), playbooks (including replacing the Operator with Maestro-D and Quarantine), and brought Meguey Baker on board as co-designer,[3] but retained most of the original's design.

[6] Notably, the Master of Ceremonies (MC) is not supposed to do any planning before sitting down to the first session, so that all players have an opportunity to shape the game world collectively.

Stats used in rolls are: Cool (Calmness, Rationality); Hard (Strength, Intimidation); Hot (Attraction, Charisma); Sharp (Empathy, Intelligence); and Weird (Psychic, Luck).

[6][9] Academic PS Berge wrote, "Vincent and Meguey Baker's Apocalypse World (AW, 2010) marked the beginning of a critical era in 'fiction-first' TRPG design.

[11] Chase Carter for Polygon listed it as one of the "seminal" games during the "blooming of indie RPG designers" in the latter part of the 2000s, along with Fiasco, Lady Blackbird, Dogs in the Vineyard and the Romance Trilogy.

[12] In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "All of [the game's] mechanics pale in comparison to Apocalypse World's major innovation: The way it handles actions ..