So… my players are having trouble managing their conditions. Rolls to comfort or support frequently seem to fail, and they seem to have trouble coming up with good justifications for clearing their conditions.
It seems like there’s no GM move that allows me to tell a player that a condition has been cleared, and outside of player end of session moves I don’t see a reliable way for players to clear their own conditions. Is this working as intended, am I missing something, or is there some change that could be made to let me clear some conditions for the players given adequate downtime and access to the right people/resources?
To clear the Condition they do the thing it says to do. Want to clear angry? Destroy something important. Want to clear afraid? Run from something difficult. Stuff like that.
Yeah, if you remember to run down the condition clearing checklist at the end of the scene you shouldn’t get too overwhelmed.
Isn’t there also a bit that says conditions can be cleared “after time passes” or something like that.? Effectively allowing a character to “cool down” if angry for example.
I haven’t seen such a bit, but one thing that I do sometimes when time passes is, I’ll allow each person to clear a condition by asking what action they took during downtime that addressed it. Then we work out what the fallout was.
It’s a mini love letter, and it gives the players who don’t already have relevant moves a way to affect the fiction when time passes.
You can clear a condition as an end of session move if you grow closer to the team. This will tide you over until your Comfort/Support luck changes. Also there are playbook moves that help you clear conditions (the Delinquent smashes a bad guy’s car windshield with a brick, etc.)
The thing about the Growing Closer to The Team Move, is that it requires you to name another PC and give that character Influence. If said character already has Influence, they get to change your labels.
So after a few session, choosing that Move means players have to deal with selecting labels to change, and that can be a challenge (or a chore).
It gets easier. Just ask “how did you see me?” And consult the Label descriptions for which one matches best.
I’d talk about it before the session starts, then budget scenes to a directly address the condition clearing. For example, if Somber the Delinquent wants to clear Angry, set up a scene where she can blow up on her dad for grounding her when he sees the news footage of the team’s last battle (you know, the one where that bus full of adult day program seniors was flipped by the Transformed by accident).
Additionally, a lot of Condition clearing can domino off of regular play or moves.
Clearing Angry happens a lot in my game while players Provoke people (often each other) or as fall out from missed Unleashing of Powers (important things break a lot).
Clearing Afraid could be from a blown Take a Powerful Blow move (if you choose to Flee).
Clearing Guilty could be the result of a Defend move, or even if you Directly Engage a Threat and get beaten because of it.
Hopeless is a little trickier, but most often takes place while we’re doing Team Moves or End of Session stuff. In the narrative, maybe Six String the Protege is flinging himself into easy relief by spending less time with his team, and more time sidekicking with the adult heroes.
Clearing Insecure (foolhardy action without talking to the team) could happen as the result of a missed roll, using one of you GM moves.
Whatever you do, I’d be open and obvious with the players. See what conditions they want to clear and give them hints of when they could clear them.
Troy Ray I’ve already been doing that, but it just hasn’t been enough to keep up, and it’s been impacting the tone of my game when everyone starts play with so many conditions marked.
James Etheridge This is the kind of suggestion I was looking for, and I’ll probably implement something like this to let people get rid of a condition when they have downtime.