Howdy, folks! I’m a brand, spankin’ new Keeper and I had a couple of questions from things that came up from my game last night. One of them is a call that I’m 95% sure I made right, but I want to check myself. The other is a ??? to me that might be in the rules somewhere, but I’m missing it.
— First Question —
I described one of my monster’s attacks as going after our Expert and then asked our Monstrous (who had been jumping to do a next something) the opportunity to act. He described using his freaky weird powers to shut down the attack. I ruled that to be a use of Protect Someone. He clearly wanted it to be a Use Magic roll, but I felt the fiction he was describing was clearly to protect the Expert.
I’m 95% sure I made the right call, but as a newb, I want to make doubly sure.
— Question B —
Partially due to protecting the Expert and partially due to three 6- rolls, the Monstrous ended up taking about 5-harm in that fight. The Monstrous sheet has no mention of taking armor in your usual options – but they asked after the fact if they could just pick up a battered, leather jacket providing 1-armor.
The Monstrous has no reason not to have some money laying around for that kind of thing, so this seems like a straightforward case of “just buy it” from page 114, but I wanted to check myself before I wreck myself.
A: Point to the “Use Magic” effects. Tell them “if you want this to be magic, these are the effects it has. You can add 1-armor, perhaps”. Remind the player that the moves are not about HOW you do a thing, but what the INTENT of the action is.
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A: You could have suggested that he could use magic to bind the monster in place giving the expert a chance to leg it. That’s if his description fitted the move (to do it, do it!)…
B: Unless someone’s really broke I’d let them pick up something that gives them 1 armour. There again Monstrous characters have so many options to pick up things that reduce or otherwise mitigate harm they don’t need it as much as most.
Re A:
Ashley Munday: the monster had actually already been bound against coming any closer and was using a ranged attack – which did take a lot of wind out of its sails.
Aaron Griffin: I didn’t think of that, but the player didn’t push beyond saying, “Yes, but it’s a magical defense, so shouldn’t that be Weird?”
Re B:
Ashley Munday That’s what I figured. Although, yeah, looking at it, the Monstrous has two moves that are, “lolz, I am better with teh harmz.”
Jesse Pudewell it’s only Weird if they’re being Weird. Some sorcerer-type with a high Sharp might explain this fictionally with the fact that they have an enchanted necklace that augments their Sharpness. This doesn’t mean that they study a room by being Weird, it means that they have a magical explanation for their Sharp trait.
Jesse Pudewell on your first question, this is my experience with AW games. A player can really make any kind of move they want unless it doesn’t make sense in the fiction. But what they do informs how the fiction evolves and will really have an impact on shaping up your response if they miss.
So, if your Monstrous decides to Use Magic, then a miss might lead to the spell going awry in the attempt. Maybe they accidentally bind their friend or themselves. Or blast the roof down on everyone. Protect Someone on a miss might lead to harm and being knocked out. Or maybe they lose control of themselves. Do they need to feed?
I also notice you directed the action to the Monstrous. Are you sort of running rounds like initiative? I feel it generally works best when you just let everything flow and let everyone jump in when they want to do something. Unless you have someone who is shy and you need to prompt them more.
You can occasionally pause for new players and ask prompts to the whole group if needed. “He draws a pistol and starts to pull the trigger. … [Looking around the table.] What do you do?”
Robert Burson – Re: Spotlight: My players are generally coming from hardcore initiative games (sometimes 20+ years of them), so it helps to be able to give them a chance where they think it’s their turn. It also serves as a way where I can make sure that a single player doesn’t monopolize the game because they can talk first, talk loud and talk fast.
Mostly, it helps to sketch a bit more background on the group – we’ve got a 13-year-old kid, his dad, two thirty-something dudes and a late twenties chick. If I don’t specifically give certain of those players spotlight time, they more than likely won’t do things when they want to.
Eventually, I’ll be able to train them, but until I can throw a cold lead and know that everyone knows it’s as much their lead as someone else’s, I’ll keep spotlighting.
I approve both calls. On A, you could go either way depending on the exact circumstances (as Aaron Griffin and Ashley Munday go into). Trust your instincts on these calls and you’ll be okay.