126. Open Your Brain – Examples

Marie practically keeps house in the world’s psychic maelstrom. She thinks ghosts live in there and maybe she’s right. She goes in there to consult with them, and (unusually) misses the roll. I’m tempted to capture her, but instead for my hard move I decide to announce future badness—not often a hard move, but in this case it counts. We play out her conversation with the ghosts, but they aren’t helpful and she comes out frustrated. “Roark’s there,” I say. “He looks happy, his face has this look of wonder on it. ‘Marie!’ he says. ‘Marie, such a gift you’ve given me!’” “I what?” she says. “‘Roark, are you okay?’” “‘I’m not Roark,’” I say, and not in Roark’s voice. “‘It’s me, Monk!’” (149)

As usual, we begin with the missed roll. There are several things I love here. I love the phrase “keeps house”; it suggests that Marie not only lives in the world’s psychic maelstrom a large portion of the time, but that she keeps things orderly in there, cleaning in the corners, stacking the magazines, and wiping down the counters. I love the uncertainty in the second sentence of “thinks” and “maybe she’s right.” Do ghosts live in the world’s psychic maelstrom, or is that just how her brain interprets what she encounters there? The psychic maelstrom is a place of fuckery and bloody fingerprints, so players can only say how they experience and perceive their encounters in it, and the MC is free – no, practically ordered – to mess with those perceptions. I love the phrase “goes in” to describe Marie’s opening her brain, that for her it is a physical entrance into the in-between space of the world’s psychic maelstrom. And I love that the MC is “tempted to capture her.” This last one is a reminder that all the MC moves are still in play when a character opens her brain. What would being captured in the psychic maelstrom look like? What would it look like to the people standing beside Marie’s body in the world of the game?

If you are interested in the hardness of this move, I discuss it further in post number 90.

Bran has this scheme to reboot Jeanette’s brain and he’s trying to figure out if it can possibly work. As part of his research, he opens his brain, and hits with a 9. I tell him that the world’s psychic maelstrom is of the opinion not only that it will work, but that it’s a really great idea. “All you see is the world’s psychic maelstrom’s beatific and radiant smile,” I say. “Oh by the way, whose face is the world’s psychic maelstrom wearing?” “Um,” Bran’s player says. “It’s mine” (149).

You had me at “reboot Jeanette’s brain.” I want in that game. Of course a weak hit is supposed to result in an impression, and that impression here is that “it’s a really great idea,” which I love because you can practically see the players exchanging quick glances hear the nervous laughter in response to this declaration. Bran just wanted to know if it could be done; that the world’s psychic maelstrom is excited about the effort is enough to give anyone pause.

The question here is wonderful too because it builds off a detail of the maelstrom’s radiant smile, which presumably popped into the MCs head during play. What would that look like? It’d need a face to do that, yeah? Whose face? Ask Bran’s player because no matter what the player answer tells us something about Bran and the psychic maelstrom and the relationship between the two, and it does all that while creating concrete and gripping fiction.

Keeler, against every instinct in her body and soul, opens her brain once to the world’s psychic maelstrom, because she’s once-in-a-lifetime desperate. She hits with a 10. I tell her that the vultures are circling and they aren’t real, but they all have the faces of Tum Tum. “Wait, what?” she says. “Tum Tum’s behind this shit? God damn it.” “One of the vultures lands in front of you,” I say. “It croaks out, ‘I’ll take a message for you.’ What message do you give it, and who do you want it to take it to?” (149-150)

What I love about all of these examples is that they inspire the MC to have fun with the fictional possibilities that the world’s psychic maelstrom opens up. The psychic maelstrom can speak to the characters in dream-like imagery in any tone desired. The examples act as little seeds for the reader to churn into the soil of their imaginations for when they are daydreaming up apocalyptica. Here, the vultures at first simply reveal Tum Tum’s involvement, which seems to give Keeler’s character exactly what she was looking for. But then the MC decides to give Keeler’s player something more for her strong hit and uses what she has already created – the vultures – to give the character a chance to send a message.

The rules surrounding the world’s psychic maelstrom are designed to be pretty slim so that it can be whatever your story needs it to be. The designers cannot anticipate and do not wish to restrict what you might do with the psychic maelstrom in your fiction, so the text sets up that it exists, that is related to the apocalypse, and that it is an essential threat for your PCs. But whereas all the other threats are restricted by their kind and their impulses, the psychic maelstrom is left wide open. The text prompts you with a question, not a command: “what kind of threat is the world’s psychic maelstrom?” Think about it. Wonder about it. See where the fiction and the play take you. As long as it is a threat, you’re doing it right.

These examples act as permission to follow the fiction where it goes and use the world’s psychic maelstrom however you would like. They show us that there are no limits to what you can do with the infinite playground of the world’s psychic maelstrom as long as you barf forth apocalyptica, respond with fuckery, and get those bloody fingerprints over everything that passes through your hands.