Alien Apocalypse: Love Letters

Originally published July 28, 2014

A short while back I was asked to run a short game for a local gaming group. They were interested something more indie and so I ran an Apocalypse World game for them. In the spirit of many of my other posts, I thought I'd share some of that material.
The gang decided on an alien apocalypse, full of rusted crashed saucers, toxic regions, black rains, and scarcity. In other words a perfect Apocalypse World setting. The characters included:

• Buster, The Dog
• Humble the Brainer
• Run Wild the Maestro'D
• Sasha the Operator
• Zinc the Faceless

I've discussed Buster before but in summary, he is a psychic dog who refuses to talk to anyone. He has refused to have an allied NPC and instead attached himself to Zinc as his master. Ultimately I chose to work around him.

Humble may have alien DNA, a subject of the alien experiments. Dressed in rain gear (in the desert) and sunglasses to hide her inhuman eyes, she wields an umbrella that functions as a violation glove (its core is made of an alien metal). She scavenges alien tech and has worked with Sasha in the past.

Sasha's player, like Buster's, gave me a lot of backstory. She owns a semi which uses to transport supplies from one hold to another, making some profit on the side from scavenging and her own deals. I decided to treat the semi as part of her crew.

Zinc has her gas mask stitched on and publicly shows the scars of her double mastectomy. She eats through IV tubes. A deadly killer she has a secret even she doesn't really know: she was a researcher during the war with the aliens. They captured her, extracted parts of her brain and turned her into this.

Run Wild joined us in the second session and ran Gatsby's, a club selling drugs, drink and sex. A sort of metallic dance club/saloon, Run wild had to deal with the disapproval of the local hardholder H, the ambitious leader of her gang Brock and the troublemaking Doghead. An androgynous figure, Run Wild was a set of cruel barbs wrapped in velvet. She wins the MVP award for the game.

Love Letters

Even it was only a 2 and a half session long game, I wanted to give my players the full experience. so I made sure every player received at least one Love Letter.

Session 1

This builds off the idea Sasha's player sent me.

Sasha,
You've had problems unloading some goods and getting good work lately. In addition to whatever goods your barter represents you've yet to unload a couple of items. Choose one of the following odd items:

• sympathy sphere (remote hitech): if someone tells their name to the device, it become attuned to them. You can then use it to help or interfere with that person remotely using the psychic maelstrom.
• eyeball (tag valuable): if eaten this weirdly shaped fungus (or is it?) grants +1 forward to open your brain. It may also expose you to ψ-harm.
• beacon tracker (hitech unreliable): this jury-rigged device picks up signals from invasion era supply beacons. Most have been looted long ago but it is rumor there remain a few unlooted locations in dangerous areas. It has been beeping for the past 20 miles.

Also you have the following:

• A single 30 lb glow-in-the-dark potato (cumbersome alive)

Buster left me with less to work with but had the idea that perhaps he could sense some of the alien language.

Buster,
You've discovered you know what the not-people are saying (or at least what they mean) better than your owners. You gain the following move:

• Smell Speak: you gain +1 ongoing to read a person who is not really human or a normal animal (MC's call).

Who's a good girl?

Humble's love letter turned out to be useless since Buster decided to remain mute and antisocial. Sigh...

Humble,
Something about you is different. Maybe it is in your genes, maybe in how you learned how to do what you do (is there a difference?). You gain the following:

• +tele-radar: you can hear the telepathic thoughts of certain Earth animals and alien lifeforms. You cannot lose this tag.

Session 2

In session one, Zinc and Humble found an alien machine in a cave in the badlands after surviving a battle with the Cycle Gangers. So by session 2, I had more to work with and created a love letter for Zinc and a new (useful) one for Humble:

Zinc,
Your sleep has been disturbed by ever since you picked up that alien weapon. Humble's glowing blue orb or one like it appears in your nightmares. You are strapped down to a metal table as the aliens experiment on you. Roll +weird. On a hit ask one of the following questions:

• What did the aliens want from my mind?
• What were they hoping to accomplish from their experiments?
• How could I reclaim some of my memories?

On a 10+ gain +1 forward to learning more about your past. On a miss take -1 forward as nightmares of a strange blue sphere, knives, and alien experiments leave you tired and frustrated.

This next love letter was again not perfect. While it helped steer the plot to a good ending, the roll to determine the fallout from the asking about the lost government lab robbed Humble of some agency.

Humble,
Your visions have grown stronger and stranger since you acquired the orb. You receive images of looking up at a ceiling lit by multicolored lights. Other times you appear to be looking out through shaded lenses. Still other times you see men dressed in uniform arranged around a strange machine. Someone you can't see is describing the workings of the device.

Your search for your origins has led you to investigate local rumors. You've heard that there is a lost laboratory where the government did experiments on aliens during the war. They even learned how to modify their tech. No one is sure where it is exactly, but its nearby the big saucer.

Roll +Sharp. On a hit pick one.

• You heard it from Doghead.
• H's kids didn't overhear you asking.
• It cost you 1-barter.

On a 10+ gain +1 forward to finding the lab. On a miss get all three.

Session 3

The final session let me create a letter for Run Wild, dealing mostly with a new drug she was peddling for Quick Ricky and his gang. I also asked how her gang was paid to determine what threat type they were. I really liked the drug roll as it became a case of spend Hold for cash or hold back to avoid trouble. With an extra bad thing for holding too much back.

Run Wild,
Business has been crazy since you started trading in Angel Kitty. Everybody wants some. What do you cut the drugs with if anything?

With your current "sampler" pack you have Hold 3. You can spend Hold to cut the drug or reduce the dosage, multiplying the amount of cash you rake in. Each Hold spent equals an additional 1-barter profit.

Roll + your remaining Hold. On a hit choose 1:

• You piss off H.
• Jinx crashes his jalopy into the back of Gatsby's, high on Angel Kitty.
• Word spreads of a rival dealer.

On a miss, all of the above. On a 10+ someone OD's: Tome Asson (your best customer), Norvill (local merchant who deals with Sasha), or Chin (the streetdoc) (you pick).

Regardless you also earn 1-barter. Oh and Quick Ricky is asking 2-barter for the next batch.

Finally does your gang enjoy the benefits of Gatsby's (when not working of course) or are they strictly professional?

Buster got shot up in session 1 and missed session 2. That made this love letter the only one that was really needed.

Buster,
For the last week you've been in a nacrostab induced coma. Thanks to the gentle if absent-minded attentions of Chin, the local medic, you are fully healed.

While knocked out, you had dreams. You are running through dim metal corridors. You smell nothing natural, only metals, plastics, and old death. Something is chasing you, something with more than two legs. You come to a keypad and put in the code with your blood streaked hand: D.A.K.O.T.A.

Roll +weird. On 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all three:

• Your dreams leave you unsettled. Take -1 forward.
• Chin gets +teleradar from being in your presence.
• Chin forgets to leave water for you. Gain +dehydrated until you get some water.

Conclusion

That's it for this week. Next week I showcase some new gear and the threats from the game.