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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 9637757" data-attributes="member: 82106">Thanks! So, looking at the session 1 thing, note how there's nothing about any prep, none exists at this point. Note how AW is completely different from Gamma World. GW 1e (the original and only one I've played or read) starts off with an elaborate (rather cool) description of the Apocalypse. The game is ABOUT The Apocalypse, everything builds on that. In AW there is no apocalypse! The game is about the PCs, exclusively. Sure, the world 'ended' notionally and that's how we got from our world to Apocalypse World, but the AW apocalypse is more a mind set, a device at best. You may, or may not, ever learn anything about it, it really isn't important. What is important are the PCs, you ask questions about them, give them screen time, make them interact, push them, get stuff going, BRING IT!And look at that list of moves. Is there A SINGLE THING that the MC can do which is not about the PCs? NO! The most disconnected things from the PCs that the MC does is put things on the threat map, which is just future badness, and create custom moves, which are for the players to trigger. And then we should look at the other parts, why to play:Because the characters are hot. Then it talks about them as Lovers, rivals, friends, enemies, etc. "that's the good naughty word." It goes on to say, what is going to happen? This is the question, are the PCs going to hack it? Can they survive in this brutal world? Will they trust the wrong person? Betray each other? What is going to happen to them? And finally, what really did happen to the world? Is this The End? It is a game about exploring people and situations, and maybe (fifth on the list) the world.And the MC has an agenda to go with this:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make Apocalypse World seem real.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make the players’ characters’ lives not boring.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Play to find out what happens.</li> </ul>Again, this is all ENTIRELY focused on the PCs. Maybe making AW seem real, for you, involves some kind of sim stuff? I guess... but I will point out, the Agenda section then says"Everything you say, you should do it to accomplish these three, and noother. It’s not, for instance, your agenda to make the players lose, or todeny them what they want, or to punish them, or to control them, or to getthem through your pre-planned storyline (DO NOT pre-plan a storyline,and I’m not naughty word around). It’s not your job to put their characters indouble-binds or dead ends, or to yank the rug out from under their feet.Go chasing after any of those, you’ll wind up with a boring game thatmakes Apocalypse World seem contrived, and you’ll be pre-deciding whathappens by yourself, not playing to find out."Anyway, I think, from the standpoint of the focus of the game, we've got it. There's quite a lot of technique stuff that follows. This is important but the beating Narrativist heart of the game we have touched. It is nothing like traditional RPG play, because traditional RPG play rests on a divide between some sort of fiction that has a life of its own, at least notionally; and a set of PCs that experience that fiction, and the second-order fiction that might arise out of what they do. This all ties right back to the OP! An Alarm spell ala 5e (or 1e) doesn't have a place in AW. Yes, time and space are useful things to describe, and if a player RPs reasoning about them, by all means establish the logic of the situation, as part of "what follows." AW is REAL to the PCs, it is to be described as real, and brought to life, so when they look at the chasm and its 29' across, they know it cannot be jumped by a human. That's fine, but something like the TB2e version of Alarm is probably a better fit for this kind of game in general. We want to know what happens, we don't need a model, we need a narrative! And, hey, if the MC told the players they were dealing with a rifleman who's an expert shot, and they expect their 'alarm spell' (gadget, whatever it is) to protect them, well, they gave you a Golden Opportunity, that's a hard move, take it. Do not be fooled into thinking people always get to roll some dice or skate out of trouble just because the game resolves goals and not tasks. But again, let me reiterate, the game is about, always about, the PCs. To the extent that the world is experienced by them, it helps if it 'lives', but if that means some boring thing or other, nah! Bring it!</blockquote>

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