I feel like I have an understanding of two things in the rules (especially after reading some of the posts here), but I have enough uncertainty I will ask…
The first is simple. Beginning characters start with none of the moves from their Drive book, they must unlock them and get Achievements in the process, right?
The second is more conceptual. As I am reading the materials surrounding Difficult and Borderline power descriptions seem to me to represent situations where players are “looking to the GM to find out what happens”, and therefore an opportunity for the GM to make a Move. Using a Difficult or Borderline power is the equivalent of asking the GM “how difficult is this, really?” or “how close to the borderline am I, really?” The main GM Move I am thinking of would be “Tell the requirements or consequences and ask”, but any Move, or no Move at all, is reasonable depending on the circumstances. Does that sound right? Or am I missing something important?
1) Yep!
2) Yeah, the moves are player-facing, so it’ll come about pretty naturally. You, as the GM, are going to be continually making moves and the players are going to have to react to them. Some of the things they need to overcome may either lead them to wanting to, or needing to, do certain things and sometimes those things might mean doing something Difficult, or Borderline.
If that sounds a little vague and nebulous, it’s because it’ll all depend on what’s going on in the fiction. The good news is that it’ll all come together really organically, so don’t worry. As a GM, all you have to do is keep presenting the players with obstacles to overcome by making moves. Players will then say how they go about dealing with said obstacles. You’ll then be asking, “can you do that?” (basically asking “is that in your Powers Summary?) as well as “how hard is it for you to do that?”. If it isn’t on their Summary then they’ll need to reevaluate. Depending on how hard it is for them to do what they’re trying to do, and what they’re trying to do, they may trigger a move (they may need to Defy Danger, for example). If they’ve never done what they’re trying to do before they’ll have to Push to do it. For example:
EIC: The missile is scorched but it’s still heading straight towards the center of the city, and you! What do you do? (soft move)
Player: Alright, well it looks like that little blast didn’t do much, so I’m going to go nova and try to turn it into slag before it can get any closer!
EIC: Awesome! I know you can do that since you’re all about fire and all that, but that sounds pretty intense. How hard do you think that’d be for you?
Player: Hmmm, probably going to be difficult for sure.
EIC: And why is that? You have to build up a lot of heat for that, or what?
Player: Yeah, so I’m going to drain all the heat out of the area and try to do it safely – like not drain anyone’s body heat too bad or anything.
EIC: Alright, well Nova Blast is in your Powers Profile, so we know you can do it, so no roll needed there. But I will have you Defy Danger to do it safely, with the danger being that you might suck up more than you intended and there might be some consequences there, we’ll see.
Player: Alright, sounds good.
Does that help? if it wasn’t on their Powers Profile, then the player would have had to Push for it.
Thanks! Helps very much.
Having only run con games I tend to skip some of the finer details of the power system in favour of quick fun but that really helps, I may try it next time I run