Savvy up, wastelanders. Smoke on the horizon.
As announced early last year, Apocalypse World 2nd Edition is on its way, and the finished game is now funding a print run via Kickstarter. An influential and acclaimed 2011 roleplaying game, Apocalypse World‘s new edition promises changes and streamlining to some of the game’s more confusing subsystems alongside a new set of rules specifically catered towards making big battles more interesting. According to the Kickstarter page, the edition is in final layout and editing, nearly ready to go to the printer once the campaign is completed. It’s already well and beyond funded, with the campaign scheduled to complete on March 1st.
The first edition of Apocalypse World was made quite a splash in the narrative roleplaying game community, and its quantification of player actions into discrete “moves” spawned numerous successors, some more successful than others. Hit 2013 games Dungeon World and Monsterhearts both used the same game engine – what designer D. Vincent Baker calls being “Powered by the Apocalypse.” Much of the game’s self-contained nature, like characters and rules being explainable on a one-page sheet to players, has shown up in other recent roleplaying games. The basics of the system revolve around rolling two six sided dice and adding a small number, but hinge on the idea that characters never quite get everything they want out of a situation. Characters are also highly differentiated, often using unique, asymmetrical mechanics to interact with the world around them.
Apocalypse World was designed by D. Vincent Baker, and for the 2nd Edition re-design he’s joined by collaborator Meguey Baker. D. Vincent and Meguey Baker are a couple, though they usually publish their games separately and promote them together. Meguey Baker as Night Sky Games, perhaps best known for Psi*Run and 1001 Nights. D. Vincent as Lumpley Games, known for not just Apocalypse World, but also Dogs in the Vineyard and In A Wicked Age.
You can check out the project over on Kickstarter.
