As I hastily prepare for DunDraCon 38, I first leave you with a second installment of custom moves from the Apocalypse World campaign, Space World, that my friends and I co-MC'ed last year.
This time I'll share a smattering of moves from one of the core Fronts of the game, the Void. The sheer emptiness of space and its toll on the human soul.
End of Hope
This threat was a slow cooking one, as people turned on each other and space madness ate away at the edges. As co-MC I was focused on a threat my character would be unlikely to get directly involved with. As I was playing a rock star Skinner, my character was generally surrounded by people and not poking into the psychic maelstrom. Thus the Void preys on those on the edges, victimizing them and driving them insane.
Spook Bashers
One major threat were what were called Spook Bashers. "Spook" was in-game slang for anyone with a high Weird (i.e. Brainers, Savvyheads, and the like). Spook Bashers were bullies and thugs who harassed and attacked Spooks. They generally claimed that Spooks where prone to space madness to justify their xenophobia.As we will see further down, space madness generally affects those who spend lots of time alone (like many spooks), so the Spook Bashers are not completely wrong.
Mechanically they were just people, usually armed, who formed lynch mobs given enough time and excuse.
Space Madness
A much more involved threat was Space Madness, something the group never did get to the bottom of. Part of the problem was that it is a psychic disease, one caused by time away from a living world or community. So those who stayed at a settlement were safe (though they tended to attract Reavers which I'll get to in a moment).Space Madness is a psychological condition. It doesn't kill, it just distorts the perceptions of those afflicted. These delusions often lead those afflicted to attempt hostile or dangerous acts on others.
The custom move for this was a touch involved:
Space Madness: Whenever your character is in a scene alone roll +Cool. On a 10+ you are okay. On a 7-9, the MC can choose 1:
- You hear something that isn't there
- Answer a question about your prejudices
- You see something that isn't there
I also played around with a countdown clock for increasing severity of delusions but generally it was so slow acting that it got drowned out by other threats in play.
The Reavers & White
The Reavers were former humans who had gone mad and turned into cannibal killing machines. Worse their condition was contagious. The original outbreak is what destroyed the golden age and brought about the apocalypse. For almost half the game, they were a distant threat, discussed in whispered rumors.
Then the group discovered White.
White was the leader of a hidden trade port of Megaton, built into a burnt out hulk of a massive cargo ship. White was an albino mystic who had delved deep into the Psychic Maelstrom into what lay beyond it.
There he discovered where Reavers came from.
He slowly lost control, turning into one of them. To save his community he was put into an artificial coma.
Of course the PCs were given reason to abduct him, opening the possibility that he would wake up, turn Reaver and murder everyone.
He had a few custom moves:
Foaming Rage: White deals +1 harm with whatever he has on hand.
Don't Blink: If White is unattended or unobserved, he disappears from any restraints. If you are attending him and are possibly distracted, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ he tries to escape. On 7-9, he attacks you, suffer harm. On a miss he is gone.
Shutdown: White knows the controls of Megaton and if he escapes he will rapidly destroy it. Start a countdown clock at 0:00.
At 3:00 all ships power down as White reroutes main system power. To flee the station, the connection to Megaton must be manually severed first. At 6:00, Megaton itself powers down, including the artificial gravity. Operating in zero G is like acting under fire. At 9:00, the beacons begin to broadcast Megaton's location to Reavers.
At 10:00 he has assembled a small gang of Reavers. At 11:00 he has a medium gang. 12:00 the main Reaver force arrives.
Reavers themselves shared some of White's moves, notably Foaming Rage. Gangs of Reavers also possessed:
Swarm: when rolling harm moves from a Reaver gang add +1.
The Wolves of the Psychic Maelstrom
When my Skinner switched playbooks to Solace, I brought a new threat into the game. When my Skinner retired and adopted a new character which didn't interact with them, I took over that threat. I expanded it a bit and tied it into one of the character's mental deterioration.The Wolves were psychic predators, possibly exiles from the alien world of Everett, whose natural forms were droning beetles but who disguised themselves as people. Twisted when the Apocalypse happened, the Wolves wander lost and angry, seeking to destroy everything. They could be stopped with music which was anathema to them.
The first of these threats I brought in was Mother, a spectral being who claimed to be the ghost of one character's mother. She looked like a ghostly pale blond-haired woman. Her features easily contorted into rage and hate as she pushed her "daughter" to harm those around her. It worked all to well.
Her custom moves was simple:
Immaterial: Mother is immune to normal weapons
The other "named" wolf was called First. First appears initially as a leader among the guards of Megaton but later joined the resistance when Bluejay's forces took the station. His goal was the destruction of Megaton and the end of humanity.
One of his moves was a twist on White's (unused) move:
Don't Blink: When unobserved, First can go anywhere. If observed, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ he is still there. On 7-9, he may attack you, suffer harm. On a miss he is gone.
The other two were adaptions of the moves from a playbook expansion I can no longer find that we used for people who chose to be Wolves of the Maelstrom.
What are you?: First suffers at most 1-harm from an attack.
In sheep's clothing: When First reveals himself, chaos erupts. All violent and destructive attacks deal +1 harm. If he fully reveals himself, all NPCs must engage in a cacophony of violence and PCs must act under fire to avoid doing the same.
Well that is it for now. Hope you enjoyed them and let me know what you think.
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