New Custom Move: Explanation Caption
When you encounter a superpowered phenomenon you may ask the GM: “what/who is this?” and they will give you some basic info. Then tell them how you learned/know this.
The goal of this move is to allow the players to explore and know more about the stuff that is going on that the Comic Reader would already know. In this way everyone can learn about the basics of what a villain is about (if they are a villain that isn’t acting their very first time) and the lack of a roll makes it easy and fast to use at the table.
Also it is not as good as the Read the Files move of the Protege that allows for more insights.
Imagine it like this for the reader:
cosmicteams.com
I dig it!
Good idea. We could have used that. 🙂
I feel like this hits a principle of “Think between panels”. Players should know what’s up and feel empowered to ask leading questions the GM can go with, if they’re more exciting than what she planned.
How does that have to do with the principle about thinking about the things that happen elsewhere in the world. I also don’t understand your point about GM planning with this.
T. Franzke “Think in the gutters between panels” is more along the lines of considering what different NPCs are doing when the PCs aren’t there. I think what Adam Goldberg really means is the principle, “Remind them of the generations that came before”. What he’s getting that is that, in Halcyon, where everything has happened before and superheroes can be (and frequently are) super-celebrities, The Team should be instantly recognizing anything super-related, and they shouldn’t trigger a move to do so. Because, at that point, you’re just following the fiction and the principles.
For example, I’m not big into pop culture and the lives of famous people, but there are still a number of actors, musicians, CEOs, politicians and other influential figures that I’d instantly recognize if I were ever to come face-to-face with them. Sure I might not know their actual names or details about their lives (which is where “Been reading the files” comes in) but I’ll still recognize them.
That being said, I like the move because it evokes another principle “Describe like a comic book”, and because I feel like it’s an easy way to get the players to ask questions about the world and those who inhabit it, which they can sometimes be too shy to do. And not just for the players too, I think it could really help the GM in fleshing out the fiction. All in all, definitely not a necessary/must-have custom move, but something that could work really well with the right group 🙂