Plot Summary[]
Character Summary[]
Nai (Grandma)[]
Nai runs the base of 120 people (a half-buried aircraft carrier), and also runs a gang of 20 women. She runs a tight ship, looking after her own, as long as they pull their weight.
Torque[]
Torque fixes things, mainly by breaking things down to their base components. They're not a people person, more interested in mechanical devices. They're working on a fighter jet that they think is a drill.
Grubb[]
Grubb is Nai's right-hand woman. They have a massive gun ripped from the ship itself, and look like a large grub. They are very loyal to Nai, but otherwise enjoy bringing violence to people.
Sundown[]
Sundown is small and psychic, and everyone is scared of them. They like to watch people, particularly Torque.
Synopsis[]
The world has ended; it's been so long since the apocalypse that nobody can really remember what it was like before.
Episode 1[]
The visiting gang. From left to right: Zhang, Lux, Nina, Summer, Ravi. Art by @LhoBrockhoff on Twitter. Used with permission.
The Base Nai runs is in the bottom of a dried-up sea, and is formed from an old aircraft-carrier wreck half-buried in silt. The 120 inhabitants are gradually digging out the ship to expand their underground living space. Nai also runs a gang of 20 women. The gang has a sophisticated armoury, but is very violent and craves savagery. The holding also has a manufactuary, including Torque's garage, workshop, controlled growing environment, and ancient fighter jet they're convinced is a drilling device. People don't really go outside- above, they can hear stomping sounds of large creatures moving around on the surface. Surface forays are occasionally made in order to fish or trade. There is a larger entrance that can fit a vehicle, and some smaller entrances for people. They are all guarded.
BREAK
Nai is in her admin office doing an inventory and working on logistics. Torque is in their workshop near the surface, working on the Device, and Sundown is watching them. Grubb is on watch outside one of the food storage areas, leaning on her biggest gun (ripped from the ship). Torque hears an increasing rumbling in the distance, and it becomes banging. Soil and silt rains from the ceiling down into the hull. A horrible sound is heard, and two guards run into Nai's room. Nai asks what's going on, and one of the guards says that there are five people outside, with a vehicle. One of them is lying down, and they're trying to get in. The guards don't know if they're hostile, so Nai goes to the gate, getting Grubb in the process. Torque, meanwhile, is collecting the fallen dust for research. Sundown decides the dust-sorting isn't very interesting and follows the guards. At the surface, they reach the opening. At the entrance they see a small black woman with a much bigger white lady, and they look distressed.
The black woman (Nina) asks for entrance, saying they need help, that they're being chased sand that her mum's been hit and is dying. Nai offers them entrance to the holding, but says they'll need to leave their weapons. They agree. Nina has clearly had a recent deep cut along her head, and it's been stapled back together. The large white woman (Lux) has one eye, and is carrying a small woman who is bleeding and bandaged (Summer). They are followed by an exceptionally nondescript Indian man (Ravi), and a hyperactive wiry Asian woman with a metal leg (Zhang). Nai says they don't have much in the way of medical facilities, and that they'll have to bring in their vehicle to cover their tracks. Nai tells them to stay where they are, then picks the strongest-looking two, and with two guards Nai goes to push the vehicle into the tunnel. Nina starts depositing knives. Nai decides to send the injured woman to the medical bay, then pats down the others before putting them in a single cabin to watch. She gives Ravi a more thorough pat-down since he's a man. Lux gives over two enormous guns.
Nai asks how they found this place. They say they were running from a monster the size of three trucks, with lots of teeth. Nai talks to them for a while, trying to work out their intentions, which turn out to be to stay in the holding for as long as possible- they don't want to go back out there. They hope Nai can strike some kind of bargain with them, and they're clearly very scared- they're used to living on the surface, but they're exhausted. Nai warms to them, and makes it clear that they can live here with the rest of the population if they prove themselves. Nai nods to Grubb and they lower their massive gun.
Zhang is with Torque, looking at the van. Torque goes over to the van, ignoring Zhang completely, and starts talking to the van as though it's their baby. Zhang has to physically stop them from taking the van apart to its base components, and an argument ensues. She starts smacking his hand away from the van, and the guards watch carefully. During the squabbling, Zhang realises The Device (the fighter jet) is important to Torque and starts hitting it with a hammer. Torque just starts to cry and stamp their foot.
Episode 2[]
Sundown, meanwhile, has been following Nai's group in the medical bay. They're helping to look after the injured Summer. The medic shoos them out, apart from Nina (Summer's daughter). Nai insists that Grubb stays in the medbay as a guard. Lux asks Nai if the medic (Alameni, a burly black man who's rather short-sighted) is good, and Nai replies that he's adequate, given that the group no longer has the ability to scavenge or manufacture medicine. Nai asks how Summer was injured, and Lux replies that the monster hit the van with its tail and Summer, their medic, was injured. Nai says that they've made the best of their situation here, and that if the new group wants to stay, they're welcome if they can look after themselves.
Sundown notices that Ravi has been looking at them, staring intensely. Nai asks Lux if Ravi is OK, and Ravi says he's like that sometimes, but he can sometimes tell when stuff's going wrong. Sundown asks what kind of stuff, and Lux gives an example of knowing that bandits are around a certain corner, or knowing not to go in to a dangerous place. Nai asks if he's safe around people, and Lux says he's fine, and that she can crush him if necessary. Sundown asks her if she's ever changed her mind. Sundown just leaves silently. Nai follows, and asks if Sundown is alright. Sundown says they're not sure about Ravi, and Nai agrees. Nai asks Sundown to keep an eye on Ravi, and Sundown agrees, and Nai says she'll increase their rations a little as a thank you.
Back at the van in Torque's workshop, a stalemate has been reached. Torque is trading parts of the van for tools with Zhang, who is somehow even more covered in oil. Zhang asks what it's like living in the ship. Torque says it's great, but that they never get support for their projects. They start talking about plants. Zhang asks if they've ever been outside, and Torque seems confused. Why would you go up? That's where the sky lives. Digging down is where it's at. They try to convince Zhang to help them with the Device, to dig further into the ground. Zhang remarks that the Device looks a bit like the monsters in the sky, and wonders if it's really for digging down. She points at the wing, saying that it's called a wing, and Torque disagrees, saying they're called 'flappy paddles' and push it through the dirt. They get up on the plane and start wiggling the joystick, talking nonsense about how the Device works, and asking how Zhang has survived this long given her apparent lack of engineering 'knowledge'. Zhang replies that a lot of them didn't, and that there used to be around thirty members in the group. Torque asks her what they did with the (body) parts, and Zhang disappears back into the van.
Grubb is in the medbay with Summer, Nina and Alameni. Alameni asks Grubb to hold Summer's skin together. Grubb puts the massive gun over one shoulder and with her other hand holds the flesh, still staring at Nina. Nina asks if she can stop pointing the gun at them. Grubb gently threatens them, adamant that she's doing her job, while focusing on her prime goal, keeping Granny Nai safe. Grubb hears some quiet rumbling from overhead, and, slowly and quietly, asks Nina what their group brought with them.
BREAK
Something big is above ground, rumbling. Dirt is raining from the ceiling.
Torque, who now believes Zhang is their best friend, asks about the rumbling, and wonders if digging would help. Zhang actually agrees, saying that digging down and away from it is actually a good idea, but that the Device flies, not digs. Zhang asks to touch the Device, and Torque says she can only touch it if they can touch her van. Torque examines the van, and can tell that it's gone over really rough, punishing terrain- it's clearly come a very long way, through various conditions, and has been patched up a lot. The Device begins to hum. She pushes the joystick, and the fighter jet goes diagonally down. Part of the ceiling collapses.
Nai is sprinting towards the noise, dodging falling metal, but is stopped by something green poking its head through. It has mandibles, and the head is around 5 ft (1.5 m) long. It opens a horrible mouth and bites her, removing part of her leg. Grubb sees.
Sundown is trying to find Ravi, which isn't hard since he's been following them. Sundown tells him he can't be here, and he just shrugs. Things are falling around them as this happens; they both stand still, staring at each other. Sundown puts their glove on his face and does a full brainscan. They find that he wants to be their friend, having never met someone like them before. Ravi puts his hand on their face. Sundown doesn't know what to do.
Grubb throws a grenade at the monster, and its head explodes in pus-like fluid. She helps Nai to the medbay. Nai calls the guards, telling them to make whatever is making the noise in the workshop stop, and then to come and help fix the ceiling. The guard outside the workshop doesn't answer. Members of Nai's gang report that there's an explosion and monsters.
The Device has started up, but it's going up, not down. It breaks through the ceiling, and sunlight breaks through. As Torque tries to grab 'useful' objects, the sound of mandibles comes from the hole in the ceiling [it turns out Alex can do a great mandible sound].
Episode 3[]
When Torque was growing up, they had a book with a story about a caterpillar that kept eating things Torque has never seen before, because it was hungry. It then turned into a beautiful thing with multicoloured flappy things. The beasts coming down the tunnel look like the caterpillar. Looking around, the best escape route appears to be to get into Zhang's fixed van and drive through the wall. Torque is aware there are more bugs to look out for too, as they can hear their noises down the corridor. The closest bug seems to be the most vulnerable, as it's smaller than the other ones. Torque gets into the van with Zhang, but they are spotted by the caterpillars, which speed up and are hot on their heels. They attempt to drive into the hole created by the Device, but having never driven a van, it goes into reverse and shoots back up towards the sunlight, and stalls, surrounded by caterpillars. They begin bashing the van, and Zhang shrieks that this is what happened last time.
Nai has been shouting into her radio to tell everyone to get armed and kill the bugs, but is getting weaker from loss of blood and drops the radio, hand lolling. She has just enough strength in her neck to nuzzle into Grubb as they carry her. Grubb, through tears, says they have to get Nai to the medical bay before going to fight the bugs. They get to the medbay, but Nai's foot is further injured in the process. Nai faints, and Grubb hands her to Alameni. Grubb turns around and cocks her gun, intent on taking care of the bugs. To Nina, they say that since their group brought these things here, she'd better help get rid of them; they hand Nina a tiny scalpel when Nina protests that all her knives were taken from her. Eventually Grubb relents and hands Nina a shotgun (the 'small one' of their guns). They run off.
Sundown is still reciprocally holding Ravi's face. Benind Ravi, Sundown can see a large, shadowed, crawling thing. they take their hand from Ravi's face and he does the same. Sensing that Ravi isn't any good at killing bugs (although his mind is surprisingly calm), they push him out of the way. He turns around and sees the caterpillar. Turning back, he asks (with his eyes) what they should do. Sundown says they'll need to deal with it, and that Ravi should go somewhere out of the way, to safety. Sundown then stares down the caterpillar telepathically, and it reels back, rearing up, then doesn't know what to do. The caterpillar approaches, picks up Ravi, and gives him to them to hold.
BREAK
Torque shouts for Zhang to give them her (prosthetic) leg, and she detached it and hands it to them. They try to attach it to their stun gun in such a way that it becomes tasty-looking electrified caterpillar bait, waved from the van window. Unfortunately a caterpillar siezes the leg and pulls them halfway from the van, apparently without being electrocuted. Zhang grabs their legs and tries to pull them back in. torque opens their mind to the universe and learns that the caterpillars are easily scared and are quite small babies. They ask Zhang to hand them the 'fire what cuts' (a blowtorch type item), hoping to create a scary boom when they throw it from the window. They have to drop Zhang's leg to do so. They and Zhang cower down in the van together as it rocks when the boom goes off. the caterpillars squeal and run away.
Grubb is following the caterpillar noises down the corridor. Grubb sees around six, and shoots them with her machine gun. The machine gun misfires and they shoot some loose screws, which causes a bunch of dirt to fall down through the roof, blocking Grubb from both the caterpillars and the exit. The caterpillars are trying to burrow their way through, Nina shouts to run from them. Grubb disagrees and tries to find another way through, encountering some of Nai's gang who have joined the fight against the caterpillars. Grubb indicates which way they are heading, and the gang members follow. From behind the group, a phalanx of Nai's gang surges forward and start to attack the blockage to dig it out. As the caterpillars break through, the team shoots the caterpillars and insect parts go everywhere. Soon, the group is wading through bug parts, but the way to the exit is clear.
Sundown puts Ravi down, and tries to pet the caterpillar. The caterpillar is offended, seizes Ravi, and makes off with him. Ravi's eyes say 'save me', and Sundown shouts at it to come back. The caterpillar snubs them and disappears around the corner.
In a panic, Torque tries to reverse the van into the hole it came out of, in the hope that Nai will call them a hero for wedging the breach. The van reverses all the way up into the sunlight on the seabed. They see a caterpillar emerge from the ship, holding a small Indian man. Zhang leaps from the van and tries to pursue the caterpillar, but she's without a gun or a prosthetic. Torque tries to reverse to Zhang to pick her up and get her to the caterpillar, but the van stalls and catches fire. Zhang makes her way to the caterpillar and slaps it across the face. It drops Ravi and runs away; they make their way back to the ship.
Grubb has defeated the caterpillars, Sundown has navigated emotions, Nai pulls through and walks with a limp, and Torque is stuck in the desert in a (burning) van with an offended caterpillar.
Quotes[]
Mechanics[]
Apocalypse world is a Powered By The Apocalypse game in which the world has ended. The adventure is called 'The Kindness of Strangers'. PbtA is a 2D6 game, where 6 and below is a miss, 7 - 9 is a hit, and 10+ is a strong hit.
Character creation[]
Character sheets from the playset give players both mechanical (e.g. class) and 'flavour' (e.g. appearance) options; the options the players chose can be found on the separate character pages.
In the History section, players decide how the characters know each other. Players reads statements and the other players claim them for their character. There are separate lists for pa character's histories with others, and others' histories with the character. The histories are assigned numbers that determine how well the characters know each other (regardless of whether the relationship is positive or negative), and players can apply modifiers to these numbers with further statements.
Sundown[]
Others' histories with Sundown:
- Nai: Base = -1. Sundown once betrayed or stole something from her: +3
- Grubb: -1
- Torque: Base = -1. Torque's got more to do than get to know people: -2
Sundown's histories with others (i.e. how well they know them)
- Nai: Base (0) = irrelevant. Nai doesn't like them for some reason:+3
- Grubb: Base = irrelevant. Grubb has knowingly or unknowingly slept in their presence before: +3
- Torque: Base = irrelevant. Sundown has been watching Torque in secret for some time:+3
Nai[]
Others' histories with Nai:
- Sundown: Nai doesn't like them for some reason:+3
- Grubb: Grubb thinks Nai is the smartest: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: 0 (this possibly should be +1 if Nai's base is 0?)
- Torque: Torque thinks Nai is the biggest potential problem: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: 0
Nai's histories with others:
- Sundown: Base = -1. Sundown once betrayed or stole something from her: +3
- Grubb has known her since before: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: +5
- Grubb's base = 0
- Grubb has fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Nai: +2
- Grubb thinks Nai is the prettiest: +2
- Torque: Base = -1. Torque thinks Nai is the most strange: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: 0
Grubb[]
Others' histories with Grubb:
- Nai has known Grubb since before: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: +5
- Grubb's base = 0
- Grubb has fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Nai: +2
- Grubb thinks Nai is the prettiest: +2
- Sundown: Grubb has knowingly or unknowingly slept in their presence before: +3
- Torque: Base = 0. Torque's got more to do than get to know people: -1
Grubb's histories with others:
- Nai: Base = 0 Grubb thinks Nai is the smartest: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: 0 (this possibly should be +1 if Nai's base is 0?)
- Sundown: -1
- Torque = -1
Torque[]
Others' histories with Torque:
- Sundown has been watching Torque in secret for some time:+3
- Nai: base = -1. Torque thinks Nai is the most strange: 0
- Grubb: -1
Torque's histories with others:
- Sundown: Base = -1. Torque's got more to do than get to know people: -2
- Grubb: Base = 0. Torque's got more to do than get to know people: -1
- Torque thinks Nai is the biggest potential problem: Take the number that player gives, and add 1 before writing down: 0
Gameplay[]
Episode 1
- Nai Reads Person. 9 + 2 (Sharp) = 11 (good success- can ask 3 questions from a list)
- What do they intend to do?
- What do they hope [Nai would] do?
- What are they really feeling?
- Torque Seizes by Force: -1 (Hard) = 6 (fail)
Episode 2
- Grubb rolls Heal (Act Under Fire): 8 + 3 (Hard) = 11 (Good success)
- Torque rolls to examine the van (Thingspeak): 5 + 3 = 8 (Success- can ask GM 1 question)
- What has been done most recently with this?
- Nai sprints to the jet (Act Under Fire) 5 - 2 (cool) = 3 (fail)
- Grubb sprints to the jet (Act Under Fire): 10 + 3 (Hard) = 13 (Good success)
- Nai takes 3 Harm.
- Sundown tries to do a full brainscan on Ravi: 6 + 2 (unknown stat) = 8 (success; can ask 1 question)
- What does he want?
- Grubb throws a grenade at the monster (Going aggro): 8 + 3 = 11 (good success). 4 + 1 Harm to the monster
Episode 3
- Torque Reads the Situation: 12 + 1 (Sharp) = 13 (good success). Can ask the GM 3 questions.
- What's my best escape route?
- What should I be on the lookout for?
- Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
- Torque tries to bundle Zhang into the van with them (Act under fire): 8 (success)
- Torque tries to drive the van downwards (Act under Pressure): 4 (fail)
- Grubb runs with Nai to the medbay (Act Under Fire): 6 + 3 = 9 (success)
- Nai takes 1 Harm.
- Sundown Reads Person 8 + 2 (Sharp) = 10 (good success)
- Is Ravi any good at killing bugs?
- Sundown uses a direct brain whisper on a caterpillar (weird): 10 (good success)
- Sundown throws knives at the caterpillar (Go Aggro): 9 - 2 (Hard) = 7 (success)
- Chooses to receive a gift from the caterpillar
- Torque tries to attach Zhang's metal leg to their gun as bait for a caterpillar (Act Under Fire): 6 (used Cool; modifier unknown): 6 (fail)
- Torque opens their brain: 10 + 3 (Weird) = 13 (Good success).
- Learns a new and interesting detail (caterpillars easily scared)
- These are baby caterpillars- this is why they're hungry
- Torque tries to throw a blowtorch (?) from the van to scare the caterpillars (Act Under Fire): 11 (good success)
- Grubb goes aggro on some caterpillars: 6 (fail)
- Nai's gang fights the caterpillars: 12 + 2 (Leadership) = 14
- Sundown tries to Manipulate the caterpillar to be their pet: 5 - 1 (Hot) = 4 (fail)
- Torque tries to reverse the van into a hole (Act Under Pressure): 9 (success)