Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]

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Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« on: November 28, 2010, 07:39:54 PM »
Something's wrong with the world and I know exactly what it is.

It used to be better, of course it did. Back when humans ran the world, there was enough to eat and enough hope. We were free.

Now that's not what we've got. Now we've got this. Gorillas squatting in communes, in what was once America. Bulldogs running Britain. South America fragmented by great disaster and crater area, inhabited only by savage bat tribes. Killer whales launch raids on the Communi-Bear silo states.

And you, who are you? What makes you think you'll survive if you escape the wild human preserve? What makes you think that a tiny little pipsqueak like you will win against the new rulers?



Meet Spector

If anyone's going to be able to take down The New Rulers, it's Spector. She's got a van full of gizmos, lots of weird tricks, and some mad fighting skills. It's her against a feral world.

She's a Savvyhead, with a workspace (a van, weird-ass electronica, booby traps). She's going to escape the wild human preserve, and then journey across the world to find and defeat the four New Rulers, thus freeing humanity.

Except, there's one little problem that she doesn't see coming. David Bowie.

David Bowie Runs Earth A.D.

Nemomeme (Matthew) double-dog dared people to use the map from Kamandi as their Apocalypse World. Perfect. Me & Kaleigh have been looking to do some silly, action-y Apocalypse World gaming. This was the visual stimulation we both needed to get going.

But I didn't want this to be a game ABOUT Kamandi, just about this map. So I cut out the explanatory text at top left, and I pointed to the blond dude. "Who's that, Kaleigh?"
"Uh... David Bowie?"
"Yes, correct. He's probably the one who's ACTUALLY in charge, right? Not those New Rulers guys," I say, as I point to the four animal heads at the top right hand of the map.
"Yeah, he's sneaky like that."

And that was that. We dove into character creation. She made up Spector, and we talked about game tone as she did. It's going to be an action-adventure kind of game. We're going to hack some of the basic moves to make it more like a platformer video game - something like Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, or Sly Cooper.

So, like, to replace Act Under Fire:

When you platform around, roll +cool. Stuff like jumping onto something, dodging the roving laserbeams, slinking through the shadows past the gorilla commandos, etc. On a 10+, you do it gracefully. On a 7-9, pick one: you slip and have to try again, something blocks your path, you hurt yourself but succeed (1 harm).

I'm also adding new threat types. Warlord: Final Boss (impulse: to up the ante), and Brute: Mook (impulse: to get in your way).

My hope is that there'll be action-adventure platforming, with some cool boss fights. Some of those murderous Kanga Rats will be open to negotiations and deal-making. Some will just be mooks, clearly there for the head-bopping.

Since Spector's a Savvyhead, it'll be easy to plot out little "adventures." Spector wants to build jet-wings for her van, to fly it across the ocean? No problem. She'll need a Quantum Reactinator, and maybe a crew. Pom Pom the Kanga Rat snitch says he knows where you can find a Quantum Reactinator, just... it's guarded by some mean Leopard Sea Pirates.

We've done character creation. Kaleigh's off to roller derby practice. We'll start playing tonight or tomorrow.

Feedback welcome!

Re: Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2010, 12:37:19 AM »
For the 'platform around' move, what about "You slip and enter a more difficult area". So rather than just repeating the action, you've entered one of those crappy lower levels you have to fight, sneak and jump your way out of.

Re: Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2010, 01:12:29 AM »
Excellent idea, Steve.

My original thought was that if you slipped and fell, it'd give the MC time to make a move - more mooks show up, or you trip an alarm, or etc.

Your idea is more concrete, though, and so I'm going to adopt it.

Re: Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2010, 08:53:48 PM »
We had our first session of play, today. It was short - about 40 minutes - as Kaleigh had to take off and go to work after that.

Cut Scene: The Wild Human Preserve

"So, you live in the Wild Human Preserve... what's that like?"

Apparently, it's a city comprised of big boarding houses, where humans are packed into tiny little bedrooms and they share tiny little bathrooms. Gorilla Enforcers patrol, making sure no one leaves.

Every morning, the Gorilla Enforcers wake people up way too early, and force them into their little cubicle workstations, where they are forced to do math all day. You see, the animals took over, but they could never quite figure out how to do math. So, that's what they keep the humans around for.

"Okay... what sort of math?"
"Oh, mostly long division."

That answer set the tone of the game, pretty immediately.

Now, Spector and all the other humans hated their caged, math-centric existence. So, some of them plotted a brave escape! However, everyone else got caught, and only Spector made it out of the city alive.

She fled to a nearby junkyard, the remains of a previous human city. That's where she found her soon-to-be-trademark van, and a bunch of weird booby traps and electronic stuff. Now, she was armed, and dangerous!

Part 1, Level 1: The Treacherous Chase

So, Spector decides to try to drive her way out of the Wild Human Preserve altogether, to free herself and discover the rest of the world. She didn't know what was out there, yet. The New Rulers, David Bowie, the Kanga Rat Murder Society... it was all uncharted territory.

So, she's speeding along, but her clanky van alerts some Monkey Sentries, who take to the air in twin monkeycopters. The two monkeycopters both have big rocket launchers on them.

"So, you're speeding along, monkeycopters in aerial pursuit... and to the left, there's a big drop-off. To the right, there's a big drop-off. You're speeding along with cliffs to both sides of you. And up ahead, there's this spot where the land gets really, really narrow... it's like a bridge made out of stone, narrower than your van is. What do you do?"

Spector "notices" a big bump in the road, and decides that rather than risking the narrow bridge, she's just going to launch over the chasm. So, that's acting under fire. She rolls an 11, and does it.

Then there's this confusing bit where she uses a decoy to escape them momentarily. I was hazy on the specifics, but Kaleigh was excited, but she got a major hit on another acting under fire roll, and so I went with it.

She managed to make it into Crater Area, South America. The monkeycopters hadn't quite caught back up to her yet.

"What's Crater Area like?"

Crater Area is a mess of craters, ravines, tunnels and caves. Spector pulls her van into a cave and kills the lights. She watches as the monkeycopters circle through the sky, looking for her.

And that's when she notices that big, floating black thing.

Cut Scene: The Swarm

That big, floating black thing turns out to be a swarm of Savage Bats. They descend upon the monkeycopters, and there's a huge aerial battle. The monkeycopters are firing their cannons off at point blank, dropping huge swathes of the bats. The bats are dismantling the monkeycopters, parts falling all over the place.

The bats win, and the monkeycopters fall to the ground in bits and pieces. Danger, danger!

Part 1, Level 2: Swarms on Patrol

"So, you're safe in your cave, for now. But what are you going to do?"

Spector decides that she needs to render the bats immobile, and figure out where she is. "I have a net in the back - I want to rig up some kind of electro-net device to catch them."

That sounds awesome. I look at the Workspace rules. "Well, the only power source that you have is your van battery. So, you can use that if you want to, but then your van will be without a battery until you replace it. And, you know, with the tools you have - you'll be able to make a clunky version at best."

Spector grabs the van battery, and the net, and some old wires she's got in a crate. But she needs some sort of launching device - ah, the cannon that fell from the monkeycopter!

She slinks through some tunnels and craters toward the fallen cannon. She ducks and hides from the Savage Bat Sentries as she goes, and that's acting under fire again. Another 10+.

She retrieves the cannon and gets back to the van. There, she rigs up some crazy electro-net thing. I stat it up: [s-harm, hi-tech, refill]. And then she goes out, attracts the attention of the Bat Swarm, and fires the net on them. That's Seizing By Force, and she rolls another 10+. What gives, hey?

She suffers little harm, seizes definite hold, and frightens the rest of her enemies. Most of the swarm lies stunned in her electro-net, and the rest of the bats fly away.

Spector decides that, you know what - screw this place, she's outta here. Crater Area, South America is insano. So she dismantles her electro-net device and puts the battery back into the van. But that counts as tinkering in her workspace, so I tell her: "Well, the battery's drained. You'll need a new power source."

And Kaleigh's eyes light up. She has the perfect plan!

Spector goes back to the Savage Bats, tangled up in the net. She drags the net back to the van, and ties it to her front bumper. These crazy bats are going to fly her out of here!

Except, the bats don't like that plan. "Well, I'll threaten to kill them unless they go along with it, then!" So, that's going aggro. "Wait, no, I don't really want to go aggro. No, instead - I offer them something they really want."

Spector has already detailed her 3-Barter: Salt licks, Rat Poison, and a Crate of Bananas. She reasons that all animals like Salt licks, and offers that to the bats.

So, that's manipulation. She's promising salt licks for a free ride outta here. She rolls a 7-9, which means she needs to give a concrete assurance right now. "They want half of the salt licks up front, before they fly." Spector begrudgingly agrees.

Cut Scene: Towards the Tiger Empire

Picture this, to end our session: Spector sitting in the van, tinkering away with some funny contraption. A horde of bats, tied up in a net, furiously flapping their way forward. The van is dipping and bobbing, coming dangerously close to sea level, but never quite making its way under.

le fin.

Re: Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2010, 09:46:51 PM »
I love that you are doing this.  David Bowie...  Man, this is crazy-wonderful on nine levels. 

I love the idea of being so subversive with such already subversive material.  A unabashedly light, Danger Patrol-esque hack of Apocalypse World is calling me.  More to imagination than action, but it's all good.

Please show-and-tell more as available.

Re: Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2010, 08:02:19 PM »
At first I thought this thread was going to be about Adam's character, who is also called Spector.

When is Kaleigh going to fight "David Bowie"?


Re: Spector vs. The New Rulers [AP]
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2010, 08:53:27 PM »
I think Spector will have a few momentary encounters with David Bowie along the way...

But he'll be the big boss fight at the end.

She has to defeat the four New Rulers (the animal heads pictured top right on that map) first, and then David Bowie's secret fortress will be the next stop.

I mean, that's sort of my plan. If she shoots Bowie in the face way earlier than that, that's totally fine too. It's good to have a plan, though, so that you know what you're derailing.