Author: Hans Messersmith

WHO SHIFTS LABELS?

The move:

“When someone with Influence over you tells you who you are or how the world works, accept what they say or reject their influence. If you accept what they say, the GM adjusts your Labels accordingly; if you want to keep your Labels as they are, you must reject their Influence.”

Reading this, it seems clear the GM adjusts the labels EVEN IF the situation is a PC to PC interaction. Yet that is not the way we have played it; between PC’s we have had the Influencing PC say what is shifted. Is there a rule I am missing? Did I just get confused by the rule on page 77 which definitely says if you GAIN influence over a PC you already have influence over you (the player, not GM) decide which labels shift? How do you play this between PCs?

LOCKED LABELS AND MOVES REDUX

In a separate thread, I asked a question about locked labels, and there was a lot of interesting talk. However, on reflection it occurred to me that there can’t be that many moves that specify a label, and therefore just itemizing them and saying what happens if the label is locked might actually be easier than coming up with some kind of consistent rule. So, here they all are, with my take on what happens if the label is locked.

Bull – Punch everyone – if Danger is locked, nothing happens.

Janus – 2nd Team Move – if either Mundane or the Mask label is locked, nothing shifts, but the Influence gain happens.

Janus – the Mask – once either the Mundane or Mask Label are locked, affirming or denying your secret identity generates no effect.

Legacy – 1st Team Move – if you tell someone they are not your equal, and Superior is locked, nothing happens.

Legacy – I know what I am – if Savior is locked, then ignore the shift, you still add team to the pool the first time you defend a teammate.

Nova – 1st Team Move – If they say yes and either Danger or Superior is locked, nothing happens.

Outsider – Alien Ways – if Superior is locked, nothing happens.

Transformed – 2nd Team Move – If they say gaining, and Mundane is locked, no shift happens but you still clear the condition.

Reformed – What the hell, hero – on a miss, if Danger or Savior are locked the shift does not happen, but you still mark a condition of their choice.

Reformed – Dark Past – if Danger is locked, no shift happens, but you still choose one from the list.

Newborn – 2nd Team Move – if their response confuses/offends you and either Freak or Mundane is locked, nothing happens.

Newborn – Thermodynamic Miracle – if they open up to you and either Freak or Mundane is locked, nothing happens.

Innocent – What’s this thing? – if you act the way they tell you and Mundane is locked, no shift happens but you still clear a condition.

Martyr – if Savior is locked, nothing happens.

Joined – Powers Activate! – if the assistants Superior or Mundane are locked, nothing happens to the assistant. The leader still unleashes their powers with combined Freak.

Brain – Mission Debrief – if Superior is locked, you no longer can mark potential by downplaying your role in the mission.

Brain – Whenever you are confronted with your shame – if Superior or Danger are locked, you must mark a condition.

Soldier – I can do this all day – if Savior is locked, you cannot stop yourself from leaving the fight.

Soldier – Mission First – if Savior is locked, no shift happens, but if you avoided causing collateral damage you still clear a condition.

Two comments –

1) The only move that seems to me to simply be broken by locking the label is the Soldier’s I can do this all day. By broken I mean the move just makes no sense anymore, by locking Savior I can’t do it all day anymore? That just seems weird. Its the only one where I think considering a change in wording after the player locks Savior is worth talking about.

2) I disagreed with Brendan Conway on the Brain’s Mission Debrief.

The rule on page 118 says about locked Labels “If that Label would shift, ignore that effect in its entirety.”

A move says “Give them Influence, and shift your Mundane up and your mask’s Label down.” If either Mundane or the mask label are locked, clearly you ignore the second clause. But do you ignore the first as well? Is the whole sentence the “effect” that is being ignored, or just the bit about shifting labels.

Has anyone made use of custom conditions for NPCs/villains? That is, instead of a specific set of words (Angry, Afraid, etc.) a number (e.g. 3 conditions) and letting them have free-form names? Has this worked well, worked poorly?

I am making a vow for this evening and the future in our Masks game…remember the principle “Make adults seem childish and short-sighted”. I have been falling down on this, too many wise and experience adults around! Need to make them more troublesome, need to focus on them getting what THEY want from the PC’s, not necessarily what is best. This is a somewhat unique feature of choosing to play the game in an existing setting, perhaps?

Is this a problem for other people, or is it just me?

If you are interested in the game, see our wiki: http://gaming.memethief.com/Marvel_2033

http://gaming.memethief.com/Marvel_2033

Fictional nature of Villain Conditions

How important have you all found it to have the villain conditions be literally reflected in play? For example, if you check Guilty for a villain, is it really important for them to be obviously fictionally guilty? I get the connection to the specific list of triggered moves, and how that is important. But is it enough to just show the move that is triggered in the fiction?

I’m asking because for tonight’s game I’m think big robot. Big robot feels no literal emotions. Can things that feel no emotions even be threats with conditions? That seems like a silly question, but it wouldn’t be the first time the obvious answer from past experience from other games would not apply to a specific PbtA game. Also the rules seem pretty clear about the connection between checking a condition and the villain’s internal emotional state. For example: pg 158 – “Mark Guilty for a villain if they understand the terrible nature of the things they do, but aren’t sure what else they can do.”

I feel like I am missing something, but a “Find” in the PDF is not turning it up. But just to make sure…

In Masks, Relationships have no specific mechanical interaction with the game, right? They are mentioned a number of times in the GM section, and I totally get their importance, but there is no equivalent of the Dungeon World “+Bonds” in the Aid and Interfere move, right?

I ask because I am in a situation where I will bringing in a PC in the 2nd session, after creation. I’m trying to decide whether I should “retcon” and back off the relationship assignments we made in the 1st session (because I didn’t have the presence of mind to think about it then), or if I can, at the end of the 2nd session, just have the new character fill in their two blanks and assign influence as normal.