TEXT: By Avery Alder
  Endlessly supported by Alea Milo
  A game of belonging outside belonging
  Sigil by Ezra Rose
  Released 2018
  Dream Askew was written on the unceded, ancestral territory of the Squamish, 
  Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
  Dream Askew
  The Overview
  Dream Askew gives us ruined buildings and wet tarps, nervous faces in the 
  campire glow, strange new psychic powers, fierce queer love, and turbulent skies 
  above a fledgling community, asking “What do you do next?”
  Imagine that the collapse of civilization didn’t happen everywhere at the same 
  time. Instead, it’s happening in waves. Every day, more people fall out of the 
  society intact. We queers were always living in the margins of that society, 
  finding solidarity, love, and meaning in the strangest of places. Apocalypse didn’t 
  come for us first, but it did come for us.
  Gangs roam the apocalyptic wasteland, and scarcity is becoming the norm. The 
  world is getting scarier, and just beyond our everyday perception, howling and 
  hungry, there exists a psychic maelstrom.
  We banded together to form a queer enclave — a place to live, sleep, and 
  hopefully heal. More than ever before, each of us is responsible for the survival 
  and fate of our community. What lies in the rubble? For this close-knit group of 
  queers, could it be utopia?
  Queer strife amid the collapse.
  Collaboratively generate an apocalyptic setting.
  Content warnings: violence, gangs, oppression, bigotry, queer sexuality.
  For 3-6 players across 3-4 hours.
  
  Welcome to The 
  Enclave
  Circle 3-5 visuals
  an abandoned complex, individual homes, 
  shanties + tents, a bustling market, overgrowth, 
  glass + concrete, swamp, reclaimed green space, 
  community gardens, tunnels, moldy tarps, rust, 
  quietude, wreckage, wilds, blockades, squalor, 
  outdoor kitchens, shrines, splendor, high-rises, 
  heavy industry, a train station, trailers, bonfires, 
  remnants of war, the ocean, wastelands, scrub, 
  flooding, mutant plants blooming, farmland, raging 
  parties, piles of trash, eerie warning signs, 
  running water, repurposed plastics, coarse fibres
  circle 3 things that are in 
  conflict in the enclave
  psychic privacy, gender abolition, goddess cults, 
  religious customs, revolutionary fervor, 
  racial identity, indigenous land rights, mutants, 
  scarcity thinking, politics of the void, hedonism, 
  need for purity, party culture, barriers to access, 
  food justice, womens’ spaces, the use of violence,
  trauma, the limitless possibilities of queer sex, 
  known abusers, desiring a return to society
  Scrawl notes as you need.
  Draw a map to the right.
  Dream Askew
  
  Dream Askew
  Tips
  •	 Find people in their moments of weakness or 
  need, and offer them your strange gifts.
  •	 Explore deviance, difference, and vulnerability.
  •	 Make your character fallible and relatable.
  Lure
  Whenever someone invites you to use your psychic 
  gifts on them, they gain a token.
  Strong Moves              SPEND A TOKEN 
  •	 Get out of harm’s way.
  •	 Move unseen. 
  •	 Use your psychic gifts with artful precision.
  •	 Restrain someone, physically or psychically.
  •	 Abruptly call forth the world’s psychic maelstrom. 
  •	 Ask “What do you wish I would do next?”
  •	 Ask “What do you secretly desire right now?”
  Regular Moves
  •	 Take action, leaving yourself vulnerable.
  •	 Stare into someone’s eyes without blinking.
  •	 Quietly gather clues or information.
  •	 Open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom.
  •	 Use your psychic gifts with unexpected side effects.
  •	 Ask “What should I be on the lookout for?”
  •	 Ask “Are you telling the truth?”
  Weak Moves                    Gain A TOKEN 
  •	 Draw unwanted attention to your movements.
  •	 Experience psychic flashbacks.
  •	 Lend someone your signature weapon.
  •	 Temporarily lose control of your psychic abilities.
  •	 Cave to someone else’s desires.
  •	 Ask “What makes me vulnerable in this situation?”
  Choose a Name
  Shadow, Lively, Smith, Pallor, Azure, Damson, Raksha, 
  Kite, Monsoon, Micaela, Burroughs, Tion, Pity, Brace
  Choose A Look
  slim frame, angular frame, disfigured frame,
  soft frame, steely frame, willowy frame
  calculating eyes, dead eyes, wet eyes, arresting eyes,
  caring eyes, pale eyes, luminous eyes, ruined eyes
  Choose a gender
  androgyne, emerging, ice femme, void, gargoyle
  Choose 2 Wardrobe Styles
  formal attire, leather, casual wear, ceremonial garb, 
  medical wear, bondage gear, hoods and robes,  
  never washed, a slender weapon carefully concealed
  Choose 2 Psychic Gifts
  Shared Dreams, Memory Harvesting, Lucky Guesses,  
  Ghost Echoes, Unearthing, Astral Travel, Absolution, 
  Brain Whispers, Fortune Telling, Storm Sheltering
  Decide What The World’s 
  Psychic Maelstrom Told You
  •	
  That it needed me for a higher purpose.
  •	
  That it would shelter me from any repercussions.
  •	
  That I could swallow their pain away.
  •	
  How and when I would die.
  •	
  That love is the only salvation.
  •	
  That power is the only salvation.
  Choose 2 key relationships
  the slowly-dying drag mama whose pain I ease,  
  our recently-exiled elder, the weird-eater I created, 
  a wasteland mercenary who makes use of my talents, 
  the weepy trans girl whose past I’m erasing, 
  an impure soul I monitor carefully, my submissive
  Choose one to ask left
  •	 What secret did I learn about you yesterday?
  •	 How have I unsettled you in recent days?
  play to find out
  Are you calculating, rash, or opportunistic?
  Do your psychic gifts help or hurt your community?
  Is your heart pure?
  The psychic maelstrom touches us all, but the Iris has 
  been indelibly marked and changed. Their gifts are 
  unprecedented and unexplainable, but may hold the 
  secret to our healing. What is everyone so afraid of?
  The Iris is an unnerving individual. Their power is 
  mysterious, ephemeral, and unprecedented.
  Introducing
  The Iris
  
  Dream Askew
  Strong Moves              SPEND A TOKEN 
  •	 Get out of harm’s way.
  •	 Bring out supplies that no one knew you had.
  •	 Draw a weapon before anyone can react.
  •	 Lace something with undetectable poison.
  •	 Call in a timely favour from a powerful friend.
  •	 Ask “How could I put you at ease?”
  •	 Ask “What do you have that I might want?”
  Regular Moves
  •	 Take action, leaving yourself vulnerable.
  •	 Deal with a routine and uneventful job.
  •	 Cave to someone’s demands.
  •	 Lie fairly convincingly.
  •	 Bolt for the nearest exit.
  •	 Ask “What do you need right now?”
  Weak Moves                    Gain A TOKEN
  •	 Get caught lying, cheating, or sneaking.
  •	 Lose track of something very important.
  •	 Walk into a situation unarmed and unprepared.
  •	 Accidentally open your brain to the world’s 
  psychic maelstrom.
  •	 Beg for mercy.
  •	 Ask “How have I earned your ire?”
  play to find out
  How do you stay in business amidst all this chaos?
  Who do you prioritize when resources get scarce?
  Are you a provider or a gatekeeper?
  Choose a Name
  Angler, Cookie, Devraj, Chief, Jackbird, Sugar, Esme,
  Proper, Proust, Lafferty, Waters, Fancy, Zachariah, Zola
  Choose A Look
  pinched face, warm face, tired face, honest face, 
  scarred-up face, friendly face, flawless face
  quick hands, precise hands, tattooed hands, 
  calloused hands, slight hands, fresh manicure
  Choose a gender
  high femme, genderfluid, dagger daddy, stud, raven
  Choose 2 Wardrobe Styles
  immaculate whites, a stained apron, vintage formal, 
  leather, gold chains, street wear,  scrounge-ups,
  a signature colour, flawless makeup, stilettos
  Choose 3 things you provide
  a venue, easy food, luxury food, liquor, coffee, fantasy, 
  nostalgia, surveillance, companionship, enforcement, 
  deliveries, body-guarding, expertise, guns and ammo, 
  art, a thriving social scene, lodgings, tobacco, smut, 
  hard drugs, whatever people are chasing at the time
  Choose 2 desired currencies
  cash up front, lingering debts, whispered secrets, 
  protection, dependency, barter, work-trade, 
  fawning adoration, something weirder
  Choose 2 key relationships
  the old queen I drove out of business, my kids, 
  the wasteland salvager who brings in what I need, 
  my ingénue assistant, the pissy killjoy next door,  
  the society types who come here to slum it,
  the loan-shark who finally tracked me down
  Choose one to ask left
  •	 What do I regularly hook you up with?
  •	 Why have I been sizing you up recently?
  •	 How are you integral to my supply line?
  Tips
  •	 Look for opportunities to provide for others,  
  but also to hustle your wares.
  •	 Foolishly overextend yourself from time to time.
  •	 Make your character fallible and relatable.
  Lure
  Whenever someone offers you a new gig, or gets 
  hooked on your supply, they gain a token.
  Introducing the
  Hawker
  The market failed. The shops and restaurants and 
  factories closed their doors. And into that void stepped 
  the Hawker, hustling and working odd jobs, pulling a 
  livelihood out of the rubble of apocalypse.
  The Hawker is an industrious individual.  
  Their power is material, social, and contingent.
  
  Dream Askew
  Strong Moves              SPEND A TOKEN 
  •	 Get out of harm’s way. 
  •	 Ease somebody’s pain. 
  •	 Have everything required to fix or make a thing 
  right away with no compromises or sacrifices. 
  •	 Jury-rig a temporary solution while under duress. 
  •	 Decipher the hidden logic of a troubling situation.
  •	 Ask “What supplies do you have that I need?”
  Regular Moves
  •	 Take action, leaving yourself vulnerable.
  •	 Fix or make something, partially or shoddily.
  •	 Open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom. 
  •	 Head out to scavenge or barter for supplies.
  •	 Appeal to justice and reason.
  •	 Ask “What do you have that needs fixing?” 
  •	 While your character holds an object, ask “What 
  powerful emotion has this recently absorbed?” 
  Weak Moves                    Gain A TOKEN
  •	 Take apart something crucial to repurpose its parts.
  •	 Tinker with an object, leaving it volatile or broken.
  •	 Isolate yourself to work on a secret personal project.
  •	 Treat someone like a project instead of a person.
  •	 Ask “What have you lost forever?”
  Tips
  •	 Establish meaningful, personal relationships with 
  your tools, supplies, and workshop ephemera. 
  •	 Involve fellow players in brainstorming interesting 
  risks or complications when you tinker with things.
  •	 Make your character fallible and relatable.
  Lure
  Whenever someone comes to you with something 
  precious that needs fixing, they gain a token.
  Choose a Name
  Nils, Tai, Spector, Lemieux, Dremmer, Sander, Spook, 
  Grip, Corey, Robyn, Depot, Jane, Garon, Aiden, Knots 
  Choose A Look
  knowing eyes, appraising eyes, skittish eyes, 
  covered eyes, modified eyes, red eyes 
  scarred hands, clean hands, greasy hands, gloved 
  hands, worn hands, busy hands 
  Choose a gender
  bigender, agender, cyber dyke, transgressing, raven
  Choose 2 Wardrobe Styles
  scrounge-ups, duck canvas, fucked-up hair, oil stains, 
  countless pockets, a repurposed uniform, visible tech, 
  scrubs, overalls, minimalist chic, symbiotes 
  Choose 2 workshop functions
  vehicle repair, bicycle repair, art space, infirmary, 
  firearms, tech assembly, hydroponics, broadcasting, 
  brewing + preserving, body upkeep, metalworking, 
  hacking, recycling, psionics, chemistry, woodworking
  Decide Where You Get the bulk 
  of your Supplies
  •	 I scavenge ruined buildings in abandoned districts. 
  •	 I barter with those still living in the society intact. 
  •	 People bring me the weirdest shit. 
  •	 I take apart the old to furnish the new. 
  •	 I have access to a partially-excavated landfill. 
  •	 I steal what I need. 
  Choose 2 key relationships
  twin apprentices, a ghost who haunts my workspace,
  the beautiful boy who makes me trip up my words,
  the black marketeer to whom I owe a small fortune, 
  the void kid who needs my maintenance to stay alive,
  my terminally-ill lover, my sobriety circle
  Choose one to ask left
  •	 What broken thing do you have that I could fix?
  •	 What did I lend to you recently?
  play to find out
  Where does your meticulous focus come from?
  Do you ever try to fix things that aren’t broken?
  Does your life have balance?
  Introducing the
  Stitcher
  Things break. Supplies run out. Bodies get wounded. 
  The Stitcher is there -  fixing, mending, making,  
  re-purposing. They have a workshop and an  
  uncanny intuition. 
  The Stitcher is a resourceful individual.  
  Their power is technical, material, and reactive. 
  
  Dream Askew
  Strong Moves              SPEND A TOKEN 
  •	 Get yourself or your gang out of harm’s way.
  •	 Lead your gang into battle or confrontation.
  •	 Say just the right thing to extinguish someone’s 
  fear and bolster their confidence.
  •	 Kill someone.
  •	 Ask “How can I get you to do what I want?”
  •	 Ask “What resources are you making do without 
  right now?”
  Regular Moves
  •	 Take action, leaving yourself vulnerable.
  •	 Attempt to recruit someone into your service.
  •	 Tenderly care for someone.
  •	 Make an example of someone.
  •	 Give something away.
  •	 Ask “Who’s really in control here?”
  •	 Ask “How are you vulnerable to me right now?”
  Weak Moves                    Gain A TOKEN
  •	 Reveal your secret vulnerability to someone.
  •	 Promise something you can’t possibly deliver.
  •	 Get high at the worst possible moment.
  •	 Experience a flashback of past trauma.
  •	 Ask “What makes me vulnerable in this situation?”
  •	 Ask “Whose motives should I second-guess right now?”
  Tips
  •	 Explore both your kindness and your cruelness.
  •	 Sometimes ask the other players about whether 
  your gang willingly follows your commands.
  •	 Make your character fallible and relatable.
  Lure
  Whenever someone relies on you to solve one of 
  their biggest problems, they gain a token.
  Choose a name
  Domino, Tyrus, Blues, Keegan, Smith, Duke, Tawny,
  Cheshire, Vigo, Boston, Impala, Diesel, Mia, Aadita
  Choose a look
  scarred face, baby face, pretty face, weathered face,
  tattooed face, masked face, tough face, narrow face
  slender arms, burned arms, jacked arms, solid arms, 
  tattooed arms, shot-up arms, a busted arm
  Choose a gender
  hard femme, butch queen, two-spirit, masc, gargoyle
  Choose 2 Wardrobe Styles
  leather, velour, scrounge-ups, militant wear, armour,
  tailored suits, breathable athletics, flashy acquisitions, 
  a gang logo back patch, neon hair, black bloc attire
  Choose 2 gang trappings
  motorcycles, bicycles, guns, riot gear, a safehouse,
  medical supplies, clean drugs, chains + rusty pipes, 
  slingshots + baseball bats, megaphones + banners
  Decide your gang’s big flaw
  •	 We owe a lot of debts that we can’t pay.
  •	 Since that unsettling murder, I’ve lost some trust.
  •	 The enclave isn’t entirely on board with our vision.
  •	 The gang is addicted to something dangerous.
  •	 Our actions bleed psychic instability into the area.
  •	 The gang is agitating to become an autonomous 
  collective, but it’s not clear how to make that work.
  Choose 2 key relationships
  my son, my pastor, my hungry-for-blood sibling, 
  the wasteland biker pack I have an uneasy truce with, 
  the second-in-command who covets my title, 
  my leather daddy, my poz support crew, 
  the aging dyke who cooks me dinner sometimes
  Choose one to ask left
  •	 What have you recently contributed to the cause?
  •	 How did I capture your attention yesterday?
  •	 Why don’t you trust me?
  play to find out
  Where does your militancy stem from?
  Are you a guardian or a troublemaker?
  Do you know how to yield and make compromises?
  Introducing the
  tiger
  The police fled the neighbourhood. Things were scary 
  for a while. Now, the Tiger and their gang own the 
  streets around here. Is that ownership still contested? 
  The Tiger is a wicked fierce individual.
  Their power is social, violent, and hard-won. 
  
  Dream Askew
  Tips
  •	 Use your rituals to bring people closer together.
  •	 Make yourself valued and needed.
  •	 Make your character fallible and relatable.
  Lure
  Whenever someone participates in one of your 
  rituals for the first time, they gain a token.
  Strong Moves              SPEND A TOKEN 
  •	 Get out of harm’s way.
  •	 Psychically summon your followers.
  •	 Soothe someone’s pain or duress.
  •	 Incite your followers into violent action.
  •	 Enact a cunning diversion.
  •	 Ask “What is your greatest fear?”
  •	 Ask “Who or what do you secretly love?”
  Regular Moves
  •	 Take action, leaving yourself vulnerable.
  •	 Commence a ritual.
  •	 Gather supplies.
  •	 Share food or advice with someone.
  •	 Open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom.
  •	 Ask “How could I deepen your sense of belonging 
  and purpose in this place?”
  Weak Moves                    Gain A TOKEN
  •	 Ostracize one of your followers.
  •	 Admit you don’t have the answer to someone’s 
  question or problem.
  •	 Botch a ritual, exposing yourself to risk or ridicule.
  •	 Threaten someone or something far too powerful.
  •	 Appeal to prophecy or cosmic forces.
  •	 Ask “What do you really think of me?”
  play to find out
  Do your teachings offer the enclave a path forward?
  Do you know when to lead and when to listen?
  How do you get along with non-followers?
  Choose a name
  Hope, Noni, Lucia, Dian, Chester, Always, Wynn, Cass, 
  Vase, Eita, Rabbit, Rhyme, Sibyl, Sissy, Mischa, Spoke
  Choose a look
  calm eyes, faraway eyes, forgiving eyes, mournful eyes, 
  blotted eyes, flickering eyes, dilated eyes, fiery eyes
  open face, covered face, sober face, wrinkled face,
  gentle face, ashen face, unwashed face, marked face
  Choose a gender
  predestined, transgressing, femme, goddess, warrior
  Choose 2 Wardrobe Styles
  tattered vestments, scrounge-ups, fetish wear, robes, 
  beautiful fabrics, coarse fibers, striking colours, 
  traditional garb, drawn sigils, rave wear, witch chic
  Choose 2 Rituals You Lead
  Boiling the Bones, Letting the Blood, Street Wards, 
  Close Reading of the Holy Texts, Glitter Bombing, 
  Rites of Passage, Tea Ceremony, Augury, Bacchanal, 
  Tripping the Circuit, Dirty Flutter, Handfasting, Truth
  Decide What Looming Threat 
  You Alone Truly Understand
  •	 Our souls have begun to rot inside our bodies.
  •	 The psychic maelstrom sends wolves to devour us.
  •	 We’re replicating the oppressions of our old society.
  •	 Hope and mischief are fires that we must keep 
  ever-burning, or we will face eternal darkness.
  •	 When we abandon our historical rites and bonds, 
  evil things grow in the empty spaces left behind.
  Choose 2 key relationships
  the lovers I must please, the students I must teach, 
  my chosen sisters, the faeries who’ve taken me in, 
  a bitter ex, the herbalist who distills my tinctures, 
  the coven I was asked to leave, my feral muse
  Choose one to ask left
  •	 Are you among my followers and devotees?
  •	 Why did we break up?
  Introducing the
  Torch
  All routines and mundane knowledges crumble under 
  the weight of apocalypse. But the Torch has answers. 
  Are they ancient teachings, ecstatic fantasy, or a new 
  faith dawning? Followers draw near to their warm glow.
  The Torch is a compelling individual.  
  Their power is spiritual, social, and mystical.
  
  Dream Askew
  Strong Moves              SPEND A TOKEN 
  •	 Get out of harm’s way.
  •	 Reveal a previously unmentioned skill.
  •	 Work hard and get the job done.
  •	 Eavesdrop undetected on a conversation.
  •	 Leap forward to shield someone else from harm.
  •	 Ask “What do you wish I would do next?”
  •	 Ask “What should I be on the lookout for?”
  Regular Moves
  •	 Take action, leaving yourself vulnerable.
  •	 Step in to negotiate with outsiders.
  •	 Offer someone a cigarette.
  •	 Attempt to lend a helping hand.
  •	 Let someone see you at your most vulnerable.
  •	 Ask “What do you need help with currently?”
  Weak Moves                    Gain A TOKEN
  •	 Confess something and seek forgiveness.
  •	 Threaten or coerce someone.
  •	 Accidentally open your brain to the world’s 
  psychic maelstrom.
  •	 Run out of something that the queer enclave 
  doesn’t have steady access to.
  •	 Demand an explanation from someone.
  •	 Ask “Do you feel okay with me being here right now?”
  Tips
  •	 Tell the other players the secrets of your character’s 
  past, so they can help incorporate it into the story.
  •	 Discover the enclave’s rules through trial and error.
  •	 Make your character fallible and relatable.
  Lure
  Whenever someone gives you an opportunity to
  prove yourself to the community, they gain a token.
  Choose a name
  Burton, Audi, Yeong, Bishop, Deshaun, Lark, Rutger, 
  Kayla, Jordan, Tahani, Javier, Fai, Maria, Dremmer
  Choose a look
  tired frame, starved frame, sturdy frame, plump frame, 
  muscular frame, hunched frame, bandaged frame
  calloused hands, polished hands, gloved hands,
  scabby hands, capable hands, trembling hands
  Choose a gender
  ambiguous, transitioning, man, woman, tomboy
  Choose 2 Wardrobe Styles
  standard issue, scrounge-ups, rumpled suits, scrubs, 
  hiking gear, long sleeves, shoplifted club clothes, 
  my old uniform, prison jumpsuit, bloodstains
  Decide how you knew that the 
  enclave existed
  •	 I used to drive an armoured grocery truck 
  through the area every week.
  •	 I used to be a cop, policing the borders of society.
  •	 I was a scavenger, living alone before injury 
  forced me to seek out a bigger community.
  •	 I used to come out here for the epic parties.
  •	 My daughter has been living here for a few years.
  Choose 2 things you brought 
  with you when you fled
  old pistol, water purifier, my inhaler, concealed knife,
  truck, photo albums, a phone that’s still got service, 
  holy book, stockpiles of food, my dog, stolen money
  Choose 2 key relationships
  the people I fled from, the spouse I left behind,
  the gentle soul who invited me to share their bed, 
  the twinky trans guy who has me questioning things, 
  the first person to offer me a stiff drink, my guide
  Choose one to ask left
  •	 Why do you wish I had never arrived?
  •	 What was the first thing you noticed about me?
  play to find out
  How well do you cope with stress and change?
  Will you ever return to the society intact?
  What new possibilities does the enclave offer you?
  When society shoves you out, you don’t really have
  time to process. You need food, shelter, friends. The
  Arrival found their way to the enclave. Can they barter 
  a measure of amnesty into a permanent home?
  The Arrival is an individual in flux. 
  Their power is contingent, technical, and suspect.
  Introducing the
  Arrival
  
  Dream Askew
  sources
  Dream Askew
  An incomplete list: No more diving into pools of chlorinated water lit green from 
  below. No more ball games played out under floodlights. No more porch lights with 
  moths fluttering on summer nights. No more trains running under the surface of cities 
  on the dazzling power of the electric third rail. No more cities. No more films, except 
  rarely, except with a generator drowning out half the dialogue, and only then for the 
  first little while until the fuel for the generators ran out, because automobile gas goes 
  stale after two or three years. Aviation gas lasts longer, but it was difficult to come by. 
  ... No more pharmaceuticals. No more certainty of surviving a scratch on one’s hand, a 
  cut on a finger while chopping vegetables for dinner, a dog bite.
  -Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven”
  This was not an ordinary pandemic: it wouldn’t be contained with biotools and 
  bleach. This was the Waterless Flood the Gardeners so often had warned about. It 
  had all the signs: it travelled through the air as if on wings, it burned through cities 
  like fire, spreading germ-ridden mobs, terror, and butchery. The lights were going 
  out everywhere, the news was sporadic: systems were failing as their keepers died. It 
  looked like total breakdown, which was why she’d needed the rifle.
  -Margaret Atwood, “The Year of the Flood”
  “Look, brother,” Shevek said at last. “It’s not our society that frustrates individual 
  creativity. It’s the poverty of Anarres. This planet wasn’t meant to support 
  civilization. If we let one another down, if we don’t give up our personal desires 
  to the common good, nothing, nothing on this barren world can save us. Human 
  solidarity is our only resource.” 
  -Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Dispossessed”
  You Stopped Giving Driver’s Licenses? Since When?
  “January this year.”  The lady was bored.
  How Was I Supposed To Know That? Michelle felt outraged. Driving was a right, right? 
  So she put it off for about a decade, so what? It was still her right, wasn’t it?
  “It was in the news.” The woman spoke to Michelle as if she was a dummy. “It went into 
  effect in San Francisco on January first, and in the state of California last month. No 
  new driver’s licenses. Not enough gas, you know?”
  The woman looked tired. She was Latina, her hair was in a claw at the nape of her 
  neck, she wore gold hoop earrings and a little cross on her clavicle. “I’m lucky to still be 
  here, they laid off half the office.” It was creepily quiet.
  -Michelle Tea, “Black Wave”
  Circle 2 desires
  competition, paranoia, collaboration, 
  uncomfortable bargains, scrappy diy, 
  suffering without, a feral age
  Tips
  •	 Introduce scavengers, hustlers, 
  growers, and bandits. Make them all 
  somewhat sympathetic.
  •	 Explore what happens when every-
  day infrastructure no longer exists.
  •	 Ask compelling questions and build 
  on the answers that others give.
  Pick up when
  Someone wanders the wasteland, 
  seeks a buyer, or visits a marketplace.
  Trade away when
  You need something material and don’t 
  immediately know where to get it.
  Moves
  •	 Show someone acting foolishly out 
  of need and desperation.
  •	 Introduce a betrayal.
  •	 Spread disease.
  After every move, ask “What do you do?”
  There’s no postal service. No municipal waste treatment. No reservoir operations 
  manager to treat your water. No ecological impact survey team. No police. No road 
  maintenance crew, and that means no refrigerated trucks hauling groceries into the 
  area. No signal in the cell towers most days. The people who used to think about this 
  stuff so you didn’t have to? They’re gone now.
  You also play the
  Varied
  Scarcities
  
  Dream Askew
  sources
  Dream Askew
  Now the world is not what it was. Look around you: evidently, certainly, not what it 
  was. But also close your eyes, open your brain: something is wrong. At the limits of 
  perception, something howling, everpresent, full of hate and terror. From this, the 
  world’s psychic maelstrom, we none of us have shelter.”
  -Vincent & Meguey Baker, “Apocalypse World”
  The entire planet was dreaming of the lovers they would have had if only they had 
  lived. In the dreams everyone was their highest self, everyone was present and 
  their hearts were wide-open. It was a gift and a plea, from the planet perhaps, 
  or from the universe, from the essence of life - no one knew enough about such 
  things to be certain. 
  The planet is showing us how beautiful our lives will be if we stay here and work 
  together to heal it, pleaded mystical people and ecologists on television. Psychologists 
  deemed it an episode of mass hysteria on a scale previously unknown and 
  commentators blamed the Internet and globalization for allowing it to spread so 
  rapidly. Christians blamed the devil and deemed sleeping a sin, other religious people 
  insisted it was God and that what was happening was a miracle.
  -Michelle Tea, “Black Wave”
  Miig explained it one night at the fire.
  “Dreams get caught in the webs woven in your bones. That’s where they live, in that 
  marrow there.” He poked at the crackling wood with a pointy stick till the shadows 
  were frenetic against his tan face...
  I imagined spiderwebs in my bones and turned my palm towards the moon, watching 
  the ballet of bones between my elbow and wrist twist to make it so. I saw webs clotted 
  with dreams like fat flies.
  -Cherie Dimaline, “The Marrow Thieves”
  She’d already arranged for her crossing and how to find her brother, now she had to 
  make sure there would be someone to help her back; she didn’t want to stay there, nor 
  have to endure what had happened to a friend who stayed away too long, maybe a 
  day too long or an hour too long, at any rate long enough too long that when he came 
  back it turned out that everything was still the same, but now somehow all different, 
  or everything was similar but not the same: his mother was no longer his mother, his 
  brothers and sisters were no longer his brothers and sisters, they were people with 
  difficult names and improbable mannerisms, as if they’d been copied off an original 
  that no longer existed.
  -Yuri Herrera, “Signs Preceding the End of the World”
  Circle 2 desires
  human dependence, cosmic revelation, 
  revenge, entropy, fervent intimacy,
  to be ushered into the world forever
  tips
  •	 Explore the subtle impact that the 
  psychic maelstrom has on everyday 
  people and places.
  •	 When people open their brains to 
  the psychic maelstrom, describe or 
  ask about their sensory experiences.
  •	 Ask compelling questions and build 
  on the answers that others give.  
  Pick up when
  Someone uses a psychic gift, seeks out 
  the strange, or invokes the maelstrom.
  Trade away when
  You’re involved in any of the above or 
  leave yourself psychically vulnerable.
  Moves
  •	 Foreshadow a threat.
  •	 Enter into someone’s sensory 
  experience at the right moment.
  •	 Bleed psychic instability into the 
  immediate area.
  After every move, ask “What do you do?”
  Close your eyes, open your brain: something is wrong with the world.  
  That something is the psychic maelstrom. It’s just beyond our  
  everyday perception, ever-present and howling.
  It can offer guidance, protection, even flashes of brilliant inspiration.  
  But it’s hungry, and nobody knows what will satisfy its appetite.
  You also play the
  psychic
  maelstrom
  
  Dream Askew
  sources
  Dream Askew
  L.A. is like... nowhere. Everybody who lives here is lost.
  -Gregg Araki, “Nowhere”
  He was putting on his old clothes, and as he pulled the shirt over his head he saw the 
  doctor stuff the blue and yellow “sleeping clothes” into the “trash” bin. Shevek paused, 
  the collar still over his nose. He emerged fully, knelt, and opened the bin. It was empty.
  “The clothes are burned?”
  “Oh, those are cheap pajamas, service issue — wear `em and throw `em away, it costs 
  less than cleaning.”
  “It costs less,” Shevek repeated meditatively. He said the words the way a 
  paleontologist looks at a fossil, the fossil that dates a whole stratum.
  -Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Dispossessed”
  Michelle thought if Stitch hadn’t been a fuckup she could’ve maybe been the next 
  Einstein. She liked to imagine who her friends could have become if they hadn’t been 
  saddled with a low-grade PTSD from being queer, if they hadn’t been forced into the 
  underground, away from the world and its opportunities. Stitch would have been 
  Einstein, Copernicus. She was obsessed with the astronomer Tycho Brahe, who had 
  lost his nose in a duel and tied a golden prosthesis around his head with a ribbon. 
  Stitch tagged GOLD NOSE in barroom bathrooms and bus-shelter walls with Sharpies. 
  She would have been Jane Goodall, Jacques Cousteau. She would have been a 
  marvelous surgeon, her urge to slice herself, her friends, and her lovers with sharp 
  objects redirected toward healing.
  -Michelle Tea, “Black Wave”
  “Now, suppose you’re an outfit called HelthWyzer. Suppose you make your money out 
  of drugs and procedures that cure sick people, or else-- better-- that make it impossible 
  for them to get sick in the first place.”
  “Yeah?” said Jimmy. Nothing hypothetical here: that was what HelthWyzer actually did.
  “So, what are you going to need, sooner or later?”
  “More cures?”
  “After that.”
  “What do you mean, after that?” ...
  ”You’d need more sick people. Or else — and it might be the same thing — more 
  diseases. New and different ones. Right?”
  “Stands to reason,” said Jimmy after a moment. It did, too. “But don’t they keep 
  discovering new diseases?”
  “Not discovering,” said Crake. “They’re creating them.”
  -Margaret Atwood, “Oryx and Crake”
  Circle 2 desires
  orthodoxy, ignorance of outsiders, 
  profit eternal, self-preservation,
  a technological solution, hope renewed
  Tips
  •	 Describe environments and people 
  that feel at once familiar and alien.
  •	 Make decisions about what you can 
  still buy in conventional markets.
  •	 Ask compelling questions and build 
  on the answers that others give.
  Pick up when
  Someone wanders into the society 
  intact, or you have an idea for why 
  they might pay the enclave a visit.
  Trade away when
  You need to deal with the society 
  intact or they remember that you exist.
  Moves
  •	 Introduce an authority figure.
  •	 Announce future threats.
  •	 Offer an opportunity, with or 
  without a cost.
  After every move, ask “What do you do?”
  For some reason we thought the collapse was going to hit everybody at the same time. 
  But nothing happens like that: neatly, evenly. Civilization crumbles in waves,  
  eroding the peripheries of good society.
  Apocalypse is only a distant nightmare for the privileged, a cautionary tale about 
  what might happen to them if they should fall from the master’s arms. You’d be 
  surprised what one of those people would do to keep their society intact.
  You also play the
  Society
  intact
  
  Dream Askew
  sources
  Dream Askew
  In Traverse City, the town they’d recently left, an inventor had rigged an electrical 
  system in an attic. It was modest in scope, a stationary bicycle that when pedalled 
  vigorously could power a laptop, but the inventor had grander aspirations: the 
  point wasn’t actually the electrical system, the point was that he was looking for the 
  Internet. A few of the younger Symphony members had felt a little thrill when he’d 
  said this, remembered the stories they’d been told about WiFi and the impossible-to-
  imagine Cloud, wondered if the Internet might still be out there somehow, invisible 
  pinpricks of light suspended in the air around them. ...
  In Traverse City Kirsten had stared at the This webpage is not available message 
  on the screen. She didn’t seriously believe that the inventor would be able to find the 
  Internet, but she was fascinated by electricity. She harboured visions of a lamp with a 
  pink shade on a dining table, a nightlight shaped like a puffy half-moon, a chandelier 
  in a dinning room, a brilliant stage. The inventor had pedalled frantically to keep the 
  screen from flickering out, explaining something about satellites.
  -Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven”
  “When The Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to 
  change whatever he wanted, to remake The Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed 
  the first of us, taught us the truth: as long as The Matrix exists, the human race will 
  never be free.”
  -The Wachowski Sisters, “The Matrix”
  His mother was supposed to be able to speak her last words to him via the mike 
  system, said Crake, but there was a digital failure; so though he could see her lips 
  moving, he couldn’t hear what she was saying.
  -Margaret Atwood, “Oryx & Crake”
  Circle 2 desires
  expanded networks, shared knowledge, 
  escapism, trafficked secrets, fresh code, 
  to reinvent the world in its image
  Tips
  •	 Describe sketchy, patchwork ways 
  that people gain access to the digital 
  realm after infrastructure collapses.
  •	 Give some people a reason to hate, 
  fear, or mythologize the digital realm.
  •	 Ask compelling questions and build 
  on the answers that others give. 
  Pick up when
  Someone interacts with a digital 
  device, or you have an idea about how 
  digitization shaped this environment.
  Trade away when
  You interact with a digital device or 
  recall memories of the digital realm.
  Moves
  •	 Reveal something to be broken.
  •	 Let the technology speak in turn.
  •	 Introduce a glitch.
  After every move, ask “What do you do?”
  Everything we’d ever known or said was embedded somewhere inside it. Even
  though the digital realm was young, it was hard to remember back to the way life
  was without it. It seemed as permanent as it was pervasive.
  Apocalypse pulled the digital realm to pieces. Networks fell into disconnect.
  Satellites blinked out. Computers were ripped apart and stripped of their precious
  metal content. But humans are wily and resourceful. They know how to salvage,
  re-purpose, and rebuild. Maybe the digital realm still has a future.
  You also play the
  digital
  realm
  
  Dream Askew
  sources
  Dream Askew
  “I don’t want to put the Gardeners in danger,” was how Toby put it.
  “My dear,” said Adam One, “you are safe with us. Or moderately safe.” Blanco was 
  Sewage Lagoon pleebmob, he explained, and the Gardeners were next door, in the 
  Sinkhole. “Different pleebs, different mobs,” he said.
  -Margaret Atwood, “The Year of the Flood” 
  The strong women told the faggots that there are two important things to remember 
  about the coming revolutions. The first is that we will get our asses kicked. The second 
  is that we will win.
  The faggots knew the first. Faggot ass-kicking is a time-honored sport of the men. But 
  the faggots did not know about the second. They had never thought about winning 
  before. They did not even know what winning meant. So they asked the strong women 
  and the strong women said winning was like surviving, only better. As the strong 
  women explained winning, the faggots were surprised and then excited. The faggots 
  knew about surviving for they always had and this was going to be just plain better. 
  That made ass-kicking different. Getting your ass kicked and then winning elevated 
  the entire enterprise of making revolution.
  -larry mitchell & ned asta, “The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions”
  Now, look what we have here before us. We got the Saracens sitting next to the Jones 
  Street Boys. We’ve got the Moonrunners right by the Van Cortlandt Rangers. Nobody is 
  wasting nobody. That... is a miracle. And miracles is the way things ought to be. ...
  You’re standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there’s over a 
  hundred more. That’s 20,000 hardcore members. Forty-thousand, counting affiliates, 
  and twenty-thousand more, not organized, but ready to fight: 60,000 soldiers! Now, 
  there ain’t but 20,000 police in the whole town. Can you dig it?
  -The Warriors
  The shock of realizing this was probably actually the ending, after a lifetime of near 
  misses, after all this time. She walked forward through the radiant world, the sunlight 
  and shadow and green. Thinking of trying to do something heroic, sending a knife 
  spinning through the air as she fell. Thinking, please don’t let them find August and 
  Sayid. Thinking of Dieter, although thoughts of Dieter carried a pain that was almost 
  physical, like probing at an open wound. She stepped up onto the hard surface of the 
  road and stood before the prophet, her hands in the air...
  “Titania,” the prophet said. He raised the point of his rifle to the spot between her eyes. 
  In his gaze she saw only curiosity.
  -Emily St. John Mandel, “Station Eleven”
  Circle 2 desires
  territory, unspoken fealty, splendor,
  the smell of fear, home-cooked meals, 
  mutant blood, somewhere safe to sleep
  Tips
  •	 Describe the varied aesthetics and 
  ethics of the outlying gangs.
  •	 Use the outlying gangs to explore 
  and magnify tensions within the 
  queer enclave.
  •	 Ask compelling questions and build 
  on the answers that others give.
  Pick up when
  Someone wanders the wasteland, 
  takes a major road, or trespasses.
  Trade away when
  You do any of the above or you have a 
  gang debt that you run out of time on.
  Moves
  •	 Put a gun in someone’s hand.
  •	 Bring gossip in from the wasteland.
  •	 Use abrupt violence to make an 
  example or seize valuable goods.
  After every move, ask “What do you do?”
  People had wildly differing ideas about what the collapse of law and order meant
  for their future. Some shuffled the mortal coil at the first sign of real danger.
  Others took to the hills, equipped with water purifiers and dried goji berries.
  But some people stayed right where they were, armed and alert. Ready to carve
  out an empire by whatever means necessary. Stop whatever you’re doing. Crane
  your neck just a tiny bit. You can probably hear their roaring in the distance.
  You also play the
  outlying
  gangs
  
  Dream Askew
  sources
  Dream Askew
  Stitch was a Taurus. She felt the damage of the natural world in some deep place 
  inside her. She was not separate from the stinging South American ants burrowing 
  through the backyard dirt, sculpting conical hives. Not separate from the abandoned 
  canines living in trash caves in the Bayview. Not separate from the roaches scurrying 
  through her kitchen each night. Their home was supporting life! That seemed crucial 
  to Stitch, radical even, and she believed it was only a matter of time before ecopeople 
  woke up and began championing the species they were currently scapegoating. Better 
  invading Asian citrus beetles than no beetles at all.
  -Michelle Tea, “Black Wave”
  “Then the wars for the water came. America reached up and started sipping on our 
  lakes with a great metal straw. And where were the freshest lakes and the cleanest 
  rivers? On our lands, of course. Anishnaabe were always the canary in the mine for the 
  rest of them. ...
  “The Great Lakes were polluted to muck. It took some doing, but right around 
  the time California was swallowed back by the ocean, they were fenced off, too 
  poisonous for use.”
  -Cherie Dimaline, “The Marrow Thieves”
  Fermentation is everywhere, always. It is an everyday miracle, the path of least 
  resistance. Microscopic bacteria and fungi are in every breath we take and every 
  bite we eat. Try as we may - and many do - to eradicate them with antibacterial 
  soaps, antifungal creams, and antibiotic drugs, there is no escaping them. They are 
  ubiquitous agents of transformation, feasting upon decaying matter, constantly 
  shifting dynamic life forces from one miraculous and horrible creation to the next.
  -Sandor Katz, “Wild Fermentation”
  Earthy disasters await - chasms yawn in quakes, the sleeping dragon turns below the 
  ground and vomits magma from its throat. But that’s off in the distance. Right here, right 
  now, on this little plot of land, the ash will make for rich, rich soil to grow a future in… 
  Cant help keep casting nervous glances at that lava, though. In her dreams it pours 
  over her like Pompeii.
  -Egypt Urnash, “The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn: Worry”
  Strength is a farmer of wild plants in wild environments harmed by global warming... 
  Undeterred by fancy gadgets, gender norms, and the material world; Strength focuses 
  on the rebirth of soil, the regeneration of endangered medicinal plants, the longevity 
  of sacred succulents, and the avid kindness that is required to fight the beasts of 
  industrialization.
  -Cristy C. Road, “Next World Tarot: Strength”
  Circle 2 desires
  healing, reciprocity, strange new forms,
  the fall of man, eden renewed, carrion, 
  trembling awe, to be reborn in fire
  Tips
  •	 Describe the smells, colours, and 
  scurrying movements of the world.
  •	 Show how the earth responds to hu-
  man activity, adapting or withering.
  •	 Ask compelling questions and build 
  on the answers that others give.
  Pick up when
  You want to describe weather, 
  mutation, beasts, or the natural world.
  Trade away when
  You brave the elements, investigate 
  something organic, or walk in nature.
  Moves
  •	 Abruptly storm.
  •	 Reveal an abundance or serenity.
  •	 Leave something wounded.
  After every move, ask “What do you do?”
  We built a new world upon its back, glass and steel stacked toward the heavens. We 
  learned how to pull electricity out of every natural element, to mechanize, to automate. 
  Some of us went whole days forgetting that anything existed outside our edifice.
  We wounded the earth. We alienated ourselves from its touch and its harmonies.  
  We broke holes in the sky. When it tried to warn us, we didn’t listen. What now?  
  Will apocalypse cement that alienation for all eternity, or finally bring us home?
  You also play the
  earth
  itself
  
  How Things Break
  Electricity requires upkeep. Without human intervention, a coal plant would 
  likely go down in less than a day, and a hydroelectric dam in less than a fortnight. 
  Failures anywhere can affect the overall grid, potentially pulling the whole thing 
  down. Private, off-grid power systems require knowledge and upkeep too, and 
  parts will degrade over time.
  Gasoline goes stale quick. Depending on oxygen exposure, temperature stability, 
  container material, and whether there is an added fuel stabilizer, that time can 
  vary from one month to a few years. You can’t siphon usable gas out of a car that’s 
  been abandoned on the side of the road since last year.
  Paved roads will last a few decades before breaking down to the point of being 
  treacherous or impassable for cars. The exact timeline depends on weather, use, 
  and the earth itself.
  The amount of time it takes for industrially-canned foods to degrade depends 
  upon the integrity of the container. While best before dates expire within a few 
  years, the food inside can remain edible across many decades, though colour, 
  texture, and flavour will degrade. Once the can becomes compromised or dented, 
  however, oxygen and bacteria quickly invade and make the contents unsafe.
  Dried foods can last a lifetime if kept in a cool, dry environment safe from oxygen 
  and life, though their nutrients will slowly degrade over decades.
  When things break down, how does your community react to their varied 
  scarcities? Do they go without, broker uncomfortable deals with profiteers from 
  the society intact, make their own from scratch, scavenge, or something else 
  entirely? How do they prove themselves to be resourceful?
  Genders of the 
  apocalypse
  Creating a character in Dream Askew involves contending with gender, but it’s a 
  gender exploded, extracted from the society intact and made mutant. What do 
  some of these words even mean?
  Some carry storied legacies from the real world, already infused with meaning 
  - femme, androgyne, bigender, genderfluid, and others. A few are tied to racial 
  community, positioning a character intersectionally, like two-spirit and stud.
  Others are genders of the apocalypse. Ice femme and dagger daddy take existing 
  queer identities and recast them in ways the real world has yet to experience. 
  Gargoyle and raven emerge entirely new.
  When you encounter a gender word, imagine. Ask your fellow players. Flirt with 
  a search engine. If nothing comes up, invent. No matter how you come to your 
  initial understanding, its yours to continue to define through play.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dream Askew & Dream Apart (PbtA)/Dream Askew Play Kit.pdf