Hello everyone, I have a dumb question: Can Heros shift their Labels whenever they want?
At first, I thought they could (I think I saw it done like that in a demo game on youtube with the creator… of course, I may be misremembering).
Also, in the Basic Moves sheet, it says under Shifting Labels on the Peripheral Moves section: “When you shift a Label, it means that your view of yourself is changing.” If I read it as a move, it seems you can just shift labels, as per the “When you [etc etc]” move formula. I should have expected to read: “When something makes you shift a Label…”
So, that’s why in my 1st session I told the players they can shift Labels anytime. But then later after the session, I was like… well then what is the point of the Influence moves and all that.
And here I am, asking you all this question.
Absolutely not.
Can’t think the answer is anything but no.
No, they can’t. Heroes can shift their own labels–or have their labels shifted by someone else–when a move (or advance) tells them they can. You’re right, those moves wouldn’t have any point if you could do it whenever. Also there wouldn’t be any identity struggle if you were in complete control of your labels, it would be mechanically broken since you could just roll +3 on every roll, etc.
You may be misremembering and conflating it with Influence, since you can give Influence over you to anyone who doesn’t already have it at any time.