Someone just asked a question to which I don’t have an answer. It’s to do with the Beacon Move:
Pretty much a superhero: When you bring up
your superhero name to someone important (your
call) for the first time, roll + Savior. On a hit,
they’ve heard of you; say which of your exploits
they’ve heard about and which Label they think
applies. On a 7-9, the GM will tell you something
else they’ve heard, and pick a second Label they
assign to you. On a miss, they don’t take you
seriously or mistrust you moving forward.
What does the selection of these Labels (1 or 2) mean?
“Pretty much a superhero is your chance to control NPCs’ first impressions of you. It only triggers when you think the other character is actually important, and it lets you frame how they see you—though the GM can complicate it on 7-9. Whatever Label you pick is the one they reflect back at you through their Influence.”
From the corebook.
To build on Derek Ehlmann’s answer, if a PC thinks someone is important, that is a form of influence. Reasonably, then, this person has influence over the Beacon, when they first meet.
This move lets the player of the Beacon frame the encounter around a label that they choose, and a second label of the GM’s choosing on a 7-9.
When someone with influence over you tells you who you are, you can accept what they say and the GM is called upon to shift your labels accordingly, or you can reject what they say, triggering that move.
So, i’m the Beacon, and i’m being interviewed by a local prominent newscaster. I trigger the move and roll an 8. The GM asks about the exploit, and i mention having saved a kid from a burning building, and how the newscaster sees me as Superior. Because i rolled 7-9, the GM decides the newscaster also associates me with Danger.
I can expect that the newscaster will tell me about myself, or how the world works, in the near future. Perhaps first they tell me i’m great, and want to increase Superior and decrease Mundane, which i gladly accept! But they continue on about how i’m too young to rush into a burning building, and should leave this to qualified adults, and they want to increase Danger and decrease Savior. What do i do now?
Pretty much a superhero signals to the other players how you want to be seen, and sets the stage for that decision to influence the interaction with that other person. It then sets the stage for those interactions to push and pull on your labels,.
A Beacon player may use this to angle for labels that they want to shift, basically asking the GM to shift one label as specified. Or perhaps the player wants to explore a conflict with the other character, and designates a label that will likely lead them to rejecting the influence, with all the possible results of that move.
Thanks for the answers. The extra text in the Main book gives the move some clarity. It seems to be an oversight/possible improvement to leave the critical information out of the move on the playbook.