I wanted to see how well AW Basic Moves reflect the Star Wars universe, so I watched the first 20 minutes of Empire…

I wanted to see how well AW Basic Moves reflect the Star Wars universe, so I watched the first 20 minutes of Empire Strikes Back and made notes about when I thought moves were showing up. I focused on Han, Luke, and Leia as PCs with Chewie and others as NPCs.

Here’s what I got:

Star Destroyer drops probe droids on Hoth (Front soft move).

Luke is on patrol (PC soft move)

MC describes a meteor landing (future badness)

Luke views with binoculars (Reading a Charged Sitch). He Fails. MC says he learns nothing but saves the hard move for a moment later. Luke calls Han to say he’ll investigate. Then the MC makes his hard move: Ice Monster hits Luke for harm and captures him. (Inflict Harm, Capture)

MC changes focus to Han returning to rebel base, thinking Luke is okay. (Separate them). Chewie says he’s still repairing the Falcon (Activate their stuff’s downside).

Han goes to say goodbye to Leia (PC soft move). General expresses regrets that Han is leaving (Tell consequences and ask). Han explains he wants to buy off Jabba.

Han attempts to manipulate Leia into admitting she needs him. (Manipulate). She asks him to promise to stay. He refuses. He rolls partial success and offers her a chance to mark XP if she does it. She refuses. (Partial Success; PC refuses XP). [We could also roll this from Leia’s direction–getting Han to stay.]

Han goes back to his ship and finds Chewie still repairing. The MC interrupts with C3PO arriving to say Luke is overdue (Off-screen badness). Han prepares to take a Tauntaun out to find Luke. NPC tells him his mount will freeze. (Tell consequences and ask). Han says “my friends out there” and takes off.

Focus on Luke, hanging in ice cave while the ice monster chews on a kill. (Put someone in a spot). Luke summons the force so he can tk his lightsaber into his hand. (Acting under fire, full success). Monster attacks, Luke cuts off it’s arm and flees. Because Luke doesn’t take further harm here, I’ll call this a full success on Going Aggro and the monster sucks it up and is defeated. (Go Aggro, Full success).

Focus on Han, looking for Luke in the rising cold of Hoth’s approaching night (Future badness). Han persists (PC soft move). The shield doors close (MC hard move).

Focus on Luke, collapsed in the snow. He sees a vision of Obi-wan, who tells him to go to Dagobah (MC Front Move).

Han looks for Luke (Acting under fire, full success). But the MC, remembering the consequences mentioned earlier, announces that the Tauntaun dies (Take away their stuff).

Han puts Luke into the Tauntaun to stay warm while he puts up the shelter (Act under fire). In the morning a patrol finds them (full success).

Back at the base, Luke is pulled from the Bacta tank (Leia using a PC move probably). Han and Leia visit Luke. Han again tries to get Leia to admit she likes him (manipulate) and rolls partial success again. This time he tells her she’s (Acting Under Fire). She  rolls a Partial Success and the MC declares she has to betray how ruffled she is. She  decides to kiss Luke as a way of sticking it to Han.

The Rebels tell the PCs they’ve detected a Probe Droid (MC Front Move).

Han takes Chewie to investigate (PC soft move). The MC just announces “okay, you managed to sneak up on the droid, what do you do?” (Offer an opportunity). They try to capture it. Again, because the droid doesn’t actually cause any harm, I’ll call this (Go Aggro). They get a partial success and the droid gives them what it thinks they want and self-destructs.

PCs conclude that the Empire must know the Rebels are on Hoth. They prepare to escape (Acting under fire) with partial success. They have time to get the transports ready but they’ll have to fight a holding action on the ground.

… and so on