74. Threat Categories and Lists

There are 7 categories of threats in Apocalypse World, and within each of those categories are 6 subcategories and a varying-length list of moves that the threat opens up for the MC. Altogether, the threats are presented as 6 pages of lists (108-113).

This seems like a good time, then, to discuss lists as used in Apocalypse World. Lists are first and foremost a way to limit and control the fiction and the conversation. These are the things that can appear within your fiction in order to keep it within the prescribed genre of the game. These are the types of names that are appropriate as the game envisions itself. These are the types of things characters can do within the fiction. These are the types of threats that can put pressure upon the characters. In the second edition of Apocalypse World, the 7 categories of threats are:

Warlord
Grotesque
Affliction
Brutes
Landscape
Terrain
Vehicle

But these limitations are also a gift. They 1) lessen the cognitive load required to play the game by providing ready-made answers to the questions that arise during play; 2) reduce down time and pressure during play because starting from a list of options is much easier, quicker, and less daunting than coming up with something from scratch; and 3) present possibilities that might have been overlooked. In the case of these 7 threats, the MC is given essential threats for each game, so they cannot forget to give each individual population an affliction. They cannot forget to have a warlord or wannabe warlord threatening the PCs. They cannot forget to have some NPC play the role of the grotesque. They cannot forget to consider the nature of the landscape surrounding the PCs. You might not have thought to have one of those elements, but the list puts the possibility right into your hands and your brain.

The final aspect of the lists that I think is important to understanding how they are used in the game is that the items on the list not only place limitations on the borders of the fiction but should open up imaginatively the space within those borders. What I mean by that is that any item on the list should suggest and inspire a breadth of ideas.

To speak in specifics, let’s look at the 6 subcategories of warlords:

Slaver
Hive queen
Prophet
Dictator
Collector
Alpha wolf

Each item on the list is immediately recognizable. We all know what a slaver is, or a prophet, or a dictator. The hive queen, however, is one that gives us pause. We of course know what that is, but what it looks like in play isn’t immediately clear. It’s a phrase to ponder on and play with and roll over in our mind. And once we start doing that, prophet reveals itself to have all kinds of undertones. And collector! What kinds of things might a warlord seek to own and how might they display or categorize that collection. There’s a meticulousness to collecting as opposed to a hoarder who wants to own for ownership’s sake. Mine that difference and see where your thoughts take you.

In this way, each item can expand to fill up the imaginative space, serving as a leaping off point rather than a termination. To this end there is a kind of poetry in the lists that demands the author pick each word carefully and judge the individual notes that make of the chord of its meaning. Each of those individual notes must find their own resonance in the reader’s mind to inspire and lift a mundane idea into something unique and powerful within the fiction being created.

Like any piece of genre fiction in any artistic medium, the work must simultaneously be similar to the other works in the genre and unique, separate from the preceding works in some exciting way. Otherwise you are just creating a pastiche. The lists of Apocalypse World are designed to allow you to create a story both familiar and new practically on the spot, for anything you say that follows the list will be within genre, and the poetry of the list inspires and encourages you to consider the dynamic range of options available to you, giving you ample opportunity and motive to not settle for something hackneyed.