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View Full Version : Apocalypse World: Alternatives to the Psychic Maelstrom?



Chimera245
2019-02-08, 07:45 PM
I recently bought and read through Apocalypse World, half to actually play it, and half to just have a better perspective on hacking my own PbtA games.

But in my personal post-apocalyptic setting, the "Psychic Maelstrom" doesn't really fit all that well. I would just throw it out, but it seems really connected to a lot of other stuff.

I'm not against supernatural stuff in the setting. In fact there's a lot of supernatural stuff already in it. But the problem is that in my setting, not just anyone can use supernatural powers. But AW's Psychic Maelstrom can be accessed by any character at any time at will (and at great risk). And also, a lot of other moves reference it (Playbooks, basic moves, etc.).

So what can I do to remove/replace it with minimal effort?

I'm still fleshing out the setting, so I could feasibly meet plausible alternatives halfway.

So far, the apocalypse in question was a great magically-charged natural disaster. (supernatural disaster?) The air itself is infused with hostile magic energy, and everyone needs to wear gas masks outside of airtight buildings and vehicles. The more air you breathe unprotected, the more you slowly, irreversibly transform into something else. The exact nature of the transformation depends on the area you're in. Magic suffuses the world now, but different spell effects dominate different areas. This place might be permanently on fire, that place might be turned into crystal, that other place might have non-euclidean geometry.

A person CAN learn to use magic, but only by accepting a magical parasitic creature into their body. One that generally brings at least as many drawbacks as benefits. And each parasite only grants access to one focused "type" of magic. (Fire magic, Barrier magic, Divination magic, etc.)

I definitely want the supernatural to be something characters have to "opt in" to access, and at great cost.

The Psychic Maelstrom doesn't really fit that bill, but it's so intrinsically tied to the rest of Apocalypse World, that I'm worried messing with it too much will affect the rest of the game in unexpected ways.

Any thoughts or tips? Has anyone else also found the Psychic Maelstrom to be the one thing that kept your campaign's setting from meshing with AW's rules? How did you deal with it?