Thread by @andrewphilos1

I wanna gush about Apocalypse World. If you've never heard of it, it's a game like D&D where instead of Tolkien-esque adventurers, you play as post-apocalyptic weirdos a la Mad Max. Now, I haven't actually played with anyone, but you'll see in a bit why that's not gonna matter.

(Also, I'll be referring to the many, many games that have taken inspiration from Apocalypse World, so-called "Powered by the Apocalypse" systems.)

So here's what makes Apocalypse World special. It's a fiction-first system, which means all of the mechanics rely upon the descriptions the players make of the story before they come into play. Contrast this with D&D, which is much more mechanics-focused.

What this means for the game is you don't need to memorize a huge book of rules and requirements to play. Given the playbook of your character archetype and a list of the basic moves, you've got everything you need to pick up and play, because you'll be providing the rest.

The playbooks--man, they're a work of genius. These are kind of like D&D character sheets, but much more specific. They give you a character archetype, then ask you to make a few very specific choices. But these choices are specifically designed to illuminate your character!

What does your character look like? What is their personality like? What of a short list of items do they have on their person? Here's a list of special abilities; pick two. And finally, what are your character's relationships with the other characters like?

Note that character description has no mechanical effect; many of the items don't either, and their history with the other characters might not affect a whole lot. But that's the beauty of a fiction-first system--it matters if you as a group decide it's meaningful.

Like, here's an example from Monsterhearts, a game about teenage monsters: The Ghost can pick moves that let you gain mechanical advantage over your opponents or heal damage... or they can pick a move that lets you walk through walls and fly. All three can be equally useful!

What this all adds up to is that character creation in Powered by the Apocalypse games is incredibly, impossibly fun. Every time I discover a new game, I get to work building character after character, with vibrant backstories and twisted relationship webs.

Take The Ghost again. You get two mechanical choices: a statline, and two moves of five--meaning there are only 20 possible Ghosts to make, most of which are pretty similar to one another. But the flavor the player adds can make two identical Ghosts feel different and unique.

Can it be fun to make D&D characters? Sure. But that's in spite of its explicit systems, not because of them. A D&D sheet has spots for, say, character gender, backstory, and religious preference, but it's too easy to leave them blank. They don't really matter.

D&D cares most about your money, your equipment, your ability scores, your spell list, all that jazz, because D&D is fundamentally about combat. All those flavor blocks about personality and backstory are there for the creatives like me who need them to inhabit their character.

I suppose you could theoretically leave all that stuff blank on the Apocalypse World character sheet, too, but that would be fundamentally misunderstanding what the game wants you to do. Those little eccentricities of character are critical to getting into your role.

There's a catch to all of this, which is also part of what makes Apocalypse World so different: you need to have a really good GM to make it all work. Quote the Apocalypse World GM section: "There are a million ways to GM games; Apocalypse World calls for one way in particular."

Their unenviable task is to keep all the plates spinning, to put every character in the spotlight, to discover surprise and beauty and fun around every corner. Apocalypse World is very character-driven, which means more randomness and uncertainty for the GM.

Apocalypse World was also explicitly designed so that the player characters aren't necessarily all part of a team together. Their goals might be totally at odds with each other. A horrifying possibility in D&D, but for Apocalypse World, it works.

I could go on, but I've hit the major beats I wanted to talk about. The Apocalypse World system is all about story building and character interaction, which to me was always the point of RPGs. In my mind, it's completely supplanted the classics like D&D.

If you've never played a Powered by the Apocalypse game, I highly recommend it. Dungeon World is the usual recommendation for a gateway game. The original AW is a godsend for teaching you that particular GM'ing construction. (And the first edition is free, so that's a plus!)

I'll also hype up Monsterhearts, Fellowship, Masks, Blades in the Dark, and to a lesser extent Monster of the Week, Epyllion, Urban Shadows, tremulus, The Sprawl, World of Dungeons (a restructured version of Dungeon World), and World Wide Wrestling.

(Oh, and also another game I'd forgotten about: "Powered by the Apocalypse World," a game about playing RPG designers creating a Powered by the Apocalypse game. Yes, really.)

So, yeah. Get to playing! And if you need a GM, a masterwork genius with the power to do the impossible and tell incredible stories, hit me up. 😉