Hello all!
Just a quick question about “Defy Danger” as I am a little confused as to when should players use that move…
So, let’s assume that a PC is facing “Cuisine Art” the psychopatic “chef” that can control knives around him with his mind (telekinesis). I tell my PC that the “chef” is surrounded by a whirlwind of knives, essentially forming a blade barrier.
If my PC which to smash him physically, should he do a defy danger move first and then, if he succed, he can use his smash move?
How would that situation work? Should Defy Danger be the kind of move that opens other actions?
Ps: hey, i kinda like the “Chef”…he could well be the villain my kids will be facing next week!
Yeah, if they want to smash him they’ll have to get to him first right? So they’ll somehow have to get through the knives, which are dangerous, so Defy Danger would trigger.
Instead of looking at it from the point of view of using moves, look at it from the perspective of the things the players say sometimes triggering moves. You set up situations, like the ones above, and ask a player, “what do you do?” Listen to what they say and what they want their character to do. If they act despite an imminent threat (i.e. ignoring the blades to go in and punch the cook) then they’re defying danger, so you might say, “it’s going to be pretty tricky getting by all those blades without getting hurt, you’d better defy danger.” (Note that for some heroes, the blades don’t constitute an imminent threat – they might have unbreakable skin or something.)
Upon hearing that they’ll have to Defy Danger first in order to get through to him, the player might reevaluate and think of a clever way to avoid having to Defy Danger in order to get to him, like coming at him from underground or something, and that’s fine. Always clarify intent, and always start with the fiction (rather than the moves). Players shouldn’t be saying things like, “I Defy Danger to get past him and then Take him Down!” The game is all about telling a story. All players need to do is say what their character is doing in the fiction, when they say something that triggers the move, that’s when you go to the move to inform the game, then you move back to the fiction, incorporating the results of the move into it and continue on saying stuff until a move ends up getting triggered again.