THE EMPATH – Absorb move
Hi, I have many doubts regarding this one.
First of all, it is not mentioned explicitly, but I assume The Empath can read the emotional state of anyone around. Since the move says you know beforehand what emotion you want to absorb and how many spikes it has, it makes sense for me you just know their general superficial feelings. Is that so or are you supposed to guess based on what you see them doing?
– ‘Choose and emotion and absorb all their spikes’. Do you get all those spikes yourself in a 1-to-1 basis? So, if I were to absorb 3 spikes in Powerful from a teammate I get 3 spikes in Powerful myself. Am I right?
– Can I do it partially? Maybe absorb 1 o 2 spikes? Do I have to drain an emotion completely and absorb all its spikes?
Doubs regarding the options to choose:
– ‘You get +1 Flow’ You only get 1 Flow no matter how many spikes you absorb, right?
– ‘You don’t spike that emotion yourself’. Does choosing this once protect you from all and any spikes you absorb? You may absorb a looooot of spikes if you choose the last option too.
– ‘You completely clear out or fill up all their emotion spikes’
This is a tricky one. Since the move itself already says ‘choose and emotion and absorb all their spikes’, what do you mean by completely clear out all their emotion spikes? All spikes in all emotions? If that is so, do you get all those spikes for yourself?
‘… or fill up all their emotion spikes’ Do you mean all in every emotion or all spikes in one emotion? If you do not choose not to spike yourself, do you get spiked for spiking someone the same way you do for absorbing their spikes? Is it still 1-to-1? So if I you have 2 spikes in peaceful and I spike you for 3 more to fill all your emotion spikes in peaceful, do I get 3 spikes myself unless I also choose ‘You don’t spike that emotion yourself’?
– Can you still get +1 Flow when you do not absorb anything but fill someone else emotion spikes? Or maybe you have to absorb one emotion, then you can choose to fill all emotion spikes in another?
My head is a complete mess right now, sorry 🙁
Fraser Simons, heeelp!
The protagonist is going to be the one defining how they see the move works, but there’s a framework to which they have to adhere here in the move text. From the text, I’d say they can focus in on one particular person and read them, PC will tell them their spikes or MC will tell them what the NPC has by way of what they’re feeling.
When this is happening the protagonist has a goal in mind, probably a specific emotion or to manipulate a very specific person, like in the example text for the move.
Being a fan of the player means it’s up to you to decide if the NPC has a specific emotion they’re looking for there, and how many spikes they have is arbitrarily decided by you, the MC. So, when they fire this move off, ask them what they’re hoping to do, to whom, and follow the fiction. The spikes is essentially the initial cost of doing whatever it is they’re doing (but still have the potential cost of spiking out the emotion all the same), and probably will be easy to determine based on what’s happening right now. Regardless of how many spikes they get, they may spike it out anyhow if they do not choose the option below of not spiking it out. Otherwise, there is no more absorption of spikes, you’ve paid your dues to do this thing, if you completely spike out a different emotion, you do not get the spikes 1-for-1.
Then, they get get a maximum of +1 Flow, have them also be unaware of what’s happened, make sure they don’t spike out the emotion they’re drawing from the individual, or drain an emotion, or max that emotion out.
You do what the move says, so the emotion spikes are absorbed 1-for-1 into you when you trigger the move. There’s no wiggle room, no. The MC is deciding how many spikes there are though, unless it’s a PC, in which case you’ll know definitively from their sheet.
Choosing to not spike out an emotion but get a lot of spikes is totally an option, though they’ll be spiked out already so if they don’t mitigate the emotion with another move and trigger that same emotion again, they will have to trigger Alleviate.
They’ve absorbed a particular emotion’s spikes, yes. I should have been more clear with that choice. You can max out or drain whatever emotion of your choice, not just the particular one named in the initial effect once the trigger goes off for the move. I could see how that would be confusing, apologizes. “You completely clear out or fill up all the spikes in the emotion of your choosing”, is more accurate.
They name someone and absorb an emotion from them as the move says, then they can do these options, so I would say in the rare case they attempt to do this to a PC with no emotion spikes, they would choose an emotion, get no spikes, but still have to choose not to spike out the emotion themselves anyways from the roll results. If it’s an NPC, why they would have no spikes in an emotion to choose from would be strange? I generally have the NPC have spikes in an emotion I think would be compelling to have the Empath deal with based on what I know of them so far. They can choose to be spiked out or not by it, depending on the roll.
My best advice for the move is to clarify the move as it’s happening, how they see it working for their protagonist in the fiction and then sequentially fire off the effects of the move as they happen and figure out specifically what they mean for your fiction with the player and MC collaboratively. The thing that happens is the thing that makes the most sense for your fiction as the effects go off chronologically to the trigger and options chosen.
Does that clear things up Alpo?
OH MY!
I had to read it twice, but I think I got it now. Not completely a wording thing from your part, also a little bit of ‘lost in translations’ from me.
So ‘spike out’ does not mean ‘spike a checkbox’, but freak out completely and trigger alleviate.
🙂
So, let’s see if a got it.
You absorb all spike bubbles in one emotion and get all those spike bubbles for yourself. No matter how many you absorb, you spike out that emotion yourself unless you choose not to. If you absorb too many, you may end up spiked out anyway, since you might have more than 5 bubbles.
Additionally, you may absorb all spike bubbles in a second emotion or fill all spike bubbles in a second emotion, if you choose that option.
Did I get it right this time Fraser Simons?
Yep! Except even in the case of having too many spikes the player can choose to not be spiked out. So there is some strategy there should they game it that way. Like, if they’re already about to spike out that emotion anyhow, for instance. They might trigger the move, absorb spikes in the emotion they were going to spike out by triggering the move, choose not to be spiked out and do the thing they want to do, delaying the spikes out emotion.
I suspect most people won’t use moves this way, but it’s possible to game it this way, which I actually like. Since it still has to follow the fiction “gaming” still has to make a fiction that makes sense in AW games.
Fraser Simons Aaaaaalright. Everything understood. 👍
I am having some trouble with the game, because it is so hard-scifi and the playbooks are so deep, but I fucking love it. Already waiting for Cascade’s Kickstarter
Oh my god… I think I will need the Spanish translation for this sometime Alpo _
😀
HahahA! I don’t consider it hard sci-fi, usually people refer to it as transhumanism coupled with cyberpunk.
Seibei Con mucho gusto 🙂
Fraser Simons Then I don’t want to know what you consider hard sci-fi 😱
Hard sci-fi for me is like actual science in it, maybe I’m working on a wrong definition? But I thought hard sci fi is actual things explained in terms of technologies and sciences instead of sort of hand waving the technical aspects of the sciences in soft and cyberpunk, no?
Fraser Simons For me, that is crunchy simulation of Sci-Fi. By hard or soft I mean the thoughness and weirdness of the concepts behind it.
Spaceships, plasma guns and aggressive anthropomorphic aliens –> soft Sci-Fi
Transhumanism, sense of self, machine-human relationship, relative time Interstellar (the movie) style, weird aliens with otherworldly minds and such are hard Sci-Fi concepts to me.
Ah ok sounds good. Makes sense, cyberpunk appropriated a lot of stuff from all over sci-fi and other genres.
Thanks so much for this, I came to ask the exact same question!
Man, we’re trying to use this move right now and we can’t make heads or tails of it, even with this clarification. Also, the play example has a huge problem, because it refers to “I don’t lose track of what I’m doing,” which isn’t one of the options.
So here’s what I think the move is supposed to be:
When you draw on the emotions around you, name someone present. If it’s a PC, the player will tell you how many spikes they have in each of their emotions. Choose an emotion. If it’s an NPC, the MC will tell you how many spikes you can drain from their emotions. You can then choose to absorb all of the spikes from that emotion; they lose them, and you gain an equal amount in the same emotion. If this takes you past 5, you stop at 5 and spike out that emotion. If you choose to absorb, roll.
On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a miss, choose 1 but take 1-harm AP.
>You get +1 Flow. Only +1, no matter how many spikes are absorbed.
>They aren’t aware of what you are doing.
>If you now have 5 spikes in that emotion, you do not spike out. You still have 5 spikes, and will spike out the next time you use that emotion. If you do not now have 5 spikes, you do not spike out that emotion. Note that not choosing this option means you spike out that emotion, regardless of how many spikes you have.
>You can completely clear out or fill up all the spikes in a second emotion of your choice. If you clear them out, you do not gain those spikes yourself.
Is that right?
Adam D that’s correct Adam