Childe Roland To Apocalypse Came

[Grey]

The world has moved on, and you are left behind.


This an Apocalypse World game specifically for @Fly @Teh Frixz and anyone else I feel will make a fun addition to the group. Like @The Fuzz and @Bardiel.


Feel free to apply, though.


If I haven't been laughably obvious, I'm going to cheerfully plunder King's Dark Tower canon for some situational and tonal cues in this one. Feel free, therefore, to pick some of the weirder fan playbooks.


I would like a Hardholder, though. And we won't directly reference or touch the main plot of the DT series if possible.

 

[Fly]

i'll pick up either a driver or a brainer, depending on the needs of the group.


@Tree

 

[Teh Frixz]

OH MHY GOD


Apocalypse world


I've hard held and I've been faceless (Though I'd love to play Gwen again) I'll peer through the playbooks.

 

[Action Replay]

Reminds me of the game that almost was. No ideas immediately spring from my skull fully formed, but I'd join you if you'd have me along for the ride.

 

[Bardiel]

If knowledge of Dark Tower isn't required, well, I recently wrote up a Battlebabe, if that works.

 

[Skrakes]

Might be interested too, I always love some AW and Dark Tower.

 

[Grey]

Excellent. I will sit on my hands until such time as I see concepts or more definite intentions to play.

 

[Action Replay]

Because we are definitely going to need one I'm looking at playing an Angel, or the Savvyhead. I'll switch to gunslingerlugger if we need more firepower, but I'm still holding out for six no matter the odds the ability to dish out gratuitous violence is rarely an issue in groups. Leaning more towards savvy at the present, given where the inspiration for this is coming from. I definitely won't be short of work to do...


Further character setting details will be forthcoming when we get to the huge brainstorming part on where we are. *Removes grey's hands from beneath him and sets them to work on the 8 million other games.* In the mean time I'm going to go reread the majority of the series books sitting conveniently 3 feet to my right.

 

[Skrakes]

Man, I still love the Battlebabe a lot, but I think someone already called dibs on her.


I guess that leaves the Gunlugger... Driver doesn't really hold with the setting, I think.

 

[Grey]

Driver can work, depending on what we end up with. There's also the Horseman playbook knocking about somewhere, which seemed both cool and appropriate to me.

 

[Skrakes]

I'll look at it. I was always a little ambivalent about the third party playbooks.

 

[Grey]

I've only seen a few, but I've tended to like or at least tolerate them. Or see the potential in them, with a little tweaking.

 

[Fly]

I really have no preference between brainer and driver so if someone wants to be a weird and creepy mindfuck then they are welcome to and I'll just play my driver with a haunted car.

 

[Skrakes]

Reading back through the playbooks, I'm thinking GUNLUGGER. I have an idea for a mostly-crazy gun-paladin who's looking for the guy who shot her in the head.


Edit: Gunlugger. I meant Gunlugger. This post did not make much sense.

 

[Action Replay]

looking for the guy who shot her in the head.

....Courier six is that you?

 

[Fly]

Haha I thought the same thing

 

[Skrakes]

Roland + Courier. Terrifying.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Introducing

The Spectacle
The worse off people are, the more their struggles are hopeless, the greater their need to watch bastards in even bloodier, more pointless struggle. You're that bastard and they love you with all their hearts...

​

• Background Info
• Basic Info
• Fan Info
• Vital Info
• Stat Info
• Hx Info
• Improvement Info

• "Saratoga" The Rapturous Chain. The Maiden of Mettle. The Slayer of Souls. The Child of Carnage.
  
  
  The Forge Pits are where gladiators go to die. Last ditch efforts to avoid a slow death, the pit fighters tired of eking out a living on blood and booze, the worn out battle maidens unable to fill a five man venue, the shit talking idiots looking to prove a point the Apocalypse likes to make over and over. It is a place of death and despair. A black hole sucking in and letting nothing out.
  
  
  Nothing except the one who climbed free.
  
  
  Slave chattel, Forge fodder. The nameless and talentless meat shoved into the grinder while whatever currency is popular at the time turns the crank. Hundreds of them released to the Forge at once resulting in slaughter still spoken about in whispers. Truly the only time the beastial crowds had to look away from their own creation. And in that instant, she was seen.
  
  
  The dark haired girl, chattel garb, body, mind, and soul torn to ribbons, putting one hand after another on one of the thousands of spiked chains hanging into the forge. One hand impaling itself on the razor edge points, coated over countless times with the blood of sacrifice after another. The crowd was silent as she hauled herself up and out of the Forge. Her date of death brand, a symbol of the Forge burnt into the neck of any thrown in, showing her entrance into that kiln of death a full month earlier. A month in a living hell of screams, torture, blood, and eternal combat.
  
  
  To climb free of the Forge and survive was freedom. Never before had any climbed out, their corpses rotting mid climb, but here she was. The silence continued until the progeny of the Forge stood up. Her chain wrapped around her fists, she put them into the air.
  
  
  The crowd could not be calmed. The cheering. The jeering. The coin exchanging hand as she left the Forge. The branded Saratoga, Champion of the Forge, was let loose on the world.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Playbook: The Spectacle
  
  
  Stage Name: Saratoga
  
  
  Actual Name: Sara
  
  
  Look: Woman, Showy scrounge wear, Scarred face, Caring eyes, Muscular body, Partly shaved hair
  
  
  Arena Gear: Chain Lasso, Spiked Knuckles
  
  
  Practical Gear: Hidden knives
  
  
  Statline: Cool 0, Hard 2, Hot 2, Sharp -1, Weird -1
  
  
  Base moves: Showman, Hot Commodity, Torrid
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  The arena: Bared flesh, spotlights, barbed wire
  
  
  The Fans: Dedicated (Want +Savagery) Huge in number (#100)(Want +Anxiety)(+1 Barter surplus Take this shit seriously (Want +Reprisals) Escape from this world (Want +Idle) (+1 Stupor surplus)
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Look: A girl of about sixteen, she appears to be just on the cusp of womanhood. Her body still hanging on to the coltish look and feel of pubescence. Her dark hair is cut in dramatic fashion, both sides of her head shaved to leave a stip about two inches wide of long dark hair that reaches her waist. Her face and body are riddled with nasty laceration scars that mar the essential look of youthfulness she projects up close. No neat eye scars, a good 75 percent of them are deep puncture and laceration wounds that healed up slowly and without much treatment. Her face is strong, showing a sort of determined look that even laughter and tears cannot remove. A strong nose and jaw give her a sharp and striking profile yet but there remains some youthful chubbiness in her cheeks. Her left cheek was nearly torn off, scar tissue ribbing the flesh. Her Right ear is missing. Moving down her body she has a great deal of marking around her throat. Her chest is fairly spared except for strange chevron shape scars running over her breast and down her side. Her right leg is riddled with deep slash marks and her right foot is missing two toes. She is well muscled, body showing signs of having adapted to a life of physical hardship and sudden action.
  
  
  Her eyes are a soft green, lacking the harshness of her body. They are large and manage to catch the eyes of fans without giving the impression of her looking back but when she does, it's easy to get lost in exploring the wide and trusting expanse they provide.
  
  
  Her stage gear is rather skimpy, showing off enough skin to lure men from their whorehouses for a little while. Bits and pieces of cloth and of course the chain wrapped around both fists and draped across her shoulder blades. Between that and cloth there is the grease paint over her eyes and long black lines with X's on them to play up the chain angle.
  
  
  Off stage, she prefers soft fabrics made into loose fitting casual wear. Flowing tops and bottoms, usually grey, black, or white. In this she usually carries a slew of knives hidden under the material of her wear.
  
  
  The Fans: Her dedicated rabble have come far and wide to watch their gladiator fight. Emphasis on their gladiator. They watch each and every fight, screaming for more and more bloody acts. They are primarily the downtrodden scrub class with a few rich benefactors organizing them during meetups to watch her fights. They are split into two main factions, one dedicated to hating Saratoga and the other dedicated to praising her. These internal factions while not openly hostile to each other, can occasionally come to blows. Their fanbase is quite serious with their threats and intentions, often taking out any sort of built up frustration on people outside the fanbase.
  
  
  The main reason they watch though, love her or hate her, they find Saratoga's fights an escape route from this world. Watching her, they lose themselves for a bit in their fervor of praise or hate. A good deal of them, both in the love or praise camps are in the early stages of forming a cult around her.
  
  
  The Arena: While she was born of the forge, Saratoga doesn't fight in there often anymore. Her show a traveling spectacle, often setting up fights in local arenas but adding a distinct flavor. Not much armor is worn and when it is, it is specialized. Lots of bare flesh and often halftime is spent getting to know the local fleshtrade. Barbed wire is strung around the arena and spotlights setup that focus on the combatants, cutting out at the time of death.
  
  
  
• 
  
  

  Cool: 0
  Hard: 2
  Hot: 2
  Sharp: -1
  Weird: -1

  
  GEAR:
  
  
  Scrounged armor: +1 Armor rating
  
  
  Chain Lasso: 2 Harm, Close
  
  
  Spiked Knuckles: 2 Harm, Hand, Messy
  
  
  MOVES:
  
  
  Showman: Surplus want and demand depend on the fans. After a grand display of your skills, roll +hot. On 10+ get 1 Surplus from fans. On 7-9 Get 1 surplus but +1 want. On miss, get all of the want.
  
  
  Hot Commodity: When a character other than you own sets up a showy display of your skills for profit, they roll +juggling. Or zero if they have no juggling. On a hit, a special prize of 2 barter above normal can be made from the competition. On 7-9 the MC choses one or two from
  
  
  - The job is especially dangerous
  
  
  - The spectacle has to lose in order to get the prize
  
  
  - The spectacle is competing against someone they have history with
  
  
  - The job is treacherous or difficult to reach
  
  
  - The job is gonzo, weird, or embarrassing
  
  
  Torrid: When you get hurt in a rough and tumble fight, you can choose to replace 1 point of harm with a +1 bonus (max +3) to Hot that lasts until the end of the session. You can't replace another point of harm this way for the rest of the session.
  
  
  Spectacle Special: When you and another character have sex, roll + the number of people you're having sex with after the first. On a hit, you all take +1 forward, on a miss you are too much, you all take -1 forward.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Ram +3 (0)
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Nada so far
  
  
  

​

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

I'd be down for the Hardholder position.

 

[Grey]

Let's see some concepts then. Frixz has kindly provided us with an anchorpoint - this dreadful Forge-arena place.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Well. The Forge in my eyes is landmark that most people avoid. Though if you've got money, even the measliest of currencies, you can put a bet down.


Bets are based on survival time in the foege as everyone dies eventually. The arena itself is a modified lead smelting facility. The crowds watching from above at a fully visible main "pit" area. The pit itself is just a slaughter with a large grate over the top. From this grate hang countless spiked chains for the fighters to use in any way they see fit. If you can climb out, you are free to go.


Its run by a group of slavers who run the gambling around it. They brand anyone who enters with the date and at the end of each day recover the bodies, using the brand to determine survivial times.


It's not pretty but it's like having a casino nearby. Towns crop up close by and trade starts between them. There are roughly six towns surrounding the forge in a ring with 'burbs' connecting them.

 

[Skrakes]

Very kind of Frixz to provide such a nice format! I will steal it with impunity.

Introducing

The Gunlugger
I'm a gunlugger! I'm a gunlugger! Suck my dick! I'm a gunlugger!

​

• Background Info
• Basic Info
• Vital Info
• Stat Info
• Hx Info
• Improvement Info

• She came from the east, across the Rift-- the gulch that's said to connect to hell. She dragged a coffin on a chain, and between the bangs of her red hair you can glimpse a circle-scar, where a 9mm punched through her brain. It left her with her life and a month-long coma, but she lived -- but the bullet took something with it. Something human, something important, and left only the cruel, grinding calculus of the Gunlugger.
  
  
  She says she's a woman of God. What god that is, none can say, only that it is a cruel and jealous God, that has commanded her to hunt a demon -- the demon that put one through her head and vanished across the Rift. She braved that place hunting it, one boot in front of the other, no matter how many of the ghoulish children of that place she had to put down. Now she's on the far side, and she can feel it, smell it on the wind.
  
  
  Over her shoulder she drags a coffin. Inside is Judgment, a machine gun she pulled off the carcass of a humvee. She is ready to dispense its wisdom to any who would waylay her in her crusade.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Playbook: The Gunlugger
  
  
  Actual Name: Walker
  
  
  Look: Woman, battered old armor, scarred face, mad eyes, battered body, wolfish hair
  
  
  Fuck-off big guns: mg (3-harm close/far area messy)
  
  
  Serious Guns: magnum (3-harm close reload loud), ap ammo (add ap to all your guns)
  
  
  Backup Weapons: many knives (2-harm hand infinite)
  
  
  Statline: Cool 1, Hard 3, Hot -2, Sharp 2, Weird -1
  
  
  Gunlugger moves: Battle-Hardened, Insano like Draino, NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Look: A woman of about thirty-five, Walker stands tall and wiry. Her face is marked and scared, wounded by the razor-sharp winds of the Rift, but dominating her face is a scarred circle on her brow -- her stigmata. She has red hair, grey in a few places, hacked short with a knife -- it's uneven, ends split. The better part of her gear came from the armory she found in the Rift. Underneath the warn logo of the prior owners she found her sword and her shield: black armor to go under her coat, magnum revolvers, grenades she used up slaying the lesser devils of the abyss, and Judgment. Her armor is a black dealie, not of iron or steel, but some lost material of a fallen age. It stops bullets well enough for her liking. Over it she wears a long brown duster, its tails tattered by long use.
  
  
  Judgment: Getting the old beast to work proved to be a trial, but one she managed. It's a fat bastard of a gun, a two-hundred round box mag resting on the side, feeding round after round down the perforated barrel. With it, she has massacred hundreds of men -- the indecent and the rejected. If God did not want them purged, He would not have put them on her path.
  
  
  
• 
  
  

  Cool: +1
  Hard: +3
  Hot: -2
  Sharp: +2
  Weird: -1

  
  GEAR:
  
  
  Ancient battle armor: 2-armor
  
  
  Fuck-off big guns: mg (3-harm close/far area messy)
  
  
  Serious Guns: magnum (3-harm close reload loud), ap ammo (add ap to all your guns)
  
  
  Backup Weapons: many knives (2-harm hand infinite)
  
  
  1-barter
  
  
  MOVES:
  
  
  All the basic moves
  
  
  Battle-hardened: when you act under fire, roll+hard instead of roll+cool.
  
  
  Insano like Drano: you get +1hard (hard+3).
  
  
  NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH In battle, you count as a gang (3-harm gangsmall), with armor according to the circumstances.
  
  
  Sex Move: If you and another character have sex, you take +1 forward. At your option, they take +1 forward too.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Hx goes here!
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Bupkis.
  
  
  

 

[Teh Frixz]

My first format copy! I'm so proud :3 please, use it for as long as you like!


Don't forget to change the flavor text!

 

[Action Replay]

Introducing

The Angel
When the gods are gone and devils have hold, who'll take mercy on your soul?

​

• Background Info
• Basic Info
• Vital Info
• Stat Info
• Hx Info
• Improvement Info

• 
  
  
  The Black Death fled east across the wastes, and The Angel followed after.
  
  
  It was over a decade ago when the storm of sorrows swept across the world, coming out of the setting sun. Where it passed the earth grew blackened, and what it did not touch it corrupted in subtle ways turning everything strange. Lives and the machines of back when both failed, taking with them the light of knowledge. Chasing after it towards the ends of the earth, Ramiel pursued the storm up until it fell into the Rift and then he followed no more. Finding himself at the Big Circle which surrounded The Forge, he stayed and began to do his work.
  
  
  Moving between the six towns he sought out the broken places of healing rent by the storm. Where he could he restored them to working order, and taught the inhabitants what they had forgotten in a rumbling voice like thunder. Where he could not or where they refused to learn he healed whom he could then left. Those touched found the weird that the storm brought ease ever so slightly, and claimed to see visions on the operating table. What they entailed and what those afflicted went on to do about it vary from town to town. Ram as he began to become known only shrugs and says when you're drugged to the gills you'll see just about anything.
  
  
  When he had finished instead of moving on again he chose to stay in the last town on his travels. Why he chose to do this he keeps to himself, and by now folks don't question it. Ram is just another part of life now, and often the part where you come back from the dead or stay that way. You can usually find him in his hospital "The Arch" or out in the hold people watching. Teaches too on the occasion if you're willing and able to learn something.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Playbook: The Angel
  
  
  Nickname: Ram
  
  
  Actual Name: Ramiel
  
  
  Look: Man, A blend of casual wear with utilities, Kind face, Old yet clear eyes, Sturdy body
  
  
  Statline: Cool +1, Hard +1, Hot 0, Sharp +2, Weird -1
  
  
  Base moves: All Base Moves.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Look:
  
  
  Infirmary: An old, abandoned pleasure house that Ramiel took over and remodeled into a hospital. The Arch itself is a sterilized place of healing with the interior design of a whore house that Ramiel never bothered to change out of a personal sense of amusement. It sees the members of the hold or anyone else who visits leaves in better shape than how they came in. For those who don't make it, The Arch provides a decent burial service which is at least some consolation for the deceased. It's staff consists of Ramiel and his crew of two Dean and Chamber.
  
  
  
• 
  
  

  Cool: 1
  Hard: 1
  Hot: 0
  Sharp: 2
  Weird: -1

  
  GEAR:
  
  
  Angel Kit (6 stock)
  
  
  Big Knife (2-harm, hand)
  
  
  Oddments (1 barter)
  
  
  Faded bullet proof vest with a red cross on the back (1 armor)
  
  
  MOVES:
  
  
  Infirmary: you get an infirmary, a workspace with life support, a drug lab and a crew of 2. Get patients into it and you can work on them like a savvyhead on tech (cf ).
  
  
  Sixth sense: when you open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+sharp instead of roll+weird.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Hx here and likely a lot of it looking at you two...
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Soon.png
  
  
  

 

[Bardiel]

Has a WIP place-holder:


Azure Dream

• Appearance
• General
• Equipment
• Writing Sample

• 
  
  
  Pending
  
  
• 
  
  
  Name: Azure Dream
  
  
  Age: 20
  
  
  Class: Battlebabe
  
  
  Sex: Female
  
  
  Gender: Female
  
  
  Strong Stat: Cool
  
  
  Weak Stat: Weird
  
  
  Personality:
  
  
  Calculating. Coldly clinical in carrying out the hired job, as well as most interactions with others. Sarcasm being the only slip to reveal she has a sense of humour. Azure is emotionally distant to most people.
  
  
  While not hesitant to use lethal force, she is not unnecessarily cruel, and takes no delight in protracting the outcome when on business. If it is a personal matter, then this may not be the case. With a preference for manoeuvrability and responsiveness suited to her lithe frame, Azure’s most frequent work is a bodyguard. Intel gathering is the second most common.
  
  
  Capable of seduction. She has used her charm or indifference on many occasions. Azure believes that some prefer the chase, the flirtation and foreplay, while others simply want the experience, and that is just as manipulatable. Those of any gender that have had the pleasure (and lived) of her company, know her as the Azure Dream. And some have had “the Dream” more than once.
  
  
  Spoiler

  Intumescency of emotions from being intimate sates her loneliness, more so with women than men, although the cardinal joy she enjoys in genuine in both cases. Emotional whiplash, a form of self denying guilt, subsequently causes her to drive others away, if she does not leave first.
  
  
  There is a strong aversion to interacting with children, as they remind her of the traumatic memories of her youth. Similarly, there is a distrust of anything Weird related.
  
  
  Strengths: Ice Cold, Manipulative, Fast Reflexes
  
  
  Faults: Emotional Distant, Distrusting, Lonely
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Andraste by birth, she was raised by her mother, Kilda. Her father was unknown to her, though she had her suspicions. The two were functionally indenture servants of a Hardholder. Jesshop was benevolent prior to her birth, but the Maelstorm had a profound influence on them, driving them demented over the years, causing them to lose self-control and lash out. As the outbursts became more violent, they struck the young Andraste. Her mother intervened and then fought. Kilda collapsed limply, the head-shot bringing death instantaneously. Jesshop was confused and off guard, as the young girl explained that she was defending him, as she was supposed to. Waiting for and then seizing the opportunity, she drove a blade into his mouth. As he gargled and slowly died, the lithe girl retreated to the cover and began to sob (children who cried were hit for make noise frequently) as others rushed into the room. The assumption was made that the adults had killed each other. Subsequently, a new Hardholder took over. She remained a for a few more years, before leaving, taking the name Azure; the colour her mother loved most and the blade.
  
  
  Without attachment to them, she found her words and body could get her what she wanted, but far more so with bartering her skills for a fight. Serving as a bodyguard for bed and board, Azure never stays for long in the same place, unable to develop close personal relationships.
  
  
  
  
  
  Please include approved Hx here.
• 
  
  
  Weapons:
  
  
  Handgun: Silenced and Armour Piercing
  
  
  Handle: Blade and Hidden (+infinite)
  
  
  Gear:
  
  
  Catsuit: Skin-tight black catsuit, with embedded heating elements. Whether it was stripped from an astronaut’s EVA suit or a deep sea worker's diving suit, the tough but flexible material was salvaged sometime in the past. In exchange for a favour, a Savvyhead repaired the heating elements, so that when the battery pack is charged, it can stave off cold nights by itself. It does get pretty sweaty, mind you.
  
  
  Backpack: A large traveller backpack contains rations and ammunition. A sturdy tarp is rolled up and attached to it, for shelter. Personal items are also within.
  
  
  Total Barter:
  
  
  Oddments 2-barter
  
  
  Mask:
  
  
  Helmet: A black racing helmet from the motorsports of yesteryear. Contains a water supply inlet, for endurance races. When the weather is poor, it provides protection, and when the conditions are favourable, it is slung off the side of a backpack.
  
  
  Additional information:
  
  
  N/A
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  One… Two… Three… Azure counts the gang members as the enter the clearing. “As my client is willing to pay handsomely for return of the briefcase, this can be resolved quickly.” That’s cute, a fourth in the undergrowth.
  
  
  “Ah yeah, about that, we were thinking, well, we’ll just take money and let you walk your ass out of here without it being riddled with lead, so-” Before he could finish, Azure collapsed into a roll to the left, while an off target rifle round sounds out, towards a rusted old car. Bracing against it, she promptly fired into the undergrowth, a hit being confirmed by the sudden scream. “Oh sh-”
  
  
  Reaching into the car, a grenade she planted earlier is extracted and hurled towards the direction the gang member were retreating. At the sound of the explosion, she rose, placing rounds into their backs, as they staggered in confusion.
  
  
  Scanning the area and listen to any other movement, Azure throws a decoy log wrapped in scraps of cloth out from behind the car, whilst simultaneously moving around to the side of the wreck. Satisfied, she moves towards the grounded individuals. One of them tries to get up, spitting dirt from their mouth, but a headshot see to it that they do not. Should have stated still. Reaching the member who addressed her earlier, Azure flips them onto their back. “Did Green Grass send you?”
  
  
  “What-” The pistol cracks across their face.
  
  
  “Did Green Grass send you?” The repetition is staccato like.
  
  
  “No, no! We thought we’d make a turn for ourselves, we...” They were acting alone after all. No need for a turf war. The client will be happy to hear this.
  
  
  “Shh… It’s okay now, I’m going to spare you.” They let out a sigh, still dazed from the concussion. The second they close their eyes, the pistol fires. Looking down, Azure notices the edges of a smile of relief forming on their face. A part of her thinks for a moment that the knife would have saved a round. No, I said I was going to spare them.