Okay, Chummers, wage slaves, Sararipeeps, gutter punks, low lives, and badass motherfuckers, drop me some street knowledge!
I’m seriously considering kicking Manoeuvre to the curb (it’s not obvious how it flows from the fiction, and there are arguably too many moves in the game) BUT, I love that it puts those mechanical options for making combat dynamic right there on the table in front of the players.
So, come at me with elegant ways to keep that stuff in front of the players eyes and minds, while scrapping the move.
About time.
Refresh my memory, does the Sprawl currently have an assess the situation move and ask the GM questions move like Read A Situation or Discern Realities? Cause those are the ways you keep information flow rooted in fiction and more importantly part of the conversation of play.
Also I am not sure you can have dynamic combat when the core move resolves the key action in one move most of the time. So the space where you can really amp up tension and make things interesting is during the fictional positioning to the point when you can make that Mix It Up roll. Stuff like Threats having moves or fiction that make them hard to harm off the bat, situations that require effort to get in to position, and the like.
Observe is the Read an Sitch/Person move.
I agree with all that, what I want is something player-facing. I want something that points at and inspired all that awesome stuff we do at our table.
My gut instinct is kill maneuver, then make a move like observe with pointed questions that is all about reacting when the shit hits the fan in those moments before Mixing It Up. The tweak from maneuver I would keep is make it expressly hold that can be spent during the situation to ask questions as it develops and less front loaded.
And then really nail down the trigger like “when you take a moment to access a dangerous fucked up situation” or something.
So in AW, read a sitch gives tactical information about the environment and read a person gives insight into people. It seems like you could maybe split off Observe and Research along the same lines to provide ways to give the +1 forward and preserve the intention for dynamic action sequences.
You can’t Observe again until something changes, and until the situation changes, there’s nothing more to Observe, yeah? Research could happen on the scene, but seems like it might be a part of hacking?
Research then becomes more like a planning move, and observe becomes an action move. Research is good for getting you in, but when the shit hits the fan you better put your eyes on and Observe what’s going down around you.
Giving damage modifiers was weak sauce anyway. I’m not sure that firepower is really an issue, is it? If I’m crouching behind a bank of servers, am I really at risk of taking harm directly? No, instead I’m going to get hit with Act Under Pressure and that is going to tell us if I’m exposed to harm.
I’ll kill it.
It’s not usefull, players can do it in fiction.
To the point!
Yeah, I want to kill it, but I want to use its corpse/legacy for something useful to new players.
I guess to fill the gap left my maneuver you have 3 options that I can see right now:
– add a read a charged situation-esque move based on existing World Designs. Which I am guessing you don’t really want to do right?
– write procedures on how to incorporate these things into the existing conversation about the fiction without adding a new move. This is tricky as this stuff is generally perceived as “GM stuff” even though it isn’t necessarily.
– which leaves designing a new move that codifies the above procedures you want at the table for the players to use
Maybe I can adapt the language of AUP and Observe to do what I want.
From a previous post here…
When you closely study a person, place or situation looking for weaknesses or opportunities, roll +Mind. On a 10+ hold 3, on a 7-9 hold 1. You may spend hold to:
* Know where there’s cover: Take +1 armor forward
* Know where to hide: You escape attention
* Know where to target: Take +AP forward
* Know when to act: Interrupt the action with your own plan
* Ask a question: (list from Observe)
Plus a Playbook move to swap Mind to Edge.
But I agree with David that armor/ap isn’t super attractive. Hide seems like it’s already covered with AUP. Interrupt seems more like fiction and general interactivity of the game.
A simpler version might be:
[…] You may spend hold to:
* Ask a question or reveal an unknown detail about the scene
* Take +1 forwards
Here’s what I have currently:
Observe (Edge)
When you closely study a person, place or situation, roll Edge.
10+: hold 3.
7-9: hold 1.
In the ensuing action, you may spend hold 1 for 1 to ask the MC questions from the list below that your examination could answer. The MC may ask you questions to clarify your intent.
What is being concealed from me here?
How is ____ vulnerable to me?
How can I hide or avoid trouble here?
What is my best way in/way out/way past?
Where can I gain the most advantage?
Who or what is my biggest threat?
Who or what is in control here?
Take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
I think I’ll tweak the fictional trigger so it works with both close study and charged situations.
Maybe change the name of the move too, Observe as a name feels static, like something you do over time. The name is perfect for a research move, but if it is being changed to apply to both areas it’s name should reflect that.
True
Maybe, Scan.
Maybe go full AW like that does with Seduce, Manipulate and Intimidate all being the same move but with a different name based on the fiction. Then you can keep Observe for the research area and the add a combat/action based name too.
I also kinda like assess, a Hunter assessing someone could be the slow tailing and watching, while a Killer’s could be the quick size up.
Assess is good.