Injury
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to handle injury in the game. Right now it’s a purely narrative condition, and kind of left up to Creative to deal with.
I don’t want to have hit points or harm or anything, but since the outcomes of many moves include getting injured or inflicting injury, I thinking of ways to make that have more teeth.
One thought is having injury work kind of like Advances, in that when you get injured you pick off a list (like “can’t work a match for an Episode” or “Creative books to protect you at all costs until you heal” or “You push through the injury when you shouldn’t, next time you get injured pick from the advanced list), then when you’ve picked three you have to pick a more serious thing (like: “you’re sidelined, play a new character until the moment is right to come back” or “pick a match you’re booked in in the next two Episodes of play, this will be your last one”).
I’d love some thoughts or other ideas (including “not worth putting in, leave it narrative”).
Pick an injured area.
If an opponent hits that spot they gain + 1 momentum in addition to other effects.
This may be used once per match until the injury is healed.
. . . I wonder if there should be a flip side about gaining audience for selling off of the injury. “Oh they went back to his knee! How much more can he take?!” . . . and all the fans gasp!
I think a list like advances is really cool. That could definitely make for neat character development over time. It could also include things like false injuries with enormous bandages that give you things like audience boosts when your opponent attacks your injury.
If you wanted to avoid more lists – I know, not very Apocalypse of me – then injuries could prohibit you from using specific moves that you have. Which moves might depend on the Gimmick or maybe not; maybe you get to choose them yourself, or the person who hurt you does, or whatever.
Injury list sounds really solid – advanced injuries might not scrub, and can carry over gimmicks which means that if you get hurt too bad too often, you might end your career.
You might want end-of-show moves where you scrub a minor injury or two.
Ron Edwards that makes me think of having an “injury move” for each playbook, which could be cool. Like AW sex moves!
Hrm.
I’m more a fan of an injury move playbook then penalties or restricting action.
Here are some other thoughts
Your opponent gets a +1 when using a +real move against you in the ring if they describe working the injury. If this results in another injury +1 Heat.
If you play up an injury during a promo gain +1 momentum on a 10+ but lose one audience on a miss, cuz it looks like you’re milking it in a lame fashion.
If you put the injury at risk in a high energy move during a match gain +1 momentum and +1 Audience on a 10+, gain 1 momentum but take -1 forward for the rest of the match on a 7-9, lose the match and get taken out on a stretcher on a miss…and miss the nest session while recovering…possibly also lose 1 audience as the fans forget about you while you’re gone.
Yah, I’m liking the idea of a playbook-specific Injury Move, maybe with some kind of associated checkboxes to show accumulating injury over time. I don’t want to add a suite of injury effects for people to remember (the basic Moves are already on the edge of what people seem to be able to keep track of as it is), but there’s a lot to work with in terms of making each Gimmicks “Injury Move” distinct, for sure.