So I’ve only played a couple sessions of PbtA games so far (one session each of Apocalypse World, Dungeon World and Monster of the Week) and there’s something I haven’t quite wrapped my head around yet.
When running a combat, when is the GM meant to make their moves? I know, I know, it should follow the narrative, but is there any guidance on what the narrative should follow on from? Following the examples in the books, it looks like the GM is meant to make a soft move either after every player move or “whenever they feel like it” and a hard move whenever a player rolls a 6 or less on one of their moves.
Is that close to what was intended?
That’s about my understanding; also when the players hand you a golden opportunity.
They help move things forward, give players something to react to. So if the players are super on top of things, champing at the bit, you might not need to step in with as much, just keep the rhythm going. But if things are starting to slow down (for example, if the fighter and the orc are just hitting each other one after another and nothing’s moving), that might be a good time to really shake things up. Instead of just saying “you do damage to each other”, you can have the orc retreat to call in reinforcements, or throw acid at the fighter to dissolve their shield, or knock them off a small cliff.
Yes, that’s about right. Whenever the world should hit back or provide a response to something the PCs have done, make your next MC move.
I admit to sometimes feeling hobbled as an MC due to lack of actions. If the PCs are really on top of it, the “bad guys” often end up with no moves before the PCs wipe the floor with them.
However, that’s just how it works. If there is no opportunity or failed rolls, the PCs are going to rock hard. Let them.
Masks does a really interesting thing. Any time a villain gets hit, they mark damage, but also make a move depending on which Condition they checked from the damage. These moves necessarily change the situation. It makes combats more dynamic. I’m thinking of borrowing it for tough NPCs in other games.
I think it helps to divorce one’s thinking of combat as being a separate “mode”. Especially in AW every interaction can escalate quickly (see Go Aggro). It’s much more seamless, violence can weave in and out of the narrative there. As a GM you much less “run combat” for the players as they run it for you. They act, which triggers a move of theirs, outcome may allow you to make a move as hard as you like, like inflict harm as established.
I also agree with the above: aim to drive a violent conflict to a decision with your moves, Look through Crosshairs is perfect for that.
Uncharted Worlds explains this well. The “flow of conversation” is approximately: GM establishes what is true (either on their own or by asking questions) -> PCs interact with the world -> GM updates what is true.
So in a combat, when the PCs start hacking away at a Zombie with their knife, the GM should be updating what is true — reframing the situation for what is now happening, and making any moves as necessary… generally Soft Moves, unless someone has Missed a roll or they’ve been given a Golden Opportunity to make a Hard Move. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Sometimes when you re-establish what’s going on, it makes sense for the opposition to do something… sometimes, when you re-establish what’s going on, there’s no real way they could do yet another thing, so whatever.
Bryanna Hitchcock The “lack of actions” is exactly what I was feeling in the Dungeon World session I was running. In one encounter, the PCs were fighting a vampire lord and its minions. Since no one was directly engaging the vampire lord, it kind of felt like he didn’t get to make any moves at all. In hind sight, I guess I should have used the future badness soft move and then if no one still didn’t deal with him, that would constitute a Golden Opportunity.
Yep!
Also, if the players roll a 6-, remember you can make as hard a move as you want. It doesn’t have to be from the minions, you can hit the Vampire Lord’s hard moves, too.
When they are basically waiting for it (they made their moves, they want to know the consequences…)
In fact, everything you say as a GM is a move – describing a landscape is barfing forth apocalypse…
I always saw that the mc’s moves are there to force characters to act. If they stall the action or plot, that’s a golden opportunity to advance it. If they fail, then the characters have to do that much more to dig out of the fail hole. But if the characters get right on things in combat and slaughter a bunch of npc’s the principles say your good to go.
Others have already said most of this so I just want to reinforce their wise words.
All I can say is that the soft move is king if you want to involve other parties or alter the situation. As most of the MC’s work is to react to the players the soft move is an invitation for the players to act (or not as the case may be).
If you don’t want to add extra stuff then just accept the players actions. Most of the to and fro is determined by the players rolls, they inflict and take harm based on how they roll. This is almost entirely mechanical and should have already been established by the narrative…No-neck has a sweet sawn off shotgun and, when you kick him in the nuts, he decides to end you. You and his manic sister both get caught in the blast for 3 harm. That’s it, that’s fine for a combat, if that is all you are doing for a combat then that is enough.
That is the straight forward approach. Usually the easiest way to add to the mix if you have a faction or event off to the side and don’t want to wait until someone rolls a 6 or less is to announce future badness. If players ignore a threat (such as the vampire lurking to the side or the story that No-necks cousins are always close by) then you get the hard moves where you for example steal someone away to become the bride of Dracula if someone doesn’t do something pronto. Or simply inflict harm as established.
The only thing I really try not to do is spring something on players totally unawares because that breaks the narrative. If the PCs are going through the dungeon of Trappy McTrap-face then traps are not sprung unawares but if a sniper has rolled into town and, unbeknownst to the players set up on old water tower. His first shot should be a soft move. People talking about seeing him in the bar, vultures circling overhead etc.
I recognize a fellow québécois when I see one 😉.
All have been said already. Technically, you can make a soft move after every player’s move. If the said move is a 6- or clearly ignores a threat, make it a hard move instead.