Character Creation / Interrogation

@Taej - Your character is very fleshed out, the only issue is that she might be a little too isolated. She seems perfectly content to live in the bowels of Advent forever.

In addition to wanting to help Vega, I'm gonna say that you have two other reasons to seek help. One is that you sometimes need actual nutrition, like citrus or protein or something, so you have to steal/ask from someone in Advent. Second is that sometimes other things find their way into the bowels, and you need help getting rid of them.

I agree that she's isolated, but she's not content. She can get by, though not forever. I didn't take the child-thing move feral which would let her have a barter 1 lifestyle for 0 cost, so she still needs to do jobs to survive. She can't survive long term on the fungus and water - that was more meant to show how subsistence level her life is when she doesn't have gigs. She has a place to go and a way to get by, but she doesn't like being lonely or having to scrape by. The slave brothel was terrible and damaging, but there was still community and she didn't suffer for want of food.

Her starting point is an escapee who has been out long enough to finally want more than just subsistence living, more than just being grateful to be alive. I think she had two social problems: one, her guilt regarding Aldus and feeling debt to Vega's crew (when I said seduced, it could have just been making him willing to take in the orphan he came to investigate); and two, a poor understanding of actual social interaction - she was incapable of understanding or believing that Aldus did not mean her harm when she first showed up, but after a year is maybe less guarded. She's not bad at using deception to manipulate, but she really doesn't know how to make friends through actual honesty and vulnerability.

Oh, and there are still Wolves after her, whatever that means.

Just making sure you don't hole yourself up completely. In my experience, players have a tendency to wall themselves in because they want to be safe. Turns out that it's really boring, and it's a pain to convince them to go out and actually do something.

I also don't want anyone to have the expectation that their lives are secure, because they definitely are not. Sure, you'll have times of stability, but this is Apocalypse World! Things break, scar over, break again, and die.

I am on board with your answer to my Hx question. The failed mentor is a great addition to the story.
With your answer to my question, I am left wondering how to answer your question. To me, being a Wolf of the Malestrom means to be it's agent. Much like Gmork is an agent of the Nothing in The Neverending Story. So the question is, was Aldus a Wolf after sleeping with Ghost? Was Aldus a Wolf BEFORE sleeping with Ghost? My gut reaction is to say Vega knows nothing of the Wolves and would be horrified to learn she was one, but could she be a sleeper agent...yes. I feel saying "I don't know, maybe." is more interesting than saying "no". But saying "yes" brings up a lot of issues. In a larger game with more players I could see 'yes' being the answer, but in this scenario I think "Maybe, let's play to find out." is best.

I see the wolves as either agents or creations of the maelstrom that enact it's will. I feel like some of the wolves are hive-minded, while others don't really know why they are doing what they do. Ghost has certain wolves chasing after her, but there are other kinds.

Maybe Vega becoming a wolf just means that she'll "get into the holiday spirit"?

I was thinking that Aldus became a Wolf after taking Ghost in, after she killed him - or thought she killed him. Maybe he never died, or maybe he animated, or maybe he was replaced by a Wolf. In any case, it definitely happened because of her involvement, and he wasn't before because when she ate his fingers she found out what he was like before.

Awesome. So can we consider it a "truth" of the Malestrom that, generally speaking, people consider those that when you "use" the Malestrom (like with the Open Your Brain move) you are flirting with madness? Perhaps the Malestrom isn't evil, maybe the Malestrom is just change we aren't prepared to accept. Or...we've forgotten what the Malestrom is and we fight it now.

I like that idea a lot, it's like tapping into the internet with your mind. You can try to find stuff, but who knows what's gonna come out of it. It's not 'evil' or taboo, just a weird aspect of life.

Maybe it's because I've never read AW and I have a lot of Warhammer 40K baggage, but I was thinking of the Maelstrom like the Warp. It's dangerous and chaotic, but it's not intrinsically evil; but evil, being strongly emotive, leaves strong imprints in the Warp, and there is definitely evil stuff in the Warp, making it that much more dangerous.

Maybe it's because I've never read AW and I have a lot of Warhammer 40K baggage, but I was thinking of the Maelstrom like the Warp. It's dangerous and chaotic, but it's not intrinsically evil; but evil, being strongly emotive, leaves strong imprints in the Warp, and there is definitely evil stuff in the Warp, making it that much more dangerous.

Off topic, but happy Thanksgiving! I think our histories are done, so we can get started shortly. I just gotta compile all the info we came up with in order to kick-start our game.

Going back to this - what if we flipped it a bit? Hardhold fruitcakes are edible, almost like pieces of 8, slices are a lower denomination currency. Recently, though, there's been an influx of stamped fruitcake that, when sliced, turns out to be ancient and counterfeit - someone has stumbled across or been smuggling in an old cache of pre-disaster fruitcakes, and had counterfeited or stolen a stamp to do it, camouflaging the charade with fresh candying glaze!

Actually, on looking at this, the answer seems evasive. She doesn't say yes or no, but blusters without answering - I don't mind having the "No" HX for Eliza, but I just want to make sure you want it to be a "No".

I was initially intending for it to be an evasive non-answer, but I'm not particularly attached to how it gets interpreted. I was assuming that it's ultimately up to you to interpret our answers, so I purposely didn't specify which option it is.

Ok, I looked at the same way, but I think @Handle took it as a "no."

It certainly seemed like a "no", but it's not a problem to change it.

Is there somewhere that defines what all the stuff does (i.e. reload, +valuable)?

Yeah, in core book. They are pretty self-explanatory, for the most part. Tags are mostly used to cue the MC about the effects of equipment (like how it has to reload, or causes lots of noise), but some have mechanical effects (Like range or rarity).

I believe I completed making him. Now what?