Apocalypse World: Burned Over

Apocalypse World: Burned Over

The 3rd Edition of the Groundbreaking Original

Something's wrong with the world and everyone knows what it is.

50 years ago, the world burned. They set fire to everything. Cities and nations. Families, friendship, identity, ideas, ideals — all of humanity's best and worst — they shoveled it all into the fire of their desperation. The furnace roared and the world's psychic maelstrom howled, a shrieking wind of fear and rage at the limits of human perception, never silent.

Now here we are, enraged and afraid ourselves, desperate ourselves, fighting for survival and a future in the ruins of the world burned over.

If there's hope to be found here, it has to be our own.

Fully Funded in 18 Minutes!

Fully Funded in 18 Minutes!

Amazing! Thank you!

The Game

The Game

Apocalypse World is a critically acclaimed, award-winning, and influential tabletop roleplaying game. It's a high-octane cinematic post-apocalypse, full of action, danger, mystery, romance, and horror. We first published it in 2010, with a 2nd Edition in 2016, and now it's time for the 3rd.

The Playbooks

The Playbooks

In Apocalypse World, you create your character by choosing your playbook, a combination character sheet and rules reference that includes everything you need to play. The 3rd Edition's core playbooks are:

• The Angel, a medic and healer
• The Brain-picker, with psychic powers and weird interests
• The Gearcutter, a scavenger and inventor
• The Harrier, leader of a dangerous battle gang
• The Hocus, leader of a devoted cult
• The Lawmaker, a strongholder and compound boss
• The Luminous, gracious and insightful, a light in the ashes
• The Maestro D, keeper of a venue and social hub
• The Operator, a wheeler and dealer with farflung connections
• The Restless, a wanderer, explorer, and survivalist
• The Volatile, armed to the teeth and prepared to fight
• A Standout, a gang member, cult member, or supporting character

Some of these are updated versions of playbooks familiar from the 1st and 2nd Editions, like the Angel, the Maestro D, the Hocus. Others are more radical revisions and remixes, like the Gearcutter, the Harrier, the Lawmaker, and the Volatile. A couple — the Restless and the Standout — are brand new.

Looking over the playbooks should tell you exactly what you're getting into, so that's what I recommend. For a quick preview, here are the three featured in Annika's animation: Apocalypse World 3rd Ed Preview: The Brain-Picker, the Gearcutter, & the Volatile (pdf).

The Rules

The Rules

The backbone of Apocalypse World's rules are its moves. A move is a character option or an action your character can take, expressed in a tight and consequential little package of rules. Here's an example:

SHARP: READ A PERSON
When you read someone in a charged interaction, roll+Sharp. At any time during your interaction, you can pause to ask them a question: something that your character realizes about theirs. They have to answer frankly. On a 10+, ask 3 in total. On a 7–9, ask 2 in total.
•    Are you telling the truth? (How can I tell?)
•    What are you feeling? (How can I tell?)
•    What are you thinking of doing? (How can I tell?)
•    What do you hope I’ll do? (How can I tell?)
•    How are you vulnerable to me? (How can I tell?)
•    How could I get you to do [x]? (How can I tell?)
On a miss, the MC will tell you what. They might have you ask 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst.

Everyone can make the basic moves — read a person, act under fire, reason with someone, read a situation, attack someone, and so on — and every character has their own playbook-specific moves as well. The Angel might have healing touch, morbid curiosity, or sixth sense, for instance, while the Harrier might have chaotic presence, battle-hardened, or skirmishers, and the Lawmaker might have ears in the walls, forbidding presence, or a right hand.

There are also standard moves: a gang always gives you leadership, a vehicle always gives you behind the wheel, a cult always gives you devotion.

Here's a preview of the basic moves, the standard moves, and the rules for making your moves: Apocalypse World 3rd Ed Preview: Moves Ref (pdf).

We Stand with the Union

At this writing, KSRU, the Kickstarter workers' union, is on strike. They're striking to protect their working hours and to establish a livable minimum wage — and who wouldn't! We support them and stand with them. Read more here: Kickstarter United.

Backer Levels

Backer Levels

Digital

You get the book in PDF and plaintext, and the downloadable playbooks and refsheets in PDF.

We're offering the digital game at full price, and if times are tough for you, at a reduced price, no questions asked.

A Note to Our Patrons

If you support lumpley games on Patreon, you'll already get the digital version and all the playbook sets as patron rewards, with our profound thanks. Don't sign up for them here!

If you'd like a copy of the game in print, though, this is the best way to get one:

Print

Simple as can be, you get the paperback book, 300 pages or so, suitable for throwing in your backpack and reading on the bus. It won't look much like this, but you get the idea:

You also get the digital version: the book in PDF and plaintext, and the downloadable playbooks and refsheets in PDF.

Retail / Co-op Bundle

We can offer 5-packs of the book at a discount to retailers, or to you and your friends if you want to get together on it.

PbtA Pay-it-back

We don't ask PbtA creators or publishers for any royalties or licensing fees. Money is sunlight and water to your game, and the last thing we want for new creators is to siphon a fraction of it away.

But if you've already created a successful and profitable PbtA game of your own — and especially if you've made PbtA games into a successful part of your ongoing business — please consider backing at one of these levels. It's absolutely voluntary, but it's a great way to show your appreciation and support.

Add-Ons

Add-Ons

We're offering three playbook sets as PDF add-ons. Pick 'em up piecemeal for $15 each, or get all three sets for $35.

The Burned Over Extended Playbooks

The Burned Over Extended Playbooks are a set of additional playbooks that expand Apocalypse World in various optional ways:

• The Bloodhound, grappling with the mysteries of reality
• The Child-Thing, a feral kid and not quite human
• The Contaminated, a disease vector for apocalyptic horrors
• No One, haunted by trauma and visions of a forgotten past
• Quarantine, a soldier locked in stasis since before the world ended
• The Symbiote, a compound entity and hive mind
• The Undaunted, fearless parent of real or metaphorical children
• The Vigilant, on guard against the Wolves of the Maelstrom
• The Weaponized, a combat cyborg who survived the apocalypse
• The X-Earther, descended from refugees who rode out the apocalypse in earth's orbit
• A Forerunner, and the apocalypse is happening right now, not 50 years ago

Download a preview: Apocalypse World 3rd Ed Preview: Quarantine and the Weaponized (pdf)

Warriors of the World Ablaze

When the world ended, necromancy, sorcery, and wicked magic returned.

Warriors of the World Ablaze is a set of playbooks for a sword & sorcery post-apocalypse. It's a genre mashup I've loved since I was a kid:

• The Axe King, ruler of a stronghold and its warrior garrison
• The Bloody Sword, a free warrior and sword master
• The Errant, an explorer, treasure-seeker, and secret-seeker
• The Gutter Jay, beautiful, gracious, streetwise, and capable
• The Harrow Queen, chosen leader of a fierce and independent enclave
• The Hunting Kite, a warrior and killer, quick and almost untouchable
• The Inheritor, keeper of ancient knowledge and secrets
• The Lost Priest, whose faith is broken but whose power remains
• The Outlaw Heir, dethroned and beaten but with warriors still loyal to you
• The Warlock, a sorcerer at the height of your power
• The Feral Born, a partial playbook to add sorcerous elements to your character
• One Untried, to play a minor or supporting character

Play with this set exclusively, or you can integrate them thoughtfully into the larger selection.

Download a preview: Apocalypse World 3rd Ed Preview: The Harrow Queen and the Hunting Kite (pdf)

The Classic Playbooks, Updated

For adults, please. Includes adult language and non-explicit sexual references.

If you think you'll miss the classic playbooks, with hot as a stat and their special moves, this is for you. You know them well:

• The Angel
• The Battlebabe
• The Brainer
• The Chopper
• The Driver
• The Gunlugger
• The Hardholder
• The Hocus
• The Maestro D'
• The Savvyhead
• The Skinner

There are some pretty interesting things to talk about with these. Look for a preview in a coming update!

International Shipping

International Shipping

We're partnering with our good friends at Grumpy Bear in Italy for production and delivery in Europe.

This means that we'll be able to charge you normal shipping costs — at this writing, we're estimating 12-18€ in the EU.

For backers in Africa, Asia, Australia, even in the Americas outside of the US, we'll comparison shop between ourselves and Grumpy Bear and give you the best rates we can.

DIY or Bust

DIY or Bust

Apocalypse World and all our games are 100% made by humans, for humans, no AI.

Apocalypse World has always embraced the DIY spirit and this edition's no different. We're making our own game, creating our own art, laying out our own book, and it's especially important in this time of creative assault: you can too!

Just look at these goofs.

Stretch Goals

Stretch Goals

We're running a mean & stripped down campaign here, a PDF and a paperback, a couple of PDF add-ons, nothing to give ourselves headaches or grief. We do have room for just a few cool stretch goals, though:

$28,000: Bonuses for Annika Sturmer

Annika's the animator who made our video! For every $10,000 we go over our goal, we'll cut her a bonus check. She deserves it and you can be part of it.

$50,000: An eZine of Additional Material

It won't surprise you to learn that over the past 15 years we've accumulated kind of a pile of additional Apocalypse World stuff. At $50,000, we'll sift through it and collect our favorites into a free PDF zine.

It'll include some mix of: additional playbooks, alternate setups, free-floating moves, weird hard zones, mutations, battle moves, edge cases, and other such freaky biz.

$149,682: The Faceless, the News, & the Show

In 2016, Apocalypse World 2nd Ed closed at $149,681. We'd like to beat that!

At $1 more, we'll work with Bret Gillan, Josh Savoie, and Elliot Baker to update their playbooks the Faceless, the News, and the Show.

Starting at $150,000 and every $10,000 past that, we'll cut them bonus checks too.

$180,000: A Creator's Guide

At $180,000, we'll hit 10x our funding goal! Obvs we want this to happen. If it does, to celebrate, every backer gets the PDF of (working title) An Apocalypse of Infinite Games when it comes out.

Read more here: A Creators' Guide to PbtA!

Powered by the Apocalypse

Powered by the Apocalypse

Apocalypse World kicked off a small revolution in tabletop RPGs. There are now hundreds of games that have built on Apocalypse World, and several substantial offshoot schools of design. 

Powered by the Apocalypse, PbtA, is our general term for all these games. You can read more about it here: What is PbtA?

If you're interested in making your own PbtA games, nothing could be easier. Click the logo to find out more!