Originally shared by Oli Jeffery
Proposed mechanic for modelling tension in stealth in a PBTA adjacent game
PBTA is fantastic at modelling the consequences of actions, but isn’t always particularly concerned with the action itself.
Most of the time I love this, but it feels oddly lacking when it comes to stealth, and this is even brought up in the Advanced Fuckery chapter of the original Apocalypse World. It doesn’t have the build up and will-I-get-caught tension of stealth video games, because stealth isn’t really one action, it’s a million small actions that keep firing until you’re safe.
So, here’s my proposed hack. It’ll only really work in a Dungeon Worldish style of play, with moment to moment mission focus. It’s a push your luck, Pontoony kind of thing that intuitively seems to suit stealth.
NPCs have an Awareness stat and a Target stat. Players roll a single die, like a damage roll in DW. The aim is to roll accumulated successes that are equal to or greater than the NPC’s Target but smaller than their Awareness. The Target should be large enough that this isn’t usually achievable in one roll.
Players roll 1 die at a time. On each roll, the player can Stick, or Push. If they push, they roll again, adding their new roll to all the previous ones in this action, getting them closer to the Target but risking busting the NPC’s Awareness stat.
If you bust the Awareness stat, you fail. 6- equivalent.
If you hit the Target exactly, you pull it off. 10+ equivalent. If you go over but don’t bust the awareness, crit. Get a narrative bonus.
If you stick without getting to the Target, you succeed but with a complication, and the GM uses how far away from the Target you were to flavour how big of a complication you get.
Needs some number crunching re probability and different die types, but otherwise what do you think?
Interesting! How do we create suspense in the early rolls, however? What does it mean to “stick” when you haven’t succeeded?
I suspect something other than rolling against a number might be most interesting for a stealth minigame.
Paul Taliesin If you stick in the 7-9 equivalent, the level of the complication is based on how far away you get from the Target number.
I did write a game once that handles stealth by making players build a House of Cards (but out of dominoes).
I am fascinated by this, but I’d be hesitant to run it with my group because of how unlike the rest of the system this feels. (Several sessions in and they’re still getting the hang of basic moves because we play so infrequently…)
I wonder if there’s a way to do something like this, focusing on moment-to-moment play, but using hold that you spend like other moves…
I’m not sure there’s no tension in the normal roll:
MC: “So you try to sneak into Dremmers compound to kidnap her brai- eh… mindfucker! How?”
the players narrates, embellishes and expresses sentiments of importance
MC: “Cool, … eh, act under fire, I guess, the fire is if you get caught”
So, even if the player have a +3 battlebabe, we’re a bit scared for the dreaded snake eyes… ’cause Dremmers a mean SoB and we’re need the Battlebabe to defend against the Desert Storm-raiders… and on a 7-9 we’re really tense about the MCs move (i.e. choice).
I truly believe the narration in itself brings about the tension, and the dice-roll releases it.
And even if we had a custom move, like in the back of the book (Advanced fuckery) or something like:
when you employ stealth to enter Dremmers compund roll+3, on a 10+ choose 3 on a 7-9 choose 2
– you get to the target
– you don’t raise any alarms
you get the target with an escape route intactyou get a really coll oppourtunity (tell the MC what)
Even now, after the battlebabe hits with a ten pluss I’ll be excited about the choices. Especially if I know there’s something/-someone in Dremmer’s compound the Battlebabe wants (to kill). I’ll be even more tense if I was the one helping and joining..: “Please choose an escape route still intacts, pleeeease..!”
My problem with this mechanic is that it doesn’t – unlike most things in AW – have important narrative beats present in every roll. It would be easy to just roll and roll and roll until we get our result. Is there way to integrate it more with the fiction?