Hello,
Does anyone else have trouble with the starting move? My group has been struggling with it. We just don’t see the point of asking a different player for a faction. Person asks person B for a faction they haven’t checked. Then Person A makes a rumor. Why not just have person A make a new rumor?
Does anyone else have this issue?
I suppose that the idea is that the B persona will select the faction he thinks that can create more trouble to A. Not the faction that A needs, but the faction from s/he has more to fear.
Player B is asking about the faction they’re interested in seeing some shit go down with that hasn’t been going down before. Player A is generating something relevant to their character in relation to that faction so it isn’t just floating around out there meaningless.
It spurs collaboration and forces constraints on you. In my experience people are more creative with constraints.
My players loved the start of session move. They loved it so much, they’ve actively asked for it in other PbtA games.
One of the biggest challenges in Urban shadows is finding the right balance of character interconnectivity. They need to be able to have distinct and sometimes contrary motivations and interests without going so far as to have each character live in their own story that’s not connected to any of the others. Bringing two different people into the plot-thread-generation process helps strike that balance.
In our games we’ve found that the starting move is not necessary if the PCs already have obstacles and objectives. The starting move is great at generating new objectives, but if your players already have goals they are working on, I would suggest holding off on the starting move until things feel a little looser.
Jason Corley however player B is still limited to factions player A does not have. Then player A makes something up. It seems involving player B is pointless.
Alan Scott the move doesn’t really do that though. Player A still makes whatever rumor they want. There is nothing in the move that forces a link.
joshua crocker keeping it to factions A hasn’t dealt with keeps it fresh.
joshua crocker involving another person in creating obstacles for your character is not pointless. If it were, everyone would play GM-less games all the time.
Jason Corley you are correct, however you don’t need to pick one you haven’t dealt with. You could just pick one yourself.
My group always has fun explaining who their character trust the least and why and it sort of adds to the relation between characters as well.
Pawel Solowczuk that’s the only practical use I can see for it.