Cazadors aren’t bad enough, you can upgrade to the six-foot-tall mutated tarantula hawk wasp that also happens to be attracted to electronics. Barkdogs are admittedly a joke suggestion that got taken seriously: a werewolf-sized dog capable of barking loud enough to cause tissue damage. (We play at a house with a very excitable bulldog-mix, who is the best doggo.)
As part of character creation, each player character takes turns going around in a circle and establishing relationship details between everyone. This is meant to tie people together, and measure how well each person is able to help or interfere with other players’ actions.
Going down the line quickly:
Blastershell has helped Mustang out of trouble in the past
Mustang has caught Barbecue staring out towards the horizon, dreaming of the day when he owns all of Manhattan.
Specter has been friends with Barbecue since before he even set up Albion, and helped Barbecue to transport his weapons factory from the wastes into the depths of Albion.
Blastershell has been caught stealing food from Barbecue before.
Blastershell is able to relax and trust around Rictor and Mustang, but not Specter or Barbecue.
Despite the above, both Mustang and Barbecue have occasionally used Blastershell as a useful infiltrator and enforcer in the past.
Specter finds Blastershell to be the weirdest person he knows, and also probably the biggest potential problem. This is saying something, since he also spends time with Rictor.
Rictor has been watching Barbecue publically in his role as Marconi Ambassador, and Specter in secret.
Barbecue despises Rictor, resenting him as a symbol of a foreign aggressor.
Players have also messaged me details about their past involvement with the gangs.
Mustang has done work for Ouroboros in the past, and is reluctant to pick a fight with the people who give him his gas.
Blastershell has a bone to pick with Blackout, and will more readily trade her goods for information on them than for anything else.
Specter was raised and taught engineering by an ex-Blackout agent. It’s been at least twelve years since they last saw each other, though.
Soon: Session One and Two notes!