How our heroes got harmed?

How our heroes got harmed?

How our heroes got harmed?

Checking out the Movements outcomes I can find out the following effects that harm or give a condition our PC:

– Defy danger on a 7-9, offered by the EiC (BTW, what happen on a 6-?) – Take down (It’s a bit confusing. You can choose not to take harm in the doing. Do that implies that if you don’t choose this option you take that harm? What about the other un-chosen options? The same with Aid or Interfere?)

– A failed Push.

– Redirecting an attack with Serve and Protect?

– Of course, they can be harmed by an effect in the fiction.

Is the above right? Any other ways to harm the PC?

8 thoughts on “How our heroes got harmed?”

  1. The Apocalypse World system is player-facing. Meaning the EiC never rolls and things occur as narrated by the EiC or as a  result of players interacting with the fiction and via moves. It’s possible for a PC to take damage when a) a soft move is ignored or unresolved and leads to a hard move or b) a move (any move) is made and less than a 6 is rolled. In both cases the PC’s getting harmed isn’t necessarily going to happen but is an option for the EiC to choose.

    A soft move is something like “the walls being to shake, the rocks above begin to crack and chips fall down towards you, it looks like the whole place is about to come apart.” In this case, it stands to reason that if the PCs don’t do anything, don’t leave, don’t do something to brace against the rocks or otherwise resolve it, they’ll probably end up getting hurt – the EiC narrates and tells them how it happens, what Condition they take and the severity of it should the EiC have to make a hard move when the time comes.

    Anytime a player makes a roll and gets 6 or less the GM makes a hard move as well. This means that the PC’s don’t necessarily have a chance to react to it and have the same amount of agency they have normally in the fiction and with soft moves. Narrative control lies with the EiC: “The walls being to shake, the rocks above begin to crack and chips fall down towards you. Your muscles tense as adrenaline courses through you, your body senses the danger as the ceiling falls away and the first car of a subway smashes into you! Take the Moderate Condition “Between a rock and a subway car”” 

    The other examples you listed are expressly listed so players know what they’re getting into – sometimes what happens is given in advance but is not often the case. Since the EiC has a vast array of moves he could make, we don’t expressly force them into making the PC’s take damage (otherwise they’d be going down for the count pretty quick).

    I thought just saying “when it makes sense for them to take harm in the fiction they do so” would seem a bit flippant”. Hope that helps!

  4. Not all effects not chosen take place – “take no harm in the doing” though, if you do not choose you will take harm in some form or another (otherwise there’d be no reason to waste a choose on it). There are a couple moves like that where choosing one thing means something else does happen. It’s as yet a bit unclear in the text with no explanations and examples though and by their very nature I don’t really like negative choices in moves versus positive ones so there are very few of them, I can’t even think of any still remaining so it might just be that option in Take Down.

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