PbtA mechanic idea: Conditions change the basic moves.

PbtA mechanic idea: Conditions change the basic moves.

Originally shared by Jamie Frost

PbtA mechanic idea: Conditions change the basic moves.

So, one mechanic that I really like in Masks is that instead of harm, you have emotional states (like Guilty, Angry, etc.). To heal each one, you have to take appropriate action in the fiction, which drives the characters to interesting action. And each condition has an impact on the mechanics. All great stuff, definitely my favorite damage mechanic in any game I’ve played.

Only downside: the mechanical effects that conditions have are all numerical. Bonus to the take a powerful blow move, penalty to a couple of basic moves, and that’s it. Bland. Bonuses and penalities bore me to tears.

A possible remedy to this is another mechanic that I’ve seen in a couple of games: basic move substitution. I haven’t seen this much, but the idea is that certain characters strike out a basic move and take another move in its place. You’ve lost access to that basic move, so if you come up against a situation that would normally be covered by it you have to handle it in some other way, typically by the GM making a move appropriate to the situation.

For example, the Revenant in Urban Shadows has as a Corruption advance that they can strike out Figure Someone Out (typically a cold read / conversation move) and replace it with Dig For Answers (an interrogation / torture move). They lose access to the typical paths to information (at least mechanically; when they read someone it’s more in the GM’s hands) but gain another path with different options.

This is a great way of reframing the fiction. So, why not combine the two? Take emotional conditions from Masks, and swap out one basic move whenever you have the appropriate condition marked. E.g., the above Revenant’s move swap might apply while you have the Angry condition marked; you’re less able to keep a cool head and empathize with people, but hurting people comes easier.

Thoughts?

14 thoughts on “PbtA mechanic idea: Conditions change the basic moves.”

  1. I like the idea. One of the things I like in 4e D&D is conditions, which change the tactical options open to a character. Doing the same with story options in AW makes sense to me.

  2. Reminds me off the way you “flip” basic moves when you suffer harm in Black Stars Rise.

    Another avenue: conditions open up specific GM moves. Like, if you’re “afraid,” the GM can:

    * Make things seem worse than they are

    * Present a false threat

    * Overwhelm them with fear

    * Make them Defy Danger to do anything but flee or cower

  6. Andy Gibson​ The more I hear about 4e, the sadder I am that I never got involved with it; it sounds like a really fun game.

    Jeremy Strandberg​ Never heard of Black Stars Rise until now. Wounding basic moves directly is a neat idea too.

    And I love the idea of adding new GM moves. Though I think the move flipping would accomplish pretty much the same goal (shift the narrative options depending on emotional state), so I don’t know that I’d necessarily do both. It’d be interesting to have emotion moves instead of, for example, playbook-specific GM moves.

  7. I love this concept, and I think it could be super effective and fun.

    Two caveats: more moving parts means you really want to make sure it all fits well together, and most importantly, it’s another layer of complication on the system – you’d want this to feel strong and effective, not bloated and confusing. None of these are deal breakers, but I think these are the two potential pitfalls I’d keep in mind as I design towards that.

  11. This would be such a simple change for Masks, all the conditions and moves are already paired up. If you really want to work on this, wow, I’ll race you.

  12. So, you’d want to be careful about that – I’m not sure I’d apply it to Masks, for example. Something like this makes the effect of the conditions so much stronger, and thus creates significantly different play. It may make things too dark or conflict-oriented for the tone that Masks usually goes for. For example, there is a playbook with moves substitution, the innocent, and this concept is used to really show how the character changes, there (of course those are permanent)

  14. Using Masks as an example, you could just rule that instead of taking -2 to the move, they don’t have access to the move until they remove the condition. That seems the simplest and most effective change, but I might be missing something.

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