Arthurian World

I don't like future apocalypses. They're depressing. Moving into the past gives more assurance that we're not living out our kids' inevitable doom.

Setting

It's been two generations since the Romans pulled out. In your grandfather's day, a merchant could take his cart from one end of the island to the other without fear. The Legions maintained the roads and kept bandits at bay. But now, you can't ride out of sight of the town walls without guards, and you may as well plan on conquering the land as try to cross the country. The one is as easy as the other.

Much knowledge has been lost. The Romans could make true steel, but now, even where there's a forge hot enough to produce it, the smiths can do no better than brittle steel or hard iron. A few isolated sites have preserved great horse bloodlines, but most places you go make do with ponies or small-framed riding horses. War and famine have eliminated many settlements and vast tracts of land lie fallow. Famine and disease threaten everyone, though not every season. There's no true security of person or property. All that matters is the reach of your arm.

I will be inspired by history but I honestly don't care much about verisimilitude. If they could get away with it in a B-movie, it's good to go here.

Playbooks

I don't see a need to do a full hack of the AW rules. I propose to just reskin the existing playbooks (which are sort of like classes).

AW Playbook	Arthurian Playbook	Comments
Angel	Healer	Instead of drugs, you use herbs, or prayer, but the rules are the same
Battlebabe	Paladin	The battlebabe has lethal capability but remains untouched by the violence. Paladin seemed like the closest period name. Not necessarily a holy warrior but a saint in his or her own way.
Brainer	Wizard	Sorcery or arcane knowledge replace technology. You walk in people's dreams, dominate their minds, and see into their souls. Magical or holy items replace tech gear.
Chopper	Captain	Horses replace bikes, but bottom line, you're the pack alpha for a bunch of violent folks. You can be mounted brigands or the Lord's patrol. It's up to you.
Driver	Knight	However you got them, you have a couple trained war horses and great horse breeding stock. If a war horse dies, once per year you can roll to replace it. You can also use your breeding stock as barter. You're not the best swordsman in all the land but on the other hand you ride into battle and they don't. Suck on that.
Gunlugger	Man at arms	Paladins may be unaffected by the violence around them, but you're straight up unbothered by it. Fighting is your life's work, you know how to do it, and you have the tools at hand.
Hardholder	Lord	Call yourself lord, king, duke, or maximum leader, it doesn't matter. Your authority comes from the loyalty of your followers and the things they'll do for you.
Hocus	Shaman	You speak to the gods, or for the gods. Or God. Whatever. When you talk, your 20 or so followers listen.
Operator	Trader	In any age, there's always someone who knows how to get you what you want.
Savvyhead	Smith	It may sound mundane but there's always been a certain spiritual aspect to the forge. Maybe you know the riddle of steel. Maybe you're a true son of Weyland. However you come by it, you have the true knack. Anyone can conquer. Only you can take the base iron from the earth and make it something more.
Skinner	Bard	Not merely a player, the bard is a showman and a wonder in a very dreary world. You're still the prettiest.

Some of those hold up better than others, obviously, and we may have to do a little tuning if we ever play this.

Gear & Weapons

Horses replace cars. Knives, swords, bows, spears, and other primitive weapons replace guns. AP just means your weapon's forged better than the ordinary stuff.

I'm messing with range a little to make the weapons more distinct. The new "arm's" range category refers to anything that gives you a significant range advantage over a short sword. If you're at a reach disadvantage, you'll need to overcome it via the Act Under Fire move or some other cleverness. On the other hand, if you slip up and let someone get to knife range, you'll struggle to effectively employ your bastard sword and may need to use a similar move to get some distance. These weapons also have important meaning in the fictional world. If you show up to a negotiation with a short sword on your belt, you're cautious. If you show up with the biggest sword in all the land, it's an implicit threat.

Since arrows are bulky but I don't want to worry about counting them, attacks with ranged weapons add a fifth option to seize by force, "you have plenty of arrows left." If you don't choose that as one of your two or three, you're out of arrows for the moment.

Common Hand Weapons

• big scary knife (2-harm hand)
• many knives (2-harm hand infinite)
• short sword / arming sword / gladius (3-harm hand)
• hand axe (3-harm hand messy)
• Long sword / bastard sword (3-harm arm)
• Spear (3-harm arm)
• Dane axe (3-harm arm messy)

Items with identical stats may still have different game effects. Many knives look more effective than a big scary knife, but if you put your knife to someone's throat and say, "tell me where you buried the hoard, or I'll watch you bleed to death," the big scary knife works better. It's scarier. It says so! The difference between that and many knives says a lot about your character.

Common Ranged Weapons

• short bow (2-harm close)
• long bow (3-harm close/far)
• crossbow (3-harm close/far reload)

Since the crossbow has to be reloaded anyway, it doesn't have the "out of arrows" issue that bows do. Since a crossbow gets mechanically cocked, you might choose one despite the reload tag because of its speed and resulting flexibility, especially at close quarters.

Armor

Good leathers give you 1-armor. Multiple layers of heavy boiled leather, a metal breastplate, or a mail coat all amount to two-armor. Articulated plate really belongs to the late Middle Ages, not the post-Roman period, but it would be 3-armor if you found or made some.

The Psychic Maelstrom

In the standard setting, the apocalypse has created some sort of ongoing psychic turmoil, which affects everyone, though in different ways. In this hack, call it the spirit world instead. The Romans imposed the forms of worship but suppressed actual faith and devotion, which had the effect of eliminating the numinous from everyday life. Now, the old religions are back, and for some people, they work just fine. Prey to the old gods, or your ancestors, or the spirits of the land and sky, and things might happen. They might even be good things.

So then what?

Obviously a lot would depend on the playbooks people choose. A party centered around a hardholder is a lot different from one centered around a roaming band of Loki-worshipping bandits. That said, it's always a struggle to find enough to eat, to avoid the plague, to fend off the local bandits or the invaders from overseas, and to keep peace with one another.