FRI-01 Hatchet City (Apocalypse World)

[Ben Wray]

So for the first session of the con, I decided to, like many others, run the new hotness of Apocalypse World, taking the "official" con/1-shot scenario, "Blue-Blind and Hatchet City", out for a whirl. The characters involved included:

Lin, the Hardholder, a 14-year old girl described as "hard as hell", packing a shotgun. The exact reason how somebody so young had come to power was never explained. Played by Brendan Adkins.
Rockit, the Chopper, played to the hilt as true to the classical inspiractions behind the role. ("Wait, is this baby male or female? I ain't shooting no girl babies.") Played by David Hauth.
Plum, the Skinner, one of the first Apocalypse World PCs I've seen who has been a genuinely good and nice person, believing the best about everyone s/he meet. Poor, poor Plum.
Pity, the Brainer, whose polite nice-guy attitude just made it all the creepier when he rammed his violation fist down people's throats.
(I have, to my eternal shame, forgotten the names of the people playing those last two characters. Anybody who knows, including those players themselves, fill it it!)

My favorite bits of the game:
* Brendan's description of the hardhold as the top floors of a skyscraper, mysteriously intact despite the rest of it being more or less bombed out ruin, giving them a tower over which to take casual sniping pot shots on the rest of the ruins. That definitely set the bar for barfing forth apocalyptica.
* Plum's instant assumption that this mysterious "blind-blue" woman and Tip had somehow "switched souls", and trying to convince Rockit to help go rescue her, more or less in at the same time that Lin was giving Rockit orders to track down the "baby" and kill it, and Rockit totally appropriately not making any connection between the two. (Blind-Blue was described as an overgrown fetus with too many eyes, in this scenario. Dunno how other people have run it, but that's what sprang into MY head.)
* Pity being so damn nice to the people he was psychically violating. ("I'm sure you want to get to sleep just as much as I do." With genuine caring, and not a hint of sarcasm.)

My only regret was not really getting into some of the plot hooks: Dustwich kind of got dropped in favor of zomg-perversion-of-birth plot, and the waders and their parasite never even made an appearance (although, with no Angel PC, I didn't feel as guilty about that last one). The focus probably helped things out more than it hurt, though (Throw a couple plot hooks out there, see which get bites.) I also feel like I kind of shortchanged Lin a little bit when it came to spotlight time, which seems to happen to my hardholders a lot. I need to work on that.

Players in the game, it should go without saying that I thank you all for playing it for me, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game as well, both good and bad, but especially any favorite moments in particular that I may have left out. (There are a lot to list from that one.)

[Brendan]

A 14-year old girl described as "hard as hell", (...) Played by Brendan Adkins.

Doesn't this go without saying?

This was the second time I've played Hatchet City, and it was really interesting to see how differently it turned out from the first (which involved a holding with a serious drug problem and focus on the control-of-the-river subplot). This was also the first time I've played one of the character types that doesn't have a bunch of sexy moves right off the bat (I'd previously tried a Battlebabe and a Skinner), and it was different, but I didn't feel like I lacked for screen time. I had a lot of fun!