After I MCing Dungeon World, Worlds in Peril, and The Sprawl, I feel keenly the importance of using Tags(and Conditions, Powers) as fictional positioning and as an ingredient in MC moves. But sometimes, I forget to use (or don’t know how to use) them and just make a series of dull description. And I realize the story starts to go flat.
I love Tags because they fuse into the fiction seamlessly(which is the main reason why I switched my go-to system from Fate to PbtA. Sometimes, using Aspects feels artificial to me). But unlike Aspects, I find it very easy to forget to use Tags because there is no bonus or penalty to use Tags. They are only for fictional positioning.
So, how can I become proficient in using Tags as a MC? Could you share your tips?
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I used to set up little sheets in front of payers that listed their Aspects for Fate to help me with that, you could set up Powers that way.
Conditions are trickier, but try to be generous with them and make them reflect the fiction. This means trying to make the fiction and environment as dynamic as possible. I think one of the big reasons a lot of EICs find a lot of villains’ thresholds too high is because they only impose Conditions on them if the Take Down move is used to generate one, instead of imposing Conditions as needed, on heroes and villains alike, as needed to make a scene dynamic and comic book-like.
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Kyle Simons You read my mind. 🙂