So I am pretty new with the *World engine. I have only played a few hours of DW and now I am boning up on how AW works so that I can run a Star Wars hack for my friends.
The one thing that has me wondering however is that the MC doesn’t roll, and acts against the characters when they roll poorly. So if, when confronted with the threat, what if they do not choose to do anything? In most systems I would roll for an attack, or whatever it is that the threat is threatening them with, but here if they don’t make a move then I don’t have anything to apply against them do I?
Or, is choosing to do nothing still a choice and I can still make soft moves (or hard moves) against them?
Doing nothing is a choice. So if they ignore the Rancor on the far side of the pit, it moves up to them glaring its fangs and claws. Then if they still don’t take the hint, it grabs them or chomps on them. Basically set them up for the hurt and if they ignore it, it is on them.
If the threat is unavoidable then I would prompt them for a roll. “The guard is swinging a club at your head. How do you defend yourself?”
It is, and you surely can.
When the players look to you, or give you a golden opportunity, you make a move.
So if their characters are just standing there, waiting for you to do something… well, then you do something.
Ok good. I didn’t figure there was really a hole in the system like that, but I wanted to make sure acting against them was the right thing. Making them roll to defend themselves is a good option as well.
Thanks! I will probably have more questions, but I will try to find things on my own before I ask here.
No sweat! Ask anything you like.
I believe the rule for when you can make a GM move includes “when they hand it to you on a silver platter”.
Page 167 in the Harm chapter covers this exactly
The other thing is to remember the Mc has a very different role and outlook than a gm. MC’s don’t have a plan for what will happen, they don’t act against PC’s, and they don’t decide what constitutes a serious threat.
On 5 he first point, it goes with the principle ‘ play to find out’. This means that outcomes are not predetermined. If you think you know how a threat will play out, throw that idea out. Instead, rely on the players to create new plot lines by making consequences and complications for their choices.
On the second the point, it comes down to the principles ‘be a fan of the characters’ and ‘make characters’ lives interesting’. You as the Mc should want to see the PC’s do cool stuff, not to destroy them. Instead of always trying to hurt them, send them threats that challenge what they care about and see how they handle it.
On the last point, I can’t think of a principle that goes with it. Instead, it’s just good practice. Players will chase the plot threads their interested in. You can tie those threads together later on, but if something is constantly ignored, keep ignoring it. With the rancor example. If it’s there snarling, but your players are instead arguing over whether to kill gerold, then let them focus on gerold while the rancor goes to eat a bunch of npc’s (they are always in the crosshairs). If the PC’s still don’t care, then obviously rancor are common place and people just ignore them until they go away (and maybe do a bit of scavenging afterwards)
I am glad I have a month or so before we play. This will give me lots of time to read and digest this stuff. Coming at things from this point of view is certainly going to be a change, but its one I look forward too.
Is it an issue if the players see the MC information?
It’s not only ok, it’s better
Had a player once leap up to attack a gunship.
No, let me correct that. He described himself using a ramp of animated vines to get up over the enemy and leapt DOWN at the copter. His description.
Me: oookay.
Sure he did damage…mostly by getting caught in the rotor blades. Thankfully for him he was a ghost-rider-esque summoned creature and reduced the damage to survivable.
Luke Green, why not let him do it and be awesome. If they make a move you can let the mechanics handle the damage and player add the flavor they want to see from the game.
He thought it was awesome enough and gave him a chance to show off how tough his character is.
When someone has max armor and a reduce harm by 1 ability on top of that I tend to find something heavy to hit them with so they can exult in the “no one could survive that” moment. Thus player just happened to give me one.
He turned an instant purée death into 5 harm with his character clutching the copter as the blades smashed against him and he rode it down into a crash.
The MC can also make a hard move if nobody chooses to act.
under Your Moves in the MC chapter: “Whenever there’s a pause in the conversation and everyone looks to you to say something, choose one of these things and say it.”
One of my favorite pieces of GM advice from Jason Morningstar’s Night Witches:
“Make a soft Move that telegraphs a coming hard Move if they do nothing. When they wait for you to tell them a story, make sure they don’t like your story.”
Thanks Nathan Black. That sounds like just the thing to do.