# Apocalypse World - Work: Tabletop RPG - Date: 2010 (second edition 2016) - Made by: Vincent Baker (Co-designer) - Platforms: Rulebook (independent print and PDF) - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/apocalypse-world/ > Vincent and Meguey Baker's post-apocalyptic game of 'moves' and a two-dice roll that rarely just succeeds or fails — the seed of the Powered by the Apocalypse movement. **Why it matters:** Apocalypse World reinvented how tabletop rules and fiction interact; its open invitation to hack the system produced dozens of games and reshaped indie and mainstream design alike. ## Quick answers **When was Apocalypse World first released?** Apocalypse World was first released in 2010 (second edition 2016). **Who created Apocalypse World?** Apocalypse World was made by Vincent Baker (co-designer). **What kind of work is Apocalypse World?** Apocalypse World is a tabletop RPG in the Narrative & Story Games (incl. Powered by the Apocalypse) and Tabletop Roleplaying Games tradition, released for Rulebook (independent print and PDF). **Why is Apocalypse World important?** Apocalypse World reinvented how tabletop rules and fiction interact; its open invitation to hack the system produced dozens of games and reshaped indie and mainstream design alike. ## Overview *Apocalypse World* is a roleplaying game about the ruins of civilization, but its lasting effect was on the ruins of an older way of designing games. Written by [Vincent Baker](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/vincent-baker/), with Meguey Baker credited as co-designer from the second edition, and published through their Lumpley Games in 2010, it introduced a compact engine — "moves" triggered by what characters do in the story, resolved by two six-sided dice — that proved so adaptable it spawned a movement. The games built on it call themselves "Powered by the Apocalypse," and they number in the dozens. The setting is deliberately unfinished. Some catastrophe has happened; the psychic "maelstrom" leaks into the world; survivors cling to holdings ruled by warlords. Almost everything else is invented by the group during the first session. ## Origins Vincent Baker came out of the Forge, an online community of independent designers in the early 2000s that argued about how rules shape the experience of play. His *Dogs in the Vineyard* (2004), about young gunslinger-judges in a mythic frontier Utah, was one of that scene's landmark games. With *Apocalypse World*, the Bakers set out to make a game that kept the fiction at the center of every mechanical decision, and to write rules that told the game master exactly how to run it. The game was sold directly and through independent channels, and its text openly encouraged readers to "hack" it into new games. That permission, more than any license, is what turned one book into a genre. ## How it plays Every character has five stats — Cool, Hard, Hot, Sharp and Weird — each rated as a small modifier. When a character does something that matches a move's trigger, the player rolls 2d6 and adds the relevant stat. On 10 or higher, the character succeeds cleanly. On 7–9, they succeed at a cost, with a complication, or with a hard choice between outcomes. On 6 or less, the MC — the game's name for the game master — makes a move of their own, and things get worse. Because the middle band is the most common result, most rolls produce complications that push the story forward rather than stalling it. Moves are the heart of the design. "Go aggro" covers threatening someone; "read a sitch" lets a character assess a dangerous situation and ask the MC questions; "open your brain" risks contact with the psychic maelstrom. Each character comes from a playbook — the Angel (a medic), the Battlebabe, the Brainer, the Chopper, the Driver, the Gunlugger, the Hardholder, the Hocus, the Operator, the Savvyhead and the Skinner — with its own special moves and trappings. Players also track "Hx," their history with each other character, which fuels relationships and conflict. The MC's side is just as structured. An agenda instructs them to make the world seem real, to make the characters' lives not boring and to "play to find out what happens." Principles and a list of MC moves govern how to respond, and the players make all the rolls. Session preparation is minimal: rather than scripting plots, the MC builds "fronts," threats that advance when the players are not looking. ## Reception & impact *Apocalypse World* won the 2010 Indie RPG Award for Game of the Year and a 2011 Golden Geek Award for RPG of the Year. Critics and scholars have described it as the beginning of a critical era of "fiction-first" tabletop design. Its descendants proved its reach. [Dungeon World](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-world/) (2012) carried the engine into classic dungeon fantasy; Avery Alder's *Monsterhearts* turned it toward teenage monsters and messy relationships; *Masks*, *Urban Shadows* and many more followed. [John Harper](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/john-harper/)'s [Blades in the Dark](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/blades-in-the-dark/) (2017), though built on its own dice system, drew on the same design lineage and in turn spawned the "Forged in the Dark" family. Together these games make up much of what the museum calls [narrative and story games](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/narrative-rpg/). ## Legacy A second edition, successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2016, refined the moves and playbooks, and the Bakers began developing a further redesign, titled *Burned Over*, in 2021. *Apocalypse World*'s influence reaches well beyond its imitators. Its clear instructions for game masters, its idea that rules should trigger from fiction rather than from a menu of actions, and its enthusiasm for partial success appear throughout modern roleplaying — including in mainstream games that never mention it. It changed not only what tabletop games could be about, but how their rules talk to the people who play them. ## Facts - A roll of 10+ is a full success, 7–9 a success with a cost or hard choice, and 6 or less lets the MC make a move. - The MC's agenda tells the game master to 'play to find out what happens' rather than plan a plot. - Playbooks include the Angel, Battlebabe, Brainer, Gunlugger, Hardholder and Savvyhead. - It won the 2010 Indie RPG Award for Game of the Year and a 2011 Golden Geek Award for RPG of the Year. - Vincent Baker's earlier *Dogs in the Vineyard* (2004) had already made him a leading voice of indie design. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_World) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.