Hi,

A couple of the playbooks have the Gain An Ally or Gain A Team options, and Allies are described in more detail on page 119. However, I'm still in the dark about how they work mechanically. Do they just let Hunters trigger Moves in ways that they couldn't do before, like asking their doctor ally do an autopsy on a mangled body, triggering the investigate a mystery move to get medical information about the cause of death? Or ordering a sniper team to open fire, triggering the kick some ass move? Or having a sorcerer ally cast a spell to trigger the use magic move?

In those examples allies just let the Hunter trigger moves in ways that they couldn't do by themselves. Allies also let the Hunter effectively be in more than one place at a time, as they can trigger moves by actions performed by their allies on the other side of town. And if a move triggered by using an ally goes badly, Keeper moves like "capture someone" or "destroy something" seem like reasonable ways to put the allies out of action for a while.

However, that interpretation of allies means that allies never grant any advantage beyond letting a Hunter trigger moves that they couldn't do by themselves. A slightly more complicated approach might be to treat Allies like Gear (p.114), and give them tags which grant mechanical bonuses or custom moves. A sniper ally team might have the tags "2-harm far loud". A doctor ally might have the tag "medic - as per the Professional's Medic move."

An even more complicated approach would be to treat Allies like Minions (p.254) and give them tags and a Harm capacity. If the Hunter orders their Allies into a fight, they trigger the kick some ass move, but the Allies take the Harm. However, this sounds like it might be a open to abuse.

What do people think?