So after watching Adam do the first session of Apocalypse World.

So after watching Adam do the first session of Apocalypse World.

So after watching Adam do the first session of Apocalypse World. I really like the idea of collaborating with the players in setting up the world that we are going to be playing in.

So I kind of need good questions to ask to get people thinking what type of fantasy world thr setging is, and what thd races are like. The strong thing about AW is that the kind of apocalypse basically decides what style the world is and makes the follow up questions easier. Fantasy is i feel a bit harder.

So any tips?

12 thoughts on “So after watching Adam do the first session of Apocalypse World.”

  2. Class and race choices can inform a lot about the setting and what questions to ask. Got a Wizard? Ask them about Places of Power, where magic comes from and how it behaves (or doesn’t). Ask the Fighter about their martial history and tradition and its place in the world, and about the nature of magical weaponry. Ask the Bard about the cities and civilizations, and the Druid about the wild places. Ask everyone about their race and its role, regardless of whether they’re standard races or not.

    If you don’t mind making a half or full session out of setting creation, play Dawn of Worlds up through the first two ages. Microscope is good, too, but it’s not free and tends to leave fewer historical blanks.

  3. Fantasy might feel harder due to expectations and preconceptions, but the same can be said of apocalyptic fiction.  The idea of collaborative world building addresses what the group expects the world (an the game) to be like and gets buy in from the players.  Ask questions about the things typically taken for granted and start to build the world from the answers.  I would also recommend doing this beyond the first session, whenever a new or interesting facet of the world gets exposed.

  4. You can definitely do similar things in DW. Some good questions for discussion:

    – wilderness or urban or both?

    – what’s magic like? how do you learn it?

    – what are the gods like? how do they expect to be honored?

    – what is this region like? how do most people make a living?

    – who’s in charge? okay, but who’s REALLY in charge?

    – what kinds of “dungeons” are we going to be raiding? tombs, abandoned keeps, wizard towers, rival guilds, sewers, other planes, prisons, treasure chambers, banks, coaches, mansions, caves, underground cities, lost civilizations, etc.

    – why do the PCs do what they do? what are their goals and aspirations?

    – who’s trying to help you or wants you to succeed? who’s trying to stop you or wants you to fail? who’s trying to play both sides and take advantage of you?

    – when you return with a bunch of loot, what do you do with it?

    – what happened the last time your crew went out on a mission? what fallout resulted from that?

  6. I wouldn’t go with too many all at once – it’d be stressful to make too many decisions – it’s better to see where things go for a bit.

  7. Leave time in the first session for one action – filled scene. Start them in media res in a tense situation based on their answers and let them figure out how to get through it. The point is to show new players how the pattern of

    Fiction->Trigger->Move->Fiction

    works, and leave them anxious to see what happens next, in session two.

  11. Also, if you like collaborative setting creation, there’s extensive guidelines for it in Perilous Journeys, which is currently being Kickstarted.

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