This Week in Stories - November 10th

Apocalypse World

We seem to be getting closer to the end of this game, and this last episode was largely all the different player characters going at each other all out. Which was fun and entertaining, and caused a lot of metaphorical flesh wounds. (And a newly missing leg for one character.)

This one was all about best laid plans going aft aglae.

My character was going with Fox to try to find Spider, and convince him to reach through the psychic maelstrom and physically summon the leader of the army from the North to him. At which point Fox would try to kill him. Gremlin was terrified of this plan, given that said leader was her former (and very controlling) lover. Still, she had decided to trust Fox, and figured this wasn't going to make her any more dead than facing his army would.

Unfortunately, Spider had hatched his own master plan. Having finally figured out some of his past, he was part of a program called UNITY, which seems to have been after mind-to-mind communication, and unintentionally unleashed the psychic maelstrom. So, now he's back on board? With it as a good thing?

So when Fox brought his plan forward, Spider was in the midst of a high of planning to recruit followers and take them against Marsh's army head on, and then bring Unity to everyone. This freaked Gremlin right the hell out, having heard similar (although not necessarily the same, she's acting from emotion here) rhetoric from Marsh.

Then she let slip that she knew Marsh directly, had even shared his bed. Spider latched on to that big time, and started to try to convince her to let him in her head to access her memories of Marsh. Which, no. Again, totally acting from emotion here, but she was already wary of Spider and his master plans to bring salvation to the world. Add into that a little brain peeping? Not a chance in hell.

Fox got defensive, because he loves Gremlin and saw her feeling under attack, and pressed his plan. Spider refused, still wanting to be at the head of a glorious army of redemption. Fox pulled out his gun. Spider still refused. Fox ended up blowing Spider's leg off, in a truly messy and gory repercussion. Then he and Gremlin had to run like hell, to keep from getting caught and killed by Spider's acolytes.

Luckily, Gremlin had just found the vehicle that Salvador had been working on for her. (Mechanically, I'd just taken the awesome Driver advance called "My Other Car is a Tank") The two of them peeled out and headed further south down the road. They have taken themselves out of the fight against Marsh, and are looking for more road. Fox is defeated, Gremlin is terrified, but they're together.

Lots of high emotions at the table, and no one wanting to back down. (This was only one of several confrontations that ended in violence.) I quite enjoyed it.