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Author Topic: Apocalypse World - where is the love ?  (Read 9968 times)

Bland Joe Dwarf

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #30 on: November 21, 2012, 01:06:15 PM »
Hi Silva, I'm beginning to play it PbP at tBP and wouldn't mind running it, or some of its hacks (MH, MotW), even though I find the DW idea kind of dull, as D&D fantasy has already a fair share of games. I'm waiting anxiously to see what they make for tremulus.
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silva
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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #31 on: November 21, 2012, 03:59:14 PM »
Quote from: CRKrueger;601412
Depends whether or not you're making those decisions as the character. ;)
Dont know if youre being sarcastic here, but Apocalypse World´s decisions are all made in-character.

Quote
Hi Silva, I'm beginning to play it PbP at tBP and wouldn't mind running it, or some of its hacks (MH, MotW), even though I find the DW idea kind of dull, as D&D fantasy has already a fair share of games. I'm waiting anxiously to see what they make for tremulus.
Hi Bland Joe! That would be awesome, really. Ive been gaming a bit of AW lately and finding myself liking it more and more.

My group´s initial difiiculty was rejecting some more "trad" conventions, like asking to do Perception tests all the time, or trying to roll skills all the time even when no potential conflict is present. But the more we´re "getting" its underlying premises, the more cool the game is getting.

I would gladly try out a PbP game. Im sending you a PM.;)

noisms

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #32 on: November 21, 2012, 04:06:34 PM »
Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;601365
Just forget about the whole "thisisn'tanXXXgame" discussion, it's really not worth it. Let's just talk (up) the merits of Apocalypse World.

I was rather sceptic to begin with, even after reading through it the first time, but over the last year or so, I've been won over. Why?

Because it's good and freakin' dynamic.

In every fight we've had in my LotFP-campaign, there's been soooo many boring rolls ending in misses (combination of high AC/low attack bonuses). These misses, even for all my descriptions and battlefield bravado, does nothing for our game. They are misses and result in nothing.

In Apocalypse World, every bad roll creates new situations and more drama. When ever your character fails something, it has to make som hard choices. And these choices aren't just related to stats or numbers on the character sheet - it's stuff that affects the group and the world surrounding the characters. So just like a succes pushes the action forward, so does a failed roll. That's brilliant, especially combined with the list, both combat-stuff and in the playbooks, which makes these choices easy to use, but hard to make.

And by having the players making the decisions, you include them in the drama, more than if it is you as a gm making making up the outcome of fights and conflicts. This, in my oppinion, creates a perfect system for sandbox games, where no one knows where the session will end up.


I agree. I've never run a game of AW, only played in it, and I can honestly say as a player I've never felt as emotionally involved in what is going on. It's partly because all of your actions have real consequences, but also because, as you say, the actions of the players feed into the way the world develops.

I think it's probably the best-designed game I've played.
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Silverlion

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #33 on: November 21, 2012, 06:14:32 PM »
Never played. More interested in its relatives, and giving them a try.
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Skywalker

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #34 on: November 21, 2012, 06:31:07 PM »
Quote from: Bland Joe Dwarf;601444
Even by the site's shallow definition, AW is a RPG, as the decision-making is tied to in-setting consequences

I thought this site's definition of story-games was RPGs that Pundit doesn't like or that are liked by people Pundit doesn't agree with.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2012, 03:41:52 AM by Skywalker »

DKChannelBoredom

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #35 on: November 22, 2012, 03:24:29 AM »
Quote from: Ladybird;601392
Yeah, but that's only making decisions for a character you are guiding through the exploration of an imaginary world. It's not really roleplaying, now is it.

:rolleyes:


Yeah, dunno how I could possibly make that mistake. Maybe it is because it doesn't actually say anywhere in the Apocalypse World rules (if I remember correctly) that it is a roleplaying-game - so maybe Vincent agrees with Pundit!

Oh well and huzza for pbp games coming from this thread.

One of the things I never really got the hang on from reading Apocalypse World, is the use of the Maelstrom, and the playbooks connected to it. Anyone has some good/cool examples of the maelstrom in play?
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Quote from: Cranewings;410955
Cocain is more popular than rp so there is bound to be some crossover.

noisms

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #36 on: November 22, 2012, 04:49:55 AM »
Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;601635
Yeah, dunno how I could possibly make that mistake. Maybe it is because it doesn't actually say anywhere in the Apocalypse World rules (if I remember correctly) that it is a roleplaying-game - so maybe Vincent agrees with Pundit!

Oh well and huzza for pbp games coming from this thread.

One of the things I never really got the hang on from reading Apocalypse World, is the use of the Maelstrom, and the playbooks connected to it. Anyone has some good/cool examples of the maelstrom in play?


We primarily used it as a source of obscure and dangerous information which would provide us with hints and insight into a given situation. I feel like we could have done more with it, especially as my character was a Hocus, but we only played for about 7 sessions, and, as Baker says in the intro, it "isn't really much of a game" until it's at least 6 sessions long. I'd like to play a proper long-term campaign of it.

What I love about the Maelstrom is the way the MC has to insist the players each develop their own signature hallucination about what happens when opening their mind. One of the guys at my table would describe this crazed, spooky vision of giant tongues descending from the sky and licking his brain.
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Paper Monkey

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #37 on: November 23, 2012, 03:13:35 AM »
While I haven't gotten to play Apocalypse World, I think I can safely say that Dungeon World is pretty spectacular after looking it over. All the classes have some really exciting moves.

DKChannelBoredom

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #38 on: November 23, 2012, 04:40:08 AM »
Quote from: noisms;601646
We primarily used it as a source of obscure and dangerous information which would provide us with hints and insight into a given situation...


That's sounds cool - I might use that.

Another question. To what degree have Apocalypse World (to what ever degree) turned into Player vs Player?

From my experience in can happen alot - not that there is anything wrong with it and the rules tackles it neatly. But a group that some of my friends played in, didn't do it at all - instead creating a very tightly nit group, working with and around a travelling hospital, sort of "ER" meets "Carnivale", with a strong us-against-the-world vibe.

So how has your groups and sessions turned out?
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Quote from: Cranewings;410955
Cocain is more popular than rp so there is bound to be some crossover.

noisms

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #39 on: November 23, 2012, 02:35:53 PM »
Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;601779
That's sounds cool - I might use that.

Another question. To what degree have Apocalypse World (to what ever degree) turned into Player vs Player?

From my experience in can happen alot - not that there is anything wrong with it and the rules tackles it neatly. But a group that some of my friends played in, didn't do it at all - instead creating a very tightly nit group, working with and around a travelling hospital, sort of "ER" meets "Carnivale", with a strong us-against-the-world vibe.

So how has your groups and sessions turned out?

PvP on the level of conspiring against one another was very common. That's why earlier on I said it felt almost like Amber Diceless in play. Nobody killed anybody else, but I think that was just due to slight reticence on our part not to go quite that far - there were situations in which it seemed the likely outcome but we stepped (perhaps unrealistically) back from the brink.

We were certainly constantly scheming against one another, and each of us was involved in the murder of close allies of each other more than once. Our game quickly developed into a kind of power struggle for the fate of the town where we lived - though we were forced to ally with one another against external threats. I loved that about the game, too: it seemed tailor-made for that sort of scenario to arise. We were enemies, but had to cooperate at the same time, which led to striking temporary bargains, truces, etc., while never stopping plotting the next move. Very Machiavellian, cloak-and-dagger stuff, to an extent I've not encountered in a game before.
Read my blog, Monsters and Manuals, for campaign ideas, opinionated ranting, and collected game-related miscellania.

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silva
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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #40 on: November 23, 2012, 09:01:14 PM »
Quote from: noisms
I think it's probably the best-designed game I've played.
Yeah, I agree with this sentiment. Ive never seen a game that promotes a playstyle through the rules in such a smooth and clever way.

I think its the new benchmark for rpg designers out there.

One Horse Town

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #41 on: November 24, 2012, 08:31:15 AM »
Yeah, but how many people did you manage to bone?

silva
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« Reply #42 on: November 24, 2012, 09:54:20 AM »
Oh fuck, I forgot the sex moves. Yeah, I find them ridiculous and unnecessary.

noisms

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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #43 on: November 24, 2012, 10:11:43 AM »
Quote from: silva;601995
Oh fuck, I forgot the sex moves. Yeah, I find them ridiculous and unnecessary.


People seem to fixate on those, even though you can excise them from the game with no difficulty at all.

I love how people will make all kinds of house rules and special pleading for games they like, but for a game they've decided they don't like, suddenly you have to look at it in terms of the RAW.
Read my blog, Monsters and Manuals, for campaign ideas, opinionated ranting, and collected game-related miscellania.

Buy Yoon-Suin, a campaign toolbox for fantasy games, giving you the equipment necessary to run a sandbox campaign in your own Yoon-Suin - a region of high adventure shrouded in ancient mysteries, opium smoke, great luxury and opulent cruelty.

silva
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Apocalypse World - where is the love ?
« Reply #44 on: November 24, 2012, 10:19:11 AM »
Where I can find a physical copy of Tremulus and Saga of the Icelanders ?

I missed their crowdfundings. :o