With this being NaNoWriMo and the holidays coming up, I've decided to present a greatest "Age of Ravens" hits for the next several weeks. To that end, I'm presenting the first installment of each of my History of RPG Genre posts, along with links to the reset of the series. I may take the opportunity to correct typos and fix omissions. 

MY KIND OF APOCALYPSE
The Apocalypse vexes me. More than other genres I’ve tackled, Post-Apocalypse games seem obvious, but when I look closely I cut and add items madly. I suspect my picks this time will be more contested. And I haven't even made up my mind about Judge Dredd...

​THE DIVIDE
Many games exist in the margins of the definitions- and I’ll be wrestling with those across these lists. My definitions cut out a number that- looked at from another standpoint- could have gone on. For example, I’m leaving off most cyberpunk games. Both Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun have cataclysms in the backdrop. For the former general societal collapse and for the latter the eruption of the Sixth World. They both have some wastelands, but those are just places to pass through. Otherwise the focus on the game isn’t the traditional play of post-apocalypse games- survival and exploration.
 
I’ve also left off games where the focus is on fighting back against the apocalypse. In a sense the full effects of the cataclysm haven’t really happened. So I leave off 50 Fathoms, The Mechanoid Invasion, Necessary Evil and their alien invasions. On the other hand, I think Fantasy Flight’s Midnight qualifies as post-apocalyptic. Defeating the evil crisis remains an open question and the world’s been completely reshaped by Izrador’s conquest. Then again Base Raiders offers an interesting world crisis, but the scope is limited. The result is less a question of survival and more of exploitation so I won't include it. I also leave off “disaster” books which simply detail a collapse or crisis event, unless they include significant material covering campaigns run in the aftermath.
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​THE ZED QUESTION
As we saw with the Horror lists, there’s an explosion of Zombie games in recent years. Some of these offer either a general discussion of zombies or a sourcebook for using them in different settings. Others present a distinct zombie outbreak and build a world around that. Generally if I have two or more Zombie games on the same list, I’ll group them together into a Miscellaneous: Zombie entry. I might break that rule if I spot something truly striking or worth calling out.
 
To keep this list easy to read I’m tightening the years covered. As we get closer to the present the lists expand and contract weirdly. I include mostly core books, but also significant setting or sourcebooks. I’m consolidating “spin-off” supplements into a single entry. For example you'll see at the end of this list isolated modules for a line using post-apocalyptic elements. Given the number of great things published I haven't included everything I want. I try to only list revised editions which significantly change a line or present a milestone. Generally I only include published material- print or electronic. I skip freebie or self-published games. I'm sure I've left something off without adequate reason; feel free to add a comment about a line I missed (if published from 1976 to 1984). I've arranged these by year and then alphabetically within that year.
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​1. Metamorphosis Alpha (1976)
I'd only just gotten the hang of cutting open giant rats to search for treasure when my sister tried out Metamorphosis Alpha on me. She didn't give me much information on this new game. I rolled up a weird character, wandered into a domed garden, and was promptly eaten. I only played Metamorphosis Alpha once, but I remember sneaking into her room and flipping through the book. I didn't get the game, except for the sense of desperate survival in a harsh environment. This wasn't about diving into a dungeon for loot. This was about being stuck in a horrible place trying to survive. I'd remember that later when the first horror rpgs arrived.
 
Metamorphosis Alpha is the first post-apocalyptic game, but strikingly doesn't use the post-nuke setting which would become a default in next several years. Instead characters were passengers of a giant seed-ship where things went terribly wrong. I made the connection years later when I watched Dr. Who's The Ark in Space and finally read Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. The game itself is a wonderful and brilliant mish-mash. Readers have to disentangle the system from the setting. Every page is filled with wild ideas, but it will take a GM effort to bring everything together. While it eventually became eclipsed by Gamma World, MA set the stage for a new approach to gaming- one of the earliest sci-fi games as well as the first post-apocalypse rpg. While early D&D borrowed a little from Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival, this put that challenge in a new context. Gamers can still buy the original pdf and this year Goodman Games successfully launched a Kickstarter for a reprint which includes a mass of additional material.
 
2. Simian Conquest (1978)
I started gaming in the early, early days. I have strong memories of obscure games that sat on the shelf of the FLGS for years, but I don't remember this one. I could do a list of "non-licensed licensed-setting" games- including many where the company ended up slapped with a lawsuit. Simian Conquest's clearly the Planet of the Apes rpg (movie, not book). Some blurbs describe it as humorous, but that's not clear. You can play as an ape or as an astronaut. So it is kind of Post-Apocalyptic depending on your character, I suppose...and how much you stick to the plot of the movies. ("You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!")
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​3. Gamma World (1978)
And here comes the boom. We played Gamma World in the early days. It overshadowed Top Secret and Boot Hill as our non-D&D game of choice for years. And how can you not be drawn to this game? Look at that cover...what's going on there? And it actually conceals the sheer craziness inside. Gamma World takes some of the ideas of Metamorphosis Alpha- mutations, sci-fi, and survival and makes something new out of them. It cites several sources, including Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. That and the newly arrived Heavy Metal magazine drive the game. The interior illustrations go all over the place. But the game itself feels much more playable than Metamorphosis Alpha. Players can move through the book more clearly, character creation's up front, and the lessons learned from D&D's presentation shape the layout.
 
The crazy mess of the setting's possible because the apocalypse takes place in the 25th Century. In the far future a nuclear war breaks out resulting in a world of talking rabbits with bandoliers, stop-sign wielding madmen, and high-tech artifacts. Here's the thing- I never quite got that the "event" took place in the distant future. So more often than not I mixed bits and pieces of present tech into the setting (Walkmen tape players, Apple Macintosh). Gamma World existed in a weirdly flexible state (which actually makes the most recent "reality warp" edition make a little more sense).
 
From Gamma World I learned a classic trope of post-apocalypse games. Young tribal members have to go out into the wilderness to find something to save the village or carry out a rite of ascension. We'd end up doing that dozens of time. Gamma World presented a world of anachronisms, showing that any tale or trope could be rebuilt with a science-fantasy frame. It offered a more robust system of random mutation tables. Players could choose their type, but beyond that had to settle with their results- good and bad. It made rolling up characters a desperate and fun gamble. One awesome element, little used in modern games, was the random artifact interaction table. Players rolled on the flowchart to see if they could figure out how to use a device, break it, or set it off in their hands. It was a great system and one worth lifting for other games.
 
Gamma World got modest support from TSR, with only two modules GW1: Legion of Gold and GW2: Famine in Far-Go released for it. They also put out a GM screen. It went through several printings, with IIRC different colors on the booklet cover. According to wikipedia, TSR planned to do Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega which would have adapted the earlier game to the new rules. But the publication of a second edition of GW in '83 (see later on the list) put the kibosh on that.
 
4. The Morrow Project (1980)
The Morrow Project always seemed like a reaction to the gonzo weird of Gamma World. Everything about it seemed serious and adult. I avoided it because it looked like a 'mature' game...plus the stark presentation did nothing to grab my tween imagination. In Morrow Project, the PCs play frozen sleeper survivalists awoken in a post-nuclear war future. It aims to be more realistic but still adds pseudo-scientific elements like flora and fauna mutated by the radiation. It focuses squarely on survival and exploration, with perhaps even a hint of being a building game as you try to find other survivor caches. Morrow has a definite military vibe to it, with our "out of time" characters organized as teams. In that regards its a precursor to other gun-love and military games. Artist Richard Tucholka would go on to design the crazy and elaborate firearm systems of various Tri-Tac games (see some below). Supplements included Personal and Vehicular Loads and Vehicular Blueprints: Volume I, but they also released several modules. I'm not sure about the full edition history, but the most distinct revision seems to be 2013's The Morrow Project 4th Edition.
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​5. Aftermath! (1981)
Fantasy Games Unlimited scared me off for many years. My sister ran me thorough character creation for Chivalry & Sorcery once, I flipped through Space Opera a single time, and one of the smartest people I knew, Gene Ha, spoke lovingly of the complexity of Aftermath!. It sounded too heavy. Eventually I broke down and started picking up FGU games, but I always steered clear of what I assumed was the dense detail of this game. Looking at it now...I think I was a little right. Even knowing the weird math and design choices in games like Bushido and Daredevils, Aftermath's still a big shower of crazy detail and odd game focus. So many figured stats and totals, a two-page combat flow chart, strange look-ups, location-based hits and armor class, labeled hex grid examples for everything. It feels very wargamery- like a reaction from grognard gamers bothered by the loosey-goosey nature of other games. However Aftermath! had a solid following, supported with several supplements.
 
The oddest thing for me is something the game actually hides in its box set presentation. The cover blurb describes this as "A Role Playing Game set in a Post Holocaust world." The back cover expands that a little but doesn't offer much detail. That obscures one of the most interesting things about Aftermath!, that it actually offers a generic game system combined with a toolkit for running post-apocalyptic games. The first book of the core three included doesn't even mention the setting. Instead it is a 60 page set of general rpg rules- not unlike the booklets included in early Runequest and other Chaosium games covering Basic Role-Playing. But this is significantly more detailed. It might have been one of the earliest generic rpg products if it had been published separately. Book two covers character creation, but still avoids concrete setting. Book three finally addresses that and talks about options for the kinds of "Ruin" that could come to the world- nuclear, biological, social- and the implications of the passage of time. Its almost too much- where a few detailed and concrete examples of different settings might have made it more useful. Aftermath is interesting and a fascinating artifact of the time. But post-apocalyptic GMs might find the tools and ideas on offer in the campaign book worth looking at.
 
6. Car Wars (1981)
While Car Wars began as a board game, it evolved into a pseudo rpg. The basic game offered a simple post-collapse backdrop with warriors competing in arena contests with weaponized vehicles. It drew from Death Race, Mad Max, and Damnation Alley. But as the game expanded, the designers fleshed out that setting, resulting in the creation of Autoduel America. Gazetteers and a GURPS supplement would solidify that as a complete world playable as a board game, miniatures simulation, or rpg. The game itself evolved to incorporate more rgp elements. Each supplement- Sunday Drivers, Truck Stop, Dueltrack- added on to that. Eventually we got adventures like Convoy, Mean Streets, and Ultraforce which pretty much confirmed the game's status as an rpg.
 
Side Note: Car Wars is interesting in creating a distinct sense of place. Some of that came from the need to construct a game-able setting. While it's a post-collapse setting, there's still a strong sense of civilization. It isn't The Road Warrior. Survival's a question- less so exploration. Games Workshop went a slightly different route with Dark Future, buying more into a full apocalypse. Car Wars also blurs the line between board game and rpg. It combines elements of both, but leans towards the former. Other rpg board games like Mordheim: City of the Damned, Necromunda and Confrontation: Dogs of War can be easily distinguished in having players control and manage multiple characters. But what about Inquisitor or MechWarrior? Wreck Age? 
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​7. Gamma World 2nd Edition (1983)
I'm hesitant to mark out Gamma World 2e as a distinct item and edition, but there's a key change here. It isn't in rules themselves. GS 2e tightens the system, expands important material (like mutations and monsters), and adds a wealth of material for the GM. But what really clinches it for me is the presentation. If the original Gamma World's a product of the 1970's- basic layout, weird ordering, gonzo art, and hodge-podge feel; then Gamma World 2e is the 1980's. Here outsider ideas and images have been carefully repackaged and re-presented. No longer does it feel like an underground comic, instead it looks and feels like a Saturday morning cartoon version of heavy metal. The elephant in the room here is 1980's Thundarr the Barbarian. Every gamer I know who saw it said the same thing: Gamma World the Cartoon. And we loved it for that. Of course Lords of Light, the short documentary on the creation of Thundarr makes no mention of that, citing other sources. But we know better. This edition of Gamma World wants to be popular and tries too hard.
 
I didn't pick up Gamma World 2e at the time. The look didn't appeal to me and I'd begun to gravitate to superhero and spy games. Once again TSR supported it modestly, with only two modules, a GM screen, and a character sheet pack. Within two years they would be back at the well. The next edition would make a more radical shift and be much less backwards compatible.
 
8. Mutant (1984)
Sweden has a long and interesting history of rpgs. On G+, Olav Nygård, has been posting about their history with the tag #swedishrpgs. He says,
"In #swedishrpgs , the post-apocalyptic slot is occupied by Mutant. Originally borrowing its rules from Drakar och Demoner and everything else from Gamma World, it has since evolved in multiple directions...Featuring a dude in a Luke Skywalker-esque pajamas and a rainbow, the cover of Mutant 1ed signaled that the apocalyptic future might not be such a bad place after all."
Mutant has a specific setting, with devolved technology and deadly radiation zones. Like Gamma World players can be mutated humans or animals. It was supported by a number of supplements and went on to spawn several editions. Since I first posted this, Modiphus has released an English translation of the most recent version, Mutant Year Zero.
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9. Paranoia (1984)
Paranoia offers a different post-apocalypse world. The apocalypse has changed things and you have to fight to survive but your challenges aren't the wilderness and monsters, but bureaucracy and your fellow clones. Paranoia draws from another strain of sci- fi. Instead of Moorcockian weirdness, Paul O. Williams' fallen America, or Ellisonian rad survival, it draws more on Stanislaw Lem, Aldous Huxley, and A Canticle for Liebowitz. It offers a black dystopian comedy- and a product completely unlike any other rpg of the day. We'd had attempts at injecting humor and rpg parody articles, but nothing sustained itself and carried through like Paranoia.
 
And that may be why I had a hard time thinking of this as a post-apocalyptic game. As I mentioned in the intro, I left out some games where there's been a collapse, but that collapse serves more as backdrop rather than framing the game. You could argue that's the case with Paranoia. On the other hand I'd believe the Big Whoops and what it spawned colors everything about the game: the Cold War paranoia rewritten, pop culture mistranslated, a collapse which scrambles sense into nonsense. Add to that the day to day tension of existence and I think you have a remarkably PA game, though jammed into an enclosed space. Ironically once later Paranoia editions got outside and presented details of the collapse and the world, it destroyed much of the setting's tension.
 
Paranoia's a great game. Its the only game I've ever won a tournament of. And one I won't run. Every single time I ran it, I ended up with angry players and in-fighting regardless of how I framed things. I loved reading the books and rules. The early editions are smart, funny, and completely unlike anything else going on at the time. I'd say Paranoia's essential reading for anyone considering a post-apocalypse game. It might not have exactly the tone you're seeking, but consider how these elements could be dialed in your desired direction- or how a few moments of levity might make what comes later even more horrible.
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10. Rhand: Morningstar Missions (1984)
This is an odd one. In Rhand a space colony is overrun by an alien invasion force known as the Spectrals. Now five hundred years have passed since that invasion. What results is a devolved world of mixed technology and barbarian sensibility. Think the Horseclans novels with alien invaders. The result is a mish-mash which could be seen as post-apocalyptic or as straight sci-fi. More interesting is that Leading Edge Games went back and reworked this concept into a much more conventional setting with Living Steel. That game's still crazy and over the top, but it embraces high-tech, superweapons, and sci-fi over the fallen sword & science setting of the original.
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11. Twilight: 2000 (1984)
Twilight 2000 was the new hotness around our area for a long time. We had a strong wargame and miniatures community. T2000 ended up drawing from that pool as well as rpgers. It smartly hooked into mid-1980's Tom Clancy, Red Dawn, Reagan-era sensibilities. I picked up the core set, but only a played a couple of sessions with it. I knew several micro-armor players who loved it- as well as my friend Gene. He's always been attracted to details and he had an infectious enthusiasm about the T2000 concept.
 
Twilight 2000 stakes out a territory for itself as an authentic and realistic rpg experience. I'm not saying it is, but that's certainly how they positioned the game. And while there had been other military rpgs before this (Merc, Recon, Commando), this game lifted that genre out of niche status. Its also the first post-apocalyptic rpg to put the players straight into the still-smoldering ruins. Scattered characters from across the armed forces have to figure out how to survive and get home in the wake of civilization's collapse. Or they have to figure out how to construct some kind of order- military or social- in a world gone mad. No mutants, no talking animals- just tanks, guns, and societal collapse.
 
There's a phrase my wife uses, "Machine Love," to describe games filled with the minutiae of gun lists, equipment guides, and vehicle annexes. To her they represent a weird, collector-like fascination with stuff over people and characters. They're often wargamery or power fantasy games. I don't think they're a bad thing: that's an experience some people appreciate from games. I grew up fascinated by Palladium's weapons books, the Q Manual, and Guns, Guns, Guns. It's that lizard part of my brain that still has a fondness for Twilight 2000. Think about this- we're nearly as far on the other side of their predicted apocalypse as they were when they pinned it to the future.
Twilight 2000 at RPGNow
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12. Miscellaneous: Post-Apocalypse Supplements
Several supplements for other games take advantage of a post-apocalyptic setting. The earliest of these is Security Station (1980). I could never get enough gaming in when I was young, so I'd pick up Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures and Metagaming Microquests for Melee & Wizard. I can say with some certainty that I never legitimately finished one. I'd get killed off quickly every single time. I ended up using them like CYOAs and simply reading through. Of those Fantasy Trip adventures, Security Station remains one of the strangest. Your fantasy characters have to go through a gate into an atomic wasteland to raid a hi-tech bunker on this ruined Earth. Effectively it was Expedition to the Barrier Peaks mixed with nuclear war. I remember the dungeon being dangerous and arbitrary. I wish someone would reprint these adventures- perhaps even make them available as a playable online resource.
 
A few years later saw OMEGAKRON (1984) arrive. Developed for the bizarre Lords of Creation rpg, this one had the party trapped in a future post-nuke Akron, OH. This weird module can still be picked up for cheap. Also in the early 1980s Richard Tucholka developed a host of rpgs. Notable among them is Fringeworthy, a cross-dimensional travel rpg (which the later Stargate looks suspiciously like...). Rogue 417 (1984) is a sourcebook for Fringeworthy which presents a world where a bioweapon spread across the world, unleashing zombie-like creatures. That may make it the first zombie rpg. This material can be used as a world to be explored or else as the starting point for a campaign. Likewise Invasion U.S.! served dual purposes as well. It could be used as a new location or as the basis for a Red Dawn-style game. That's a little outside my definitions, but I thought it worth mentioning.
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It Does Not Stay in Vegas...
On this penultimate day of October, I want to present one of my favorite horror one-shots. I ran this several years ago using Dread. The set up, explanation, and summary use Dread's formula, but you can easily adapt this to other games. Below I go through how I came up with the idea, how it's set up, and how our session played out. I don't give specifics, but you can see from my session summary which way I went.  Note: this is a trimmed version of an early AoR post. 

The Premise
So you can start the players in an asylum in group therapy, waking up together in the middle of a police interrogation, or chained together in a house of traps. I knew I wanted to do something like that--the Dread questionnaire process does some of the legwork of building characters conflicts and relations. So how would that withstand some external threat? The three scenarios in the book played off of that but didn't have the blacking out. I was twisting around in about a dozen directions the morning of the game day when I finally figured out a device like this which would have some resonance. I would make The Hangover into a horror game. Not the most original idea, but something the players could buy into pretty quickly. I took some of the existing questionnaires from the book and modified them. Then I made up a set of cards, one for each player to be randomly distributed. They were as follows (they were in list form when I handed them to the players to make it easier):

You wake up...In just a bathrobe and silk pajamas; with a bag of white powder stuffed in the robe pockets; an aching left arm which reveals a badly bandaged gash; several packs of expensive imported cigarettes jammed under you; and a crumpled up parking ticket stuck in your sock. 

You wake up...In just your underwear; with a puking monkey sitting on your chest-he looks ill; desperately clutching a wavy and ornate dagger, the blade caked with dried blood; an empty bottle of absinthe in the other hand; and a really nice hair cut you didn’t have before.

You wake up...In your normal clothes but with a lot more blood on them; with a horrible pain in your hands from deep straight scratches across the palms; an access key-code fob you’ve never seen before; an empty and used large bore syringe with the label removed; and a half-finished book of Mad Libs.

You wake up...In some kind of haz-mat suit; with the taste and feel of jello shots covering your face; $30K dollars in poker chips stuffed into your pockets; bite marks and bruises on your hand; and the remote control for someone’s expensive TV in your pants.

You wake up... In a really nice outfit, but for the opposite gender; with a dead Blackberry you’ve never seen before in your hand; a vial of some brownish powder in your pocket; tribal tattoos drawn in permanent marker across your face; and a carefully arranged stack of tiny liquor bottles from the mini-bar.

You wake up...In a good-looking business suit with a strange odor, with burn-marks on your fingertips; the keys to a BMW rental car nearly impaling you where you lie; a bent and ancient keycard; and shredded paper stuffed up your right sleeve.

You can find the full play materials here. It's very improv based, what's actually happening can easily be adjusted to your favorite horrors and figuring out how the PCs caused everything. 

Following up from last week's post on creating playbooks for neighborhoods, I offer two more examples. 

TEMPLE DISTRICT PLAYBOOK
GENERAL SET UP

• One central major temple
• A scattering of smaller temples organized by some principle (power, region, aspects)
• A divine mega-complex building with multiple shrines and worship locations
• A market of faiths with buskers calling out for their gods
• A divine bureaucratic hive where priest-servitors manage petitions
• A long avenue with shrines arranged in size and spectacle based on worship and donations. 
• Entryways to underground grottoes
• A place of war where priests, retired avatars, and fallen gods engage in behind the scenes warfare for authority and power
• Fresh temples built on the ruins of older gods and faiths
• Courts of religious judgement and authority
• Industrial workhouses for the business of prayer transmission and rebirth
• Darkened streets and hidden doorways allowing worshipers to enter suspect temples to make bargains out of general sight.​

A CREW BY ANY OTHER NAME...
I’ve run two sessions of Mutants in the Night this month, a Forged in the Dark game about literally and figuratively marginalized mutant communities. X-Men stories across the decades treat this theme. I’m digging the game, but still getting my feet under me with the themes. I haven’t yet found my focus and some of our last debrief session dealt with shifting play more toward social issues. That’s a challenge; FitD’s mission structure means you have to shift from the directed play to introduce more rp moments. But I’m looking forward to the challenge.
 
I’ve run several FitD rpgs now and one of designer DC’s choices for Mutants in the Night struck me. In many FitD games you have a group shared resource: the Crew in Blades in the Dark, the Ship in Scum & Villainy, the Chosen in Band of Blades. They serve as a focus and bind the PCs together. Choices there signal to the GM what kinds of stories the group wants. MitN’s choice to skip this isn’t a bad one. For one thing it keeps focus on the community as a whole. But that absence got me thinking about shared resources which have playbooks.
 
STREETS OF PLAY
This connected to something I’d written about a couple of weeks ago, the factions as backdrops and the challenge of creating resonance for physical spaces. I think you could break down city neighborhoods by theme and give them playbooks. It’s a variant of what I’ve done with building campaign cities using Microscope (City of Gauntlets, VirtuaCon, Abashan).
 
My admittedly rough sketch of this consists of a big list for the central concept, several open questions, sensory element lists, locations/sites, NPCs, features, and moves. You can see my example below. The last items use PbtA terminology, but that could be changed. I’ve not yet worked on any moves, I only sketched triggers. I think there’s more you could add. For example, other games assign ratings to neighborhoods (security, wealth, cohesion, etc). I wonder if that’s a fruitful approach? Having ratings implies that these could change over time, but would they have a mechanical effect or simply be guides for the fiction.

BIASED BLOCKS
One of the challenges here is my unconscious bias and assumptions. This approach assumes large settled populations. It also takes for granted they’re organized like the Western Medieval and Early Modern-inspired cities of most fantasy RPGs. I’ll need to go back and look for ways to add other touchstones drawn from a broader range of cultures. Lists will also have a “or make up your own” option. As it stands, the way I’ve approached these won’t have the specific flavor something like Yoon-Suin creates.
 
The other is a question of order. Should the neighborhood playbooks be built first, with a sense of the whole coming from reconciling those choices later? Or should you first fill out a broader city playbook with choices about locations, purposes, features, cultures, rule, etc? The former feels more “play to see what happens,” while the latter allows you to set up some of the framing.
 
USING THESE PLAYBOOKS
Neighborhood playbooks could be connected to character building. The next time I run Veil Fantasy, I will probably add a choice of neighborhoods to each playbook (probably two). In parallel to making their characters, the players would also build these places. If two players both wanted to work on the same type, they would collaborate. I’ve written up three neighborhoods so far (Temple, Magic, and Gold Districts). I have four others in mind (Workshops, Market/Public, Underworld, and Outcast/Strange). Academic is also a possibility.
 
On the other hand, Sherri suggested making the playbooks the core of some kind of other game. Perhaps something in the style of Legacy, maybe adapting the Mysthea rules to that. Her suggestion was more about players managing neighborhood needs in and of themselves. I’m not sure how exactly that would work, but I dig the idea. She also mentioned adapting it for Urban Shadows, where many PCs have a neighborhood or territory they protect, hunt, and/or manage.
 
Finally, I’m considering how to change this up for factions and institutions. Corporate playbooks in The Sprawl or The Veil could be a great way to define the setting’s foes. A mini-version could work for Blades in the Dark. I’m definitely going to use it for Hearts of Wulin, where players begin with a faction they’re connected to (raised in, exiled from, hunted by). It could be a great way to develop the setting’s backdrop and build player investment.

Star Wars Saturday

Witch Squadron (Session 1 of 3)
Rich Rogers runs for Bethany H., Gerrit Reininghaus, Keith Stetson, and Sabine V.
The new recruits to the Witch Squadron make their first flights on rickety Clone Wars-era Y-Wings. Things break, a pilot washes out. Things don't go smooth.

TGI Thursday

Mutants in the Night (Session 2 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Christopher Walborn, Jason Zanes, and Leandro Pondoc
Their shark-toothed fixer offers the crew several jobs and they opt to aid The Clinic again by retrieving stolen medicine from a wasp-filled gang bunker.

Gauntlet Quarterly

Masks: Prospect Academy (Session 5)
Leandro Pondoc runs for David Morrison, Ludovico Alves, Ryan M., and Sabine V.
As Prospect Academy rolls into October, the uhh prospect of a school dance, the Silver Masquerade, looms in the horizon as its pupils deal with schoolwork, time travel, a hostile school president and lurking, unseen anxieties. Kasey deals with the fallout of her mother's capriciousness, Mary grapples with the complicated nature of time travel, Serenade faces off against the new president and Zero-G battles Charles Dickens for a decent grade.

Impulse Drive: Coriolis (Session 1)
Lowell Francis runs for Patrick Knowles, Sherri, and Steven desJardins
We do character creation and then set our new crew of artifact seekers off into the dark where they find a extraction stymied by a mysterious planetside conflict.

Gauntlet Comics

Masks: The Best Worst Things About Fall (Session 1 of 3)
Chris Newton runs for Alex, Rich Rogers, Sarah J., and Sawyer Rankin
Worst crew encountering people dressed even more ridiculously than a golden age superhero: commedia dell'arte stock characters!

Monsterhearts 2: Super Juvie (Session 2 of 5)
Rich Rogers runs for Joe Zantek, Leandro Pondoc, Misha B, and Peter Mazzeo
The students of New Guard Academy participate in a basketball game, plot and flirt, then wake up...on a beach?

Gauntlet Hangouts

Trophy Gold: Tomb of the Serpent Kings (Sessions 1-2 of 2)
Jason Cordova runs for Fraser Simons and Tyler Lominack

Ross Rifles
Stentor Danielson runs for Jeremiah Pena, Kristina, Maria M., and Steven desJardins
In which our scrappy band of Canadian soldiers check out the local ecology of no man's land and take a German prisoner, much to the consternation of Lieutenant McConnell.

The Veil Fantasy: Kriusthos (Session 2 of 4)
Ludovico Alves runs for David Walker, Marcolo, Maria M., and Pearl Zare
The group is asked to act as deal-brokers of a contract. They slowly pierce out that there is more to it than it initially seem and try to stop the same deal they are facilitating.

Apocalypse World: Rusted Trust (Session 1)
Sawyer Rankin runs for Christopher Walborn, Robbie Boerth, Robert Angus, and Steven
The group gathers together and we start piecing together a world of reclaimed nature, terraforming gone wrong, and animals which have mutated and gone Jurassic Park on us. Our world is a view of Bioshock on land, bridged together by a Battlebabe, a Brainer, a Hocus, and a Show. We start off with a religious picnic which goes wrong, find a hippie commune from the 70s era scare days, and end on what seems to be gunning for a Cult vs Cult battle.

Legend of the Five Rings: Topaz Championship (Session 1 of 3)
Ludovico Alves runs for Josh H and Pawel S.
Let's learn L5R 5th edition! Let's see what a Dragon and a Scorpion get up to in the village of Tsuma!

Free From The Yolk: Land of the Dragonslayers (Session 2 of 4)
Ludovico Alves runs for Greg G., Mikael Tysvær, and Sawyer Rankin
The First Queen leads the efforts against the rebellion, as the Teachers seek to profit from the instability. We unearth an ancient curse created by the forging of a crown and the breaking of a promise, as well as renew the vows between the Horselords and the Land. All while truces are settled and the First Queen Reborn is only increasing in power.

Lighthearted: The Tea (Session 1)
Kurt Potts runs for Barry, Lauren, Pearl Zare, and Puckett
In this session, we create characters and do an intro scene. Four college students at the El Camino Community College of Magic and Technology. Are drawn together by a professor. Next week we'll see what happens when your mentor spills everyone's baggage all over the table of a tea shop.

Spire: Ironshrike (Session 3 of 3)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Gabriel Robinson and Pawel S.
Somewhere within the tangled web of factions and desperation that comprise the market of Ironshrike, somewhere is the right combination of allies and enemies that could spark change into this corner of Spire. Varda is reminded of her duties as midwife to the drow and Nirvic prepares a con for the ages.

Rapscallion: A Night at the Opera (Session 1 of 2)
Alun R. runs for Alexi S., Julie Rogers, Leah Libresco Sargeant, and Robert Angus
Captain Nightshade's intention to steal two mystically engraved organ pipes from St Sucre's Grand Opera House is complicated first by a fire, and then by the rest of his crew. Clay Golem Raku is always eager to get things right and follows instructions (very) literally before losing its cool and swatting away a platoon of Marines. Clance, the only crew member possessed by a Demon (as far as we know), can't resist "all the shiny things" and finds himself between a fire and an angry crowd. St. Sucre's great and good, before cutting the rope securing a candelabra and shooting to the roof. Jamie, the ship's Chronicler, prefers a quiet read and keeps her angry djinn in its bad-tempered place, but seeing everyone's aura is a strain that she can't contain when confronted by a previous employer. Through it all Captain Nightshade keeps his cool (and his organ pipes) so they can help him chart a route through the Deathwaters next time in...Rapscallions.

Urban Shadows: Vienna, 1950 (Session 2 of 4)
Alexi S. runs for Eli S., Leandro Pondoc, Pearl Zare, and Sarah J.
Salomé, the Tainted outrider of the Wild Hunt, has arrived, so the party can get started! Tonight, Vienna will be rocked by poisonings, out-of-body experiences, and more-or-less inept attempts at seduction and assassination. Cosima acquires a very haunted cabinet. Emilie snoops her way into so much trouble that only letting out her inhuman side can save her. And Sophie/Johannes commits herself to aiding Salomé's hit job on an American colonel, whether she wants it or not.

The Bat Hack: All-American Girls: Mrs October (Session 1 of 5)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Catherine Ramen, and Rich Rogers
We re-learn the ropes with a short roster as the Gauntlet City Gals head back to Detroit to face the Debs in Game 1 of the Championship Series!

Hack the Planet: A Sky Reflected in Terror (Session 2 of 5)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Alun R., Josh H, Parham Doustdar, and Rob Ruthven
A simple job: infiltrate a derelict lab, extract a brilliant gene-hacker and escape before Acts of God or well-armed scavengers get in their way. Terribly straightforward, yes? Lincoln evades the spotlights in the sky, Nova dives deep into the lab's security workings, Shadow dives through the sky with ease and Mellow confronts a strange, cybernetic attacker.

Lighthearted: The Tea Gets Dark (Session 3 of 3)
Kurt Potts runs for Barry, Lauren, Pearl Zare, and Puckett
In this session, we find out what Kyle's been up to and why Baylee got so upset with Dr. P in the previous session.

Night Witches: September 2019: Pashkovskaya/Rudnya (Session 4 of 4)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Maria M., Mike Ferdinando, and Puckett
The Natural Born Soviet Airwomen of the 588th settle in to their new Duty Station with an unusual mission.

Night Witches: October 2019: Rudnya (Session 1 of 4)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Eli S., Maria M., and Sarah J.
It was a Dark and Stormy Night for the 588th. Transfers to cover losses mean the return of former comrades.

Apocalypse World (Session 2 of 5)
Lowell Francis runs for John Campbell, Peter Mazzeo, Scot Ryder, and Steven desJardins
After the attack on The Mud Pit, the group looks into who is pushing the war brewing behind the scenes of the settlement.

The Bat Hack: Mrs October (Session 3 of 5)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Catherine Ramen, Jesse A., and Rich Rogers
The Gauntlet City Gals face the Detroit Debs in Game 2 of the 5-game All American Girls Professional Baseball League Championship.

Trophy Gold: Tomb of the Serpent Kings (Session 3)
Jason Cordova runs for Fraser Simons and Tyler Lominack
Our treasure hunters meet their end as they push their luck against a basilisk.

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