Act Under Pressure or Mix It Up?
In my Tuesday night game I had a player tracked down by a bounty hunter at a bar in the free fire zone. As a result of a miss on a move, they found themselves being handcuffed to the bounty hunter, who intended to take them in for contract hopping. What then followed was the character being marched out the front with a taser pressed into their back, still cuffed to our erstwhile bounty hunter. This is when the character tried to make their break for it, by head butting their captor.
This is the situation I found myself in. I went with Act Under Pressure since the character was being held at weapon point. I figured it was less a question of if the player could accomplish the goal, but if they had the nerve. My decision was partially based on the fact that the character was at a hefty disadvantage (cuffed and at taser point).
How would you resolve this sort of situation where two different moves could apply?
Depends on the goal of the action I would say. If the PC wants to hurt the bounty hunter its Mix It Up and if he just wants to escape its Act Under Pressure. An Assess move might grant hold that can be spent instead of having to roll act under pressure depending on the circumstances.
Sounds like “act under pressure”, yeah. From the description, head-butting their captor is simply a means to enable the escape, rather than to actually harm the guard. “Mix it up” would be more appropriate if the character were trying to turn the tables, and take the guard prisoner…. though even then, they’d likely need to “act under pressure” first to get out from under the gun.
There’s a good example in the book, where spraying an area with suppressive fire is handled as “help or interfere” rather than “mix it up”, since the goal is to assist another character in escaping, rather than taking out a security team. Same story here.
Moves are all about intent.
Don’t forget that Mix it Up is never about just dealing damage, it’s about achieving a stated objective.
I think in this case, you make a good point about working up the nerve to do it, that sounds like a solid choice. But I can easily see a situation in which you’re trying to escape while not being intimidated at gunpoint being a Mix it Up with the objective of ‘Escape this man’.
Rick Sorgdrager
Yeah, you don’t have to be actively trying to kill someone to qualify as “mix it up”. And the consequences for a weak hit on the move – “too much noise”, “take harm”, “something breaks”, etc – would fit neatly for an escape attempt.
But I think I’d still go with “act under pressure”. The scene as described doesn’t quite meet my threshold for “using violence to seize control of an objective” or “using physical violence to
impose your will upon your enemies.”
I agree with what both Dirk Keienburg and Rick Sorgdrager say about intent. When multiple moves could be triggered by the same action, ask the player what the intent of their action is. Then go with the move that makes the most sense.