Patches of Sunlight

I don’t normally talk about roleplaying games here on this blog. I think the reason for this is because talking about RPGs requires some specialized knowledge and, frankly, marks me for the geek that I am. This is different somehow. I’m throwing caution to the wind and getting my geek on here in public because doing so in this case let’s me talk about a well-written book. If you are not one of those interested in joining me in this geekness you are welcome to skip on by this post if you like; I’ll understand.

In our household there is one Game Master (henceforth and forever referred to as the GM) and his name is (drum roll) Seth. He runs all the games for us because his brain is crazy good at retaining rules and because he’s cool like that. This makes for some wicked awesome games, but it also means that Seth doesn’t get to play any of the characters he thinks up for those games. He’d told me all about the character he’d created for Apocalypse World, Vincent Baker’s game of post-apocalyptic awesome, and I, being a kind soul, felt bad for him. I didn’t do anything about it, but I sure felt bad. Then, in a sleep-deprived moment of weakness at about midnight on the way home from Erie, I offered to GM Apocalypse World for him. Wisely, he waited to see if I would hold to that promise in the clear light of morning a solid week later before getting too excited. I’ll admit- welching looked pretty good to me. I’ve GMed exactly once before (not counting one session of In a Wicked Age, another Vincent Baker game) and it was awful, abysmal, laughable, terrible, horrifying, ghastly and pretty much any other synonym you can come up with. Sure, the game I was cutting my teeth on had been Mage and sure, it was roughly nine years ago. This matters not at all; I have a long memory that tells me I sucked. However, as the wise elephant said, “A promise is a promise, faithful 100%” and all that. I reaffirmed my promise and got to be the first to read Seth’s print copy of the game when it came.

Now, I have not read many gaming texts. I’ve proof-read a couple of Seth’s games and have read sections of a couple others which doesn’t make me much of an expert. I have, however, read lots and lots of books, so I feel confident about saying that Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World is one of the friendliest, most open-handed books I’ve read. As I read Baker’s explanation of how to run his game I had the image of a trusted friend leading me through the process. Baker, in essence, took my hand and stepped me through the thought process of his game without ever talking down to me. He was abundantly clear not just on what you do, but how and why without ever being patronizing.

What I said to Seth, and what made him encourage me to write this review, is that the text was very generous. I’ve had difficulties explaining that, but I think I mean that in explaining the way to think in Apocalypse World, Baker never implies that it is the only way to think. It is simply the best way to think for the game that you’re playing. Especially in the section about how to be a MC (Apocalypse World’s version of a GM) he says repeatedly that you want to function like this or you want to think like that not because you have to, but because the game is the most rewarding to both the MC and the players when played that way. Throughout the text he sounds very concerned that we have a really good time playing his game and I got the feeling that no one would be happier than him if we did.

I had a good head start on the other first-time MC’s reading the book because I helped playtest the game several months ago. I understood the look and feel of the game and I knew all the basic moves for the players, but there was still the fear because I’d never run it before. I went into it all nervous and scared that this time of me running a game would be a fiasco (also a fun game) just like last time. I panicked towards the middle of the book when I started getting into Fronts (the various factions the MC points at the characters to make their lives ‘not boring’), but Baker kept throwing me a rope and making me feel like I could do it. “Look,” he essentially says, “The goal is to make Apocalypse World feel real and to give the players a place to make their characters be awesome. You can do that!” Seth still had to talk me off a ledge or two, but that was because I hadn’t had a chance to read the book for a couple of days.

I’m still feeling nervous about running this game. I keep envisioning all the places I could totally drop the ball and be lame. Those who are playing have talked a bit about what our Apocalypse World is going to look like, though, and I’ve started to get excited. It’s gonna be a wetapocalypse, a flood that covers the world like a mix between Waterworld and the Manhattan of AI. I’ve started having visions of ships made from the carcasses of whales, of scavenging missions to the underwater cities, of the sun setting over an ocean with just the torch of the Statue of Liberty rising out of the water. Even my composting fixation has found a home in Apocalypse World (they have to get dirt from somewhere to grow food, right?). When I start to flounder I can hold onto two of the principles of being an MC- make the character’s live not boring and make Apocalypse World feel real. If I can accomplish that then I think our game will be just fine.

Kudos to you, Vincent Baker, for writing a RPG that was both easy to understand and enjoyable to read. I enjoyed your extended examples and the kindly tone your prose had. My one issue with the book is that the cover art is rather disturbing. This wouldn’t normally be a problem, but the times I was able to squeeze some reading into just happened to be times my young nieces and nephews were bouncing around. Luckily, Seth had pre-ordered the game and so got the Maestro ‘D playbook as an extra. It covered up the front quite nicely and served as a grand bookmark, too.