IC: Spirit of 77
I have been paging through the Apocalypse World powered RPG, Spirit of 77, a game which is essentially designed to allow players to role play their way through any number of adventures inspired by the popular movies and television series of the seventies. The rulebook’s first instruction to participants is that it is “To be played at maximum volume.” That pretty much sums up the feel of the entire system. It isn’t about carefully selected choices and rich character development. It’s about high speed chases, shootouts (with plenty of attitude on the part of the combatants), barrooms demolished by out of control brawls, a complete lack of respect for the law, loud music (including disco) and the liberal use of impenetrable slang, especially the word “groovy”.
Reading over the rules prompted a memory of the first time that I, as a young tyke, was allowed to watch Smokey and the Bandit. Sure enough, one of the published scenarios for Spirit of 77 lays out the foundations of just that kind of CB chatter infused insanity, inspired by Bandit, along with other diesel infused films like Convoy and Chuck Norris’ first starring vehicle, Breaker! Breaker! (a true classic of American cinema). Basically, a multi-vehicle chase involving a run from the law, along with a number of other parties with really bad intentions. Plentiful car crashes guaranteed.
I’m curious if there would be interest in such a game. As you may have already inferred, this would be a one-shot scenario, not an extended campaign, with a very tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. The core mechanics of Spirit of 77 are actually very easy to grasp, so familiarity with the rules wouldn’t be a necessity for those wanting to take part.
If there were, say, around four players who were interested, I could probably have the game up and running within a week or two.
