Hi, I’ve read the last pdf a couple of times and I have some questions, most of them probably due to not being a native english speaker. Some kind soul that wants to help? I’m planning to start a game next week with my playing group!
1) Should a telepathic suggestion, eg, from a Nova PG, trigger “directly engage a threat”? This, as an example where engaging a threat may be subtle or indirect
2) In the Bull playbook the relationships define the love and the rival used in “the bull’s heart”. The manual says that the relationships have to be between PCs, but at the same time opens to the possibility for NPCs to be lovers/rivals, while recommending PCs. Should at least start as PCs?
3) In the “pretty much a superhero” move what does it mean “pick a second label they assign to you”? It’s just about the consideration of the involved NPC or has any effect on the beacon’s labels?
4) The Doomed Sanctuary move requirements are chosen at the time the player activates it, right? As written, one might think that are chosen at character creation
5) I need some examples of the Janos’ “impossible mobility” ability? Like, spiderclimbing, walking on raindrops, shadowstep would apply?
6) Has the choice made with the “I am what you see” move of the Janus an effect on the label chosen with the “The mask” move?
7) When the player picks the “take drives from the beacon’s playbook” Janos advancement, he chooses the first four drives, and gets to pick another set of four whenever he strikes all of them, just as a Beacon would, right?
8) How much the +1 ongoing generated from the Legacy move “words of the past” lasts? Until the problem is solved?
9) Similarly, how much does the +1 forward from “the legacy matter” move lasts? In which rolls does it applies?
1) That’ll usually be provoke someone, because a suggestion means you’re trying to get them to do something. Directly engage requires a two-way assault, since the result is “trade blows”.
2) Yep, should start as PCs, but that can change during play. Same goes for all playbook relationship questions.
3) It’s weirdly written, even for those of us with native English. 😛 On a 10+ you say “They’ve heard I saved that school bus from Gigantor, they think I’m a Savior!”, and on a 7-9 the GM also says “That’s true, but they’ve also heard you saved it by causing a 5-car pile-up: you’re a Savior, but you’re also Dangerous”. And then whenever that NPC makes you shift your labels, it reflects the labels declared in that move.
4) Yep, case-by-case basis. “I wanna solve X problem”, “Okay, then you’ll have to…”
5) All of those are great! Abilities are vague descriptors for exactly that reason. 🙂
6) It basically just forces someone to shift your labels, like anyone with Influence can normally do by telling you who you are or how the world works. When it says “talk about your identity”, it just means “who you are” in the general sense, not necessarily related to your Janus’ secret identity.
7) Yep, gets the whole playbook feature.
8) Yep: “Grandpa, how do I beat an evil robot?” “Hit it with a shovel, like we did back in the trenches!” Find a shovel, get +1 ongoing until you’ve smashed that robot with it.
9) It just applies to the next roll you make, whatever or whenever that is. You don’t have to do anything specific for this one, unlike words of the past.
Thanks, very helpful!
A doubt reading your answer:
6) Might it happen that a Janos talk with someone about his identity, triggering “I am what you see”, without that person having influence over him? Formally there shouldn’t be a label shift, since “when someone with influence over you tells who you are” wouldn’t trigger.
I don’t like how the move is written :/
And a follow-up question:
10) With “Pretty much a superhero” the Beacon can create elements of backstories right?
Just realized I totally missed this follow-up!
For 6), the I am what you see move doesn’t actually use the Influence move, it just has a similar result. So the target having Influence or not doesn’t matter to the Janus in that situation, because the Janus move has its own rules.
Basically, taking that move means your Janus is so susceptible to what people think about them that when it comes to discussions about who they are, even complete strangers or people they otherwise don’t care about can shift their labels (and the Janus gets a benefit for accepting what they say). “Which label they want to impose on you” is very unclear language, though.
10) Absolutely; that’s kinda the whole fun of it! The things they’ve heard don’t necessarily have to be entirely true, either, because what you’ve done and what people have heard you’ve done can be very different things. Media bias and public perception tends to influence this move a lot.