Game Master 2017/03/01(Wed)21:15 No. 784069 ID: d8f4d2
File 148843173980.png - (233.11KB , 732x970 , awstats.png )

Whatever the actual cause, the 'End of Nations' was 24 years ago. Current estimates put the population below a hundredth what it used to be and rising slowly, but humanity survived. Now, you're finally heading out to see some of it after a childhood spent in a stifling bunker full of people who were suspicious of you. Dad warned you the outside world would be strange, but you're ready to accept that if it means you can meet people you might actually consider dating. The guarantee of having some personal space and privacy outside of your own skull is what made you jump at this offer to go live somewhere else.

You're currently heading west, speeding along a road up on stilts in the ruin called Toronto. The road is matted with a mostly-uniform layer of intertwined white, orange and brown fungus fiber that is a much more even surface than you were expecting, but it's still bumpy enough that you couldn't possibly read or do anything constructive during this ride. The view in all directions is filled with the sprawling ruins of what used to be a city housing millions. You've seen pics of what it used to look like before, but now all the buildings are wrapped in red, orange, green and brown from the xenofungus that has claimed the ruins. Some of the old buildings have come down, and many at this point are being held together more by the overgrowth itself than the strength of what they've colonized. However, it's zooming by too fast to examine in detail, so looking at the scenery out the passenger window is mostly something you're doing to avoid looking somewhere else.

----

What is our biological sex, and our profession?

Angel Medic (or Doctor maybe) -- recommendation level: 5/10, maybe higher
pros: be the doctor, best overall stats, easily collects favours and friends if being nice/generous, can build a really good rep, collecting XP is easy
cons: not much of a combatant, easily can get and stay poor if you're being nice/generous, Hippocratic oath

Battlebabe Commando -- recommendation level: 7/10
pros: starts with max cool, good at surviving combat and most misfortune unscathed, gets sweet custom weapons, can severely fuck with and fuck up most people
cons: depending on conditions can be surprisingly ineffective in combat, difficult at first to find things to do outside combat

Brainer Psychic -- recommendation level: 6/10
pros: reading people's minds, control people like puppets, potentially never fully disarmed, can be incredibly intimidating, warlords need people with your skills, highest starting cash
cons: their best toys are expensive to use and maintain, scaring people and fucking with their heads is bad for making friends

Chopper Chief -- recommendation level: 2/10
pros: ride in style and force wherever you want to go, crew has lots of cool stuff you can borrow, pretty decent stats, be a biker chief
cons: supplying and protecting your crew is a full-time job, your pack's drama and infighting is a serious problem, can easily make enemies unintentionally

Driver -- recommendation level: 4/10
pros: be the roadwarrior, get a very nice vehicle, use your ride to go to interesting places and have your way
cons: poorest stats, leaving your ride weakens you, people fucking with your ride can be crippling or deadly

Gunlugger Heavy -- recommendation level: 6/10
pros: the biggest guns, best armour, high survivability
cons: ugly, lost outside of combat

Hardholder Warlord -- recommendation level: NO! A terrible choice!
pros: own private army, own turf with source of revenue
cons: protecting, sorting out, and holding on to what you've got is a never-ending hassle at best, way too many NPCs, taking this completely ruins the planning and writing I've done so far, please just no

Hocus Cult Leader -- recommendation level: 1/10
pros: top notch crowd manipulation, psychic powers, cult following potentially gives good revenue
cons: no starting gear, can be as difficult or worse to maintain your cult as a biker chief's gang, need that cult for your best powers, can fuck up the planning and writing I've done so far

Operator -- recommendation level: 5/10
pros: always have a source of income you can use during downtime by through the 'moonlighting' move, decent at escaping trouble
cons: poorly equipped at start, not very good in combat, work under the 'moonlighting' move will often give trouble as well as profit, or just the trouble instead of if we're particularly unlucky

Savvyhead Nerd -- recommendation level: 5/10
pros: easy source of XP, people want you to service or custom build their stuff, some interesting psychic powers, wide range of gear choice
cons: your nerd palace of facilities and equipment can become your prison or your money pit, not very good in combat

Skinner Musician (?) -- recommendation level: 6/10
pros: good at getting favours and influencing people, can easily extract money from other people, the obvious choice for being a slut
cons: paper thin difference from a prostitute at best, better at tricking or ambushing people than handling open combat, potential for severe self-sabotage if too greedy or careless

If people want a custom character class, it needs to be something that fits the setting. The setting is low-psychic, medium to diamond hard science fiction, post-apocalypse. The details of a custom class (I.E. what people mean/want) likely needs hashing out in a discussion thread if you want something other than just a ruin-delving scavenger, so it better be worth starting a dis thread early. If people really want to play a gasmask-wearing, garbage picker just put 'scavenger' as your choice and I'll work it out.

>>784069
Female cult leader

Gumshoe
Pros: Stats based class, good at a little bit of everything. Can get to the bottom of anything, given time. Good with pistols and fists.
Cons: Mental illness and PTSD, oldschool approach to tech, insight wins him few friends.

Something like Cool+2 Hard+2 Hot+0, Sharp+3 Weird+1.
Middle-aged male, with a mustache.

>>784073
Uh, the closest there is in the setting is the local warlord's psychics, because they can read people's minds to find out if they're guilty. The old style rule of law and due process died along with the billions when the world ended.

Should I put you down for a psychic?

>>784069
Nerd

All about fixing problems.

Out of curiosity any particular reason why you're going with first edition rules, with none of the limited edition playbooks?

>>784075
I was thinking more like a low rent problem-solver for warlords and tribes that want to find things out quietly.

Cheaper than a psychic, and more of a generalist. Basically the guy who finds out who the psychics need to work on.
Similar to an operator, I guess?

>>784078
Psychics can find out this stuff quickly, which in the end is also cheaply. The other major options for that kind of whodunnit problem solving is that cult leaders are known for giving augury and musicians are the social butterflies with lots of friends and contacts for the most part. Operators do get tasked with stuff like watching the vehicle movements in and out of an enemy's encampment and reporting though.
Nerds don't tend to advertise, but a lot of them can do similar augury to what the cult leaders do, and different things besides.

Whodunnit isn't so much of an issue as having the power to compel the crazy raiders to see it your way when there's a disagreement.

>>784076
It's what I have, and it's so simple that if I need something not in the rules I can just make something up. I do intend to modify it a little, notably the character advancement rules.

No preference for male versus female?

Female WARLORD('s Operator)

You are the power behind the throne. Scores of men prostate their blood tributes to your meat puppet while you flaunt your sexy curves as a seemingly pathetic concubine. Your mind is an army's logistics machine: uncreative yet destructively effective.

Unfortunately, your psychic training has left you a cowardly whore when you aren't ruling the nation from the sidelines.

Stats:
Cool-
Hard--
Hot+++
Sharp+++
Weird++ (Specialist: Has only two powers: Charm Person(Specific), Lv. 1 Kinetic Barrier)

>>784086
Your stat picks (which isn't covered at this step) and character description matches a musician. Warlords are the power on the throne, often leading from the front of their army. I'll quote the source text:

There is no government, no society, in Apocalypse World. When warlords ruled whole continents, when they waged war on the other side of the world instead of with the hold across the burn-flat, when their armies numbered in the hundreds of thousands and they had fucking boats to hold their fucking airplanes on, that was the golden age of legend. Now, anyone with a concrete compound and a gang of heavies can claim the title. You, you got something to say about it?

Also, there are no magic spells like 'charm person' or 'kinetic barrier' in the setting. This is low psychic, as in headfuckery, headfuckery, and more headfuckery.

It sounds like you wanted a psychic, a cult leader, or a musician instead of a warlord. Try that again maybe?

FINE.

Female cult leader, focus on hawtness

Let's be chief lady.
Mostly cause I want friendly character interaction and it doesn't screw with your plans as much as warlord or cult leader.

>>784111
So far 2 for cult leader, 1 for nerd, 1 for biker chief. 3 votes female, 1 vote male.

Still waiting for RaccoonGuy to clarify choice, did you wanna be a greedy operator?

>>784117
Yeah to a male Operator.

Male operator sounds good to me too.

>>784122
Okay, 2 for operator, 2 for cult leader, 1 for nerd, and 1 for biker chief.
3/2 split, for female/male character.

My shift is ending, so I'll have to resolve this later. If worst comes to worst I'll ask someone to roll a die.

Driver, cause fuck it. Also hoping it means we can fly one day. Or pilot a giant robot. That would kick ass as well.

Driver and male just to fuck things up. I want to see either tiebreakers or a roll.

Riiiight, okay, I'm gonna go have breakfast and run my morning meeting. Unless we have new people arrive to add new tiemakers/tiebreakers then the first person rolling 2d6 decides it.
First die: 1-2 Cult Leader, 3-4 Operator, 5-6 Driver.
Second die: 1-3 Female, 4-6 Male.

rolled 2 = 2

---

Here goes nothing. Someone else do gender.

rolled 6 = 6

---

>>784248
Here goes something, or also nothing!

rolled 2, 4 = 6

---

Game Master 2017/03/02(Thu)15:29 No. 784277 ID: d8f4d2
File 148849737711.png - (523.08KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader1.png )

Ha! A male cult leader. Okay.
Create our cultist, picking from the following.

Appearance: Masculine, feminine, ambiguous, transgressive, or concealed.
Face: Innocent face, dirty face, determined face, open face, severe face, or ascetic face.
Eyes: Mesmerizing eyes, dazed eyes, forgiving eyes, suspicious eyes, clear eyes, or burning eyes.

Initial stats:
• Cool=0 Hard+1 Hot-1 Sharp+1 Weird+2
• Cool+1 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp=0 Weird+2
• Cool-1 Hard+1 Hot=0 Sharp+1 Weird+2
• Cool+1 Hard=0 Hot+1 Sharp-1 Weird+2

We get this move to start:
Fortunes: fortune, surplus and want all depend on your followers.
At the beginning of the session, roll+fortune. On a 10+, your followers have surplus. On a 7–9, they have surplus, but choose 1 want. On a miss, they are in want.
If their surplus lists barter, like 1-barter or 2-barter, that’s your personal share.

Then choose two more:
Frenzy: When you speak the truth to a mob, roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 1. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to make the mob:
• bring people forward and deliver them.
• bring forward all their precious things.
• unite and fight for you as a gang (2-harm 0-armor size appropriate).
• fall into an orgy of uninhibited emotion: fucking, lamenting, fighting, sharing, celebrating, as you choose.
• go quietly back to their lives.
On a miss, the mob turns on you.
Charismatic: when you try to manipulate someone, roll+weird instead of roll+hot.
Fucking Wacknut: you get +1weird (weird+3).
Seeing Souls: when you help or interfere with someone, roll+weird instead of roll+Hx.
Divine Protection: your gods give you 1-armor. If you wear armor, use that instead, they don’t add.

FOLLOWERS
By default you have around 20 followers, loyal to you but not fanatical. They have their own lives apart from you, integrated in the local population.
(fortune+1 surplus: 1-barter want: desertion)
Characterize them: your cult, your family, your students, your scene, your staff, your court. If you travel, decide whether they travel with you or congregate in their own communities.

Choose two good features:
• Your followers are dedicated to you. Surplus: +1 barter, and replace want: desertion with want: hunger.
• Your followers are involved in successful commerce. +1 fortune.
• Your followers, taken as a body, constitute a powerful psychic antenna. Surplus: +augury.
• Your followers are joyous and celebretory. Surplus: +party.
• Your followers are rigorous and argumentative. Surplus: +insight.
• Your followers are hard-working, no-nonsense. Surplus: +1barter.
• Your followers are eager, enthusiastic, and successful recruiters. Surplus: +growth.

Choose two issues:
• You have few followers, 10 or fewer. Surplus: -1barter.
• Your followers aren’t really yours, more like you’re theirs. Want: judgment instead of want: desertion.
• Your followers rely entirely on you for their lives and needs. Want: +desperation.
• Your followers are drug-fixated. Surplus: +stupor.
• Your followers disdain fashion, luxury and convention. Want: +disease.
• Your followers disdain law, peace, reason and society. Surplus: +violence.
• Your followers are decadent and perverse. Want: +savagery.

We start with nothing except some tradable bags of almonds, worth 2 barter, and our clothes. No weapons or special gear.
Depending on choices I will be assigning ethnicity, initial clothing, and who is your deity.

If I need to explain the rest of the follower options, I will, but the two parts I'm sure you're most curious about are what the augury and insight special moves do.

Augury: When you use your followers or your workspace for augury, roll+weird. On a hit, you can
• Reach through the world’s psychic maelstrom to something or someone connected to it.
• Isolate and protect a person or thing from the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• Isolate and contain a fragment of the world’s psychic maelstrom itself.
• Insert information into the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• Open a window into the world’s psychic maelstrom itself.
By default, the effect will last only as long as you maintain it, will reach only shallowly into the world’s psychic maelstrom as it is local to you, and will bleed instability. On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7-9, choose 1:
• It’ll persist (for a while) without your actively maintaining it.
• It reaches deep into the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• It reaches broadly throughout the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• It’s stable and contained, no bleeding.
On a miss, whatever bad happens, your antenna takes the brunt of it.

Insight: When you use your followers for insight, ask your followers what they think your best course is, and the MC will tell you. If you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in the pursuit. If, though you pursue that course, you do not accomplish your ends, you mark experience.

Game Master 2017/03/02(Thu)15:42 No. 784280 ID: d8f4d2
File 148849813929.png - (819.67KB , 1980x1530 , basicmoves.png )

Also, possibly the most important decision of the game, choose the level of adult content:
• Nothing to see, nothing to do, no peener, vajayjay and butthole awfulness!
• Mature content, including relationship drama and relationship drama will be present but the author is spared from writing lemon content.
• Smut for the smut god! Dick for the dick throne!

----

At long last you're getting to meet your people. After a childhood mostly spent in that bunker full of nulls, you're finally meeting both regular people open to the beyond and the ones you've been waiting to join, the initiates who know of what you know. The excitement and anticipation is all that's keeping you from a terrible mood, however.

Beside you on the driver's part of the front seat, the infamous driver Spade is singing along to an old Barry White tune. He's horribly out of key somehow, and it's rattling your nerves to the point that it's seriously hard to meditate.

He insisted on no introductions when we first met, you're not sure why. Maybe try talking to him about it to get him to stop singing?

Just wait this out until we get to the village. / DO SOMETHING! (basic moves above may be attempted)

Ambiguous appearance, ascetic face, burning eyes

Divine protection, and Charismatic

Let's kick this up a notch.
+ Psychic conduit, Joyous, celebratory followers who like to party
-They are drug-fixated and prone to savagery

Moderate adult content

Gonna vote Cool=0 Hard+1 Hot-1 Sharp+1 Weird+2
With charismatic and seeing souls as our special skills.
As for look, innocent face and clear eyes. Don't care about masculine vs feminine.

I think
Your followers are rigorous and argumentative.
Your followers are dedicated to you. and
You have few followers makes a good combo. Not sure for the second negative.
So they argue amongst themselves, but know that you've helped them out enough that everyone knows you're the leader.

>If, though you pursue that course, you do not accomplish your ends, you mark experience.
What does this mean?

rolled 5 + 3 = 8

---

Cool+1 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp=0 Weird+2
Frenzy + Whacknut

Concealed determined burning face. Look authentic and people will pay attention.

Your followers are a collection of various merchants and trade workers in the local market who have superstitious obsession with the new world and how it works. They've been neighbors for years with a collective monopoly of the essential assets and resources for survival, and so have agreed to coalesce into a simple guild to control their prices and profits. You're their psychic guru; they don't mind letting you be the figurehead leader because you can't give them direct orders or they WILL kick your poor, scrawny ass. But each of them is more submissive than they believe, a simple push here and a private session there will suffice. You can't actually take over yet because you don't know the first thing about running a business.
+Insight and +Barter, Want:Judgement and +violence

For appearance ambiguous appearance, innocent face, Mesmerizing eyes, Frenzy, Charismatic. For Followers, Good Recruiters and Dedicated but Few in Number and Perverse and Decedent. ALL THE SMUT.

>>784285
I agree with this stats package, at least. We are not beautiful, we are scar tissue and chutzpah.

>>784285
You get a +1 on any rolls involved with trying to follow the advice you got. If it doesn't work out, you at least get a free point of XP as a consolation prize.

As far as follower picks go, might I suggest taking the insight move and the commerce involvement that gives us +1 fortune? Failing to get 10+ on the roll is bad enough, failing to get 7+ basically screws the PC for one non specific period of play between Fortune rolls by giving problems and no powers or pocket money. With the starting fortune value of +1, we have to roll 9+ to have no problems, and 6+ to only have some problems. That's nearly a 1/3 chance to fuck up completely and a worse than 2/3 chance of having some problems from the fortune roll.

>>784304
I'm fine with commerce, but less so with insight.

Doesn't seem like followers of a personality cult would be very good with introspection, even less so if they're goofed up on drugs.

>>784311
To be honest, I was the exact opposite. Them telling us what we should do for us and making goals sounded useful.

So I say meet in the middle and sure for these>>784304 positives. Closer to 1/4th (27.8) to not get a 6 or more (oddly enough same chances to get a 9 or more), but I get what you mean. Important thing to keep in mind on a d6 is the average is 3.5. So average of 2d6 is a 7. We judge around that for common rolls and we're golden.

>>784321
Whatever keeps us moving is fine.

I do think the negatives I said would be amusing, though.

Okay, so far we have:

2x Ambiguous, 1x Concealed gender.
2x Innocent, 1x Determined, 1x Ascetic for Facial appearance.
2x Burning, 1x Clear, 1x Mesmerising for eyes.

Stats
2x for Cool=0 Hard+1 Hot-1 Sharp+1 Weird+2
1x for Cool+1 Hard-1 Hot+1 Sharp=0 Weird+2

3x for Charismatic, 2x for Frenzy, and 1x each for Divine Protection, Seeing Souls and Whacknut

Following Advantages: 2x for +insight, +1 barter and want: hunger, 1x for +1 growth, +augury, +party
Following Disadvantages: 2x for +savagery, -1barter, 1x for +stupor, want: judgement, +violence

2x Perverts, 1x Not-Prude for smut level.

RaccoonGuy: Did you want to switch either +party or +augury for something else?
Salestax: No opinion on smut level, choice for second disadvantage, or desire to change one of your choices?
kome: That was the dedicated +1 barter instead of the no-nonsense one, right?
3373e2: No statblock preference or second followers advantage?


So far no suggested actions or inaction in the scenario to respond to yet. :)

I will switch +augury to another boost if someone switches a vote to +party.

No Statblock Pref, but I would like the Dedication and the Good Recruiter for our Followers.

Go with no-nonsense. I doubt that well-stocked, strongly-connected merchants will starve any time soon.

Game Master 2017/03/02(Thu)19:50 No. 784403 ID: d8f4d2
File 148851305279.png - (574.46KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader2.png )

I made a mistake earlier, thought kome had voted for full-smut, and on double-checking I found no opinion given. Unless people speak up strongly in favour of ultraporn I would like to err towards a less prurient content level though. Speak up now if you want the anti-sex version or the full-smut version instead.

This is what our character sheet looks like for now, unless we get more votes or people changing their minds.

>>784403
Speaking as a frequent player, you don't HAVE to let us determine everything. You're supposed to find the plateau that makes you want to contribute often and with quality.

I am somewhat baffled that people want a tribe of responsible trademongers rather than shrieking fuckcultists, though.

Game Master 2017/03/02(Thu)20:25 No. 784422 ID: d8f4d2
File 148851513849.png - (819.67KB , 1980x1530 , basicmoves.png )

>>784407
They maybe paid attention when I warned that followers are more of a ball and chain than an asset in this game?
Advice taken: We are on mature level content.

----

We are currently riding down the highway, dressed in a baggy saffron robe and pointy black boots, with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. In the driver's seat of this post-apocalyptic, electric musclecar is Spade, a blonde, blue-eyed, skinny guy. Spade is so pale you wouldn't be surprised if he is albino. He shakes his buzzcut head as he sings along to Barry White, off key.

Unless we get him to stop singing, meditating will be very difficult. Do we:
-Try talking to him (maybe about why he doesn't want to know our name)?
-Try harder to concentrate and meditate, despite the distraction?
-Just ignore it and wait until we're at Fort Hippie?
-Other, suggest something, particularly one of the basic moves listed in the graphic.

Let's manipulate Spade into seeing that his appeal for Barry White is because he can never be him.

But he doesn't have to be. There's already a Barry.
Maybe he should think, quietly, about what Spade can be.

rolled 6, 4 + 1 = 11

---

Try to seize control of the radio. If Barry White is coming from a tape or CD or something, remove it from the player and discard it out a window. Choosing to seize definite control + suffer little harm, assuming a success, plus impress on a 10+. Does the history bonus apply?

>>784511
On the one hand, you just destroyed a cherished cultural artifact from before the fall.

On the other, you did roll an 11. Tempted to go with it, because damn.

Game Master 2017/03/03(Fri)15:30 No. 784603 ID: d8f4d2
File 148858381518.png - (13.43KB , 174x309 , hourglass.png )

>>784511
>>784590
Every time we roll for an action that gets taken, we mark XP. This breaks with the rules as written by doing it for every roll instead of only selected rolls, so to balance that the number of XP circles will increase by one after each completion, at least up to ten.

Game Master 2017/03/04(Sat)00:17 No. 784759 ID: d8f4d2
File 148861547148.png - (577.78KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader3.png )

Taking the more amusing suggestion because it's been more than 24 hours and I'm bored of waiting for a majority.

----

This will not stand. The Wolf At The Door may turn her back on you if you do not stand up for yourself. It is time to assert yourself, and teach this man that rudeness has a price.

You reach over on the dashboard to the mounting clip that the slate is mounted in and unplug it, abruptly cutting off the music coming from the car's sound system. Spade looks at you out of the corner of his eye as you press the off button on the device's screen to shut off the music completely, then continue sliding the slate out of the mounting clip. You glare back at him as you slip the slate into your backpack and close it.

"What's that about?"
"I don't want false apologies for your provocation, but I do insist you stop taunting me."
"False apologies? Taunting? What the f...."
"No. Deliberately trying to bother me for your own amusement by singing off-key has cost you your music player."

Spade eyes you warily, but lets the silence stretch out for two minutes before responding. "Damn, fine, you can have it. Could've just asked me to stop, but those things come sixty to a box from Waterloo anyway. Anything else you need or can I keep driving full speed?"

-Ask him questions about Fort Hippie, your destination.
-Ask him something else maybe?
-Open your mind, meditate upon the situation we are driving towards. (Roll 2d6+2 for weird, the move is, "Open Your Brain.")
-Enjoy your newfound peace and quiet on the ride to Fort Hippie. (Scene ends.)
-Other (Specify)

rolled 1, 6 + 2 = 9

---

Not an artifact, then. Fine.

Open Brain.

rolled 6, 2 + 2 = 10

---

Open brain. We were pissed off because he was intentionally bothering us and stopping us from meditating, so it seems that's the obvious choice here

Open mind wacknut makes it plus 3 right

Can you set up a discussion thread and/or give a brief explanation as to "mark" xp?

>>784798
Wacknut would make it +3 if we had it, yes, but the starting move picks were charisma and frenzy instead. We can get that at our first character advancement under the... shit... a new hocus move option. (I should fix that.)

>>784800
Brief explanation: It's on the right side of the character sheet, at the top. Every time all the XP boxes get filled up from making rolls, moves giving us XP, or relationship values exceeding an absolute value of 3, we get to pick one of the character advancement options from the list marked Hocus Improvement. (I should fix that too, ought to be Cultist Improvement or something, derp.)
After we've taken five advancements from the class specific list we'll have access to the ones below the dividing line as well for sixth-plus level ups in our class.
If that's not enough--or folks really wanna talk about the Powered By The Apocalypse gaming system--take the first post icon, make a dis thread and ask questions. I'll show up if I know it's there, but I won't necessarily answer everything for obvious reasons.

I'll get started writing the update and marking the character sheet then.

Game Master 2017/03/04(Sat)17:28 No. 784918 ID: d8f4d2
File 148867730033.png - (574.38KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader4.png )

You answer Spade's query with a polite, "No thank you, or at least not yet." Then you close your eyes and seek a vision.

The whore, the whore, she has spoken to the empress but the empress has wisdom enough not to trust her. The plan to seek the empress and declare fealty is still good but she will now be more suspicious, which is bad. We always knew the whore would be our first major challenge, and she seeks a confrontation. We will encounter both her and her agent before the day is over.

The question: Are the mindworms closer to or further away from our new home, or have they hidden themselves too well for us to know?

You open your eyes and Spade eyes you up and down for a split second as he continues driving. He is obviously still wary of you as he says, "Welcome back to the land of the living, damn, you must have guts to seek visions just like that in a moving car."

"My goddess would insist on nothing less."
"You're dangerous, man."

After a another minute's pause Spade continues, "Sorry about earlier. I actually wasn't trying to piss you off, but enough people have warned me about my singing over the years that I don't have an excuse. It was a genuinely shitty thing to do."

-Talk to Spade about (fill in the blank).
-We're not far from Fort Hippie anymore, just wait until we get there.
-Other (Specify)

P.S. Please continue to roll 7-9 for Open Your Brain, that was unexpectedly fun. Also, it is an established part of the system for the MC to ask the players to detail the characters, their relationships, the threats they face, and the world in general, like my question about the mindworms.

The whore serves the worms. She does not KNOW, but she also does not CARE, because she is a whore.

So there will be worms where we go, but it is not their lair.

rolled 5, 6 + 1 = 12

---

Look out the window, scan for anything pertaining to your vision.

>>784938
Fast forward and do that as we arrive in town? A lot of the available questions from read a charged situation won't be useful, or make much sense, but you can totally do that.

rolled 4, 3 + 2 = 9

---

Not sure what the dice you want for a 7-9 roll, so I'm making another 2d6+2 open your mind roll?

I'm unsure what the vision means, or how to answer that kind of question- did I miss a post or a line of text somewhere? Something indicative to the genre or this game? Or is this like improv where we just gotta say yes and roll with things.

If the latter is the case, then we know little about the mindworms, but we suspect our enemy, the Whore, has more information, and is using them to their advantage. However, if we can win over the empress her network of information and resources may give us the upper hand in that regard.

Depending on whether or not we can talk to Spade after/during/before any dice rolled action is taken concerning the open mind move, inquire as to why he himself does not open his mind? Surely his driving could only be improved by a touch of the divine, no?

We do not need to roll actions unless there's an action we can take. So stop that.

>>785027
-The game is a little bit freeform with the nature and content of reality. I am supposed to, in response to certain things, ask non-sequitur questions you don't have an answer to. The point is player input into the nature of the world, I get you to make up details that I run with. In this case I'll freely admit I was trying to nail down some of what the local problems and threats in Fort Hippie are.
-We just opened our brain, we won't be able to get anything from that until the situation has changed significantly. Getting 7-9 on open your brain is what I meant though, since at that level I'm supposed to "give impressions" which I'm being metaphorical and trollish with. Thanks for trying, though. :)
-According to the nature of the mindworms, which hasn't been revealed in play yet, your answer is slightly... impossible. I'll take this as two votes for the worms being closer, and the whore having something to do with it. That is something we even know in character, vaguely, exactly like that.

I'll put you down for wanting to talk to Spade about opening our brain, and why he wouldn't.

Game Master 2017/03/05(Sun)18:23 No. 785294 ID: d8f4d2
File 148876699733.png - (574.40KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader5.png )

Suggestions taken: All of them except opening our brain, because we can't get anything from that yet.

----

"You have paid for your lesson in the need for politeness and consideration. We are at balance. If you don't mind my asking though, why wouldn't you meditate and find your place in the world? It is a useful way to learn things you need to know, and to understand the things you do know better."

Spade frowns as he continues driving, and asks, "Why bother with a windscreen, and comfortable seats, and seatbelts, and airbags, and double shock absorbers for a car? That stuff just takes up space, and mass. That lowers your handling, top speed, safe speed, and the distance you can travel per KWh of battery charge. So you're better off without any of it, right?"

"You think seeking visions is like throwing away your windshield and seatbelts?"
"I remember that seeking visions like that, it wasn't something we could do before the world ended. It's dangerous, it's weird, and I know roads and people enough that I don't need or want to do it very often. I'm better off not sacrificing my attention on my surroundings to get vague hints that don't make any sense, just like I'm better off not sacrificing my windshield, shocks, comfy seat, seatbelt and airbags for a bit more speed and handling."
"The communion gives more than just a speed and handling increase you can't even use because this road is too rough and winding. It's a source of knowledge and insight that gives us more than we had before the change."
"Most of the people alive died from the change, and people still do die from getting put in a coma by it. They also die from getting distracted and headfucked by that psychic bullcrap. I want no part of it unless the other choices are all clearly worse."
"No guts."
"Dumb risk. I take enough of those speeding along like this every day. Speaking of speeding along, we're here early."

The electric car launches up through the air, then thumps back onto the incline of the hill further up. At the top of the hill a windmill sheathed with solar film flies by so quickly you barely recognize it. Past the windmill, you finally see your first in-person view of Fort Hippie.
Electric fences to keep in livestock and keep out predators and pests, towers wrapped in solar film with machine guns or windmills at their tops, a collection of steel frame and concrete brick buildings covered in planters and solar panels. All this and more goes by too fast to examine before the car fishtails to a stop in front of one of the larger, steel-frame buildings.

"I was told to come to the sunken, concrete bunker near the center," you state, uncertain why Spade stopped here.
"We're forty minutes early, your meeting is supposed to be a lunch date. Please get out of my car and into that shack, they're not ready for you yet. This place is the local watering can. I took you here to wait because I'm stressed out after driving with a scary, exhausting person like you in my baby. Now c'mon, we're here."
"I hope they have something to drink that isn't alcohol."
"You can't drink alcohol, but you can take a guy's stuff and threaten him? That's two times scary, folks who never drink are the ones you've gotta watch. They get their kicks from weirder things."

You judiciously remain silent about Spade's bad singing as you exit the car. First you swing your frame pack onto your back, then haul the two heavy bags of almonds out of the back, one in each arm. While you're doing this Spade attaches and rolls down solar film over the hood and windows of the car. He double checks that all the doors are properly closed and locked, then catches up to you waiting at the building's door and opens it. As he holds it open, you step into the dark.

You scan the place as your eyes start to adjust to the dimly lit interior. There is a solid wooden bar with an open kitchen behind it, a stage, wooden tables with a mixture of metal and wooden chairs, speakers and spotlights hanging down from the ceiling around the stage, and a giant, doughy, lump of a man on a hammock by the door. The windows are all protected by wire mesh and raised high to provide light, and potentially airflow, but no view outside unless one climbs up on a stool or table.

A gray blur whooshes out of the kitchen, thumps against the wall near the door, and lands as a rumpled apron on the large man in the hammock. A woman's voice follows the apron, "Get in the kitchen and mind the stove would you? We've got early arrivals for lunch." Moments later an olive-skinned woman follows the voice, wearing a white bandeau with shoulder straps, and a skirt. As she steps into full view behind the bar she speaks to Spade, "You're early. Skinny, scars, and saffron, with all the bags, is the new arrival?"

-Come in, sit down, talk with the woman.
-Hold 3, to spend on the questions listed under read a charged situation one for one.
-Ask about (fill in the blank).
-Other (specify)

P.S. We can't open your brain or read a charged situation because we already have. If we sit down to talk with someone we could maybe read a person but doing so implies our conversation with them is adversarial and important, so if we do that it will be.

Cool beans, sound perfect

Do a strange bow by asymmetrically raising your hands while bending on one knee with your other leg pointing at the woman.

>>785297
Yeah, I can dig doing a weird but non-threatening gesture. Maybe say something in latin, or some other dead language we're familiar with, something along the lines of "Aurora Musis amica. To be the one who is early, that is better than being the one who is dead, no?"

Give her the bags. A cult leader must, before all other tasks, maintain their image. One who has seen the mouth piece of the gods do manual labor may entertain the idea that they have other things in common with them as well. Before all else, we are divine. Unassailable, infallible and and deserving of the utmost devotion. We must treat everyone as if they were our child, and we, the parent of unquestionable truth and authority.

Giving her the bags may be construed as a gifting gesture. That's not what those almonds are for.

I'm down with being wise and unsettling and shit, though.

Game Master 2017/03/05(Sun)20:39 No. 785323 ID: d8f4d2
File 148877514924.jpg - (60.48KB , 600x450 , sheeeh.jpg )

>>785297
Sheeeeeh!

>>785314
You should maybe try to buy something with it instead of just handing someone all your money and hoping that works out.

Waiting for suggestions I can actually use. :headdesk:

>>785323
I know the image is mocking us, but it brought home how much I really want to do this.

What can we trade our almonds for? Lodging, sexual favors, consciousness-expanding brain stimulants?

Hey man, if you don't tell us what things mean it's not very fair to mock us for not understanding them.

Also, I did say more than just give someone our bags. I still think manual labor is unbefittig if a cult leader, but I also seconded kome's suggestion and said we should talk to the lady, and gave out a sample greeting.

>>785409
The image was a researched guess at what kome's reference was for that weird suggestion to make a stupid pose. I would've never figured it out without help, apparently it's some Japanese cartoon from the 60s that had a character who actually did that, usually accompanied by the exclamation, "Sheeeeh!"

>>785429
You're right, I never text-dumped what money is in the system or how it worked. I figured writing down on the character sheet that your almonds are worth a unit of 'barter' was enough, but without unpacking that it was not. Lemme fix that.

There are no nation-states any more, so credit cards and paper cash is just a historical curiosity with value to collectors only instead of being used as a medium of exchange. What people use to buy things now are other things worth buying, the process of barter. In this system that is abstracted as things being worth a given value of 'barter' points if they're generally recognized as valuable and exchangeable. Things that aren't given direct barter values may or may not be exchangeable for one or more barter depending on the buyer, the seller, and what they've got like bags of nonperishable food, copper ingots, a large drum of fuel oil, and so on to make change for the transaction.
If you were to try and put it in dollar terms, "one barter" might be worth anywhere from twenty bucks to a thousand bucks USD depending on the situation and the goods and services involved. "One barter" is the specific minimum amount of general, valuable stuff considered a unit of exchangeable value, enough to bribe someone, buy a month's worth of barracks stay and communal meals in a hold that'll host you, buy a fair weapon (and a box of ammo if it's a gun), a month's fuel and upkeep for a driver's ride, and such. Lots of things are too expensive to go for only one barter except in special circumstances, items tagged as 'valuable' or 'high-tech' in the system generally cost a minimum of two barter, and go up from there depending on rarity and the relationship between the buyer and seller. Depending on the situation, people and relationships involved, the things listed earlier might also cost more than just one barter as well, for example if someone doesn't like you and is quoting a "fuck off" price to say they don't want your business, or they know you can't do without it and there's no competition, or if they want to keep it more than they want to sell it so they're doing you a favour to sell it even at an inflated price.

Lastly, the character's goddess is The Wolf At The Door. She approved of dealing with insufferable rudeness by intimidating the guilty party and taking his stuff, and her cult is savage. Maybe she doesn't like fortune cookie wisdom and playing a limp-wrist ponce who can't carry his own stuff as much as demonstrations of physical, mental, and social strength, toughness and prowess? (Personally, I think it's awesome that you folks chose to have such a blood and guts goddess.)

Game Master 2017/03/12(Sun)04:50 No. 786813 ID: d8f4d2
File 148931941497.png - (577.33KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader6.png )

With your eyes adjusted, you take a quick second look. The woman who spoke to Spade is pretty obviously in charge, you can tell by the way the man-mountain grumbles, slowly eases himself out of the hammock, and goes into the kitchen to do what she says. The front door you came in is the only public-access entrance or exit, although there is a door off to the side leading to a washroom. You introduce yourself, and sit so you can watch the front door. In a brief chat the bartender introduces herself as Gloria, and warns you that the reason Spade has refused to learn your name is because he only has sex with people he doesn't know.

Your conversation with Gloria is interrupted by the arrival of a short, skinny, dark-skinned lady. Upon spotting you she walks towards you at the bar, and outside of the glare from the closing door you can see she's wearing a pink sundress, and her dark, curly hair is wound up in double buns tied off with pink ribbons. She introduces herself as Splendor. She's famous enough you've heard of her, you remember her as a daredevil driver and bass guitar player. She explains that now she's the chief psychic on the warlord's staff here in Fort Hippie.
Sitting on a barstool right next to you, she conducts a brief interview. You are prepared for this interview, and with no unexpected trouble you're formally welcomed as a new resident of Fort Hippie. Splendor cautions you that assault, theft, and property damage won't be tolerated in town even between your followers amongst themselves. She adds that the reason she's warning you about this is because some of your cult has been noticed staring suspiciously at another church in town. After asking you to stop that from happening again, she gives you a new slate phone in exchange for the one you've seized from Spade, and receipts for your sacks of almonds, which she takes to the warehouse.

Formalities complete, she directs you to the house your followers are staying in.

As you're walking there, a pale, redhead woman wearing a black robe walks up and faces you. She stares directly at your eyes, and the blue of hers almost glows in the noon sun. It's her.
"Greetings priest," she says, cutting the silence of the confrontation.

-You decide to be non-confrontational and just talk with the whore. Conflict is coming soon enough. (Roll 2d6+2 for the cult's first fortune roll.)
-The Wolf At The Door warned you that the whore is your first serious challenge. Size up your opposition, but don't be unnecessarily hostile. (Roll 2d6+1 for read a person.)
-Try and fast talk her into ________ (Roll 2d6+2 for manipulation, or 2d6-1 if you want to try and seduce the whore.)ff
-Other ________ (Roll as necessary according to the basic move or the special move being used.)

rolled 5, 6 + 1 = 12

---

Reading a whore, needing a score

Trying this again, cause I didn't enter the dice right.

The Gamemaster 2017/03/13(Mon)17:05 No. 787144 ID: d8f4d2
File 148944994410.png - (577.19KB , 1980x1530 , cultleader7.png )

Character Advancement Options

Congratulations, we've made it as far as our first character advancement. This entitles quest to pick one of the following ways to improve our mysterious protagonist.
-Cool increases to +1
-Hard increases to +2
-Sharp increases to +2
-Choose a new selection option for our cult, 2x left
• Your followers are involved in successful commerce. +1 fortune.
• Your followers, taken as a body, constitute a powerful psychic antenna. Surplus: +augury.
• Your followers are joyous and celebratory. Surplus: +party.
• Your followers are hard-working, no-nonsense. Surplus: +1 barter.
• Your followers are eager, enthusiastic, and successful recruiters. Surplus: +growth.
-Choose a new Cultist move, 2x left
• Fucking Wacknut: you get +1 Weird (Weird +3).
• Seeing Souls: when you help or interfere with someone, roll+weird instead of roll+Hx.
• Divine Protection: your gods give you 1-armor. If you wear armor, use that instead, they don’t add.
-get a move from another character class, 2x left
• (Psychic) Casual brain receptivity: when you read someone, roll+weird instead of roll+sharp. Your victim has to be able to see you, but you don’t have to interact.
• (Driver) Daredevil: if you go straight into danger without hedging your bets, you get +1 armor. If you happen to be leading a gang or convoy, it gets +1 armor too.
-get a holding (detail) and wealth

Ask for it and I'll exchange the holding option for something less dangerous like a stat increase, or a cult options improvement.

Different moves from different classes will be available later. Access to specific moves will be available depending on relevant character experiences.

The Gamemaster 2017/03/13(Mon)17:06 No. 787145 ID: d8f4d2
File 148944999983.jpg - (53.98KB , 265x375 , How-to-win-friends.jpg )

2d6 1 + 1: 2 // 2d6 1 + 6: 7
First serious NPC botch. Truth wanted to know more about you, but now you know much more about her.

----

The Wolf At The Door told you this woman's real name is Truth, but for a moment you know even more than that and her thoughts and feelings are an open book to you. Truth is unsure how to deal with you but not significantly frightened, and she hopes resolving or pacifying this conflict doesn't require more killing. Her current plan is to try to befriend you, so that she can keep a closer eye on you or at least learn more about you in the attempt. This is secret knowledge for now, and you know it is advantageous to keep it secret.

"Hello priestess. I don't have my new name yet, so I suppose you should call me Dave for now. You're Truth, right?"
"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Dave. Sadly, I am troubled by doing so as well. My goddess warns me you're the focus of a dangerous rage cult, and I've seen your followers looking at me and my church suspiciously. I know nothing else about you, or the cause for that hostility."
"On the topic of questionable warnings, my goddess warns me that you in specific are my church's first great challenge, and calls you, 'The Whore.'"

Truth's eyes widen, her eyebrows raise, and her mouth opens and pauses as though she is about to say something, but then she just stares at you gaping like that for a moment. "What?!" she asks, then closes her eyes, shakes her head, clasps the palms of her hands against her temples and utters, "What? How? No, that's...."
After a brief pause rubbing the sides of her head she opens her eyes and says, "I've never once done it for money."

With a small shrug you say, "And yet The Wolf At The Door calls you 'the whore.'"
Truth slowly pulls her hands down from the sides of her head and crosses her arms under her bust. Frowning she responds, "Well that's not true, fair, or reasonable."
Your clasp your hands together in front of your belly and say, "Don't worry, I know that the gods--grand, wise and knowledgeable as they are--are every bit as capable of subjectivity and misinterpretation as any ordinary person. Mine even admits to it. How far from right is she?"
"Somewhere between a long stretch and plain wrong. Regular ritual services for She Gives includes... congress, but that's how the ritual and faith works. I don't even accept donations."
"That is religion then, not recreation or prostitution. The mark of your goddess isn't hard to notice."
"Yeah, she's not very subtle. Mind if I bring the topic back to questionable warnings, and ask you about one?"
"Go for it."
"So, what is the truth of the evil plot I've been warned about, then?"
"Oh, we're supposed to establish ourselves here, become profitable, stable and respected. If we manage that, we'll figure the rest out later."
"Dastardly, so very dastardly, an evil plot to become good neighbours. So, She Gives is suspicious because she and your goddess don't play nice with each other?"
"I don't know what to tell you, today I did the most sinister thing I've ever done in my life. For that I've received a free cup of tea, an apology, and a free Slate phone so far."
"They don't normally give those phones out to people until they've lived here for a couple months. Congratulations, is there a story there you're allowed to tell?"
"Thank you, I'd oblige you but I'm trying not to be late for my lunch meeting with the chief. I was trying to quickly check on the house my cult has been staying in, and that's where I was going when we met, here. If I don't want to be late for the meeting I guess I'll have to do that after lunch instead, now."

-Hold 3, available in this conversation only, spend 1 for 1 to answer:
• Is Truth telling the truth? (About a given statement, quote each statement in Truth's dialogue you want to spend a hold point on to find out its veracity.)
• What is Truth really feeling?
• What does Truth intend to do?
• What does Truth wish I’d do?
• How could I get Truth to ________? (Fill in the blank, the answer for some queries will be, "No.")
-Hold 1 more, for the above options during this conversation only, that Truth doesn't know you're receiving an answer to.

-Try and fast talk her into ________ (Roll 2d6+2 for manipulation, or 2d6-1 if you want to try and seduce Truth.)
-It's time to go to lunch if I don't want to be late.
-Other ________ (Roll as necessary according to the basic move or the special move being used.)

Divine protection or Daredevil.

What does Truth wish I'd do?

Ah, my intention with the cult leader thing and pawning the manual work off on someone else was not to say we can't, but that such work is beneath us and our time and energy are better spent on other less menial tasks which others can easily preform. I get that it doesn't really jive with how you guys interpret the deity though, I think it's a matter of perception if I'm honest, and obviously we precieved what the suggested actions in different ways

As for upgrades, I'd prefer to Wacknut as most of our cult powers seem to be based on weird, or sharp +2 as reading people seems to be pretty valuable. Not sure what combat is like though so maybe I'll regret that suggestion later.

I'd like to know what Truth intends to do, but not if we're going to be late to our meeting on account of that. If that's the case I'd rather be on time and make a good first impression, despite the loss of possible information.

The Gamemaster 2017/03/23(Thu)15:18 No. 789795 ID: d8f4d2
File 149030752858.png - (17.83KB , 357x221 , conversation.png )

-What does Truth wish I'd do?
-I'd like to know what Truth intends to do

Right now we're in personality and relationships generation. I've been trying to hide that behind the curtain, but it seems like I need to be a little more forthright about this. Quest decisions have been deciding things about who the PC is, who he worships, and what his tendencies and interests are. Details, motivations, and even the PC being a cult leader can change in the future though.
Don't worry about being late yet, we just don't have time to go check up on our followers before lunch anymore because we chose to accept having this conversation with Truth here and now. We are not in danger of being late if we use up these points.

On the character advancement decision, so far we have a half a vote each for: Wacknut, Sharp +2, Divine Protection and Daredevil.

----

"Friendly warning, if you have a meeting with the leadership they're going to grill you. Good luck with your interrogation." Finished speaking, Truth quirks the right side of her mouth upwards in a lopsided grin and raises her eyebrows twice.
"Am I going to get the full lamp shining in my eyes treatment while they're at it? And what's with that grin?" you ask, a bit worried by the suggestive expression.
"I make it sound worse than it is, but folks will be sizing you up. Maybe literally." Truth ends the vague warning with a smile.
The attempt to mess with your head is obvious, so you dismiss it. "I am a stranger coming to settle in their town, suspicion and curiosity is normal. With enough luck my wits, preparation and goddess will see me through any difficulties in the butt-sniffing rituals."
Truth chuckles a little, and says, "Butt-sniffing rituals, I like that one. I can't really give you any useful advice about it except that the biggest challenge is not offending either the prude or the slut in the room. Good luck getting out of it with some dignity and an okay reputation."
You firmly avoid rolling your eyes as you respond, "Lovely, thank you for the warning. So, let's get back to the purpose of this conversation. I've now been warned by you and someone else with authority in town that my fellow worshipers have been acting like incompetent goons, warning delivered. Was there something else you wanted from me, or wanted me to do?"
Truth takes a more serious expression as she answers, "What I would like is that you get your people to stop picking fights. I'd also ask that you make time to talk with me in future, and make that a regular thing, so we can avoid having more dumb bullshit that makes both of us look bad. So, quit being a jerk and talk out the issues like a reasonable person, yeah, that should be it for now."
"None of that sounds unreasonable on the surface, I'll try to at least be polite if any of it is beyond me. What about your plans then? Anything I need to know?"
Frowning a bit, she answers, "I'd like to believe this is all some big misunderstanding, but people don't act like suspicious thugs completely by accident. So, I'll mostly do what I normally do, but I'm also going to keep an eye on you until this all blows over. No harm is intended there, but I can't ignore the possibility that the hostility isn't a misunderstanding. What else happens depends on whether or not you and your fellow worshipers can keep the peace and settle in as good neighbours like you say."
"Keeping an eye on me, huh?" you ask, highlighting the contradiction in Truth's position with a mild tone of voice.
Truth's frown deepens and she answers, "Ideally that monitoring doesn't require much more than us sitting down someplace comfortable to talk a couple times a week. Unfortunately, your people have threatened me and my people, so it'll take time to convince me that's not a problem. If all of this turns out to be a big misunderstanding, then I'll make good on any due apologies and compensation when the dust has settled."
"Do what you say, or else. I guess I don't have credibility for complaining how that's not that much less aggressive than what you're bothered by."
"It's a lot better than just eying people up and glaring at them in hostile silence. Please forgive me for thinking that might be a threat, I'm sure it's completely unreasonable but I'm doing it anyway."

-Hold 1, available in this conversation only, spend it to answer:
• Is Truth telling the truth? (About a given statement, quote each statement in Truth's dialogue you want to spend a hold point on to find out its veracity.)
• What is Truth really feeling?
• What does Truth intend to do?
• What does Truth wish I’d do?
• How could I get Truth to ________? (Fill in the blank, the answer for some queries will be, "No.")
-Hold 1 more, for the above options during this conversation only, that Truth doesn't know you're receiving an answer to.

-Try and fast talk her into ________ (Roll 2d6+2 for manipulation, or 2d6-1 if you want to try and seduce Truth.)
-It's time to go to lunch if I don't want to be late.
-Other ________ (Roll as necessary according to the basic move or the special move being used.)