I’m a little confused about the usefulness of the “use Environment” move. The way I’m reading it, it really doesn’t grant any benefit to the player or the EIC. It’s essentially just color. What’s the benefit of using it over Take-Down or Defy Danger? The cement mixer example in the book sounds like a Take-Down move to me.
What am I missing? I’m running the game for the first time tomorrow as prep for Gencon, so I’d really like to get this cleared up.
You’re right that it’s just color. It’s mostly there to make players think about using the environment and to facilitate ways to mix things up for combat and powers. The benefit would be fictional positioning – if I’m the Thing and I want to hit a flying character, I can Use Environment to throw a car at him; If I’m Electro and I want to black out the city, I need fictional positioning to do that, so I rip through the ground and tap into the power grid, and so on.
Also notice the huge benefit to using it, as per the example in the book – there’s no roll and you just do it. Phyla essentially takes out a group of mooks without rolling the dice at all, though there’ll probably be a Defy Danger if she tries to zip past and ignore their gun fire.
But is Phyla really taking them out if no condition is applied to them?
Is it just assumed that they now have the “Trapped in Cement” condition?
Yeah – Conditions get Imposed as per the fiction so as the EIC I would give them “Trapped in Cement” but probably have her Defy Danger if she tries to ignore them before the cement totally hardens. Clever PCs will actually try to find ways like that to take out enemies without having to roll Take Down, though I usually only give it to them without having to work too hard (a roll of some kind) if it’s against mooks. Most of the time Use Environment is there to both make the fiction more evocative for everyone at the table, and enable creative game play – that’s why it doesn’t need a roll to use; it’s mostly there to enable new, interesting interactions and to remind players to world build and use what’s around them.
Ok. I think I got it now. I’ll see how it plays out
Sounds good. Let me know if you have any other questions and thanks for running the game!
I figured the environment was just an extension of a character’s relevant Move. If the Thing wanted to hit a flying target, he would use the environment, but still make a Take Down Move. Any Conditions as a result, should reflect the situation.
David Semmes It’s really the EIC’s call – if it’s for taking out mooks I usually let the players shine and don’t have them roll unless it’s particularly risky or dangerous. If the Thing is going to rip out a lamp post and smash Doctor Doom with it, then he’s rolling Take Down in addition to Using the Environment. It really comes down to the EIC, what flavor of game you’re running in terms of grittiness and what powers that player has and what’s threatening to them.
Kyle Simons Gotcha, Kyle! =)