Apocalypse World - BurnedOver

APOCALYPSE WORLD: BURNED OVER
This hackbook is a guide to using Apocalypse World to play AW:Burned Over. It’s not a stand-
alone game. As MC, you’ll need to be familiar with the rules of Apocalypse World and you’ll
need a copy of the Apocalypse World MC book for reference.
WHAT'S THE SAME

• You’re the MC, everybody else is a player. They each choose a playbook, no dupes.
• All the rules the players need are in their playbooks, plus the basic moves sheet and
the standard moves sheet (“standard moves” is just Burned Over’s name for peripheral
moves). The players don’t need to know the material in the Apocalypse World MC book or
in this hackbook.
• Your agenda is and remains: make the post-apocalypse seem real, make the PCs’ lives
interesting to you, and play to find out what the PCs make of their world.
• Always say what the rules demand, what your prep demands, and what honesty demands.
Follow the same principles and use the same general MC moves.
• In the first session, follow the characters around. Give them an interesting day, push
them where they’re off-balance, find out what’s up, leave yourself things to wonder about,
and start working on your threat map.
• Between sessions, think about your threats as motivated people and dynamic situations,
and update your threat map. You can use the normal Apocalypse World threat sheets to
write up your threats.
• When in doubt, follow the rules of Apocalypse World.
WHAT’S THE SAME … MOSTLY

The playbooks:
• Looks are gone, replaced by first impressions.
• Highlighted stats are gone, replaced by experience bubbles.
• Some moves are tagged “highly interruptable.”
The basic & standard moves:
• Aggro is a stat now, and going aggro is replaced by confronting someone.
• Hot’s no longer a stat, and you use cool for both acting under fire and charming or
deceiving someone, Burned Over’s version of seducing or manipulating them.
• All the battle moves are gone, replaced by doing battle, which is, of course, a version of
seizing by force.
• Helping or interfering has been split into helping someone and interrupting
someone, and neither work exactly like the old move.
• Notice the rules for highly interruptable moves. Notice also the rules for making moves
and for simultaneous moves.
• Instead of Apocalypse World’s system of peripheral moves, in Burned Over, having
certain equipment, allies, or belongings now gives you access to standard moves.
The effects:
Effects are a secondary series of stats.
• Weapon ratings and armor ratings work as in Apocalypse World.
• Everyone has a Ψ (psi) rating, representing their psychic strength and will. A number of
moves use it as an active or a defensive stat.
• The barter rating replaces the old system of tracking barter, gigs and lifestyle.
• The environ (environmental damage) rating measures the character’s ability to do
large-scale, structural damage to their surroundings.
2
WHAT'S NEW
Hard Zones:
During character creation, by yourself or with the players, choose the game’s Hard Zone.
The Hard Zone you choose gives you a list of thematic locations to play with. Several of the
playbooks make use of Hard Zone locations.
Threats:
Many of the threats are the same as in Apocalypse World, just renamed, like brutes to clans.
However, the old allies types, from advancing seduce & manipulate, now appear as reliables,
and there are two entirely new threat types as well: institutions and pinpoints.
Gamechangers:
Gamechangers are substantial changes to the game, affecting all the players. Early in play,
you choose which gamechanger is on the horizon. The players choose in play, as part of their
experience & advancement system, when to unlock it.
CONTENTS
2 INTRODUCTION 58 HARD ZONES
What’s the same and what’s new. What the world is made of.
4 PLAYBOOKS 62 THREATS
Download the standalone playbooks at NPCs, places, situations, institutions.
lumpley.games/burnedover.
70 GAMECHANGERS
44 BASIC MOVES Sweeping changes, unlockable.
Moves everyone can make.
72 THE LOST SWORD
47 STANDARD MOVES A gamechanger, a new superweapon.
Moves that go with stuff.
74 NOTES & CREDITS
50 EFFECTS
Weapons, armor, Ψ, barter, environ.
DOWNLOAD THE PLAYBOOKS AT

LUMPLEY.GAMES/BURNEDOVER
3
STATS MOVES EFFECTS HARM
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
12
AGGRO  Experience 9 3
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
someone  Stabilized
COOL 
Experience When life becomes untenable:
Do battle
ARMOR  Return to play with -1Hard.
 Return to play with +1Weird.
 Return to play with a new
playbook.
HARD  Experience  Die.
Ψ
Read someone
Read a situation SCAVENGE
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You’re known, and feared by
some, but you won’t use your
Open your brain to
BARTER psychic abilities just to exploit
or extort people. You have
the world’s psychic 2-barter.
maelstrom
 When your resources run thin,
WEIRD  Experience
you’re more than willing to
Hx ENVIRON use your psychic abilities to

exploit and extort people. You
Help someone have 3-barter.
Interrupt someone
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
Mark 3 Experience >>  >> Improve:
 Get +1Aggro (max Aggro+2).
 Get +1Cool (max Cool+2).
 Get +1Sharp (max Sharp+2).
 Get a new Brain-picker move.
 Get a new Brain-picker move.
 Get 2 new Brain-picker gear.
 Establish a venue and get wealth.
 Establish a following and get devotion.
 Get a move from an unused playbook.
 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

 Unlock a gamechanger.
 Create an additional character to play.
 Retire your character to safety.
NAME: THE BRAIN-PICKER
When they burned the world down, they
didn’t know what would grow in its ashes. They
PRONOUNS:
didn’t know that we would be born, we with our
eager, hungry brains, our unblinkered eyes, our
whispering, dangerous voices.
1st IMPRESSION
BRAIN-PICKER MOVES
 Deep brain scan*: When you have time to study someone, you can read them more deeply
than usual. Read someone, but roll+Weird, and in addition to the usual questions, you can
choose from these:
• What was your lowest moment?
• What unfinished business do you have, and with whom?
• What is your deepest secret fear?
• How could I really get my hooks into you?
On a miss, their brain freaks out and they suffer Ψ-harm instead.
 Embrace the maelstrom: You get +1Weird (max Weird+3). You get +1Ψ (max 2-Ψ).
 In-brain puppet strings*: When you have the time and opportunity to work on someone,
you can put psychic puppet strings into their brain. Roll+Weird. On a 10+, hold 3 against
them. On a 7–9, hold 1. From then on, whenever you want, you can spend 1 of your hold to
whisper an order directly into their brain. If they follow it, good. If they resist, they suffer
Ψ-harm instead, but your hold is still spent. On a miss, their brain freaks out and they
suffer Ψ-harm instead.
 Mesmerizing whisper*: When you whisper gently to someone, you can charm or deceive
them, but roll+Weird. Furthermore, when they choose how to respond, they can’t choose to
call you out to your face.
 The maelstrom, manifest: You can unleash the world’s psychic maelstrom as a destructive
physical force: environ=Ψ, close-far, can’t be brought to bear on a specific target.
OTHER MOVES
* This is a highly interruptible move.

BRAIN-PICKER GEAR
 Brain frequency resonator (hi-tech, worn)
Gives the wearer +1Ψ (max 2-Ψ).
 Deep earplugs (hi-tech, worn)
Protects the wearer from all Brain‑picker moves and gear, and from many other sources
of Ψ-harm.
 Engineered nerve tick (hi-tech, touch)
Apply to someone’s skin. Embeds itself into their nerve pathways. From now on, simple
proximity to them counts as the time and opportunity to work on them. (Applies to in-
brain puppet strings and potentially to other moves and effects.)
 In-eye brain-lenses (hi-tech, worn)
For the wearer, casually watching someone for a moment counts as taking the time to
study them. (Applies to deep brain scan and potentially to other moves and effects.)
 Pain-wave projector (1-harm ap, area, hi-tech, loud, reset)
Goes off like a reusable grenade. Hits everyone but you.
 Psychic overload chamber
You have an enclosed chamber that acts as a psychic antenna, giving you access to
augury.
SMALL FANCY WEAPONS

 Antique handgun (2-harm, close, loud, reload, valuable)
 Handmade silenced handgun (2-harm, close, hi-tech)
 Hidden knives (2-harm, hand, hidden)
 Ornate dagger (2-harm, hand, valuable)
 Scalpels (3-harm, hi-tech, intimate, valuable)
CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

THE BRAIN-PICKER
To create your Brain-picker, choose name
& pronouns, 1st impression, stats, effects,
GEAR
moves, gear, and Hx. You get:
• 2 Brain-picker gear.
NAME • 1 small fancy weapon.
• Clothing you detail, including at your
Smith, Jones, Jackson, Marsh, Lively, option a piece worth 1-armor.
Burroughs, or Gritch. • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Joyette, Iris, Marie, Amiette, Suselle, or suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Cybelle. and moves.
Pallor, Sin, Charmer, Pity, Brace, or Sundown.
Choose your pronouns. Hx
Everyone introduces their characters by
name, pronouns, look and outlook. Take
1st IMPRESSION your turn.
Choose 1 or more, and add your own:
List the other characters’ names.
Awkward, beautiful, cold, courteous, creepy,
distracted, hungry, impatient, implacable, Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
inquisitive, kindly, nervous, restrained, 1 or both:
secretive, serious, staring, strange, sweet, • Are any of you actually, honestly
unhealthy. uncomfortable hanging out with me?
For those characters, write Hx+3.
STATS • Do any of you seem dangerous and
unpredictable to me?
Choose a set: For those character, write Hx+2.
Aggro-2, Cool+1, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird+2
For everyone else, or if no one volunteers
Aggro+1, Cool=0, Hard=0, Sharp=0, Weird+2
at all, write Hx+1. You have weird insights
Aggro-1, Cool+1, Hard-2, Sharp+2, Weird+2 into everyone.
Aggro-1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp=0, Weird+2
On the others’ turns, volunteer if you like.
EFFECTS IMPROVEMENT
When you choose your gear, list your armor
and your weapon, including tags and harm. When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
harm, mark Experience. When you’ve
By default you have 0-Ψ, but your gear and marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
moves might give you 1-Ψ or 2-Ψ. and mark 1 toward Improvement.
You have Barter per your Scavenge.
Then, when you’ve marked 3 toward
By default you have 0-environ, but your moves Improvement, erase those marks and
might give you 1-environ or 2-environ. choose an option for your character. Check
it off; you can’t choose that option again.
HARD ZONE
Ask your MC which Hard Zone is in play, or
else choose with the other players.
You can adapt your gear and other options to
the Hard Zone as necessary.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. Choose 2 Brain-
picker moves.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
12
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You always have an abundance
of interesting and useful
Open your brain to
BARTER things to trade. You have
2-barter.
the world’s psychic
maelstrom  In addition to your
trade goods, you have a
stranglehold, you’re the
Hx ENVIRON only source for a particular

thing that the people around
Help someone you love or need. You have
Interrupt someone 3-barter.
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get +1Weird (max Weird+3).
 Get a new Gearcutter move.
 Get a new Gearcutter move.
 Add a medlab to your workshop (workspace: healing).
 Add weird tech to your workshop (workspace: Ψ).

NAME: THE GEARCUTTER
Before they set fire to the world, they knew
everything. They knew the workings of light,
of time, of human life, of space and of atoms.
PRONOUNS: Everything.
When you know everything, will you set fire to the
world too?
1st IMPRESSION
GEARCUTTER MOVES
 Assay the salvage: When you read a situation, as a free additional question, you can ask:
• What’s the most useful, valuable, or mysterious thing here?
 Bonefeel: At the beginning of the session, roll+Weird. On a 10+, hold 1+1. On a 7–9, hold
1. At any time, either you or the MC can spend your hold to have you already be there, with
the proper tools and knowledge, with or without any clear explanation why. If your hold
was 1+1, take +1forward now. On a miss, the MC holds 1, and can spend it to have you be
there already, but somehow pinned, caught or trapped.
 The mind’s fraying edge: You have one piece of Brain-picker gear. Ask the MC what it is.
You also get +1Ψ (max 2-Ψ).
 Oftener right: When another player’s character comes to you for advice, tell them what
you honestly think the best course is. If they do it, they take +1 to any rolls they make in
the doing, and you mark 1 toward Improvement.
 Things speak: Whenever you handle or examine something interesting, roll+weird. On a
hit, you can ask the MC questions. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7–9, ask 1:
• Who handled this last before me?
• Who made this?
• What strong emotions have been most recently nearby this?
• What words have been said most recently nearby this?
• What has been done most recently with this, or to this?
• What’s wrong with this, and how might I fix it?
Treat a miss as though you’ve opened your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom and
missed the roll.
OTHER MOVES
 Tinkering

SALVAGE GROUNDS
You have a workshop full of tools, parts, components, and scrap (workspace: machinery,
tech). You also get tinkering.
You go out into dangerous territory to salvage. To create your salvage grounds, choose Hard
Zone locations for up to 5:
: I have allowance from the local warlord to scavenge here and

keep anything I find.
I have a trade agreement here, goods for goods, food and
:
basics for parts and tech.
I deal direct with the scroungers here, anything strange they
:
find, they keep for me to look at.
I know secret ruins near here, where sometimes you can find
:
ancient machinery.
The collapsed city here created layers of salvage, warrened
:
through by scavengers.
The traders who come through here sometimes have strange
:
goods from distant places.
There’s lost treasure here, but only if you know how to look
:
for it.
You define:
REPURPOSED WEAPONS
 Blowtorch (2-harm, fire, hand)
 CO2 Spike gun (2-harm, close, reload)
 Demolition hammer (2-harm, hand, brutal)
 Nailgun, safety disabled (1-harm, close, burstfire, loud)
 Pipe grenade (1-environ, thrown, single use: )

THE GEARCUTTER
To create your Gearcutter, choose name
GEAR
• Salvage grounds.
NAME • 1 repurposed weapon.
Leah, Joshua, Tai, Ethan, Bran, Jeremy, option a piece worth 1-armor.
Amanuel, Justin, Jessica, Eliza, Dylan, Adnan, • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Alan, Nils, Ellen, Lee, Kim, or Adele. suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Leone, Burdick, Oliver, Goldman, Whiting, and moves.
Fauci, Hossfield, Lemma, Morrell, Ozair,
Robinson, Lemieux, Whitmont, Cullen, or Hx
Spector. Everyone introduces their characters by
Choose your pronouns. name, pronouns, look and outlook. Take
your turn.
1st IMPRESSION List the other characters’ names.
Choose 1 or more, and add your own: Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
Artistic, bookish, bored, clueless, creative, 1, 2 or all 3:
curious, distracted, indifferent, insightful, • Which of you seems to me like the biggest
inventive, manipulative, mild, obsessive, potential problem?
remote, restless, shy. For that character, write Hx+2.
• I go out into dangerous territory to salvage.
STATS Who usually comes with me?
Choose a set:
• Do any of you abuse or really neglect your
Aggro-2, Cool+1, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird+2 gear?
Aggro+1, Cool-1, Hard=0, Sharp+1, Weird+2 For those characters, write Hx-1.
Aggro-1, Cool=0, Hard=0, Sharp+2, Weird+2
For everyone else, or if no one volunteers at
Aggro+1, Cool+1, Hard-1, Sharp=0, Weird+2 all, write Hx‑1. You’re more insightful about
things than about people.
EFFECTS On the others’ turns, volunteer if you like.
and your weapon, including tags and harm.
By default you have 0-Ψ, but a move might give
IMPROVEMENT
you 1-Ψ. When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
You have Barter per your Scavenge. marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
You have 0-environ. and mark 1 toward Improvement.
HARD ZONE Improvement, erase those marks and
Ask your MC which Hard Zone is in play, or choose an option for your character. Check
else choose with the other players. it off; you can’t choose that option again.
You can adapt your gear to the Hard Zone as
necessary.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. Choose 2
Gearcutter moves.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
SEE —» 12
REVER SE
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You don’t hold yourself above
your holding’s population, but
Open your brain to
BARTER live like them, subject to the
same tides of plenty and want.
the world’s psychic You have 1-barter.
maelstrom
 No matter what changing
fortunes bring to your holding
Hx ENVIRON and its people, you live above

and you always take your
Help someone share first. You have 3-barter.
Interrupt someone
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get +1Hard (max Hard+2).
 Get a new Lawmaker move.
 Add an option and a surplus to your holding.
 Add an option and a surplus to your holding.
 Add an option to your holding and erase a want.

NAME: THE LAWMAKER
Here in the ashes of the world, there’s not
much law to be found. Most places, if someone’s
PRONOUNS:
wronged, they’re on their own.
Your holding is a kind of oasis. Your law is a kind
of water, sweet and cold after too long without.
1st IMPRESSION
LAWMAKER MOVES
 The Law speaks to you †: when someone breaks your laws, roll+Weird. On a 10+, the Law
allows you to choose:
• You let them off with a warning, reduced penalty, or reprieve.
• You make an exception for them and they have no blame.
• They must face the full penalty.
On a 7-9, the MC tells you which the Law will allow. On a miss, or if you are unable to obey
the Law’s requirements, responsibility falls to you, and you must pay the penalty yourself.
You may choose to pay it in full, in reduced form, or only symbolically.
 Ears in the walls †: At the beginning of the session, roll+Sharp. On a 10+, hold 3. On a
7–9, hold 2. During the session, spend your hold 1 for 1 to name a person who’s living in or
visiting your holding, and ask what they’re up to right now. The MC has to answer frankly.
On a miss, hold 1 anyway.
 Forbidding presence: When you enter into a situation, roll+Cool. On a 10+, both. On a
7–9, choose 1:
• If anyone here has broken your laws or betrayed your holding, they can’t meet your eyes. Ask the
MC who can’t.
• If anyone here intends to break your laws or intends you harm, they move involuntarily away from
you. Ask the MC who does.
On a miss, if you have any enemies here, they panic and immediately move against you.
 Right hand: You have a lieutenant who isn’t just competent and loyal, they are, as the
saying goes, reliable. Detail them now with the MC.
 Taskmaster: When you give orders to a non-gang body of people who answer to you (eg
your holding’s population, your followers, your assistants or crew) use Leadership, even
though they’re not a gang.
OTHER MOVES
 Leadership
 Wealth

† This move requires you to have a holding and laws.
HOLDING
You have a holding, a settlement where a population of about 100 lives and works,
defended by a gang of about 20 (gang: medium 2-harm 1-armor). You get wealth for your
holding and leadership for your gang. Your holding includes your laws:
 General laws that everybody should follow. Name a few:
 One law that everybody knows not to break, or else. Name it:
And choose 3 more options:

 A bustling marketplace, traders & caravans coming through.
 A champion, a flashy, deadly showoff named .
 A champion, a serious, deadly person named .
 Electricity, heat, refrigeration, running water.
 Gorgeous, luxe rooms for whoever can afford them.
 A high watchtower with a commanding view.
 A place that holds a secret, silent and difficult to get to.
 A powerful stronghold (1-armor, gives defenders +1 size).
 A source of beautiful, pure, clean water.
 A scouting & raiding party separate from your gang.
 Something cool that one of the other PCs wants it to have:
 A trade agreement & peace accord with (choose a Hard Zone location):
For your holding’s surplus, circle 3: Art, development projects, exploration, feasting, food
storage, growth, healing, intrigue, luxe goods, music, parties, performance, pit fights, profit, pure
water, relaxation, trade, transport, visiting strangers, worship.
For its wants, circle 2: Abandonment, disease, extremism, hoarding, hunger, outcasts, power
struggles, ruthlessness, vendettas, violence.
NO-NONSENSE WEAPONS
 Big knife (2-harm, hand)
 Handmade pistol (2-harm, close, loud, reload)
 Hatchet (3-harm, hand)
 Sawed off (3-harm, close, messy, reload)

THE LAWMAKER
To create your Lawmaker, choose name
GEAR
• A holding.
NAME • 2 no-nonsense weapons.
Nbeke, Allison, Kobe, Kreider, Tranh, Marco, option a piece worth 1-armor.
Sadiq, Vega, Lang, Lin, or Jackson. • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Madame, Barbecue, Grandma, Uncle, Parson, suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Barnum, Colonel, or Mother Superior. moves, and holding.
Choose your pronouns.
Hx
1st IMPRESSION Everyone introduces their characters by
Choose 1 or more, and add your own: your turn.
Busy, calculating, dangerous, domineering, List the other characters’ names.
generous, gorgeous, gracious, hardnosed,
hardworking, hospitable, indolent, kind, regal, Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
ruthless. 1, 2 or all 3:
• Which of you has been with me the longest,
STATS since before?
For that character, write Hx+2.
Choose a set: • Have any of you ever betrayed or stolen
Aggro+1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp+1, Weird=0 from me?
Aggro=0, Cool+2, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird-1 For those characters, write Hx+3.
Aggro-1, Cool+2, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird=0 • Which of you is my favorite?
Aggro+1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp=0, Weird+1 For that character, write Hx+2.
EFFECTS all, write Hx+1. You’re wary, watchful, and
conscientious.
and your weapon, including tags and harm. On the others’ turns, volunteer if you like.
You have 0-Ψ.
You have Barter per your Scavenge. IMPROVEMENT
You have 0-environ. When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
HARD ZONE marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
and mark 1 toward Improvement.
else choose with the other players. Then, when you’ve marked 3 toward
Improvement, erase those marks and
choose an option for your character. Check
necessary.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. You get the law,
and choose 1 more Lawmaker move.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
12
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  People support you out of
appreciation, and you turn
Open your brain to
BARTER all their support back into
resources for providing more
the world’s psychic care. You have 0-barter.
maelstrom
 People support you out of
appreciation, and you’re able
Hx ENVIRON to live a little comfortably on

their gratitude for your care.
Help someone You have 2-barter.
Interrupt someone
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get a new Medic move.
 Get a new Medic move.
 Add an option to your refuge.

NAME: THE MEDIC
When you’re lying in the ashes, burned and
smashed and spilt, what do you hope for? More
PRONOUNS:
time, revenge, restitution, to finish what you
started, to undo what you did, to do what you
didn’t? A second chance? Friend, here it is.
1st IMPRESSION
MEDIC MOVES
 Field medic: When somebody’s suffered harm, you can help. Roll+Sharp. On any hit, you
stabilize them: their injuries won’t get worse, and you can safely move them. On a 10+,
they recover 1harm as well. On a miss, you see at once that there’s nothing you can do for
them. Choose 1:
• I do my best for them, even though it won’t make a difference.
• I break it to them compassionately and stay with them.
• I walk away.
 Guardian angel: When you kneel over someone who has fallen, you and they both get
+2armor.
 Healing touch: Put your hands on someone injured and roll+Weird. On a 10+, choose 3.
On a 7–9, choose 2:
• Your touch takes their pain away.
• Your touch heals their tissue damage and stops their bleeding.
• Your touch knits their bones back together.
• Your touch removes their disease or purges their infection.
…And ask the MC whether they heal 1-harm or 2-harm. On a miss, you take their pain
away, but they heal 0-harm.
 Know your enemy: When you read a situation, as a free additional question, always ask:
• How might this situation turn [more] violent?
 Sixth sense: At the beginning of the session, roll+Sharp. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold
1. Any time during the session, spend 1 of your hold to ask the MC what your sixth sense
is telling you. The MC should answer with a warning, an assurance, a clue, or an insight
of some kind. On a miss, your sixth sense makes you paranoid and mistrustful. Choose
another player’s character and take -1 to your Hx with them.
OTHER MOVES

REFUGE
You have a refuge where people can live, work, and heal. It includes (choose 4):
 Access to unexplored underground chambers
Ancient, echoing, and mysterious.
 Armed guards (gang: small, 2-harm 1-armor)
You also get leadership.
 Armored walls
Provides a +1armor bonus to defenders.
 A cult (following: small; devotions: comfort, worship; demands: teaching, worship)
Worshipers of the (circle 1) ghosts / life / gods that your refuge represents to them. You
also get devotion.
 A garden of green, growing plants
Providing healthy food and simple medicines.
 Life support & medlab (workspace: healing)
You also get tinkering.
 A reliable source of fresh, clean water
A beautiful fountain, giant collection tanks, or just a cracked underground pipe that
somehow runs clear.
 A security system of some kind
Cameras & motion detectors, or else tripwires, booby traps, and rigged floors.
 Skilled assistants
Give them names, looks and outlooks with the MC.
 A thoughtful NPC caretaker (advisor)
You also get insight.
DEFENSIVE WEAPONS
 Crude handmade pistol (2-harm, close, loud, reload)
 Stun gun (s-harm, hand, reload)

THE MEDIC
To create your Medic, choose name &
pronouns, 1st impression, stats, effects,
GEAR
• Your refuge.
NAME • 1 defensive weapon.
Dou, Bon, Abe, Boo, T, Kal, Bai, Char, Jav, option a piece worth 1-armor.
Ruth, Wei, Jay, Nee, Kim, Lan, Di, or Dez. • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Doc, Core, Wheels, Buzz, Key, Gabe, Biz, Bish, suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Line, Inch, Grip, or Setter. moves, and refuge.
Hx
Angry, caring, crude, cute, dogged, fixated, List the other characters’ names.
giving, gunshy, handsome, haunted, impatient,
intense, irreverent, patient, skeptical, Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
standoffish, worn down. 1, 2 or all 3:
• Do I figure that any of you are doomed to
STATS self-destruction?
For those characters, write Hx-2.
Choose a set: • Have any of you ever put a hand in when it
Aggro+1, Cool+1, Hard=0, Sharp+2, Weird-1 mattered, and helped me save lives?
Aggro=0, Cool-1, Hard+1, Sharp+2, Weird+1 • Have any of you been beside me all along,
Aggro-1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp+2, Weird=0 and seen everything I’ve seen?
EFFECTS For everyone else, or if no one volunteers at
all, write Hx+1. You keep your eyes open.
You have 0-Ψ.
necessary.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. You get field
medic, and choose 1 more Medic move.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
12
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You are devoted to your
people and share their good
Open your brain to
BARTER times and bad, you don’t hold
yourself above or apart from
the world’s psychic them. You have 1-barter.
maelstrom
 You’re willing to let your
people support you and live
Hx ENVIRON well off their devotion to you.

You have 3-barter.
Help someone
Interrupt someone
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get a new Monarch move.
 Get a new Monarch move.
 Add 1 option to your people.
 Add 1 option to your people.

NAME: THE MONARCH
Before the world burned, there was a creature,
the story goes, smaller than your hand, orange and
PRONOUNS:
black. It could fly, and it loved flowers, and it was
so powerful that they gave its name to kings and
queens.
1st IMPRESSION
MONARCH MOVES
 Artful & gracious: When you perform your chosen art — any act of expression or culture
— or when you put its product before an audience, roll+Cool. On a 10+, spend 3. On a 7–9,
spend 1. Spend 1 to name an NPC member of your audience and choose one:
• This person must meet me. • This person must have my services.
• This person loves me. • This person must give me a gift.
• This person admires my patron.
On a miss, you gain no benefit, but suffer no harm or lost opportunity. You simply perform
very well.
 The grapevine: when you want to know something about someone distant, roll+Cool. On a
10+, ask the MC 3 questions. On a 7-9, ask 1. The MC has to answer frankly.
• How are they doing? what’s up with them? • What or who do they love best?
• Who do they know, like and/or trust? • When next should I expect to see them?
• How could I get to them, physically or emotionally?
On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but word of your interest reaches them.
 Incandescent*: When you make a show and display of passion — anguish, love, fury,
any — no one who can see you can do anything but watch. You command their absolute
attention. If you choose, you can exempt individual people, by name.
 Lost*: When you whisper someone’s name to the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+Weird.
On a hit, they come to you, with or without any clear explanation why. On a 10+, take
+1forward against them. On a miss, the MC will ask you 3 questions; answer them
truthfully.
OTHER MOVES
 Devotion

YOUR PEOPLE
You have people, a strong and loyal group to whom you belong. They are your following, and
you also get devotion.
Your people are (choose 2):
 Children (devotion: hope, play; demands: protection)
To them you are a parent figure.
 Choppers (devotion: battle, transport; demands: discipline, maintenance)
They are your gang: small 2-harm 1-armor bikes. To them you are their gang boss. You
also get leadership.
 A cult (devotion: comfort, worship; demands: teaching)
To them you are a prophet, so think up your teachings.
 Elders (devotion: insight; demands: obedience)
They are your advisors. To them you are a young leader, worth their wisdom. You also
get insight.
 Guardians (devotion: battle, protection; demands: discipline)
They are your gang: small 2-harm 1-armor. To them you are their gang boss. You also get
leadership.
 Laborers (devotion: jingle; demands: R&R, solidarity)
Circle 1–3: farming, hunting, manual labor, scavenging, skilled labor, trade labor. To them
you are a leader and organizer.
 Visionary (devotion: insight; demands: flattery)
Your people include a visionary advisor who knows weird things. To them you are a
supplicant. You also get insight.
 Wanderers (devotion: trade; demands: provisions)
To them you are their (circle 1): home base / wayfinder.
DISTINCTIVE WEAPONS
 Beautiful vintage handgun (2-harm, close, loud, reload)
 Custom-made handgun (2-harm, close, loud, reload)
 Hand-forged damascus blade (2-harm, hand)
 Lavishly decorated hunting rifle (2-harm, far, loud, reload)
 Weighted, swinging chain (2-harm, hand)

THE MONARCH
To create your Monarch, choose name &
GEAR
• Your people.
• 1 distinctive weapon.
NAME • Clothing you detail, including at your
October, Venus, Mercury, Dune, Shade, Heron, option a piece worth 1-armor.
Plum, Orchid, Storm, Dusk, Sword, Midnight, • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Hide, Frost, Lawn, June, Icicle, Tern, Lavender, suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Spice, Gazelle, Lion, Peacock, or Grace. moves, and people.
Hx
Caring, clannish, cold, confident, generous,
graceful, hospitable, open, outgoing, polite,
reserved, retiring, self-aware, self-conscious, Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
self-possessed, sly, standoffish, temperamental, 1, 2 or all 3:
warm. • Are any of you my people?
STATS • Have any of you ever stood up to me for
real, and refused to back down, in front of
Choose a set:
my people and everything?
Aggro+1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp+1, Weird=0 For those characters, write Hx+2.
Aggro=0, Cool+2, Hard=0, Sharp=0, Weird+1 • Do any of you wish you were my people, but
Aggro-1, Cool+2, Hard=0, Sharp+2, Weird-1 aren’t?
Aggro+1, Cool+2, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird-2 For those characters, write Hx+2.
EFFECTS all, write Hx+1. You like people and can see
When you choose your gear, list your armor them clearly.
You have 0-Ψ.
You can adapt your gear to the Hard Zone as Improvement, erase those marks and
necessary. choose an option for your character. Check
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. Choose 1 Monarch
move.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
12
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You hold your reputation as
precious, and you’re willing
Open your brain to
BARTER to take a loss when it means
making good and doing right.
the world’s psychic You have 2-barter.
maelstrom
 You weigh your reputation
like any other resource, and
Hx ENVIRON you’re willing to let it take the

hit when doing something
Help someone shady will net you. You have
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get a new Operator move.
 Get a new Operator move.
 Get a new vehicle (you detail).
 Get a garage (workspace: vehicles) and tinkering.

NAME: THE OPERATOR
A few living still remember it: every horizon
scorching hot with civilization in flames, light to
PRONOUNS:
put out the stars and moon, smoke to put out the
sun. Now the horizons are dark and the roads have
torn themselves apart, but a few still travel them.
1st IMPRESSION
OPERATOR MOVES
 Ear to the ground: At the beginning of the session, or whenever there’s a break in play,
name the location of one of your ports of call or another location you care about, and
roll+Cool. On a 10+, word reaches you that (choose 1):
• There’s a great opportunity for you there. Ask the MC what it is.
• Or choose 1 from the 7–9 list below.
On a 7–9, word reaches you that (choose 1):
• They’re facing a serious problem there. Ask the MC what it is.
• Somebody there needs to talk to you. Ask the MC who.
• Something bad is coming your way, and the people there have a warning for you. Ask the MC what
their warning is.
On a miss, word reaches you that:
• Somebody there wants your blood. Ask the MC who.
 Combat driver †: When you use your vehicle as a weapon, inflict +1harm. When you inflict
v-harm, inflict v-harm+1. When you suffer v-harm, suffer v-harm-1.
 Eye on the door: Name your escape route and roll+Cool. On a 10+, sweet, you’re gone.
On a 7–9, you can go or stay, but if you go it costs you: leave something behind, or take
something with you, the MC will tell you what. On a miss, you’re caught vulnerable, half in
and half out.
 Reputation: When you meet someone important (your call), they’ve heard of you.
Roll+Cool. On a 10+, tell the MC what they’ve heard. On a 7–9, tell the MC what they’ve
heard, and the MC tells you what they’ve also heard. On a miss, they’ve still heard of you,
but the MC tells you what they’ve heard.
 Weather eye: When you read a situation, as a free additional question, ask 1 of these:
• What’s on the horizon? What’s coming, what’s gathering?
• What’s my best opportunity here? How might I pull this off?
• If I cut out now, what could I get away with?
OTHER MOVES

† This move requires you to have a vehicle.
YOUR VEHICLE
Choose 1:
 A cagey brute. Frame: pickup (or equivalent for this Hard Zone), massive=3, speed=0,
handling=0, 1-armor. Strengths: rugged, capacious. Looks: rebar & rivets. Weakness: slow.
 A relentless machine. Frame: jeep (or equivalent for this Hard Zone), massive=2, speed=0,
handling+1, 1-armor. Strengths: workhorse, off-road. Looks: vintage. Weaknesses: cramped,
loud.
 A bold devil. Frame: muscle car (or equivalent for this Hard Zone), massive=2, speed+1,
handling+1, 0-armor. Strengths: fast, aggressive. Looks: powerful, flashy. Weaknesses: guzzler,
unreliable.
YOUR PORTS OF CALL

Whatever you need, you know where to go. Choose Hard Zone locations for up to 5:
: I know people here who can get you strange things, curious
things, new things.
I know people here who can get you serious things,
:
dangerous things, weapons, explosives.
I know people here who can get you precious things,
:
beautiful things, wonderful things.
I know people here who can get you ancient things, relics of
:
the golden age before.
I know people here who know people, who can put you in
:
touch with who you need.
I keep flash rooms here. Dinner-and, a soft bed, treat me like
:
a wheel.
I have family and friends I can trust here, who’ll put me up
:
while things blow over.
You define:
HANDY WEAPONS
 Crossbow (2-harm, close-far, reload)
 Crowbar (2-harm, hand, brutal)
 Revolver (2-harm, close, loud, reload)

THE OPERATOR
To create your Operator, choose name &
GEAR
• Your vehicle.
• Your ports of call.
NAME • 1 handy weapon.
Lauren, Audrey, Farley, Sammy, Katherine, • Clothing you detail, including at your
Marilyn, James, Bridget, Paul, Annette, option a piece worth 1-armor.
Marlene, Frankie, Marlon, Kim, Errol, or • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Humphrey. suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Phoenix, Mustang, Impala, Suv, Cougar, Cobra, and moves.
Dart, Gremlin, Jag, or Beemer.
Hx
Choose 1 or more, and add your own: List the other characters’ names.
Angry, detached, cool, gorgeous, handsome,
hardworking, hard-worked, impatient, rock Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
and roll, sexy, sunbleached, sunburnt, twitchy, 1, 2 or all 3:
windburnt, worn out, young. • Have any of you ever stepped in, put it on
the line, and gotten me out of a serious
spot?
STATS For those characters, write Hx+1.
Choose a set: • Have any of you ever been with me for days
Aggro-1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp+2, Weird=0 on the road?
Aggro+1, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp=0, Weird+1 • Have I ever caught any of you staring out at
Aggro+1, Cool+2, Hard+1, Sharp=0, Weird-1 the horizon?
EFFECTS For everyone else, or if no one volunteers at

all, write Hx‑1. You don’t get too attached.
You have 0-Ψ.
You can adapt your gear to the Hard Zone as choose an option for your character. Check
necessary. it off; you can’t choose that option again.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. You get ear to the
ground, and choose 1 more Operator move.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
SEE —» 12
REVER SE
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You have good luck, clean
water, and a good garden. You
Open your brain to
BARTER have 1-Barter.
the world’s psychic  In addition to good luck and
maelstrom a green thumb, you have a
calculating streak and you
know how to wring the most
Hx ENVIRON out of what you have. You

have 2-barter.
Help someone
Interrupt someone
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get a new Undaunted move.
 Get a new Undaunted move.
 Establish a gang and get leadership.
 Establish a holding and get wealth.

NAME: THE UNDAUNTED
Faced with life, faced with death, they chose
to set fire to the world. They burned us into the
scrabbling, frightened things in the ashes that you
PRONOUNS: see now.
Not you. You looked in the face of death, you
looked on the face of life, and you chose to be
unafraid.
1st IMPRESSION
UNDAUNTED MOVES
 Against the odds: When you’re backed in a corner, roll+Aggro. On a 10+, choose 1:
• You have an unexpected ally. Ask the MC who it is.
• You have a desperate opportunity. Ask the MC what it is.
• You have a sudden realization. Ask or tell the MC what it is.
• You find reserves of speed, strength, or endurance. Tell the MC what you can do.
• You have a piece of amazing luck. Ask or tell the MC what it is.
On a 7–9, the MC chooses 1 for you. On a miss, sorry, you’re good and cornered.
 Inheritor: When you were yourself a child, one of your forebears taught you patience,
perspective, and careful thought. When you take time to reflect, it is as though you can sit
with generations of your forebears in counsel, though of course they’re gone. Treat them as
advisors and your reflection as insight.
 Mother bear: When you do battle, no matter what you roll, you get +1hold against your
enemy, which you must spend to guard someone. If there’s no one to guard, you don’t get
the bonus. When you read a person, as a free additional question, always ask:
• Where are you hurting?
 Standing across the threshold: You get +1Ψ (max 2-Ψ).You can confront the world’s
psychic maelstrom as though it were a person. You can also interrupt it. Don’t expect it to
beg for your mercy.
 There in extremity: When the life of someone you care about becomes untenable, you are
there, no matter the barriers, with or without any clear explanation of how you got there.
If you prefer to be there in psychic presence only, not bodily, you can choose to be. For
NPCs, consider their life to become untenable when they’ve taken 2- or 3-harm, dangerous
d-harm, or life-altering Ψ-harm.
OTHER MOVES

YOUR CHILDREN
You have children, born or chosen. Choose and name 1–4:
: Skilled with their hands and tools, a maker.
: Broken and wandering, a seeker among ruins.

: Touched with insights and arcane skills.
: A dancer or athlete, an artist of bodies in motion who can

captivate eyes and hearts.
: Devoted, willing to stand in death’s way for me.
: Brazen and fearless, who will go among your enemies and

return.
: Beautiful and still, watchful and kind.
: Shy and violent, who would undertake to kill for me.
: Smiling, full of laughter.
: Still a young child.
: Now dead and lost to me.

You define:
:
Tell the MC to create them as threats, and to remember that they can be reliables.
POTENTIAL WEAPONS AT HAND

 Box cutter (2-harm, intimate)
 Butcher’s knife (2-harm, hand)
 Shovel (3-harm, hand, brutal)

THE UNDAUNTED
To create your Undaunted, choose name
GEAR
• Your children.
• No weapons, but choose which potential
NAME weapons you might have close to hand.
January, Bell, Canner, Agave, Luna, Christmas, Mark as many as you want.
Brusen, Mama Shakespeare, Westwind, Ocean, • Clothing you detail, including at your
Mastodon. option a piece worth 1-armor.
Choose your pronouns. • Living space and incidentals you detail,
suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
moves, and children.
1st IMPRESSION
Choose 1 or more, and add your own: Hx
Angry, beautiful, calm, cheerful, ferocious, Everyone introduces their characters by
gallows-funny, giving, imposing, independent, name, pronouns, look and outlook. Take
long-suffering, loving, lucky, open-hearted, your turn.
open-minded, patient, peaceful, plainspoken,
rich, warm, worried.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn, if
STATS you want to, you can choose one of the
other characters and invite them to be your
Choose a set: child. If they agree, write Hx+3 for them.
Aggro+2, Cool+1, Hard-1, Sharp+1, Weird=0 Ask everyone else in turn:
Aggro+2, Cool+1, Hard-1, Sharp=0, Weird+1 • Should I take you to be a threat to me or my
Aggro+2, Cool+2, Hard-1, Sharp=0, Weird-1 children?
Aggro+2, Cool=0, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird-1 For the characters you should, write
Hx+3. For the rest, write Hx+1.
and your weapon, including tags and harm. IMPROVEMENT
By default you have 0-Ψ, but a move might give When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
you 1-Ψ. harm, mark Experience. When you’ve
marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
You have Barter per your Scavenge. and mark 1 toward Improvement.
You have 0-environ.
HARD ZONE choose an option for your character. Check
Ask your MC which Hard Zone is in play, or it off; you can’t choose that option again.
necessary.
MOVES
Undaunted moves.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
SEE —» 12
REVER SE
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You don’t make yourself
stand out, you prefer to
Open your brain to
BARTER live unobtrusively with the
people around you and to go
the world’s psychic unnoticed by outsiders. You
maelstrom
have 1-barter.
 You provide valuable services
Hx ENVIRON — warnings and insights — to

the people around you, and
Help someone live a commensurate lifestyle.
Interrupt someone You have 2-barter.
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get a new Vigilant move.
 Get a new Vigilant move.

NAME: THE VIGILANT
When the world burned, its psychic walls fell
and its psychic gates sagged open. There was born
PRONOUNS:
a maelstrom, vast and screaming in fear and hate.
It spawns terrors. Be on guard.
1st IMPRESSION
VIGILANT MOVES
 Sniff the wind: When you read a situation, ask a free additional question. Furthermore,
include these in the list of questions you can ask:
• Who here is most afraid? • Who here is keeping secrets from the rest?
• How close are the wolves? • Who here would do what I ask?
• What or who is the source of the most pain or fear here?
 Bolthole: You have a secure, hidden bunker you can go when things get too hot. It includes:
an old sawed-off (3‑harm close loud reload), food and water for 3 people for 10 days, radio
contact maybe with others out in the world, spyholes and tripwire alarms in case anyone
approaches.
 Lay out a plan: When you lay out a plan, roll+Sharp. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 2.
Over the course of executing the plan, you or any other PC can spend 1 of your hold to get
+1 to any roll, to inflict +1harm, or to suffer -1harm. On a miss, hold 1, but tell the MC that
if it matters, it takes you a long ass time to work your plan out.
 Peel back the disguise* †: When you are present with a wolf of the maelstrom, you can
choose to roll+Weird. On a 10+, everyone here sees them clearly, albeit for only a moment,
before their disguise reasserts itself. On a 7–9, people catch a glimpse, unclearly, and get
an impression of either what they look like or but… Ask the MC which. On a miss, people see
wolves where they are not.
 Your enemy’s methods*: You get +1Ψ (max 2-Ψ). By concentrating with violent intent, you
can use your brain as a weapon. It inflicts ap harm equal to your Ψ (note: not Ψ-harm), at
hand’s reach (harm=Ψ hand ap).
OTHER MOVES
 Devotion

† This move requires the wolves of the maelstrom.
WOLVES OF THE MAELSTROM
You know the wolves of the maelstrom. You might be the only one who does.
Under their disguises, they look like (choose 1):
 people  birds  beasts  insects
 angels  shadows  machines
But (choose 2):
 they have no faces  they don’t stand on the ground
 they have human faces  they make terrible grinding noises
 they have wolves’ faces  they are made of metal and plastic
 they have awful voices  they have empty holes for eyes
 they have no expression  they come and go impossibly
 they’re dripping gore  they’re invisible
 they only howl
Tell the MC the above, and to create them as threats.
HUNTER’S WEAPONS
 Bow (2-harm, close-far, reload)
 Harpoon gun (2-harm, close-far, harpoon)
 Spear thrower (2-harm, close-far)
 Tripwire charge (3-harm, close, messy, set)
 Hunting knife (2-harm, hand)
 Scoped hunting rifle (2-harm, far, loud)
SPECIAL ARMOR
 Elaborately decorated leathers (1-armor)
 Lightweight layered body armor (1-armor)
 Heavy makeshift armor (2-armor)
 Tattooed sigils of protection (2-armor, unreliable)

THE VIGILANT
To create your Vigilant, choose name &
GEAR
moves, gear, and Hx. You create the wolves of the maelstrom.
You also get:
NAME • 2 hunter’s weapons.

• 1 special armor.
Bard, Zand, Vann, Cezar, Giles, Rowan, Greta, • Clothing you detail.
Zeus, Maggie, Hanna, Orion. • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Fenris, Zmeya, Gargoyle, Vulture, Vulpes, Cat, suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Raven, Peregrine, Roadrunner, Mongoose, and moves.
Widow.
Choose your pronouns. Hx
1st IMPRESSION name, pronouns, look and outlook. Take
your turn.
Afraid, astute, calm, courageous, distracted,
insightful, intense, paranoid, patient, sleep- Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
deprived, standoffish, studious, thoughtful, each other character directly: Are you a wolf
unhurried, wary, worried. of the maelstrom?
• If they say yes, tell them what they
STATS look like under their disguise, and write
Hx+1.
Choose a set:
• If they say no, write Hx-1.
Aggro=0, Cool+1, Hard-1, Sharp+2, Weird+1
Aggro+1, Cool-1, Hard+1, Sharp+2, Weird=0 • If they say anything else — that they
don’t know, that they used to be, that
Aggro+1, Cool+1, Hard=0, Sharp+2, Weird-1 they’d rather not say, anything — write
Aggro+2, Cool=0, Hard+1, Sharp+2, Weird-2 Hx+2.
On the others’ turns, volunteer if you like.
EFFECTS
and your weapon, including tags and harm.
IMPROVEMENT
When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
By default you have 0-Ψ, but a move might give harm, mark Experience. When you’ve
you 1-Ψ. marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
You have Barter per your Scavenge. and mark 1 toward Improvement.
By default you have 0-environ, but your Then, when you’ve marked 3 toward
weapons might give you 1-environ. Improvement, erase those marks and
HARD ZONE it off; you can’t choose that option again.
necessary.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. You get sniff the
wind, and choose 1 more Vigilant move.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
SEE —» 12
REVER SE
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You get by on jobs and trading
favors. You won’t straight-out
Open your brain to
BARTER rob people or murder them
for their goods. You have
the world’s psychic 1-barter.
maelstrom
 You’re never willing to
suffer an empty belly or an
Hx ENVIRON unsatisfied want, not when

you can rob and extort. You
Help someone have 3-barter.
Interrupt someone
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Get a new Volatile move.
 Get a new Volatile move.
 Establish a holding and get wealth.

NAME: THE VOLATILE
When they set fire to the world, they burned
away every nuance, every subtlety in creation.
PRONOUNS:
They reduced the world to the flammable and the
flame.
1st IMPRESSION
VOLATILE MOVES
 Armed to the teeth: In addition to your other weapons, you get one serious weapon and
two handy weapons.
 Bug out: Name your escape route and roll+Hard. On a 10+, sweet, you’re gone. On a 7–9,
you can go or stay, but if you go it costs you: leave something behind, or take something
with you, the MC will tell you what. On a miss, you’re caught vulnerable, half in and half
out.
 Dangerous presence: When you enter into a situation, roll+Aggro. On a 10+, choose 2. On
a 7–9, choose 1:
• If I have any enemies here, they put their hands to their weapons. Ask the MC who does.
• If I have any enemies here, they freeze and try to make themselves inconspicuous. Ask the MC
who does.
• If anybody here wants or needs my help, even if they don’t dare signal me, they look relieved to see
me. Ask the MC who does.
• If I have any allies here, they make eye contact with me. Ask the MC who does.
On a miss, if you have any enemies here, they immediately move against you.
 Hold your own: When you do battle against a gang, you count as a small gang yourself.
 Visions of death: When you go into battle, roll+Weird. On a 10+, name one person who’ll
die and one who’ll live. On a 7–9, name one person who’ll die OR one person who’ll live.
Don’t name a player’s character; name NPCs only. The MC will make your vision come true,
if it’s even remotely possible. On a miss, you foresee your own death, and accordingly take
-1 throughout the battle.
OTHER MOVES

VOLATILE GEAR
SERIOUS WEAPONS
 Blade thrower (4-harm, close, harness, loud, reload)
 Flamethrower (1-environ, fire, harness, close, messy)
 Handmade gatling gun (3-harm, area, close-far, harness)
 Heavy shrapnel gun (3-harm, close-far, messy)
 RPG (2-environ, close-far, single use: )
 Scoped sniper rifle (3-harm, far, hi-tech, loud)
HANDY WEAPONS
 Crossbow (2-harm, close-far, reload)
 Demo hammer (2-harm, hand, brutal)
 Machete (3-harm, hand, brutal)
 Molotov (1-environ, fire, thrown, single use: )
 Revolver (2-harm, close, loud, reload)
 Shrapnel gun (2-harm, close, messy)
BODY ARMOR
 Beautiful custom-made body armor (2-armor, valuable)
 Dull, utilitarian body armor (2-armor)
 Intimidating body armor (2-armor)
 Preapocalyptic military body armor (2-armor, hi-tech)
 Scavenged body armor (2-armor)

THE VOLATILE
To create your Volatile, choose name &
GEAR
• 2 serious weapons.
NAME • 2 handy weapons.
• 1 body armor.
Vonk the Sculptor, Batty, Jonker, A.T., Rue • Clothing you detail.
Wakeman, Navarre, Man, Kartak, Barbarossa, • Living space and incidentals you detail,
Keeler, Grekkor, Crille, Doom, or Chaplain. suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
Raksha, Kickskirt, Kite, Monsoon, Smith, and moves.
Beastie, Baaba, Melody, Mar, Tavi, Absinthe, or
Honeytree. Hx
Choose your pronouns. Everyone introduces their characters by
Brash, brave, cool, disciplined, easygoing, Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
held in check, hostile, hot, impatient, 1, 2 or all 3:
imperturbable, no-nonsense, on a hair trigger, • Have any of you fought shoulder to
patient, seething, self-assured, self‑destructive, shoulder with me?
self-possessed, tempestuous, vicious. For those characters, write Hx+3.
• Do any of you think that I’m the problem?
STATS For those characters, write Hx-2.
• Do any of you actually, honestly need
Choose a set:
protecting?
Aggro+2, Cool+1, Hard+1, Sharp=0, Weird-1
Aggro+2, Cool=0, Hard+1, Sharp+1, Weird-1
Aggro+2, Cool-2, Hard+1, Sharp=0, Weird+2 For everyone else, or if no one volunteers at
all, write Hx=0. You don’t see much reason
Aggro+2, Cool-1, Hard+2, Sharp-1, Weird=0 to dig too deeply into people.
When you choose your gear, list your armor.

You have 0-Ψ.
IMPROVEMENT
When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
You have Barter per your Scavenge. harm, mark Experience. When you’ve
By default you have 0-environ, but your marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
weapons might give you 1-environ or and mark 1 toward Improvement.
2-environ.
HARD ZONE choose an option for your character. Check
Ask your MC which Hard Zone is in play, or it off; you can’t choose that option again.
necessary.
MOVES
You get all the basic moves. Choose 2 Volatile
moves.
Countdown
 Experience
Confront someone
SEE —» 12
REVER SE
Act under fire
WEAPON
Charm or deceive 6
COOL 
Do battle
playbook.
Ψ
Read someone
Choose 1:
SHARP  Experience  You don’t eat for pleasure, you
need only fuel. You don’t care
Open your brain to
BARTER for comfort. You sleep little
and in silent dreamlessness.
the world’s psychic You collect no wealth. You
maelstrom
have 0-barter.
 Over your decades as a
Hx ENVIRON machine of war, you have

amassed mountains of spoils,
Help someone tribute, and ransom. You have
  Experience
IMPROVEMENT
 Upgrade: get a new Weaponized move.
 Upgrade: get a new Weaponized move.
 Exchange one of your machine’s options for another.
 Exchange one of your machine’s options for another.

NAME: THE WEAPONIZED
Sift through the ashes of the world and you
find burnt records, broken technology, opaque
PRONOUNS:
data, the leavings of an age now gone forever. But
the world is still burning. Sometimes you find a
hot coal, banked in the ashes. Breathe on it and set
it ablaze.
1st IMPRESSION
WEAPONIZED MOVES
 Concealed weapons: All of your weapons get the hidden tag.
 Impossible strength: You have inhuman strength, speed, and endurance. Any time you
think that your impossible strength might help you, ask the MC to choose:
• You can act under fire to do it, when otherwise you couldn’t.
• You get +1 to your roll, +1choice, or +1hold.
• You get +1harm, you add ap to your attack, or you get +1armor.
 Integrated armaments: Your weapons and armor are built into you. You can’t set them
down and they can’t be taken from you. When you use an integrated weapon to confront
someone, it’s terrifying: take +1 to the roll.
 The Lazarus Device †: When your life becomes untenable, add an option to your machine
and return to play with +1Hard (max Hard+3).
 Rewired reflexes: When you act under fire, roll+Hard instead of rolling+Cool. When you
do battle, you must always spend at least 1hold to seize initiative. When you interrupt
someone, roll+Hard instead of rolling+Hx or rolling+Cool.
 Self-possessed †: When one of your machine’s options activates, but you resist it,
roll+Cool. On a 10+, you’re able to ignore your machine without struggle. On a 7–9, you’re
effectively able to interrupt your machine: you must deal with it somehow instead of doing
what you intended. On a miss, you’re able to resist your machine, but exchange the option
immediately for another.
 Tactical superiority: When you do battle, take +1hold against your enemy.
OTHER MOVES

† This move requires you to have a machine.
YOUR MACHINE
You are not only human, you’re also a machine, built for war. Your machine drives you and
makes demands of you. Choose 2:
 AI override: Tell the MC to create your AI override as a warlord threat. Once per
session, and more often if you choose, tell the MC that your AI override takes over. Ask
the MC what you do.
 Fury: When you confront someone, there’s no appeasing you. If they back down,
mollify, prevaricate, or submit to you in any way, it provokes you; count it as forcing
your hand. If they get away from you instead, you must pursue them and press the
attack.
 Hive mind: You share thoughts and senses with others like you. Tell the MC to create
other Weaponized as infiltrator threats. At any time, the MC can interrupt you to
tell you what another Weaponized somewhere is seeing, feeling, and doing, or to have
another Weaponized somewhere ask you what you’re seeing, feeling, and doing.
 Killing instinct: When you do battle, and whenever you have the opportunity to do so
otherwise, you must spend at least 1 to inflict additional harm.
 Manual override: When someone tells you to do something, if they say the words
“manual override,” you don’t have a choice, you have to undertake to do it.
YOUR WEAPONS & ARMOR

By default, you have light body armor (1-armor). Choose 3:
 Concussive pulse generators (1-environ, hand, hi-tech)
 Focused energy lance (3-harm, fire, close, hi-tech)
 Heavy pulse rifle (1-environ, burstfire, close-far, hi-tech)
 Molecular-edged long-blade (3-harm, ap, hand, hi-tech)
 Molecular-edged needle gun (2-harm, ap, close, hi-tech)
 Shrapnel gun (2-harm, close, messy)
 Telescopic sniper rifle (3-harm, far, loud, hi-tech)
 Adaptive camo armor (1-armor, hi-tech, stealth)
 Intimidating heavy armor (2-armor)
 Molecular-hardened armor (2-armor, hi-tech)

THE WEAPONIZED
To create your Weaponized, choose name
GEAR
• Your machine.
• Your weapons and armor.
NAME • Clothing you detail.
Instead of a name, you have a serial • Living space and incidentals you detail,
designation. Ask the other players what their suitable to your Scavenge, Hard Zone,
characters call you. and moves.
Hx
Badass, battle-hardened, battle-scarred,
bloodstained, calculating, dangerous, gorgeous,
grotesque, harmless, human, inhuman, placid, Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
quiet, ruthless, sleek, terrifying, unfeeling, the group:
violent. • Which of you are afraid of me?
For the characters who are, write Hx-1.
STATS For the characters who aren’t, write
Hx+2.
Choose a set:
Aggro+1, Cool-1, Hard+2, Sharp=0, Weird+1 On the others’ turns, volunteer if you like.
Aggro=0, Cool-1, Hard+2, Sharp+1, Weird+1
Aggro-1, Cool=0, Hard+2, Sharp+1, Weird+1 IMPROVEMENT
Aggro+1, Cool+1, Hard+2, Sharp=0, Weird-1 When you roll a stat, roll Hx, or suffer
EFFECTS marked 3 Experience, erase those marks
When you choose your gear, list your armor.
You have 0-Ψ. Improvement, erase those marks and
You have Barter per your Scavenge. choose an option for your character. Check
By default you have 0-environ, but your it off; you can’t choose that option again.
weapons might give you 1-environ or
2-environ.
HARD ZONE
necessary.
MOVES
Weaponized moves.
BASIC MOVES
CONFRONT SOMEONE
When you confront, intimidate, threaten, or bluff someone, roll+Aggro. On a 10+, they
have to choose: back down and give you your way, defy you and fight back, or else submit to
your mercy and ask you to reconsider. On a 7–9, you’ve left them some wiggle room, and they
can try to escape, bargain with you, pass off responsibility, or divert you instead. You choose
whether and how to follow through. On a miss, be prepared for the worst.
ACT UNDER FIRE

When you act under fire, or dig in to endure fire, roll+Cool. On a 10+, you do it. On a 7–9,
you flinch, hesitate, or stall, and the MC can offer you a worse outcome, a hard bargain, or an
unfortunate choice. On a miss, be prepared for the worst.
CHARM OR DECEIVE SOMEONE

When you charm or deceive someone, roll+Cool. On a 10+, they have to choose: set
skepticism aside and go along with you, or else call you a fool or a liar to your face. On a 7–9, if
they don’t want to go along with you or call you out, they can choose to ask you for evidence,
time, a compromise, or some concrete assurance; they must go along with you if you provide it.
On a miss, be prepared for the worst.
DO BATTLE
When you do battle with someone, exchange harm, but first roll+Hard. On a 10+, you hold 4
against your enemy. On a 7–9, you hold 3 against them. On a miss, you hold 1 against them.
If a PC, your enemy rolls simultaneously to do battle with you. If an NPC, your enemy holds 2
against you on any hit, and 3 against you on a miss.
To conduct the battle, spend your hold on the following. Commit to your spends without
knowing your enemy’s.
• Fight for blood: Spend 1 to inflict +1harm.
• Fight defensively: Spend 1 to suffer -1harm.
• Fight opportunistically: Spend 1 to inflict harm on an additional enemy.
• Guard someone: Spend 1 to protect an ally from 1-harm.
• Seize initiative: Whoever spends more to seize initiative, does.
If you seize initiative, you get any or all of these, as applicable:
• Take +1hold against your enemy into the next round, if the battle continues.
• Ask 1 Read a situation question for free, with no roll.
• Take a quick action of any kind, for free, while your enemy is off balance.
READ SOMEONE
When you read someone in a charged interaction, roll+Sharp. On a 10+, hold 3 against them.
On a 7–9, hold 2 against them. During your interaction, spend your hold 1 for 1 to ask the MC
or their player questions. They have to answer frankly, from their character’s point of view.
• Are you telling the truth?
• What are you feeling?
• What are you thinking of doing?
• What do you hope I’ll do?
• How could I get you to do [x]?
On a miss, the MC might have you ask 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst.
44
READ A SITUATION
When you read a charged situation, roll+Sharp. On a 10+, ask the MC 3 questions right now.
On a 7–9, ask the MC 1 question. They have to answer frankly, and when you’re acting on their
answers, take +1 to any rolls you make.
• Who’s in control here?
• What’s my best way in / out / around / through?
• Who or what poses the biggest threat to me?
• Who or what represents the best opportunity for me to do [x]?
• What should I be on the lookout for?
On a miss, the MC might have you ask 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst.
OPEN YOUR BRAIN

When you open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+Weird. On any hit, the
MC must tell you something new and interesting about the current situation, and might ask
you a question or 2; answer them frankly. On a 10+, the MC must give you at least one good,
concrete detail. On a 7–9, the MC can stick to impressions and suggestions. If you already
know everything there is to know about the situation, the MC must tell you so. On a miss, be
prepared for the worst.
HELP SOMEONE
To help someone, ask their player what you can do to help. If you do it, roll+Hx. (If an NPC,
roll+Sharp.) On any hit, the MC chooses the most suitable:
• They weren’t able to make the attempt, but now they are.
• They get +1 to their roll, +1hold, +1choice, +1harm, suffer -1harm, or another suitable bonus.
• You both roll for it, and the better roll stands.
On a 10+, they also get +1Hx with you on their sheet (unless an NPC). On a miss, be prepared
for the worst.
INTERRUPT SOMEONE
To interrupt someone, roll+Hx. (If an NPC, roll+Cool.) On any hit, the MC chooses the most
suitable:
• You’re there first.
• You’re in their way.
• You’re ready for it.
…And they have to deal with you instead of doing what they intended. On a 10+, you also take
+1forward against them. On a miss, you still interrupt them, but the MC chooses the most
suitable:
• They see what’s happening and can change course smoothly.
• They take +1forward against you.
You can’t interrupt someone who’s interrupting you.
When you make a highly interruptible move, marked with *, you should announce that you’re
making it and explicitly give everyone a chance to interrupt you. Otherwise, they can call a
do‑over and retroactively interrupt you if they want, even after you’ve finished your move and
play’s continued on.
45
BASIC MOVES
MAKING MOVES
It’s your responsibility as a player to choose and announce the moves you’re making.
The MC and the other players can suggest moves to you freely, especially if they see that you’re
making one but haven’t realized it yet.
The MC can also call for you to make any move they think you definitely should.
If you and the MC or another player disagree about your moves, explain yourself, and don’t
proceed with play until you’ve worked it out between you.
SIMULTANEOUS MOVES
If you and another player are acting at the same time, hold your dice out in your closed fist,
and tell them to do the same. Both of you should take the time to explain to the MC what
you’re doing and what moves you’re making. If either of you roll prematurely, it doesn’t count,
pick your dice back up and hold your horses.
It’s the MC’s job to tell you whether you should roll your dice at the same time, or one before
the other.
It’s your responsibility as a player to make sure that the MC and the other players know that
you have something to say. Holding your dice in your fist obtrusively in the play space is a
signal that you don’t need to interrupt who’s speaking, but that they do need to hear you out
before play proceeds.
46
STANDARD MOVES
Certain kinds of equipment, status, or NPC allies give you access to these moves.
AUGURY
The standard move for a psychic antenna.
When you use your psychic antenna for augury, roll+Weird. On any hit, choose 1:
• You can reach through the world’s psychic maelstrom to something or someone connected to it.
• You can isolate and protect a person or thing from the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• You can extract and contain a fragment of the world’s psychic maelstrom itself.
• You can open a window or door into the world’s psychic maelstrom.
By default, the effect lasts only as long as you maintain it, reaches only shallowly into the
world’s psychic maelstrom as it is local to you, and bleeds instability. On a 10+, choose 2 of the
following. On a 7–9, choose 1:
• It persists for a while without your actively maintaining it.
• It reaches deep into the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• It reaches broadly, maybe universally, throughout the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• It’s stable and contained, no bleeding.
On a miss, whatever bad happens, your psychic antenna takes the brunt of it.
DEVOTION
The standard move for followers.
At the beginning of the session, if your followers are secure and stable, roll+Cool. On a 10+,
during the session, your followers offer you all of their devotions. On a 7–9, they offer you
all of their devotions, but choose 1 demand. On a miss, or if your followers are in crisis, all of
their demands.
If you have more than 1 group of followers, roll separately for each of them.
INSIGHT
The standard move for advisors.
When you go to your advisors for insight, ask them what they think your best course is, and
the MC will tell you. If you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in the pursuit. If
you pursue that course but don’t accomplish your ends, you mark 1 toward Improvement.
LEADERSHIP
The standard move for a gang.
When you have to order your gang to advance, regroup, hold position, or put their backs
into it, roll+Hard. On any hit, they do it. On a 10+, they snap to, and you take +1forward into
whatever you’re having them do. On a miss, they do it, but you’ll hear about it later.
47
STANDARD MOVES
TINKERING
The standard move for a workspace.
When you go into your workspace to create something, repair something, solve a problem,
or get to the bottom of something, tell the MC about it and ask if it’s possible. The MC will tell
you “sure, no problem, but…” and then 1 to 4 of the following:
• It’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months of work.
• First you’ll have to get/make/fix/figure out [x].
• You’re going to need [x] to help you with it.
• It’s going to cost a ton of jingle.
• The best you’ll be able to do is not great, it’ll be poor, slow, weak or unreliable.
• It’s going to mean exposing yourself or others to serious danger.
• You’re going to have to add [x] to your workspace first.
• It’s going to take you several/dozens/hundreds of tries.
• You’re going to have to take [x] apart to do it.
The MC might connect them all with “and,” or might throw in a merciful “or.”
Once you’ve accomplished the necessaries, you can go ahead and accomplish your project.
VEHICLE MOVES
The standard moves for vehicles.
When you have to deal with bad terrain, roll+Cool, modified by your vehicle’s Handling. On a
10+, you fly through untouched. On a 7–9, choose 1:
• You slow down and pick your way forward.
• You push too hard and your vehicle suffers harm as established (1-harm ap for most terrain, but
ask the MC first).
• You ditch out and go back to find another way.
On a miss, the MC chooses 1 for you. The others are impossible.
To outdrive another vehicle, both vehicles inflict v-harm on each other, but first roll+Cool,
modified by the vehicles’ relative Speeds. On a 10+, you hold 3 against the other driver. On
a 7–9, you hold 2 against them. On a miss, you hold 1 against them. If a PC, the other driver
rolls simultaneously to outdrive you. If an NPC, the other driver holds 1 against you on any
hit, and 2 against you on a miss.
To conduct the race, spend your hold on the following. Commit to your spends without
knowing your enemy’s.
• Drive fast: Whoever spends more to drive fast, outraces the other vehicle.
• Drive hard: Spend 1 to increase your vehicle’s Massive by +1 for purposes of inflicting v-harm.
• Drive safe: Spend 1 to increase your vehicle’s Massive or Handling by +1, your choice which, for
purposes of suffering v-harm.
Resolve the v-harm first.
Then, whoever spent more to drive fast, you outdistance the other vehicle and break away, or
else overtake the other vehicle and draw up alongside.
If you spent equally to drive fast, choose together:
• If both of you still hope to outdrive the other, the race continues to another round.
• If either of you choose to concede or can’t continue, the race ends now.
48
WEALTH
The standard move for a holding or venue.
At the beginning of the session, if your holding or venue is secure and stable, roll+Hard. On a
10+, during the session, your holding or venue has all of its surpluses. On a 7–9, it has all of its
surpluses, but choose 1 want. On a miss, or if your holding or venue is in crisis, all of its wants.
49
EFFECTS
WEAPONS, ARMOR & HARM
When you inflict or suffer harm, it’s equal to the attacker’s weapon’s harm rating, minus the
target’s armor rating. Harm minus armor is called harm as established.
When you exchange harm with someone, both of you simultaneously inflict and suffer harm
as established:
• You inflict harm equal to the harm of your weapon, minus your enemy’s armor.
• You suffer harm equal to the harm of your enemy’s weapon, minus your own armor.
WHEN YOU SUFFER HARM

For each 1-harm you suffer, mark 1 segment of your harm countdown clock. Start with the
12:00–3:00 segment and proceed clockwise.
Harm up to 6:00 heals by itself with time.
Harm 6:00–9:00 is serious but stable: it doesn’t heal with time, but doesn’t worsen either.
Harm 9:00–11:00 is serious, potentially life-threatening. You need medical attention to stabilize
it — unstabilized, it worsens with time — and more medical attention to heal it.
When you hit 12:00, your life becomes untenable. Choose one of the options.
THE HARM MOVE

When you suffer harm, roll minus the harm you’ve suffered. On a 10+, the MC chooses 1:
• The harm you take stands as is, with no additional effect.
• You take -1harm, but the MC chooses 1 from the 7–9 list below.
On a 7–9, the MC chooses 1:
• You lose your footing.
• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding.
• You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to.
• You miss noticing something important.
On a miss, the MC chooses 1:
• You’re out of action: unconscious, trapped, incoherent or panicked.
• It’s worse than it seemed. Take an additional 1-harm.
• Choose 2 from the 7–9 list above.
The MC can forget or otherwise choose to forgo the harm move, case by case.
The MC can call for the harm move whenever you suffer harm, even if your armor reduces the
harm you’ve suffered to 0 or negative.
WHEN AN NPC SUFFERS HARM

1-harm: Cosmetic damage, pain, minor concussion, minor injuries, fear if the NPC’s likely to be
afraid of pain.
2-harm: More serious injuries, more serious concussion, bad pain, a broken bone, minor shock. Not
usually fatal, but can be if the attacker intentionally sees to it.
3-harm: Sometimes immediately fatal. Usually, serious wounds, multiple broken bones, organ
damage, unconsciousness. Can be left for dead.
4-harm: Usually immediately fatal, but sometimes the poor soul has to wait to die.
5-harm and more: fatal and increasingly bodily destructive.
The MC can also choose to roll the harm move for NPCs, case by case.
50
WEAPON & ARMOR TAGS
List your weapon’s and armor’s tags with their ratings.
AP (armor piercing): ignores armor.
Area: hits any number of targets within its area of effect.
Brutal: inflicts the worst possible harm for its harm rating. Inflicts distinctive, unmistakable
injuries.
Burstfire: at your option, give it area and reload or reset.
Concentrated Fire: for weapons inflicting 4-harm or more. At your option, inflict 1-environ
instead of 4-harm, 2-environ instead of 6-harm, or 3-environ instead of 8-harm.
Dazzling: makes blinding, flashing lights. Is not necessarily loud.
Environ: inflicts environmental damage as listed, as below.
Fire: at the MC’s judgment, can be ap, can be brutal, and/or can inflict additional subsequent harm
if not extinguished.
Harness: unmanageable or unusable without a harness, backpack, fuel tank, or mounting.
Harpoon: a hit attaches your target to you with a line or cable.
Hidden: concealed on your person.
Hi-tech: has electronic or other sophisticated components.
Loud: makes a clear, loud, unmistakable, maybe distinctive noise.
Messy: area effect, but may or may not hit any given target in its area. Is also necessarily loud.
Ranges (intimate, hand, thrown, close, far): you must be at the appropriate range to bring the
weapon to bear. Close-far weapons can be brought to bear at close or far range.
Reload, reset: after you use it, you have to take distinct action to reload, rearm or reset it. Reload
implies that it uses up ammo; reset that it doesn’t.
Set: armed in place, can’t be moved without disarming it.
Single use: each time you use one, mark it off.
Stealth: you can deceive someone that you aren’t there. No matter what you roll, they don’t have
the option to call you out or demand evidence, although on a 7–9 they still have the option to ask
you for time, making you wait, frozen and silent.
Unreliable: ask the MC whether it works this time.
Valuable: visibly, evidently valuable.
USING A GANG AS A WEAPON

When you have a gang, you can use them as a weapon when you confront someone, do battle,
or in any other violent circumstance. When you do, you roll the dice and make your choices,
but it’s your gang that inflicts and suffers harm, not you yourself.
Gangs inflict and suffer harm as established, as usual: they inflict harm equal to their own
harm rating, minus their enemy’s armor rating, and the suffer harm equal to their enemy’s
harm rating minus their own armor. That is, Harm = weapon - armor.
However, if there’s a size mismatch, the bigger gang inflicts +1harm and suffers -1harm for
each step of size difference:
• Against a single person, a small gang inflicts +1harm and suffers -1harm. A medium gang inflicts
+2harm and suffers -2harm, and a large gang inflicts +3harm and suffers -3harm.
• Against a small gang, a medium gang inflicts +1harm and suffers -1harm, and a large gang
inflicts +2harm and suffers -2harm.
• Against a medium gang, a large gang inflicts +1harm and suffers -1harm.
51
EFFECTS
WHEN A GANG SUFFERS HARM
1-harm: a few injuries, one or two serious, no fatalities.
2-harm: many injuries, several serious, a couple of fatalities.
3-harm: widespread injuries, many serious, several fatalities.
4-harm: widespread serious injuries, many fatalities.
5-harm and more: widespread fatalities, few survivors.
Does the gang hold together?
With a strong, present leader, a gang will hold together if it suffers up to 4-harm. If the leader
is weak or absent, it’ll hold together if it suffers up to 3-harm. If the leader is both weak and
absent, it’ll hold together if it suffers 1- or 2-harm. If it has no leader, it’ll hold together if it
suffers 1-harm, but no more.
A PC gang leader can hold a gang together by using leadership to order it to hold discipline,
but otherwise it follows these rules, same as for NPC leaders.
What about PC gang members?
If a PC is a member of a gang taking harm, how much harm the PC takes depends on their role
in the gang. If they’re a leader or a prominent, visible member, they suffer the same harm the
gang does. If they’re just someone in the gang, or if they’re intentionally protecting themself
from harm instead of fighting with the gang, they suffer-1harm.
USING A VEHICLE AS A WEAPON

When you’re behind the wheel, you can use your vehicle as a weapon when you confront
someone, do battle, or in any other violent circumstance. When you do, you roll the dice and
make your choices, but it’s your vehicle that inflicts and suffers harm, not you yourself.
Against a person:
• A glancing hit from a moving vehicle inflicts 2-harm (ap).
• A direct hit inflicts 3-harm (ap) plus its massive.
Against another vehicle:
• A glancing hit inflicts v-harm.
• A direct hit inflicts 3-harm plus its massive, minus the target vehicle’s massive and armor. Treat
0-harm and less as v-harm.
• When you’re able to ram or T-bone another vehicle, you inflict the harm of a direct hit (3-harm
+massive, minus your target’s armor +massive) and suffer the harm of a glancing hit (v-harm).
Against a building or structure:
• A glancing hit from a moving vehicle inflicts 0-environ.
• A direct hit from a moving vehicle inflicts 1-environ, 2-environ, or 3-environ, depending on its
Massive.
52
WHEN A VEHICLE SUFFERS HARM
Vehicles can suffer regular harm or v-harm.
When a vehicle suffers harm, there are two questions: how much damage does the vehicle
itself suffer, and how much harm blows through to the people inside?
1-harm: cosmetic damage. Bullet holes, broken glass, smoke. 0-harm can blow through to
passengers.
2-harm: functional damage. Fuel leak, shot-out tires, engine stall, problems with steering, braking
or acceleration. Can be field-patched. 1-harm can blow through to passengers.
3-harm: serious damage. Functional damage affecting multiple functions, but can be field-patched.
2-harm can blow through to passengers.
4-harm: breakdown. Catastrophic functional damage, can be repaired in a garage but not in the
field, or can used for parts. 3-harm can blow through to passengers.
5-harm and more: total destruction. Full harm can blow through to passengers, plus they can
suffer additional harm if the vehicle explodes or crashes.
Whether harm blows through to a vehicle’s driver and passengers, doesn’t blow through, or
just hits them too without having to blow through, depends on the MC’s judgment of the
circumstances and the vehicle.
Vehicles are also affected by environ, as below.
V-HARM
V-harm as established is the attacking car’s Massive minus the defending car’s Massive or
Handling, defender’s choice.
When you suffer v-harm, roll minus the v-harm you’ve suffered. On a 10+, you swerve but
recover without disadvantage. On a 7–9, you’re forced to swerve. Your attacker chooses 1:
• You give ground.
• You’re driven off course, or forced onto a new course.
• Your car takes 1-harm ap, right in the transmission.
On a miss, you lose control, and your attacker chooses 1:
• You crash.
• You spin out.
WHEN A BUILDING SUFFERS HARM

Normal harm doesn’t do any structural damage to buildings, you need environ for that (see
below). Normal harm only does cosmetic damage: bullet holes, broken glass, scorch marks,
chipped surfaces, splintered door frames, broken hinges.
The only question is, how much harm blows through to inhabitants?
1-harm – 2-harm: 0-harm can blow through to inhabitants.
3-harm: 1-harm can blow through to inhabitants.
4-harm and more: 2-harm can blow through to inhabitants.
An armored building blocks blow-through harm entirely.
Whether harm actually does blow through to a building’s inhabitants depends on the MC’s
judgment of the circumstances and the building. Don’t stand near the windows!
53
EFFECTS
ENVIRON (ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE)
Environ measures the effect of a weapon or attack on vehicles, buildings, and other structures.
Structures can be armored against environmental damage. Subtract their armor rating from
the environ of the attack.
0-environ:
0-environ is synonymous with normal harm. Use the normal harm rules for your weapon to
determine its effect.
It can shake and rattle cars but not move them, and doesn’t structurally affect buildings.
1-environ:
Equivalent to 4-harm messy. When brought to bear against a single nonstructural target,
equivalent to 4-harm ap.
Can move cars but not lift or throw them. Inflicts severe cosmetic damage on buildings and
structures: many holes or large holes, no intact glass, burning or smoldering. 2-harm can blow
through to inhabitants, and the MC can judge it ap, brutal, or fire.
2-environ:
Can lift, throw, or flip cars, and move heavier machines. Inflicts structural damage on
buildings and structures: strain to load-bearing walls or pillars, beginnings of collapse, fire.
4-harm can blow through to inhabitants (perhaps ap and/or fire). Further structural damage
can lead to collapse.
3-environ:
Can destroy cars outright. Can lift, topple, or flip heavier machines. Can completely collapse
smaller structures and partially collapse larger ones, or engulf them in flame. 6-harm can blow
through to inhabitants (perhaps ap and/or fire). Further structural damage will definitely lead
to collapse.
4-environ and more:
Destroys cars and can destroy heavier machines. Can destroy structures and completely
collapse larger ones, or engulf them in flame. 8-harm can blow through to inhabitants
(perhaps ap and/or fire), plus they can suffer additional harm as the structure collapses.
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D-HARM (DEPRIVATION)
A person suffers d-harm from deprivation. d-harm is strictly for acute cases of deprivation. For
scarcity and chronic deprivation, create disease-type threats instead.
Individual NPCs simply suffer the effects of d-harm as follows. For PCs suffering d-harm, tell
them the effects they’re suffering, and if they can’t or don’t alleviate their deprivation, inflict
regular harm alongside it, in increments of 1-harm ap.
For a population suffering d-harm, the two questions are, how does it behave, and how long
can it last before breaking up, tearing itself apart, or dying?
d-harm (air), asphyxiation: Difficulty breathing, panic, convulsions, paralysis,
unconsciousness, brain damage, death within minutes.
Inflicted on a population: Immediate panic. Social cohesion breaks down basically at once into
a survival-driven desperation to find air.
d-harm (warmth), hypothermia: shivering, hunger, dizziness, confusion, drowsiness,
frostbite, delirium, unconsciousness, irregular heartbeat, death in an hour or more, depending
on the cold.
Inflicted on a population: Huddling together, despair, lethargy, resignation. Isolated
individuals suffer worsening individual symptoms, so social cohesion can last basically as long
as the individuals can.
d-harm (cool), heat stroke: headache, dehydration, weakness or cramps, confusion, fever,
vomiting, seizures, unconsciousness, death in an hour or more, depending on the heat.
Inflicted on a population: Desperation, panic, lethargy, resignation. Social cohesion can last as
long as the individuals can, as the less vulnerable individuals try to help the more vulnerable.
d-harm (water), dehydration: desperation, headache, confusion, delirium, collapse, death in
3 days.
Inflicted on a population: Rationing & hoarding, desperation, infighting. Social cohesion can
last up to a week before breaking down into violence or dispersal.
d-harm (food), starvation: irritability, hunger, weakness, diarrhea, lethargy, dehydration,
muscular atrophy, heart failure and death within 2–3 months.
Inflicted on a population: Rationing & hoarding, desperation, infighting. Social cohesion can
last up to 2 weeks before breaking down into violence, cannibalism, or dispersal.
d-harm (sleep), sleep deprivation, irritability, disorientation, nodding off, depression,
headache, hallucinations, mania, personality changes, bizarre behavior.
Inflicted on a population: Malaise, infighting, tantrums, desperation. For long-term acute
sleep deprivation, create affliction threats instead.
S-HARM (STUN)
s-harm disables its target without causing any regular harm. Use it on a PC, and doing
anything at all means doing it under fire. The fire is “you’re stunned.”
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EFFECTS
Ψ (PSI)
Your Ψ rating represents your strength of psychic will.
The world’s psychic maelstrom normally has Ψ+3, but don’t expect circumstances to be
normal.
THE Ψ-HARM MOVE

You suffer Ψ-harm from unusual exposure to the world’s psychic maelstrom or from other
psychic attacks.
When you suffer Ψ-harm, roll+your Ψ, minus the Ψ of the attack. On a 10+, you’re startled or
confused, but suffer no harm. Just say how the startlement or confusion affects you. On a 7–9,
the MC chooses 1:
• You lose your footing.
• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding.
• You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to.
• You miss noticing something important.
• You take a single concrete action of the MC’s choosing.
On a miss, the MC chooses 1:
• You’re out of action: unconscious, trapped, incoherent or panicked.
• You’re out of your own control. You come to yourself again a few seconds later, having done you
don’t know what.
WHEN AN NPC SUFFERS Ψ-HARM

When an NPC suffers Ψ-harm, the MC can choose to roll the Ψ-harm move for them, or else
choose one of these instead:
• They aggressively pursue their threat impulse. Make moves on their behalf as hard and as direct as
you can.
• Their self-awareness shatters. They’re incoherent, raving, raging or unresponsive, alive but no
longer themself.
• They abruptly change threat type.
A NOTE ON Ψ-HARM
Note that Ψ-harm always represents the direct assault and invasion of a hostile, alien psychic
force, not any kind of mental illness or “insanity.”
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BARTER
When you want to barter something from someone, subtract your barter rating from its value.
Value minus barter is called cost.
VALUE
The MC determines things’ value:
1-value for basic living requirements of all kinds.
1-value for unskilled labor.
2-value for tools, weapons, armor.
2-value for skilled services.
3-value or more for vehicles and structures.
-1value if it’s trash. -2value if it’s really trash.
-1value if the purveyor wants rid of it for some reason.
-1value if the purveyor’s giving you the friends & family discount.
+1value if it’s good. +2 value if it’s superb.+3 value or more if it’s beyond superb.
+1value if it’s big. +2 value if it’s enormous.
+1value or +2value if it’s a set. an assortment, or a complex.
+1value or +2value if it’s tagged hi-tech or valuable.
+1value if the purveyor’s sentimental about it for some reason.
+1value if the purveyor thinks that they can get more out of you than it’s worth.
+2value if the purveyor’s telling you to go screw.
-1value or +1value at the MC’s judgment, just because.
COST
0-Cost or less (value less than or equal to barter):
You have the jingle on hand to cover it, no debt, no sweat, thanks for doing biz. It’s routine.
It’s yours.
1-Cost (value greater than bater):
You don’t have quite enough jingle to cover it. The purveyor chooses:
• It’s yours. They’ll take the loss, but they’ll remember your face and your name, and that they did
you a favor.
• You don’t have the jingle for it, so you can’t afford it. If you want it, you’ll have to offset its cost.
2-Cost or more (value greater than barter):
You can’t afford it as it stands. If you want it, you’ll have to offset its cost.
OFFSETTING COST
To offset the cost of something your barter won’t afford you, you have to actually negotiate for
it. You need to make up the difference between its value and your barter rating.
Make an offer, valuing your own goods, labor, or services as above, or ask the purveyor what
they’d propose.
The purveyor might be willing to accept a debt, if they believe you’ll make good on it in time.
You might be able to charm or deceive them into accepting less than its full value.
57
HARD ZONES
At the beginning of character creation, MC, you should choose which Hard Zone is in play. If
you prefer, you can get the group in on the decision. You should choose one, or at most two.
The PCs are in the Hard Zone you choose. Its listed locations are all around them. If you choose
two Hard Zones, the PCs are in the border region between them.
For some playbooks, the player needs to know which Hard Zone is in play in order to choose
their options.
While the players finish making their characters, you can begin to map out the Hard Zone’s
locations. Consider all the listed locations to be in play, and you can freely add locations of
your own.
THE HARD ZONES

Choose 1 of the following, or at most two:
• The Bottomless Vaults.
• The Drowned City.
• The Fallen City.
• The Frozen World.
• The Overgrown Wilds.
• The Poisoned Land.
• The Scorched Wastes.
• A Hard Zone of your own creation.
THE BOTTOMLESS VAULTS

Beneath the surface of the world are echoing vaults, networks of tunnels, roaring cataracts,
regions of light and power and other regions of cold silent darkness. In all, the ruins of whole
cities built under the earth, spanning hundreds of kilometers’ distance and impossible,
unmeasured depths.
Locations:
• The Baffles, labyrinthine tunnels, whose inhabitants guard their wealth and secrets with
violence and deception.
• The Chanting Colony, people who have lived in the darkness for generations, newly returning to
contact with outsiders.
• The Gardens, where a life cult is rediscovering hydroponics.
• The Long Dark, a central tunnel hundreds of kilometers long, winding and infinitely branching,
traversed by wanderers, trade caravans, and bandits.
• The Moon Well, a vast, deep shaft, unplumbed, unscalable, in whose depths a strange light
glows.
• The Stew, inhabited chambers named for their periodic flooding.
• The Transfer, a series of surface access stations, airlocked, home to venturers outside.
• The Water Locks, a barricaded compound that controls interchange between barge tunnels and
dry tunnels.
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THE DROWNED CITY
The shells of skyscrapers stand up from the sea floor, now eroded and overgrown. They form
scattered clusters of inhabited islands, laid out in the ancient grid of city blocks. When the sea
is clear you can see sharks swimming in and out of the buildings below the surface.
Locations:
• The Fountains, an island where some kind of ancient water processing system still functions,
and fresh water is plentiful.
• The Library, an island that was once a university library, where on the uppermost stories, the
books survived.
• The Raftland, a large holding of anchored rafts, not islands.
• The Sea Road, where traders and refugees come from far away, from distant sunken cities or
even from dry land.
• The Shark Eaters, a holding whose people dive down into the buildings they live on, to hunt and
scavenge.
• The Tower, a skyscraper island rising above the rest, terraced and overshadowing.
• The Undertow, a cluster of islands where dangerous eddies develop, home to a small population,
hard to reach, a natural refuge.
• The Vault, a building still somehow watertight, whose inhabitants guard its secrets carefully.
THE FALLEN CITY

An ancient ruined city, skeletal skyscrapers standing or leaning together, collapsed cloverleafs,
neighborhoods and business districts now blasted, shattered, fallen.
Locations:
• The Airport, kilometers of open scrub and broken ground, worked by struggling farmholds,
overseen by a high central tower and compound.
• The Cram, an open, mercantile community sited under the fallen overpasses and along the tracks
of an ancient industrial center.
• Fourth, dwellers in the ancient city’s underground vaults and tunnels.
• High Market, a trade-and-barter town occupying the third and fourth stories of a dozen ruined
buildings, connected by bridges over the roadways, defensible in lockdown.
• The Inroad, once a marvel, a cantilever bridge 100 meters long, soaring almost 50 meters above
what was once a running river, now a filthy impassable muck. The bridge is the only way. It’s
barely passable itself, but still the tolltakers hold it.
• The Orchard, a secretive, hostile neighborhood.
• The Soul Tree, a massive stone building with a collapsed dome and flanking towers, with a wide,
clear margin all around it, still scattered with concrete barriers. A strict and menacing cult makes
it their stronghold.
• The Well, an enormous circular pit, ringed with concrete ledges, full of drinkable water. Hundreds
of people come to it every day, and no one knows why it exists or how deep it is.
59
HARD ZONES
THE FROZEN WORLD
They expected the world to end in fire but it ended in ice. This was a city, a state, a nation, but
now it’s a frozen wilderness.
Locations:
• The Bones, the skeleton of a city thrust up through the ice, shelter for a hard, ruthless
community.
• Halter’s Town, a compound where shafts bored through the ice give into dark water, whose
inhabitants descend to hunt giant fish and strange creatures.
• Natch Holding, a compound in a hidden, sheltered crevasse in the ice, where crops and even trees
grow. You can pass within a hundred meters of it and never see it.
• The Rim, a curving glacier wall where the inhabitants live in chipped-out caves and warrens.
• The Shatters, a broken landscape, prowled by bandits and the Cult of the Iris, spanned by a long,
exposed trade road.
• Sword Town, a landscape of ice spires and watchtowers built over an ancient mining site.
• Themepark, a compound of environmental domes and climate control systems, left over from
before the apocalypse, kept running somehow by its inhabitants.
• The Vents, an oasis in the ice where scalding hot springs support a booming ecology of plants and
animals.
THE OVERGROWN WILDS

Life boomed. The wilds overtook humanity, tore down its edifices and swallowed its landscape
whole.
Locations:
• Angel’s Town, a place of healing and death, hard to find, hard to reach, hard to leave.
• The Buried City, vines pulling down the walls, trees shouldering aside the foundations, strange
creatures’ dens in the understories, wild hunting ranges where were highways and parking lots.
• The Cut, a militant, hard-driven compound, trying to hold out.
• The Grove, where the wilds meet the ocean, giant trees rising up even from the sea floor, whose
people use bridges and boats and rarely come to land at all.
• Harbortown, mercenary and calculating.
• The Pillars, trees like a city, bigger than city blocks, taller than skyscrapers, towering over the
world. Its inhabitants harvest orchids and rainwater and are losing their language.
• Shelter, a holding cut vigilantly from the wilds, connected by tenuous roads to anywhere else.
• The Skyway, where an enormous roadwork still resists the pulling, burying wilds, home to a cult
of humanity’s rebirth.
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THE POISONED LAND
Here they tore the flesh off the earth, poured venomous slag down the rivers, boiled toxins
into the air so that they fell down again in the rain. What lives here, is poison.
Locations:
• The Filth, a swampy place whose inhabitants know not to stay in the water too long.
• The Gouge, a hard people who’ve taken shelter in ancient mines, venturing deeper when they can,
venturing out when they must.
• Hell’s Ploughfield,wide, deep chasms cut into the earth as if by a gargantuan rake. Sometimes
safe water bubbles up in the bottoms; other times, not safe.
• Iron Hollow, families and communities rich in scavenge, scattered in an unforgiving shattered
landscape.
• The Knives, a holding on the banks of a dry riverbed.
• Poe’s Tower, a settlement on a ridgeline, watchful, territorial, predatory.
• The Wash, a seasonal lake, whose inhabitants live on strange creatures with strange life cycles.
• The Windmills, once a wind farm on a mountain ridge, now collapsed, blades bent against the
sky, people making their homes in the gigantic cylindrical sections of their fallen masts.
THE SCORCHED WASTES

This place died in fire. When it was reborn, it was reborn in black glass, hot and brittle, sharp
as razors.
Locations:
• The Barges, people who travel the poison canals, carrying salvage and scavenge and living their
private gas masked lives.
• The Burn Flats, where strange ruins are buried in the sand and desperate people fight to survive.
• The Free Holdings, scattered across the scorched wastes, suspicious and given reluctantly to acts
of hospitality.
• Hatchet City, a ruthless, locked-down compound of raiders, hoarders, and entrenched power.
• The Lighthouse, a violent cult that raids the salt roads.
• An Oasis in the Rag Waste, barely more than a wet ditch and a battered bunker, but it’ll save
your life. It’s open to all who know the way there.
• Salvenge, a holding of tarps and corrugated tin in the relative shelter of the ruins of an ancient
town.
• Well Market, a bustling, anarchic scratch-and-barter town, anonymous and violent.
CREATING YOUR OWN

To create your own Hard Zone, simply describe it in a thematic sentence or two, then name
and list out 8 specific, suitable locations.
61
THREATS
CLANS
A clan is any single, identifiable group of people. A clan can be:
• A Cult (seeks to victimize & incorporate people)
• Enforcers (seek to victimize anyone who stands out)
• A Family (seeks to close ranks, protect their own)
• A Hunting pack (seeks to victimize anyone vulnerable)
• A Mob (seeks to riot, burn, kill scapegoats)
• Sybarites (seek to consume someone’s resources)
Threat moves for clans:
• Push reading a person, reading a situation, and confronting someone.
• They present a representative to speak or negotiate for them.
• They burst out in uncoordinated, undirected violence.
• They make a coordinated attack with a coherent objective.
• They tell stories (truth, lies, allegories, homilies).
• They demand consideration or indulgence.
• They rigidly follow or defy authority.
• They cling to or defy reason.
• They make a show of solidarity and power.
• They ask for help or for someone’s participation.
DISEASES
A disease is a physical, psychological, or psychic problem that affects people in a population.
Diseases can be:
• Addiction (leaves people impoverished, weak, lost)
• Delusion (tries to dominate people’s choices and actions)
• Frailty (exposes sufferers to danger)
• Infection (spawns other diseases if untreated)
• Plague (tries to saturate a population)
• Prejudice (promotes and justifies exploitation and violence)
Threat moves for diseases:
• Push reading a situation.
• Someone neglects their duties, responsibilities, obligations.
• Someone flies into a rage.
• Someone takes self-destructive, fruitless, or hopeless action.
• Someone approaches, seeking help.
• Someone approaches, seeking comfort.
• Someone withdraws and seeks isolation.
• Someone proclaims the disease to be a just punishment.
• Someone proclaims the disease to be, in fact, a blessing.
• Someone refuses or fails to adapt to new circumstances.
• Someone brings friends or loved ones along.
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INFILTRATORS
An infiltrator is an individual person within a population, but not fully part of it. An infiltrator
can be:
• A Betrayer (seeks trust and confidence to exploit)
• A Disease vector (seeks sympathy and contact with others)
• A Parasite (seeks easy prey and access to resources)
• A Quarry (seeks sanctuary and protection from the hunt)
• A Revenant (seeks to expose, reveal, and bring to justice)
• A Saboteur (seeks failure, disaster, and ruin for the population)
Threat moves for infiltrators:
• Push reading a person and confronting someone.
• Put them in someone’s path, part of someone’s day or life.
• Display the nature of the world they inhabit.
• Display the contents of their heart.
• They attack someone from behind or otherwise by stealth.
• They insult, affront, offend, threaten, rob, or provoke someone.
• They offer something to someone, or do something for someone, with strings attached.
INSTITUTIONS
An institution is a system that constrains people’s behavior. Create an institution as a bunch
of linked threats: the clans, infiltrators, warlords, and potentially other threats who form the
body of the institution, including any combination of these following means of control as
individual threats, plus any combination of these following systems of control. An institution
can include:
• Condemnation & judgment (promote and justify violence)
• Hooks & leverage (seeks power over people)
• Offices & duties (seek to preserve the institution past individual people’s efforts or lifetimes)
• Rituals & observances (seek to alienate, isolate and radicalize people)
• Rules & laws (seeks proclamation and repetition)
• Status & hierarchy (promotes and justifies exploitation)
Threat moves for institutions:
• Push reading a person, reading a situation, and confronting someone.
• It presents a representative clan, infiltrator or warlord.
• It turns people against each other.
• It unites people despite their hostilities and conflicting needs.
• It gives people an outlet, a way to express their secrets.
• It grinds someone down, crush them in the wheels.
• Someone acts to gain or hold office.
• It launches an attack on a rival institution or power base.
• Display the institution’s vision, aim, or unifying quality.
• Display the institution’s fruitlessness or mindlessness.
63
THREATS
LANDSCAPES
A landscape is a large-scale place, a region, horizon to horizon. A landscape can be:
• A Breeding pit (generates and spews badness)
• A Fortress (seeks to deny people access)
• A Furnace (consumes things)
• A Maze (seeks to trap people, to frustrate their passage)
• A Mirage (seeks to entice and betray people)
• A Prison (seeks to contain people, to deny them egress)
Threat moves for landscapes:
• Push terrain.
• It reveals something to someone.
• It displays something for all to see.
• It hides something.
• It bars the way.
• It opens the way.
• It provides another way.
• It shifts, moves, rearranges.
• It offers a guide or a guardian.
• It disgorges something.
• It takes something away: lost, used up, fled, stolen, destroyed.
PINPOINTS
A pinpoint is an object with some form of agency, influence, power, or commanding value. A
pinpoint can be:
• A Cradle (brings the new to fruition)
• A Doorway (offers a way into another world or another way of thinking)
• A Hammer (drives nails, splits fractures, smashes the weak)
• A Mirror (reflects back what it sees)
• A Searchlight (finds and reveals the truth)
• A Sickle (harvests the ripe or carves away the dead)
Threat moves for pinpoints:
• Push reading a situation.
• Someone wants to own and control it.
• Someone wants to serve it.
• Someone wants to isolate or destroy it.
• Someone acts as its agent, under its direction.
• Something demonstrates its power.
• Something demonstrates its potential.
• It falters, fails, or withholds its power.
• It demands fuel, resources, attention, or worship.
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RELIABLES
A reliable is a person genuinely loyal to a PC. A reliable can be:
• A Confidante (will give you advice, perspective, or absolution)
• A Friend (will back you up)
• A Guardian (will defend you and intercept danger)
• A Lover (will give you shelter and comfort)
• A Representative (will pursue your interests in your absence)
• A Right hand (will follow through on your intentions)
Threat moves for reliables:
• Push reading a person.
• They bring news, a warning, an opportunity, a fear, a dream.
• They attack someone suddenly, directly, and very hard.
• They attack someone cautiously, holding reserves.
• They make a show of force, a show of discipline, a show of faith, or a show of loyalty.
• They offer safety, rest, diversion, fun, camaraderie.
• They insist upon someone’s attention.
• They offer honest advice or alternative ideas.
TERRAIN
Terrain are the physical features within a landscape. Terrain can be:
• Broken ground (risk: being broken in the crossing)
• An Exposed place (risk: being exposed to danger)
• A precipice (risk: going over)
• Shifting ground (risk: losing your balance or bearings)
• A Torrent (risk: being swept or driven along)
• A Wall (risk: being brought up short)
Threat moves for terrain:
• Push acting under fire.
• It inflicts harm (as established: 1- or 2-harm, d-harm, or v-harm).
• It stalls someone.
• It isolates someone.
• It brings someone somewhere.
• It hides something.
• It gives someone a vantage point.
• It gives someone a secure position.
• It gives someone an escape.
65
THREATS
VEHICLES
Vehicles can seem to have their own personalities and agency. A vehicle can be:
• A Bold — (tries to dominate the road)
• A Cagey — (tries to protect what it carries)
• A Relentless — (tries to keep moving)
• A Skittish — (tries to outrun or to escape)
• A Vicious — (tries to kill and destroy)
• A Wild — (tries to defy danger)
Beast, brute, creature, devil, machine, ride.
Threat moves for vehicles:
• Push acting under fire.
• It leaps off the road.
• It swerves across the road.
• It smashes into an obstacle.
• It smashes through an obstacle.
• It veers stupidly into danger.
• It tears past.
• It turns too early or too late.
• It shoulders another vehicle aggressively.
• It rams another vehicle from behind.
• It t-bones another vehicle.
• It brakes abruptly.
WARLORDS
A warlord is a person in power, be it over people, a place, a project, or a domain of expertise. A
warlord can be:
• An Alpha wolf (seeks to hunt and dominate)
• A Collector (seeks to own)
• A Dictator (seeks to control)
• A Hive queen (seeks to consume and swarm)
• A Prophet (seeks to denounce and overthrow)
• A Slaver (seeks to own and sell people)
Threat moves for warlords:
• Push reading a situation and confronting someone.
• They outflank someone, corner someone, encircle someone.
• They attack someone suddenly, directly, and very hard.
• They attack someone cautiously, holding reserves.
• They seize someone or something, for leverage or information.
• They make a show of force or a show of discipline.
• They offer to negotiate, but demand concession or obedience.
• They claim territory: move into it, blockade it, assault it.
66
ESSENTIAL THREATS
Create these threats during and after the first session, at minimum.
• Where the PCs are, create it as a landscape, including terrain.
• For any PCs’ gangs, people, or populations, create them as clans. Consider including infiltrators
and/or wannabe warlords.
• For PCs’ individual NPCs, create them as clan members, infiltrators, or small-scale warlords.
Don’t save warlords only for literal warlords.
• Create an NPC as reliable only when the playbook tells you to.
• For any PCs’ vehicles, create them as vehicles.
• In any local populations, create diseases and/or institutions.
• For the Hard Zone locations, create them as landscapes.
• Find something to create as a pinpoint, if possible.
During the second session and subsequent, revise these threats freely and create more at need.
CREATING A THREAT
To create a threat:
• Choose its kind, name it, and copy over its impulse. Describe it and list its cast.
• Place it on the threat map. If it’s in motion, mark its direction with an arrow.
• List its stakes question(s).
• If it’s connected to other threats, list them.
• If it calls for a custom move or a countdown, create it.
67
THREAT MAP
THREAT TYPES
• Clans: cult, enforcers, family, hunting pack, mob, sybarites.
• Diseases: addiction, corruption, delusion, frailty, plague, prejudice.
• Infiltrators: betrayer, disease vector, parasite, quarry, revenant,
saboteur.
• Institutions: condemnation & judgment, hooks & leverage, offices &
duties, rituals & observances, rules & laws, status & hierarchy.
• Landscapes: breeding pit, fortress, furnace, maze, mirage, prison.
• Pinpoints: a cradle, a doorway, a hammer, a mirror, a searchlight, a
sickle.
• Reliables: confidante, friend, guardian , lover, representative, right
hand.
• Terrain: broken ground, an exposed place, a precipice, shifting ground,
a torrent, a wall.
• Vehicles: bold —, cagey —, relentless —, skittish —, vicious —,
wild —. Beast, brute, creature, devil, machine, ride.
• Warlords: alpha wolf, collector, dictator, hive queen, prophet, slaver.
ESSENTIAL THREATS
• Where the PCs are, create it as a landscape, including terrain.
• For any PCs’ gangs, people, or populations, create them as clans.
WEST
Consider including infiltrators and/or wannabe warlords.
• For PCs’ individual NPCs, create them as clan members, infiltrators,
or small-scale warlords. Don’t save warlords only for literal warlords.
• Create an NPC as reliable only when the playbook tells you to.
• For any PCs’ vehicles, create them as vehicles.
• In any local populations, create diseases and/or institutions.
• For the Hard Zone locations, create them as landscapes.
• Find something to create as a pinpoint, if possible.
BASIC MC MOVES
• Separate them.
• Capture someone.
• Put someone in a spot.
• Trade harm for harm.
• Announce off-screen badness.
• Announce future badness.
• Inflict harm.
• Take away their stuff.
• Make them buy.
• Activate their stuff ’s downside.
• Tell them the possible consequences and ask.
• Offer an opportunity, with or without a cost.
• Turn their move back on them.
• Make a threat move.
• After every move: “what do you do?”
NOT
NORTH IONA
L
FAR
TH
CLO ER
SER
THE PCS
& THEIR RESOURCES
EAST
SOUTH
GAMECHANGERS
Once the players have improved their characters 5 times, they can begin to choose
improvements from below the line, the “ungiven future.” One of their choices is to unlock a
gamechanger.
THE GAMECHANGER
As MC, you choose which gamechanger they unlock. Choose early in the game. If you prefer,
you can get the group in on the decision, but the final choice is yours. Introduce the idea of the
gamechanger in the first few sessions, and begin to lay the groundwork now. When the time
comes that they do choose it, it should be perfectly clear to them what they’re about to choose.
Choose 1 gamechanger:
• Changing the Guard.
• Epilogues.
• The Forced Door.
• The Lost Sword.
• New Horizons.
• A gamechanger of your own creation.
Choose 1 of the following as well. You don’t have to choose now, but you should choose before
the players get to it:
• The first player to choose “unlock a gamechanger” unlocks it for everyone.
• The first player to choose “unlock a gamechanger” puts the key in the lock, and then the characters
have to really unlock it, in action, in play. Start thinking now about how they’ll have to do it.
• The first player to choose “unlock a gamechanger” puts the key in the lock, and the second player to
choose it unlocks it for everyone.
• Every player has to choose “unlock a gamechanger.” They each unlock it for themselves, or else the
last player to choose it, finally unlocks it for everyone.
CHANGING THE GUARD

Choose a different player to be the MC. Create a character yourself to play. Everybody else
can keep their current characters or create new ones, as they prefer, now or going forward
whenever they want.
Continue the game.
In the early sessions: Let everyone know that you’re looking forward to playing a character yourself
and that you’ll be looking for a volunteer to take over as MC, down the line.
EPILOGUES
End the game.
Go around and ask everyone what happens to their characters hereafter. Take your time. Say
goodbye, good luck and godspeed.
In the early sessions: Let everyone know that you’re looking forward to playing the game through
to a satisfying conclusion and then ending it.
70
THE FORCED DOOR
The characters open a doorway to another dimension, another world, another timeline,
another game, and push through it.
You can keep playing with these characters and these rules in the new world, or else you can
switch to different characters and different rules, if that makes more sense.
In the early sessions: Start to plan for the other world. Make travel between worlds or timelines a
theme in the game. Create a cult who wants it, doorway-type pinpoints, or NPCs displaced from the
worlds they were born in. Decide whether the world’s psychic maelstrom represents the way to cross
worlds, an intrusion from another world, or a barrier keeping you here in this one.
If you intend to switch to another game, don’t be too cagey about it. Win your friends over to the idea
of switching games, don’t try to spring it on them.
THE LOST SWORDS

The Lost Swords are a powerful weapon, an army of war machines, that someone — who? —
left for the people in this time, in this place, to discover.
Each Lost Sword is sealed in a capsule, like a giant coffin of opaque, impregnable black glass.
They’re awaiting release: the correct handprint, the correct keycode, the correct psychic
password? Who knows what will eventually open them up.
A complete rules writeup of the Lost Swords follows.
In the early sessions: Decide where the Lost Swords’ capsules are: are they prominent or hidden?
Do you pass them in the ruins, standing silent, or do you have to search for them? Decide how many
there are: only one? One per PC? Literally an army of them?
Create the capsules as pinpoint threats. Hint that there are powerful war machines inside them. Let
the PCs investigate and discover them before they unlock them.
Will someone else, some NPC warlord or something, unlock them first? Who’s trying?
Think about who might have created them, and why they left them here locked: by accident, or on
purpose, and if so, what?
NEW HORIZONS
Bring a new Hard Zone into play.
In the early sessions: Choose which Hard Zone. Start to bring news, goods, and eventually people
over the horizon into play. You’ll need to decide what keeps it isolated from here, what barrier or
problem makes it unattainable until the PCs unlock it.
A GAMECHANGER OF YOUR OWN CREATION

Create a gamechanger of your own.
Before play begins: Outline it. Come to the game with it already in mind and with some notes
already written. Otherwise, choose one of the above instead.
In the early sessions: Lay the groundwork for it as appropriate.
71
THE LOST SWORDS
CREATING YOUR LOST SWORD
By default, your lost sword has Power+2, Agility+1, 2-Armor, Massive=2. Choose its
configuration and choose its systems accordingly.
LOST SWORD STANDARD MOVES

When you use your Lost Sword to deal with bad terrain, use its Agility for Handling. On a
7–9 or a miss, you have this additional option:
• You smash through obstacles, inflicting 1-environ to whatever’s in your way. Ask the MC what you
destroy and whether you can, in fact, force a way through.
When you use your Lost Sword to outdrive another vehicle, use its Agility for both Handling
and Speed.
When your Lost Sword goes into hard shutdown, roll+Agility. On a 10+, all 3. On a 7–9,
choose 2. On a miss, choose 1:
• Your Lost Sword slows to a stop. Otherwise, it freezes immobile at this precise moment.
• Your Lost Sword lands in a stable, balanced position. Otherwise, it falls awkwardly.
• Your Lost Sword maintains its baseline comms and sensor activity. Otherwise, it leaves you deaf
and dumb.
USING A LOST SWORD AS A WEAPON

Against a person:
• A glancing hit inflicts 2-harm ap.
• A direct hit inflicts 3-harm ap + Massive.
• Ramming inflicts 3-harm ap + Massive + Power.
Against another vehicle:
• A glancing hit inflicts v-harm.
• A direct hit inflicts 3-harm + Massive, minus your target’s Massive + Armor. Treat 0-harm
and less as v-harm.
• Ramming lets you inflict 3-harm + Massive + Power, minus your target’s Massive + Armor,
but suffer only the harm of a glancing hit (v-harm).
Against a building or structure:
• A glancing hit inflicts 2-harm.
• A direct hit inflicts 2-environ, minus the structure’s Armor. You suffer 3-harm + your own
Massive - your own Armor.
• Ramming inflicts 1-environ + power, minus the structure’s armor. You suffer the same as for
a direct hit, 3-harm + your own Massive - your own Armor.
WHEN A LOST SWORD SUFFERS HARM

v-harm: stumble, skid, swerve out of the way. No harm to pilot.
1-harm: cosmetic damage. Bullet holes, broken glass, smoke. 0-harm can blow through to pilot.
2-harm: functional damage. Fuel leak, disabled system, reactor stall, problems with guidance,
stability, movement. Can be field-patched. 1-harm can blow through to pilot.
3-harm: serious damage. Functional damage affecting multiple systems, but can be field-patched.
2-harm can blow through to pilot.
4-harm or 1-environ: breakdown. Catastrophic functional damage, can be repaired in a garage but
not in the field, or can used for parts. 3-harm can blow through to pilot.
5-harm or 2-environ and more: total destruction. Full harm can blow through to pilot, plus
they can suffer additional harm if the Lost Sword explodes or crashes.
LOST SWORD
SYSTEMS
Armor systems
Heavy armor (+1Armor)
Point-hardened laminate armor
Counters ap ammo.
Ultra-light armor (+1Agility)
Communication system
Surveillance array (close/far)
Allows surveillance through walls & darkness,
eavesdrops on electronic comms.
Flight systems
Jumpjets (+1Agility, loud)
Glidewings
Allows high, quiet, slow-speed flight.
Life support system
Integrated Ψ buffer rig
Protects you from Ψ-harm while in the cockpit.
Reactor system
Improved reactor (+1Power)
CONFIGURATION Stealth systems

Adaptive camo skin surfacing (stealth)
Choose 1:
When an enemy reads a situation by looking or
 Bishop: 1 communication, 1 flight or asking other people, remove “what is my enemy’s
stealth, 1 weapon, 1 of your choice. true position?”
 Castle: 1 armor, 1 targeting, 1 weapon, Contact-deflective skin surfacing (stealth)
1 of your choice. When an enemy reads a situation by listening or
 Knight: 1 flight, 1 stealth, 1 weapon, using electronics, remove “what is my enemy’s
1 of your choice. true position?”
 Queen: 3 targeting or weapons, 1 of Targeting systems
your choice. Target acquisition & lock system
Add +1 to do battle.
Pinpoint targeting system
Add +1harm to all weapon systems.
Weapon systems
Handheld weapon adapter
Allows you to aim and fire handheld weapons.
POWER ARMOR Mounted weapons:
Antipersonnel drone cloud
3-harm, close/far, area, loud, ap.
EMP shockwave generator
S-harm, close, loud. Disables electronic systems.
AGILITY MASSIVE Puts target Lost Sword into hard shutdown.
Long-range energy lance
SPEED, HANDLING 4-harm, far, ap, dazzling, concentrated fire.
Missile pod
2-environ, far.
Twin pulse cannons
4-harm, close/far, burstfire, concentrated fire.
All Lost Sword systems are hi-tech.
NOTES & CREDITS
DEVELOPMENT & FEEDBACK
Would you like to help see this game through to a finished product? Here’s the feedback we’re
looking for.
Readthrough feedback: On a readthrough, in conjunction with the Apocalypse World MC
book, are you ready and able to play? What questions do you need answers to before you can
begin?
Play feedback: In play, did you run into any rules questions you couldn’t easily answer? What
were they?
Reflection feedback: Which playbooks did you use? Which Hard Zone? Which gamechanger?
How did you find the pace of character development, escalation, and resolution? Which
characters had satisfying arcs, and which didn’t?
Thank you! We appreciate your interest and we’re happy to have you involved.
OVERBURNED BEANS
Preheat your oven to 350°f / 175°c.
Take a can or two of chickpeas. Rinse them well. Toss them with a tablespoon or two of oil and
a good spoonful of any spice mix you want. Try garam masala, chili powder, “Olde Canadian
Steak Rub,” berberé, ramen packets, whatever. You want ’em spicy and salty so don’t hold back.
Spread them on a single layer in a rimmed baking sheet, or improvise a baking sheet with foil.
Roast them in the oven for I dunno, 45 minutes? Check them after half an hour, give them a
stir or a shake. Some of them will stay tender, some will get crunchy and browned.
You don’t have to overburn them for real, unless you like them that way.
CREDITS
The Apocalypse World: Burned Over Hackbook ©2019 by D. Vincent Baker & Meguey Baker.
With Elliot Baker, F. Sebastian Baker, and Tovey Baker.
Photo references used under license.
a lumpley game
74

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What are Hard Zones and how are they used?

What are Hard Zones and how are they used?

What are the different threat types mentioned?

What are the different threat types mentioned?

APOCALYPSE WORLD: BURNED OVER

WHAT'S THE SAME

WHAT’S THE SAME … MOSTLY

DOWNLOAD THE PLAYBOOKS AT

Hx ENVIRON use your psychic abilities to

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

SMALL FANCY WEAPONS

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

Hx ENVIRON only source for a particular

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

: I have allowance from the local warlord to scavenge here and

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

Hx ENVIRON and its people, you live above

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

And choose 3 more options:

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

Hx ENVIRON to live a little comfortably on

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

Hx ENVIRON well off their devotion to you.

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

Hx ENVIRON you’re willing to let it take the

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

YOUR PORTS OF CALL

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

EFFECTS For everyone else, or if no one volunteers at

Hx ENVIRON out of what you have. You

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

: Broken and wandering, a seeker among ruins.

: A dancer or athlete, an artist of bodies in motion who can

: Brazen and fearless, who will go among your enemies and

: Shy and violent, who would undertake to kill for me.

: Smiling, full of laughter.

: Still a young child.

: Now dead and lost to me.

POTENTIAL WEAPONS AT HAND

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

Hx ENVIRON — warnings and insights — to

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

NAME • 2 hunter’s weapons.

Hx ENVIRON unsatisfied want, not when

 Get +1 to any stat (max stat+3).

* This is a highly interruptible move.

CLOTHING, LIVING SPACE & INCIDENTALS

EFFECTS On the others’ turns, volunteer if you like.

When you choose your gear, list your armor.