The Climbers

Welcome to the second AP Spotlight column! At Shannon's invitation I'll be using this space to profile exceptional AP games. While quality is subjective, I'll be focusing on works that succeed both as games and as APs specifically - that is, they're presented in a readable and sometimes even multimedia format that elevates them from a simple recap to a unique form of media.

For this month's AP Spotlight, we'll be taking a look at Derendel's The Climbers, an Apocalypse World campaign set in the swamps of what used to be Miami, back in those golden days before the titular plague came, and the dead started walking.

I want to note here that I chose The Climbers for review several weeks before seeing the new Mad Max: Fury Road in theaters, so the gonzo post-apocalyptic shenanigans they share is entirely coincidental. That said, if you've been to Mad Max, you have a pretty good idea of what Apocalypse World is capable of generating; if, like some of my friends, you've been to three screenings and you're setting a date for your fourth, you might want to give the game a spin. Try not to borrow too heavily, though, because building your own apocalypse is half the fun.

The Climbers is played over Skype, with four PCs and Derendel as the GM. Following DaveB's methods for his Mage: The Awakening games, Derendel records the session's audio using a second computer for sound quality reasons, then spends two to three times the session length transcribing the audio, which can take over twelve hours. For the final touches, he embellishes dialogue and inserts OOC commentary in blue. The final product is a readable narrative that also brings in qualities that make the AP format distinct from novelizations proper; in fact, if I had to compare it to another type of media, I'd go with a sports broadcast, where the viewer is watching the action unfold on screen while commentators make witty quips and analyze the game's strategy in the background.

When I asked why Derendel puts in the energy for such an intensive AP process, he had this to say: "I like APs because it lets me do several things at once. First, I can turn what would be a chaotic discussion into a clean(er) story by distinguishing between OOC banter and in character dialog (via coloration of text). Two, I can demonstrate the rules and my game master decisions in way that might not be as clear via an audio or video recording. Third, as a bonus, I can extract out a log for my players to refer to later." The downsides, he explained, are that he sometimes falls behind, and that sneaky players who whisper can be hard to understand in the audio.

I'm all in favor of games like last month's Malibu Dream House that focus on uninterrupted narrative, but if you want to learn the crunchy bits of how a game is played and run, Derendel's approach is a great one. He takes the time to explain the mechanical aspects as they come up, and spends nearly as much time explaining the group's OOC thought processes as he does telling the actual story.

For those unfamiliar with Apocalypse World (and I counted myself among your numbers before I picked up The Climbers), it's an award-winning game run with the Powered by the Apocalypse engine, a bare-bones, highly collaborative system that's also used for Monsterhearts and Dungeon World, among others. PCs are created on a class basis (called 'playbooks') to fit the niches you'd encounter in a post-apocalyptic setting, such as the Skinner (artist or stripper) and Gunlugger (self-explanatory); each playbook comes with its own set of 'moves' that a character can roll 2d6 to enact. It's not the character stats that make the Powered by the Apocalypse engine so much fun, however: it's the group world building.

As in all other Apocalypse World campaigns, the GM ('MC' in PbtA terminology) is strictly forbidden to plan for the campaign prior to the first session. Derendel's pre-gaming routine (also seen in Corrupted Transmission, his Hunter: The Vigil campaign) already relied on player input for world building and theme choice; making it official with Apocalypse World was a natural step.

For the first session, the group built their setting and conflicts from scratch, deciding on a Florida depopulated by a fungal disease that kills and revives anyone it infects, rebuilt on the backs of slave laborers, and teetering on the verge of starvation due to unreliable food supplies. The group's home base (later illustrated with homemade maps), dubbed Stumpland, comes together as a cozy mire, occupied by an eccentric cast drawn together with a complex - and wholly improvised - web of social history. New residents are added by the group as the game goes on based on what makes narrative sense.

When I asked Derendel about the challenges of running an Apocalypse World campaign, he told me that the group input aspect was in line with how he liked to run things, but that the degree the game called for pushed him past his comfort zone: "The hard part for me is to resist the temptation to plan ahead, and especially build a cast of characters to work with. Since the whole point of AW is to play to see what happens and make stuff up as you go along, I feel to do otherwise would be to work against the spirit of the game. But it removes some of the crutches I use to prop up my gamemastering confidence."

Due to OOC real life disruptions the PC list changes after a few sessions, so I'm outlining all five past and future cast members for completeness' sake.

• Gator: A sharp-edged mercenary with a face shredded by an encounter with one of his namesakes, this Gunlugger doesn't mess around. Make a deal with him and he'll stick it through, even after your death.
• November Orleans: After the end times, proper crocodile jerky's a treat, and this Skinner knows all the recipes. She moonlights as a dancer and animal trainer, too!
• Violet Jefferson: When there's nothing left to believe in, it's up to this Touchstone to found a new religion based on the holy text of nothing less than the Constitution of the United States of America (with the Bill of Rights thrown in for good measure).
• Billie Ray Tallahassee: Where there are scraps, there are scavengers, and this bastard of a Ruin Runner's got the savvy to pick through the old world's carcasses. Unfortunately, due to OOC conflicts he didn't stick around long.
• Jarhead: A newcomer starting in post #12, this Savvyhead makes his living doing repairs, but he's equally capable with more esoteric devices.

As an Apocalypse World novice I had to take a chance on The Climbers. Going into an AP without a prior grounding in the system's mechanics can be confusing for readers to the point where the story becomes difficult to enjoy. The reason I stuck with it is that The Climbers did a fantastic job of not only providing an engaging story, but actively teaching me how to play the game. If you're looking for a fun way to learn the fine points of GMing a collaborative system, give The Climbers a read through. Even better, for those of us who are easily addicted: it's only been going since September 2014, so the length is manageable, and it's not currently on hiatus so you won't be stuck waiting for updates that never come.