The second part of +Tony Reyes "Apocalypse World" campaign wrapped up last week, and as I've come to expect from this game, you can expect the unexpected regardless of who runs it.
I'm playing a "Hocus", often characterized as a cult leader, though a read through the playbook offers many more angles and options. The real essence of the Hocus is that the characters abilities are derived from their followers, the psychic maelstrom and their own personal charisma.
Having played alongside this class in the past, I wanted to push deeper into the possibilities that this character has, especially with the maelstrom. The beauty of the maelstrom is that it's an open concept for the group to define...it's a "thing" that we can all tap into with our minds. Is it "the Force", the collective subconscious or microwaves? All are valid. In the case of my character, it's seen as the remains of a shield built with advanced technology to keep us imprisoned. Now it is broken and contains pieces of communication channels. I can interact with this mentally, and did so in two major ways.
The first was rather than just interpreting the things I could "see", I pushed the information the opposite direction, to implant information into the maelstrom. The message was that a new character, the "Driver", was an emissary of sorts and totally unaware of his true role. By putting this information in, other people channelling the maelstrom would have an impression of this message, a potent way for the Hocus to shape his own prophecies.
The second was even more mindblowing and came at the session finale. After a disastrous confrontation (I'll swing back to this shortly) which left an entire village slaughtered, I was left looking for my main rival in the game, another leader named "Aristotle". I channelled the maelstrom and with a major success, literally pulled him through the maelstrom itself to our location in a bolt of lightning, where we swiftly disposed of him. It gave a great end to the chapter as all the characters were left to ponder the extent of the Hocus powers...and if he's been telling the truth all along.
As for that confrontation? That was a direct result of another Hocus power, the ability to rile up a crowd. In this example, it was the main gang in our town. They were out of control and my character managed to harness those emotions, inspiring the crowd and redirecting their anger to my rival,Aristotle. We marched on the other town where I attempted the same thing again with the local population, only for it to backfire completely! The result was carnage.
This all happened in the second half of the game session and it was amazing to experience the sheer havoc and destruction that a Hocus can inspire,very quickly and very easily. It's a challenging character to play and well worth it.
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