I did my fair share of ‘wrong moves’ in Pbta Games.

I did my fair share of ‘wrong moves’ in Pbta Games.

I did my fair share of ‘wrong moves’ in Pbta Games.

But i’ve got a Monsterhearts game planned for tomorrow and I’d like to ‘do it right’

Hold steady is not ‘act under fire’.

So what should I do, for exemple, when the mortal is trespassing in a teacher’s office to steal some exams papers?

It’s a tense situation, but does it justify  to eventually gain the Condition terrified ?

Usually in Pbta games ,when a situation is not really covered by a move, I use a custom ‘act under fire’ move on the fly…

Maybe I shouldn’t.  Maybe that unusual action is not the focus of the game and we shouldn’t roll. We could go on with the fiction and threat the situation like a 7-9… with a price to pay.

One more 😉

Let’s say the Chosen is minding her own business, walking in the woods…

Her mentor carries out a surprise attack on her. That’s part of her training to stay sharp… Does she hold steady? Or lash  out  physically?

Thanks 😉

4 thoughts on “I did my fair share of ‘wrong moves’ in Pbta Games.”

  1. Other people might feel differently, but I’m OK using Hold Steady as an Act Under Fire type move. It’s a move to see if the character can carry on in a tense, scary, or dangerous situation. I adjust the Condition the character gets on a 7-9 though, as sometimes Terrified doesn’t really feel appropriate.

  3. I would suggest that stealing papers from the office is possibly not enough of a crunch time for a roll to be needed. If them having the papers isn’t okay for you to just let them do it maybe try the following. You might start lightly instead with a soft move like “You hear the sound of scuffing feet on the carpet in the next room…what do you do?” No dice roll needed, if they waited for the teacher to be on a break maybe they can just carry on regardless, maybe someone else is breaking in to steal the same papers…either way, no dice rolling needed just yet.

    For the Chosen walking in the woods you kind of answered your own question. “You are walking through the woods when suddenly someone or something drops out of the trees and wraps itself around your arms…. What do you do?” The player will soon tell you if they shriek and attempt to evade or step into it with a Glasgow kiss.

    Imagine this hypothetical. The werewolf ‘needs’ to get a video out of a safe and wolfs out. There are several ways of resolving the situation. I think the worst and probably most boring is to say okay, the safe is tough, lash out until you do 15 damage.

    An alternative might be to make a roll to hold steady. Doesn’t really fit the situation but okay…maybe on a partial success they leave a wolf claw embedded in the safe wall.

    I think though, the best way would be to ask for more information instead. Wow, are wolves really that strong? Okay, you rip it open…They’re not usually? okay you can try but what’s likely to happen if you fail? The latter hasn’t needed a dice roll at all but has made the character more interesting and given everyone a bit more knowledge of the world.

    I think that people sometimes get trapped into thinking that everything needs a diceroll. Sometimes it can just happen. The next thing in the sequence is clear, there is little doubt where it’s all going and an uncertain outcome just isn’t needed.

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