Apocalypse World Musings

As I've said previously, I'm a huge fan of Dungeon World, as well as many other Apocalypse-powered RPGs.  To be brief, I love these games' abstract, theater of the mind approach.   If you've played, say Dungeon World, and you liked it, you probably agree that moves are fun, that thinking in terms of narrative is more rewarding than trying to simulate reality, or relying on a grid to resolve overly-complex battles.

For me, there are endless opportunities for utilizing the Apocalypse Engine for any type of game imaginable.  In fact, I hope to write my own Apocalypse Engine game at some point down the road.  I'll probably write a fantasy game of some sort - one that  includes some of the usual tropes, but I'd do my best to warp and twist them a bit to make them unique, or at least different than some other games utilizing the same tropes.

The Sword & Sorcery pulp tales of Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Elric deeply influenced my young life.  All of my own stories - especially the ones that I attempted to write when I was younger - are pastiches of Howard, Leiber, and Moorcock.  Those tales cast a long shadow.

If I were to write a game, it would probably include nothing but humans and, possibly, a demon-blooded, Atlantean race of refined cruelties and unspeakable summonings.   Speaking of magic, the only kind utilized in the world would be summoning.  Foul creatures of the outer dark are routinely summoned by foolish sorcerers and forced to perform all manner of services.

Anyone can learn rituals, and a priest or sorcerer are interchangeable.  Most sorcerers are villains feared by one and all.   They summon beasts in the darkness, for even darker purposes.  As much as I like Jack Vance, I think Vancian magic is a bit tired.  I prefer magic that's volatile and dangerous.  The summoner always pays a price whenever they perform rituals - whether they know it or not.  Sorcery always leads to ruin, but that stops neither the foolish nor the malefic from following this wicked path.

Like most AW games, the setting for such a game would remain intentionally vague.  It would emerge as the game's characters meander from location to location.  Perhaps I'll provide a few tidbits of information, but I'd leave huge blank spaces for the characters to fill in.  There wouldn't be a map of any kind, either.  Leiber, Moorcock, and, to a certain extent, Howard, didn't need maps when they're writing their tales.  Howard may have been fastidious enough to sketch a map before he starting spinning his Conan yarns, but something tells me that the maps came a bit later.

The characters in these games aren't heroes.  They're survivors. Cockroaches.  They're sellswords, ne'er-do-wells, and rogues.  Their extraordinary abilities are mitigated by their indulgences and their hubris.  They're brooding, tragicomic personalities who abide by their own codes of honor.  They are inadvertent heroes, but they have a sense of honor.  They certainly protect the weak, from time to time.  They'd rather sell a demon-bound weapon than wield it.   They adventure because they spend their loot faster than they acquire it.  Their destinies aren't predetermined.  They make their own luck as they stumble from one picaresque misadventure to another.

I know I'm basically describing a garden-variety sword & sorcery game, which is fine by me.  In my opinion, there's always room for one more Sword & Sorcery game.  There's no shortage of heartbreakers out there already.  I'm happy to add another onto the pyre.

In terms of mechanics, I'd tailor the AE to facilitate a cinematic game featuring larger-than-life characters.   They'd be able to take a lot of damage, and they'd start out more powerful than, say, characters do in Dungeon World.   I'd have to codify rules which quickly handle hordes of mooks.  Sword & Sorcery heroes are known to wade through scores of weaklings.  Conan's sword was typically described as "singing its death-song" as he made mincemeat of dozens of attackers.  He was like a cyclone.  I want to emulate those sorts of battles, without adding complexity.  Theater of the mind is still the order of the day.

I'm not sure about classes.  Most characters featured in Sword & Sorcery literature are a blend of warrior, thief, and, in some instances, sorcerer.  Mouser performed a few cantrips during his youth.  Elric, of course,  relied on the aid of several powerful deities throughout his tragic saga.  I can't remember if he cast spells, per se, but he certainly exerted himself by enacting certain rites and rituals.

Does one need classes? That's something to ponder.  Most AW games feature playbooks.  They work for many games, but I I'd rather do something different.   I don't want to restrict the characters too much, but I don't think we necessarily need distinct classes in the vein of, say, OSR games (love them, too!).

The Apocalypse Engine is quite malleable.  Some people find it too amorphous.  It's a joy to run, honestly.  It's malleability convinces me that I could tinker with it and come up with what I need to run the kind of game that I want to run.  The best thing about the AE is that it encourages collaborative story building.  I'm all about collaboration.  I find that most people have better ideas than I do.   It's so fun when you provide a kernel of information and your players run with it and come up with some really neat stuff.

This hobby is, as I like to say, a team sport.  Like the characters in my favorite Sword & Sorcery tales, there's safety in numbers.  Just ask Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.