Last week, my Apocalypse World players ventured into the horrid black tunnels beneath the city, searching for a medical imager. Setting tone and making things difficult in a system that doesn't require a lot of rolls can be tricky, and skipping over some intervening exploration can be key (exactly like watching a TV series).
In my game, I had a cannibal group chasing after people, and one member of the party got separated while trying to keep pursuit off of the others. I talked to that player quietly off to one side, and then they stayed at the table while the other players had some harrowing and nailbiting encounters, concerned that the other PC had just died. I'd done some research, and someone on Reddit had suggested a custom move, that let the PCs roll to explore once they were out of danger. One rolled well, and found some kind of artifact, while the other rolled a miss, which called down extra trouble. this let me introduce some familiar elements they'd been hearing up on the surface for a few weeks- the high-pitched sound of a mechanical saw, and an unven number of glowing red eyes in the dark. They absolutely fled, all thoughts of trying to fight one of the Things completely gone from their minds. They did manage to find what seems to be a clone of their old friend, who definitely remembers them, but is missing all of their scars, and has some different mannerisms. At this point, this was the first time one of them has even seen one of the Things, and they have not got any clue what the statistics for this creature are. Having them run in utter terror was an absolute success for me as a Game Master, and I look forward to the next time they have to venture into the tunnels, and actually have to deal with one of the Things. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 23 July 2020. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
May 2022
Categories
All
|