# Apocalypse World tags: #game/rpg/apocalypse-world ![[Apocalypse World (cover).jpg|600]] **Apocalypse World** is the 2010 Vincent and Meguey Baker game that detonated the modern indie landscape — the game for which the **[[Powered by the Apocalypse]]** engine was built, and the reason a thousand descendants exist. It drops you into a post-apocalyptic hardhold where scarcity is the only law and the people you love are also the ones pointing guns at you, and its innovations — **moves**, **playbooks**, the **Master of Ceremonies** who "plays to find out what happens" — reshaped how a generation thinks about running a table. It's the wellspring of the whole fiction-first bloodline, and a direct touchstone for **[[Forged in the Dark]]**, whose ancestor **[[Blades in the Dark]]** credits it among its influences. ## Setting The world is a post-apocalyptic Earth, rendered almost entirely in the fiction the table builds in its first session rather than shipped in a setting bible. The players stake out their **hardhold** — a town, a gang, a claim at the edge of the wasteland — and the **psychic maelstrom** howls through everyone's heads, granting powers to those who can ride it. It's a game of desperate communities, crosshairs on the people you care about, and the corrosive grind of survival. The original edition leaned hard into raw, abrasively adult material; later versions retuned the tone without sanding off the desperation. ## Mechanics The signature is the **move**: when you do something story-worthy, you roll **2d6 + a relevant stat** and read the ladder. A **10+** is a strong hit — you get what you want; a **7–9** is a weak hit — success with a cost, or the MC offers a hard choice; a **6−** is a miss, and the **Master of Ceremonies** makes a move of their own, escalating the fiction. The MC is bound by **agendas** and **principles** ("make Apocalypse World seem real," "play to find out what happens") rather than a script. Characters come from **playbooks** with their own moves and experience triggers, harm is gritty, and the MC tracks **fronts** and **threats** behind the scenes. It's fiction-first all the way down: the rules exist to make the story push forward, not to adjudicate a simulation. ## Editions - **Apocalypse World** (2010) — the original. *In the library.* - **Apocalypse World: Burned Over** (2019) — the revised re-tune: **Highly Interruptible Moves** announced explicitly so anyone can jump in, the "Hot" stat folded into Cool and Aggro, a leaner set of **Standard Moves** tied to equipment and holdings, an explicit **psi** rating, and specific **Hard Zones** replacing the vague wasteland. *In the library.* - **Apocalypse World 3rd Edition** (in development) — the current revision, pitched as a "kinder and much angrier" take on the same bones. The library holds the **3rd-edition preview** (rules/refsheets and core playbooks). *In the library.* ## References - [Apocalypse World: Burned Over — itch.io](https://lumpley.itch.io/apocalypse-world-burned-over-hackbook) - [Apocalypse World — Lumpley Games](https://lumpley.games/apocalypseworld/) - [Review: A Kinder, Much Angrier Apocalypse — Rascal News](https://www.rascal.news/apocalypse-world-burned-over-is-kinder-and-much-angrier/) - [Apocalypse World: Burned Over 3rd Edition Kickstarter — Bell of Lost Souls](https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2025/12/rpg-apocalypse-world-burned-over-3rd-edition-final-day-on-kickstarter.html)