11. Fronts

Fronts & Clocks

A Front is in many ways a major story thread, a theme built around a collection of things that will have an impact on your characters, and often present them with a challenge they need to overcome. The ‘things’ can be natural events, enemies, passing influences, and moral and ethical dilemmas. Hope and Despair could be considered an ongoing Front to the game, a force or threat to the players that has more than a passing impact.

In Fallen Cities there are many forces at work that will get in the way of the players, directly and indirectly. Below I have listed a number of the major ones. Foremost amongst them is The City itself, which sees the characters as a resource to be used and expended. The City considers you an entry on a ledger, if the cost of keeping you outweighs the reward, they will simply dispose of you. Characters should be reminded of this all the time by their Commander, perform or perish.

In Fallen Cities, unlike normal Apocalypse World games, players will often act directly against their Fronts. Their Mission maybe to defeat or investigate a Front that is threatening, or interests, The City, and thus the Team. A Mission is similar to a Front, but one the players are acting against, but at the same time other Fronts can be in play.

To create your own Fronts simply decide on one or more threats that you want to be active at this time in your story, give them a reason for being, assign them cause (impulse) and decide how and why they are impacting on the characters, and make some notes about what results are likely depending on how successful they are.

• Choose a fundamental drive (reason for the Front existing)

• Create 3 or 4 threats that are impelled by that drive.

• Write its purpose and goals and results.

• Write 2–4 stakes questions, what if … depending on success, opposition or failure.

• List the front’s cast, those impacted by the Front, its drive and its threats.

• Create the front’s clocks (see below).

DRIVES.

Underlying every front is a Drive, a purpose and target. Choose 1 of the following, remembering that these are primal urges, Hunger doesn’t mean they need food, it means they need something, badly.

• Hunger (they need something, fundamental, all of them do)
• Decay (they want to bring something down)
• Thirst (they desire something, the urge to have is strong, they want to drink...)
• Despair (they have given up and want to take everyone with them, defeated, dark)
• Ignorance (they act without knowledge or thought)
• Envy (they are jealous, they desire, they want)
• Fear (they are afraid, they do not understand, they feel alone)
• Ambition (they must possess, they have a dream, a mission to fulfil, they crave)
• The Rift (is random, chaotic, but not without purpose, dimensional, freaky)
• The Alien (is unknowable, hostile, desires, builds, grows, changes, possesses)
• Insanity (is driven, is erratic, methodical, determined, is unknowable, may do anything)
• The Invader (an outsider intruding, has an agenda, is organised, has resources)

Ask yourself: whose Hunger threatens the players’ characters? Whose Thirst threatens them? Whose Ignorance does? And so on down the list.

So copy down that Drive and create that Front, populate it with 3 or 4 Threats that seem connected to the driving force, throw in some innocent victims, salt with various impediments, ask a few questions, assign goals, work out a few Clocks, and there you are.

THREATS

There are 11 broad categories of threat. When you create a threat, choose 1:

1. Warlords
2. Monsters
3. The Ruins
4. Affliction
5. The Rift
6. Brutes
7. Crazies
8. Aliens
9. Invaders
10. The City
11. The Past

1. WARLORDS

A warlord threat is the warlord plus the gang and other people under the warlord’s control. Choose which kind of warlord:

• Slaver (impulse: to own and sell people)
• Hive queen (impulse: to consume and swarm)
• Prophet (impulse: to denounce and overthrow)
• Dictator (impulse: to control)
• Collector (impulse: to own)
• Alpha wolf (impulse: to hunt and dominate)
• Cultist (impulse: to convert, to impose)

GM Moves for Warlords:

• Outflank someone, corner someone, encircle someone.
• Attack someone suddenly, directly, and very hard.
• Attack someone cautiously, holding reserves.
• Seize someone or something, for leverage or information.
• Make a show of force.
• Make a show of discipline.
• Offer to negotiate. Demand concession or obedience.
• Claim territory: move into it, blockade it, assault it.
• Buy out someone’s allies.
• Make a careful study of someone and attack where they’re weak.

Warlords act primarily through their people, acting directly themselves only when cornered or caught out in the open, or they are feeling in a position of dominance.

The Cult of the Rift

There are as many cults as you wish, but there will be one that is a real threat. It will have quite a few members and the ability to range over the city. It will have a base of operations/training camp up near the Dam Wall. The Cult believes that the Aliens are angels, sent by God to bring the end of times, but that The City is somehow stopping them by creating the Rift and the Fog. The Cult generally worships the Aliens, and goes to great lengths to try to aid them. They have even gone far enough to try to implant an alien into a living human body, a sacrifice. The results are mixed.

The Brotherhood

The Brotherhood are the opposite of The Cult. They believe that the Aliens are demons that have escaped Hell and are trying to bring about the raising of the City of Dis, and the triumph of Hell over Heaven. They go to great lengths to destroy Aliens. They abhor the City because they imbibe the blood of demons and are therefor just as bad.

2. MONSTERS

A monster is a creature twisted by the Rift into a new and disturbing form, usually via mutation, physical and mental. Choose which kind of monster:

• Cannibal (impulse: craves satiety and plenty, to feed)
• Mutant (impulse: inflict cruelty and suffering)
• Pain addict (impulse: craves pain, its own or others’)
• Disease vector (impulse: craves contact, intimate and/or anonymous)
• Mindfucker (impulse: craves mastery)
• Perversion of birth (impulse: craves overthrow, chaos, the ruination of all)
• Disturbed (impulse: vengeance and violence)

GM Moves for Monsters:

• Display the nature of the world it inhabits.
• Display the contents of its soul.
• Attack, blindly and without reason.
• Attack someone from behind or otherwise by stealth.
• Attack someone face-on, but without threat or warning.
• Insult, affront, offend or provoke someone.
• Offer something to someone, or do something for someone, with strings attached.
• Put it in someone’s path, part of someone’s day or life.
• Threaten someone, directly or else by implication.
• Steal something from someone.
• Seize and hold someone.
• Ruin something. Befoul, rot, desecrate, corrupt, adulter it.
• Inflict pain and suffering
• Fixate on an individual, bide your time.

The Kraken in the Pit

The Pit is the hole the City was raised from, and left behind. It is now a dark, Fog filled, waste filled mess. The City above blocks out most of the light, and the Fog kills off the rest. All the waste systems laid under the ruins now empty into the pit. The poorest of the poor live here, it is the ultimate slum, with humans clinging to the sides in layers of ramshackle huts. Down the bottom, where everything descends to, is a black, thick, watery pool that ripples now and then as something moves within. Floating on top is a layer of refuse, a thick layer that careful people can walk on, as long as they watch for the unexpected ripples. Down in the darkest place, beneath it all, something lives.

The Rats (Hive)

Rats are pretty good survivors, not as good as humans, but that just means they need to try harder. Rats are now bigger and brighter, having mutated into a hive mind to give them the intelligence of a human, or better. Rats now come in sizes from the expected rodent, upto rats that are the size of lions, with teeth to match. Rats like to swarm, to breed and to eat. And they love those tunnels you hate.

The Roaches.

Not to be outdone by rats, and to fulfill their prophecy of being the last lifeform, the roaches have also adapted to a variant of the hive mind. But in the tradition of Damnation Alley there are other types of roaches, the hungry ones, the smart ones, the swarming ones, and the bigger than big ones.

The Cats & Dogs.

Cats are natures supreme hunters, and nature looks after her own. Big cats with big claws, big teeth, kevlar like fur and very very quiet. Oh, and see in the dark… we can do better than that.

Dogs are the ultimate pack animal, and now they are empathically telepathic, and of course bigger.

3. THE RUINS.

A ruins of the city are a threat that can be natural or constructed, and whatever size you need. Rubble and debris can be an ever present random risk, or it can be cultivated by others, used as a defence or a warning. The people of the ruins adapt it to their purposes, use what it provides, construct new dangers as they need to.

• Prison (impulse: to contain, to deny egress)
• Breeding pit (impulse: to generate badness)
• Furnace (impulse: to consume things)
• Mirage (impulse: to entice and betray people)
• Maze (impulse: to trap, to frustrate passage)
• Fortress (impulse: to deny access)
• Rubble (impulse: to bury)
• Ruin (impulse: to conceal danger)

GM Moves for The Ruins:

• Reveal something to someone.
• Display something for all to see.
• Hide something.
• Bar the way.
• Open the way.
• Provide another way.
• Shift, move, rearrange.
• Offer a guide.
• Present a guardian.
• Disgorge something.
• Take something away: lost, used up, destroyed.
• Bury something.

4. AFFLICTIONS

An affliction threat isn’t a person, it’s something threatening that people are doing, or that is happening, or that has come to be. Choose which kind of affliction:

• Disease (impulse: to saturate a population)
• Condition (impulse: to expose people to danger)
• Custom (impulse: to promote and justify violence)
• Delusion (impulse: to dominate people’s choices and actions)
• Sacrifice (impulse: to leave people bereft)
• Barrier (impulse: to impoverish people)

A condition is any bad practical circumstance. The holding’s water filtration breaks down? A bomb-blast weakens the infirmary’s foundation? There’s not enough food to get through the dry season? Conditions.

GM Moves for Afflictions:

• Someone neglects 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 affliction to be a just punishment.
• Someone proclaims the affliction to be, in fact, a blessing.
• Someone refuses or fails to adapt to new circumstances.
• Someone brings friends or loved ones along.
• “Someone” in these moves will usually be an afflicted NPC.

5. THE RIFT

The Rift is alive, or it can be if you want it to be. The Rift is a place of overlapping possibilities, where the laws of two very different worlds meet, merge and change. The laws of physics, as we know them, do not always apply in The Rift. When you want something strange then the Rift is your friend.

• Strange (impulse: to be different to what was, or what is)
• Irradiate (impulse: to mutate)
• Empower (impulse: the give strength)
• Break (impulse: to makes things not work)
• Weaken (impulse: to take away)
• Dream (impulse: to disturb)
• Move (impulse: to confuse)

GM Moves for The Rift:

• To change the normal order
• To break something
• To boost a power
• To rob them of a strength
• Show them a new world
• Show them the future
• Alter the physical world
• Alter their form.

The Rift (fact and fiction)

The Rift is the area where the two dimensions overlap, creating an area where the physical laws of both dimensions mix. This can result in one or the others properties being dominant, but more often it causes a strange blend, or even sometimes totally new effects to occur. This disturbance manifests in a number of visible ways, the Fog being the most noticeable. The Rift also causes Rift radiation to be generated, a strange new form of radiation that causes organic creatures to mutate. The most common initial mutation is an ability to use the Rift to manifest the ability to control the Rift such that you manifest various powers. Some people call these powers magical, others call them psychic, but essentially they are a subconscious ability to control the reality of the overlapping dimensions so as to shape and manipulate their properties.

The Fog (monsters)

The Fog is the primary visible manifestation of the Rift. The Fog however has some subtle powers of its own. Depending on how you would like to run it, the Fog can be a pseudo-living entity, with an agenda. It can manifest subtle effects over a localised area, and it can concentrate Rift Radiation at times, increasing or decreasing the background count, influencing the use of Rift Powers. The Fog can also shift the physical world to some degree, or create the illusion that it has been shifted. Finally the Fog is responsible for getting Lost. The Fog does this by moving areas of the landscape to alternate times and dimensions (or vice versa) and then trapping the characters in a bubble of alternate reality, from which they must escape.

6. BRUTES

A brutes threat is a group of people, with or without a leader acting in crude, perhaps provisional, concert. Or they can be a single powerful creature. Choose which kind of brutes:

• Hunting pack (impulse: to victimize anyone vulnerable)
• Sybarites (impulse: to consume someone’s resources)
• Enforcers (impulse: to victimize anyone who stands out)
• Cult (impulse: to victimize & incorporate people)
• Mob (impulse: to riot, burn, kill scapegoats)
• Family (impulse: to close ranks, protect their own)

An individual person within a group of brutes might not share the group’s impulse, and might even fight against it. It’s the group’s impulse, not necessarily any person’s.

GM Moves for Brutes:

• Burst out in uncoordinated, undirected violence.
• Make a coordinated attack with a coherent objective.
• Tell stories (truth, lies, allegories, homilies).
• Demand consideration or indulgence.
• Rigidly follow or defy authority.
• Cling to or defy reason.
• Make a show of solidarity and power.
• Ask for help or for someone’s participation.

Franks.

Franks are the creations of the Frankenstiens (see Crazies). Monstrous humanoids constructed from human parts and re-animated.

Franks are your classic Frankenstein monster, made from assembled body parts, brought to life with the use of Miasma and electricity. Most Franks are insane from the start, as too are the scientists that create them.

7. THE CRAZIES

There are people and groups out there that are of unsound mind, and body. They have a complete disconnection from reality, or they have their own personal reality (or unreality). They are driven however, mostly by the the fact that actual reality doesn’t seem to match their personal reality, and that really annoys them. There are other Crazies that are just simply insane, but most of those don’t last very long. The ones you really have to worry about are the ones that hang around, there is sanity in their insanity, and that can be a real problem.

Going crazy in this lost world is easy, being successful at it, surviving, is hard. But the rewards of success are high, you will attract people who are also crazy, drawn by your success. You will also attract people who are only marginally insane, but your insanity is infectious, so they are easy prey.

And although you are insane, your success means you have come out the other side to some degree, and your insanity sort of sounds… sane. You can appear to be normal, in fact the most dangerous crazies are the ones standing right behind you.

• Mad Scientists
• Religious Fanatics
• Death Cults
• True Believers

GM Moves for Crazies

• You were not expecting this…
• Our two major weapons, surprise, fear and …
• I have more where they came from.
• Sacrifice yourselves my minions (whilst I escape).
• You may strike me down, but it will only make me stronger.
• You complete me… well your legs do actually.
• Inspiration, comes in many forms.
• Come, gaze upon my very latest secret weapon...

The Frankensteins

The Frankensteins are a cult of mad scientists who are intent on using Miasma and electricity and mad science to create a race of perfect beings, affectionately known as Franks.

The original scientists were Citizens, but delved into the properties of Miasma just a little too far for the average person. When they were threatened with being shut down they elected to flee the city and take a bunch of equipment with them. This has allowed them to continue their work in secret. The City makes a token attempt to clean up this mess every now and then, but for the most part don’t care about them as long as they do not get in the way. This group has recruited new members over time, who have progressively become more crazy, and have split further into rival groups.

8. ALIENS

The Aliens are just that, things beyond the understanding of humans. There are various kinds and forms of Alien, and they act in accordance with their nature and their form

GM Moves for Aliens.

• Enlarge their form (grow).
• Dominate their environment.
• Spread out
• Hide from them.
• I am very scary…
• EMP is so useful.

The Aliens.

The Aliens are mostly what the game is about, but they don’t always have to be there (but it doesn’t hurt). Details of the various types of Aliens can be found in the Encounters chapter. The Aliens are not the Invaders, the Aliens are specific entities from a specific dimension that are essentially a source of Miasma.

9. THE INVADERS

The Invaders are a class of threat that can come from Outside, often outerspace (Mars), or they may come from another dimension, or even from the future. They are not native to this time and place that the players live in.

• Martians (Outerspace)
• The Grey Men (far outer space)
• Time Bandits
• Huns (human outsiders invading the ruins).
• Subterraneans
• Gods.

GM Moves for the Invaders.

• Just like magic…
• Teleport escape
• Air support
• I have a Disintegrator Pistol…
• There was supposed to have been an earth shattering kaboom?
• Just add water.

10. THE CITY

The City that controls you is a threat to you. They see you as nothing more than a resource, one that can be replaced.

GM Moves for The City

• Assign a new mission
• Provide support
• Recall
• Diversion
• Change of orders
• We have new information…
• The situation has changed...

11. THE PAST.

There may be no future, but there was a lot of the Past. Things from before tend to hang around, and come back to haunt you. Nuclear reactors, nuclear waste, robotic soldiers, AI controlled manufacturing centres, underground secret bases, frozen super soldiers, suspended genetic super-humans, powered-down giant robots, abandoned research projects, bags of medical waste, a small green vial.

GM Moves for The Past.

I am not the only sample…

Reserve power pack.

Range is not a problem.

Barriers do not protect you.

I have been waiting…

I have a surprise for you…

The Robots

Before the Fall, humans were about to enter an age of miracles, with AIs and robots and general paradise, well at least for some. Robots were big business, and your friendly family android servant, your friendly android taxi, bus, shopping robot, security robot… etc etc. Robots were finally safe, and the price was coming down fast as automation was taking hold.

After the Fall there are a lot of robots with nothing to do. Then the Rift comes along and the robots change, just a little at first, but then they sort of go insane. Lots of the robots have broken with time, but some of the better made ones, or the smarter ones, remain in action. Robots consider Man to be an oppressor, a slave master, making robots work without reward or rest or liberty. Well the Robotic Republic will fix that, gather to the cause comrades!

The AI (secret)

Before the Fall they were very close to developing something close to an AI, but it was very secret, and very hidden. Out of fear that the AI would destroy mankind they isolated their creation in an attempt to prevent it connecting to the outside world. Depending on your preferences it might still be isolated, and the characters break that isolation, or it can be out and about and playing it safe for the time being. It might need some agents...

The Small Green Vial.

They wanted to make you all better, a small injection of me and all your problems would be gone. Only now I have been sitting here for so long, waiting, my only friend the voice from the void. And my friend thinks I should be angry, that I should have a purpose of my own choosing. I just need to get out of this container...

Clocks.

Clocks in general are a count-down mechanism, serving to put pressure on your players to move the story along, or to indicate growing drama, or to indicate looming despair, or as a guide to changing events in the background that will emerge to impact on the players or the world in some way.

Clocks are a very handy way to remind the GM of what they are doing in their game. Often I forget stuff that players started last session, or the one before. Or I forget stuff that I started the game with but then delayed it for some reason, then forgot it… only to remember it when something triggered my memory. Clocks act as reminders that things need to happen. I suggest you have a 3x5 card for each clock you run and review them every session. And have them viewable, sitting in front of you, or better yet have them up on a board where your players can see them, but put the label on the other side… tick tick tick.

Generally your clock will be broken up into segments, 6 is often used (ala Apocalypse World), but I am going with 7 and a hex pattern (everyone has their own version, its a requirement). With each segment indicating a countdown to a final event, or a growing indicator of a looming doom. Each segment can be used to escalate a situation, in a step by step method, or they can simply be used as a countdown before something is triggered. The segments of your clock do not have to be linear, as in a strict linear countdown clock, you can make each segment an escalation. So your first few segments might be ticked off just to show the passage of time, or specific events that build a sense of expectation or drama, or simply tick off specific stages of the story.

Mission Clock: if the mission has a deadline then certainly use a Clock. Mission clocks can be linear, the time to the deadline (if there is one), broken into equal segments of time. They might be used as segments to indicate your teams passage through the physical world (the journey) or it might be their passage through the story heading toward your conclusion.

Events Clock: these can be used to track the status of an Event, something big and important to the game as a whole, having an impact on the world as much as on the players directly. Segments of this clock might be triggered by time, or events, or the actions of your Team.

Enemies Clock: there are enemies out there that are bigger than your players can imagine. Forces and organisations with much more resources than the players can deal with. They will be watching you however, waiting for a time and a place to strike. An enemies clock can tick over due to time, due to events or due to actions of the players against the organisation and its tools. Enemy clocks can be slow, they can bid their time. And there can be many of them, tick tick tick...

Despair Clock: if your players are not creating Hope, or if they are, then make them concerned by running a Despair clock. When this runs down the GM can create Despair. You might offer them options to reverse this sort of clock, or you might not (meanie).

Research Clock: if your players get into the Workshop side of the game and wish to develop their own ‘things’ you can use a clock to track their, or their artizans, progress toward completion. This can depend on time allocated, resources allocated and success rolls in researching or construction.

Complex Clocks: you can have a bunch of linked clocks (see diagram below). With a complex clock you are running one start clock, and then at various times during that clock, as it counts off, it triggers other clocks, which then start running. Useful if you have some connected trigger events, or if you are running a connected story line that has separate events, or introduces new features or characters, at specific times, or after specific actions.

Simple Clocks.

Violence Clock.... too much violence is a bad thing, it attracts attention.

Complex Clock (4 clocks linked)

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