City Actions

When you visit the City, you have some downtime in which to pursue your own interests. You might relax in the hot springs, track down the answers to thorny questions, or feed the poor. These activities are represented by City Actions. During each trip made to the City, each adventurer can perform one City Action.

A list of common City Actions should be provided to the players by the GM. In general, the GM will assemble this list by combining the standard list of actions (found below) with a unique list of actions based on the districts of the City discovered by using the rules in Appendix D: City Creation, page 296.

It would be impossible for the list of City Actions to be exhaustive. The City is the largest metropolis in the Wide World and, as such, just about anything is possible. Players, if you have a weird idea, ask your GM if it’s possible. GMs, use your common sense and this list to model new actions for your players.

Note that most every action except for Beg and Busk requires lump sums of cash to initiate.

Prices (sidebar)

Both the Build and Commission Craft actions have unusual rules for pricing. Let’s talk through them.

Because His Majesty the Worm abstracts pricing lists into upkeep, it can be hard to know what a “fair” price is for a specific item.

Don’t think like that: no price is fair. The cutthroat, mercantile City is a slave to capricious capitalism. The “syllable method” is an easy way to adjudicate prices that range from the simple to the complex.

If you have something like a merchant in the Underworld (a sentient crawfish that sells exotic meats? an undead blacksmith who sells scavenged grave goods?), you can borrow these rules to set prices down there, too.

Long-term projects (sidebar)

The Support action is the main tool that players have to pursue long-term projects.

If you speak Apocalypse World jargon, think about complexity like “clocks.” You can also think about it in terms of “hit points” that you need to tick off of a project before you’re successful.

Each Support step is filled by spending gold.

• 25 gold is enough to make a small impact. For example, a 25g donation to an orphanage may buy all the orphans a batch of new toys.

• 50 gold can make a humble but meaningful impact. For example, 50g can patch the orphanage’s leaky roof.

• 100 gold can make a significant impact. For example, 100g might be enough to make sure the orphans have enough to eat for a month.

• 1000 gold is needed to make a truly dramatic statement. If you want to adopt all the orphans and provide for their care personally, you might need to spend up to 1000g.