World Building (Broken Lands)

WlfSamurai

WlfSamurai

Maelstrom Engineer
Let the world-building begin.


First, let's decide together a general theme or tone. Are we high in the mountains with blizzards? The last dying submarine under the ocean? A colony world at the edge of known space?


Toss out ideas and let's discuss.
 
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I like the idea of a shattered arcology in a frozen bay. Once, it was a marvelous promise; a self-contained ecosystem providing comfortable homes and social spaces in some godsforsaken corner of the Arctic. Now a creaking chrome necropolis half-sunk into icy waters, clinging to the frosty rocks of the shore and overlooking a dead forest that glows red in the night. 
 
I would like something that doesn't limit options. A wide open area with different locations for settlements, thematic environments ("the dunes", "the salt flats" or whatever) and so on. American or Western culture is preferred. Honestly, I prefer the assumed default of a Mad Max/Fallout 1&2/Book of Eli style setting. I think you as the GM need to decide on an environment and theme and then we can seed it with more particulars. What do you want to run?
 
I agree with Tzer. I do like the idea of a frozen landscape, difficult to explore because of continuous blizzards, since it is original for an apocalypse game, but it feels limited. Maybe we can have it along other, very different zones. Maybe whatever caused the apocalypse completely fucked up the temperature on Earth, making the deserts too hot to live in and the mountains too cold to survive upon. Maybe we aren't even on Earth, maybe on another, forsaken, planet, which lost any kind of contact with humanity because of the apocalypse. Or maybe it never even had a contact with humans from the earth.
 
Maybe I'm just boring, but I'd prefer it take place on the planet Earth. I'll deal with whatever the group decides on, though.
 
I don't mind going for the traditional Mad Max-y vibe. I've played it like three times now, but it's not like it stops being fun and I wouldn't want to deny anyone the 'purist' experience, sort of thing. 


Voting therefore for hellish Australia with hostile but abundant coastal mutant forests and technically safer searing inland, with various islands of uncertain nature and some ruined cities of one kind or another. 
 
It'd be hard being a Waterbearer in ice locked areas but not impossible. 


And yes, coastlines are the creepiest thing. I'm thinking that sort of half life 2 road vibe. I vote that 
 
Awesome. We'll go with standard desert-ey Mad Max feel. Surrounding that desert is all forms of different landscapes and environments. No limit. It also fits the Waterbearer well as she'll be the only source of water for the area.



Perfect. Now, we have a general look and feel. A skeleton to hang details on.



So, the next part. AW, as you know, is a conversation. Normally the conversation of the world is open and natural. We go back and forth with ideas. But this isn't the table. It's harder to do that in PBP. Or at least harder to do it quickly.



Anyway, I want everyone to come with three names. It could the name of a group of people, a landscape, or a environmental danger. Next to each name, write "group" if it's a group of people, "landscape" if it's a landscape, or "danger" if it's an environmental danger.



For example:

  1. Blood Swamps - landscape
  2. Burnt Saints - group
  3. Blood bears - danger

We will definitely not use everything that's created, but with this and the next part, we'll have a list of interesting things to draw from. Once we have names, we'll start to detail them out.
 
The Purple Strait - a stretch of water, less than ten miles across, connecting two populated landmasses. The water is strikingly purple, but tapers off into palid green and blue as you get further away from the strait. Science could determine that massive quantities of a rare species of microorganisms are the cause, but Apocalypse World has a severe shortage of marine microbiologists.


The secretions of these organisms are extremely acidic- it doesn't pose any danger to human flesh on contact, but submerged equipment and watercraft will very quickly corrode.


A shanty town has cropped up on the long and wide bridge connecting the two landmasses. The local warlord makes his living taxing the vibrant marketplace and any caravans that come through. The locals have a complex system of hydroponics running down either side and up the spurs. 


The purple water has a religious significance to a local cult, who have all been baptized in the waters. They can be identified by the purple sclera of their eyes.


Hooks/Questions: What attracts the organisms to this location? Why don't they spread? What is under the water (rare earth elements, an underwater laboratory from an age long past, a meteorite that carried the organisms from some far-flung galactic spore on the solar wind)? Are the organisms part of a larger intelligence that has infected and co-opted the cult members as hosts?


There's a place, group, and danger. Would you like some other ones, maybe more separated?
 
How do they have water and hydroponics when they don't have a Source in the Purple Strait? Sorta conflicts with my playbook there ;)  
 
Water doesn't mean clean water. A large and reliable source of clean drinking water is a huge boon. Your playbook doesn't lose relevance. Dirty water isn't hard to find. I thought we were in a coastal environment? 
 
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Ah yes, safe drinkable water. But if someone can just boil water out of a pan, sorta loses the Immortan Joe feel doesn't it? 


Could just make coastal water toxic even after boiling. That feels cheesy though. 


If if we are going coastal I could always switch books, doesn't bug me. 
 
No, I think this water is more than just simply "toxic". Boiling it or trying to filter it does nothing. There's something else wrong with it. All water for cooking, drinking, washing, etc. has to come from The Source.
 
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The Tomb 


"Ya ever hear that old world term? Silent as the grave? That's the Tomb. It's between a couple of towns but the merchants and water tanks go around it. The tomb is a Mesa, some big ass rock formation sticking up between the coastline and inland. But what makes it interesting is


the fact it's filled with tunnels. Bored, soft edged tunnels, huge things too, easy fifty feet high and some are only three


inches around. All the tunnels go into the Tomb. A fucking maze inside. Good for a night shelter but more than that... " 


"...you don't stay long in the Tomb. Ya don't want to anyways, even with the walls of stone, there isn't any sound. No echoes, no shouts, you can scream as loud as you can inside the Tomb and still it's silent. Sucks up all the sound and takes it. Nobody stays there long, you can't hear people coming, you can't hear your own breath, you can't call for help." 
 
In that case, disregard my group/danger/place. 


That does mean, however, that one starting PC has a complete monopoly on a resource that every single living being needs and will die without in three days. You've said that there is something wrong with any other source of water in the region, so no one can find another supply. Without a complex system of plumbing or caravans, I don't see how any settlements other than one right on the source could exist. It's crazy. Would any hardholder with a reasonably sized gang let that continue? Even if the Waterbearear was nice and willing to share, on general principle, would a ruthless person capable of being a hardholder allow anyone or anything to have such a rigid stranglehold over the fate of their entire population?
 
Make sure to read the Waterbearer playbook and Arsenic's sheet. The Source that's been chosen specially calls that out. And her moves are geared toward owning The Source. She's powerful and writes the local laws.


No reason to disregard what you wrote. I think it's a great idea and part of the conversation. We'll just adjust it. 
 
I read the sheet and the playbook before I posted. It doesn't address my concerns, just states the things that I already dislike. Nor does your post address my concerns. But it isn't my decision or my character, so I'll drop it. 
 
Arsenic relies on local trade and shipping of her water supply in order to survive. It's Mutally assured destruction 
 
Tzer said:
I read the sheet and the playbook before I posted. It doesn't address my concerns, just states the things that I already dislike. Nor does your post address my concerns. But it isn't my decision or my character, so I'll drop it. 
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Goodness. See? This is why I shouldn't respond to certain things real fast on my phone. I came off super dismissive. I apologize.


I also have done a poor job setting expectations. It's been too long and I know certain players' styles already. I'm sorry for that too.


Let me try to better respond to you concerns:

Tzer said:
That does mean, however, that one starting PC has a complete monopoly on a resource that every single living being needs and will die without in three days.
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Yes. You're right. That's the main thrust of the Waterbearer. And it will definitely thrust the game in a very specific direction. The way I view it, it will be a very hard road for the Waterbearer. They'll be under constant threat.


But hey, that's Apocalypse World.

Tzer said:
You've said that there is something wrong with any other source of water in the region, so no one can find another supply.
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I did say that. It was just one idea. None of it is written in stone until we all agree.


To be clear, I'm not here to determine anything. We are "playing to find out". AW, as you know, is written that way. Plus, even before AW or games like it, I've always run my games very player-driven/player-determined.

Tzer said:
Without a complex system of plumbing or caravans, I don't see how any settlements other than one right on the source could exist. It's crazy. Would any hardholder with a reasonably sized gang let that continue? Even if the Waterbearear was nice and willing to share, on general principle, would a ruthless person capable of being a hardholder allow anyone or anything to have such a rigid stranglehold over the fate of their entire population?
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I agreed with your concerns! These are fantastic questions and points. And unless you guys determine why it's been this way up until we start the game, it's one of the first questions I'll be tackling in game. To me, these are amazing questions to be answered in play. But, we can also decide how and why here.


So then, I ask: why has the Waterbearer been able to keep control? Why haven't the local hardholders stormed in and fucker her up?


Is it something about her community? Is it her allies (you guys) keeping her in power? Does she pay tribute? Do they pay tribute to her? Does she simply ship out enough water to demand respect?


Or do we leave it play?
 
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