Happy birthday, Apocalypse Frame!
Reporting in from second campaign approaching it's end... Wow, what I ride. I'm not sure this still can be counted as "vanila" AF game, but we sure having fun with it!
First off, I've added Enclave to the equation. First campaign ended up with major catastrophe in the midst of Collective (basically, a sleeper cell activation), and no one knowing for sure, but similar event happened deep in heart of the Republic. Basically, there's a whole lot of small factions now - remaining loyalists of both camps, free parties, mercs, paramilitary camps, civilian survivors, etc.
Since we are playing in setting of Asian/Eastern Russia region (I've somehow calculated that after ecological and political disasters and raising sea levels this might be the most inhabitable area, and then just sticked to it, lol), characters evacuated to the Southern Korea - enter Enclave island, governed by AI sort of utopia, isolated and conserved from all recent events.
Long story short, second campaign is a homecoming, going back to the Mainland to find/fight old friends and foes, figure out what happened, and investigate the Infection (China area). And it is as personal as it is a war drama, and we are loving every second of it!
To make it work I've also added Savage Worlds as supporting game system for aces. It matches the dynamic and simplicity of Apocalypse Frame, and also damage counters match perfectly - when frame gets hit real bad, pilot gets hit too! And when ace ejects after frame gets three hits, the pilot himself has only one hit left before being incapacitated. It just works out of the box, lol.
There's way less combat though in this campaign. I think it is one per two sessions, and it takes it's toll. My players don't get Materials as drop from enemies, since usually they don't have time to gather those, and that makes economy run very hard. Since the time they've start the Expedition, they've already spent almost 50 Materials they've had at the start, and now every combat seems like it might be the last one, simply because there's no resources for repairs and ammunition is almost out.
All and all, yeah, as I said, it's not a "vanilla" AF experience. But what I'm trying to say is we're having close to Armored Core experience of drama and tensions and conflicts of being a mecha ace in a dying/dead world... and, well, I guess it's what it was intended from the start, right? :D
And I'd really want to thank you for this game. I might not be using all the procedures and contents of it, but the sole fact of this game being so open and fresh, giving air to ideas and different angles on the topic is just a highest praise to the author, as I see it.
I've said before, I'm not a mecha fan, but this media is way more lively for me and way more deep, then my beloved cyberpunk genre. I've tried at least three different games, and read a whole bunch of those - and Apocalypse Frame is the one to pick. Simple, but not shallow rules. Truly fast, dynamic and epic combat. Mood and ideas visible in statblocks, in small design decisions, realised in a practical form.
Good stuff. Amazingly good stuff! I've already hosted 25+ games across these two campaigns and some one-shots, and I think this is just a beginning. Easily my number one game. I'd drink to that, lol.
PS. Almost forgot. I know how everyone feels about AI-generated content, but I also feel strong about this song, born at the beginning of our second campaign and fleshed out after recent in-game events. Just a glimpse of our game, our emotions and experiences, which are pure human ;) I hope it conveys, how much it all means to us, and my personal angle on the game.
Also, here are some photos of out table (some miniatures and terrain also modelled by me):
