Rules Question- in a damaged plane with an NPC pilot and a PC Navigator, who rolls for the Wheels Down manoeuvre? Should the NPC’s have stats and rolls (which is against the GM never rolls ethos of Powered by Apocalypse World engine)?
I’ve made the Navigator player roll on behalf of the NPC and using their PCs Skill, but should I be assigning stars and informing the Section Leader so they can make appropriate assignments?
Or is it just GM fiat if a NPC pilot puts a damaged plane down successfully or not? (Again against the PBAW ethos of hard moves trigger in response to rolls of 6-)
Sub(duction).
Or isn’t there a “mission pool” or something? It’s been a while since I read the KS draft.
Mission Pool lets you add 1 per point of pool used after rolling to boost. But someone still needs to roll for mission pool to be relevant.
PCs should always roll if one of them is in an aircraft. Flight controls are available in both seats and everyone is trained to fly, if you need an excuse. See your principles and agenda; the game is about the PCs.
A plane with two NPCs is entirely in the current GMs hands.
Ok, if the player makes the role, do they use their PC’s skill, or is a skill assigned to the NPC pilot? If it’s the former then high Luck, low Skill PC Navigators are going to crash and burn a lot, even if in the fiction they’ve been assigned a good pilot.
NPCs don’t have stats. If fictional coherence is super important to you, though, and everybody finds it more fun not to roll any dice, always assume NPCs are reasonably competent and get 7-9 results. I don’t recommend this (we tried it in playtest and dropped it) but it won’t hurt anything.
In that case Steve Ellis, you could do this: if the NPC pilot is in good shape, the PC rolls +Luck; but if the NPC pilot is hurt and needs the PC’s steadying hand on the yolk, the PC rolls +Skill.
Yeah, we had a PC Navigator near death from wounds (3 harm) and unconscious, and her NPC pilot on 1 harm, so it made no sense for the PC to roll as they couldn’t contribute. But we were very interested in whether they could Wheels adorn successfully as the PCs life Was on the line.
John Willson that’s a nice custom move right there, and could be extended to any NPC interaction by swapping in relevant stats.
Steve Ellis if the PC is unconscious there’s no need for a Wheels Down move. Her fate is in your hands at that point, so apply as hard a move as you want. As GM you’ve been handed a golden opportunity; I’d look at Wheels Down for guidance and then consult my GM moves. Any reasonable outcome could follow.