Typically it is actually really hard to stop someone without really hurting them unless you know what you're doing. i.e. Quarantine's combat discipline. Hollywood has that fake knocked out cause you hit them in the head, thing, so you can roll with that--but it's lies. Beating someone into a pulp with a 1-harm weapon can do it, 1-harm is a weapon that won't typically kill someone, so as long as they don't give themselves +1 harm via a move or option in seize by force, or keep beating them after they're down... you can put them down that way.

In my games, because people aren't trained with old-world fighting secrets, you really cannot just wrestle someone down and pin them. If you're playing a BIG character, and you just want to lay your mass on their face or something, sure-- roll seize by force with yourself as a weapon (1-harm btw). If you're a small person trying to do that to a large person... I hope you have a move with s-harm otherwise... looool, no.

Basically, s-harm, is the only HARM that can do that.
Manipulate, and GoAggro are better.

If I were to play it out, it would most certainly be a seize by force roll. But I wouldn't be okay with that with standard AW, because rolling a miss and getting take definite hold makes the move an auto win. So Yuck. With my Seize by force move hack, (NPC gets 10+ 0, 7-9 1, miss 3 hold to choose from) it is better because the NPC on a 9 or less can try to counter the take definite hold, (though a 7-9 pc can always choose to take definite hold twice) thus making the scene actually feel like a fight.

I really don't like the move presented as an example, because if you take definite hold of someone with a grapple, how can they just throw down the gun and run away? Why would they do that? Take definite hold and impress them? Maybe then you've leverage to talk them out of it if you didnt before... but really. It's VERY hard to stop someone belligerently trying to get someone else with violence without seriously hurting them.

To be honest, it should actually break down into a real fight. You don't want to hurt them? Don't roll HARD MOVEs. Use hot. Fighting isn't cool. Using a pipe isn't non-lethal. You don't want to kill them? Use your hands, fight for control over the door way. WIN, or dismay them enough to route. If you dont get definite hold of the door, then you're fighting over it still unless they got definite hold. Pretty simple to work with.

Nice. I agree, the ex-soldier thing really limited the value of the Quarantine by default, but we played it out a bunch of different ways. Including in one instance, a vault dweller, and not the kind waking from stasis.

Those are the only exception to the rule, they keep them regardless. If the stat IS listed, they don't have to mark it off either. I let those accumulate. So it is possible to get pretty high stats after a couple of character switches... but it's also possible to roll one stat for everything anyway, so I don't see that as a very big deal.

I think it's far more important to put a limit on active abilities since the moves are really what distinguishes everything. Although, one could tell a player to roll back EVERY advancement, however, I don't think that's at all necessary.

I've never had it happen without the player themselves making sure they had a suitable advancement coming.

Otherwise, I think I'd probably not give them moves for free. I mean maybe, but certainly not because the player said, I'm in charge now! I'd be like lol, okay. Sure. Then I would break the holding or gang into parts that begin to cannibalize itself. If the player is really serious, I might offer them the opportunity to change playbooks, but I'd probably just let them come up with that plan themselves.

I handle it by saying that all the keys words are always true. If you might have a food shortage, then you ALWAYS have a food storage, but JUST BARELY you're making do for now if you pass. So like, all of the things that can go wrong in the hard-hold are constantly in a state of wrongness. If someone misses a roll, then whatever that shortage is, just left some people, or a lot of people desperate.

Example. If you've got a hardhold and the shortage is food. Maybe the place relies on a shipment of food that is extorted from the surrounding farms and that gets the poorest of your people by. Or maybe there is some type of processing that can treat the meats of the animals you hunt and kill but'll poison you without it. Either way, when push comes to shove, You're always describing the people on edge.

Then the move gets missed for the week. Something goes wrong, maybe a truck didn't show up with the food, was held up, robbed, or just late. Maybe the machinery broke down that was handling the processing, and now food that was there suddenly takes a dip.

The thing is you've got two parts of the story here. The first part is where everything is scarce, so even when things are good, they're still horrible. So like people don't have stockpiles of food laying around unless being hungry or famine isn't on the list of things that could go wrong. The second part is that anything that goes wrong this session doesn't necessarily need the player's attention. It might be fine next session. The people that the hardholder has working on these things are acting to fix it without instruction. That could also mean a chunk of the guards are out looking for a truck, or the entire scrapper faction is consumed with the task of repairs and looking for parts... You only need to inject the Hardholder himself into this to manage the crisis, not to solve it.

Some sessions cover weeks, other sessions cover hours. It could be really weird if a player just fixed the machinery themselves, ends this session, and then it immediately misses the next move, so it broke down once again... It can also we weird if something like a famine happens one session, and a few hours later the next session says nope never mind we're good. With that in mind, if something TRULY UNFIXABLE goes down, make sure you put the hardhold's leadership in question so the wealth move auto fails until they find some workaround or solution.

But really, the things that go wrong aren't so much for the hardholder to fix, but instead, they are the background to describe what the problems facing the people of the settlement are. So like if people are hungry, maybe they're fighting for food. Maybe crime spikes. Maybe important NPCs that have the money to get food anyway (like players or people with the jingle around town who saved something just in case, or had a connection to something just for them), start getting attacked. Maybe the Hardholder has to keep his engineers alive, because some of the riffraff are trying to kill him.

It is assumed, I think, that people with the risk of going hungry probably aren't eating every day as it is. If the hardholder finds a way to SOLVE (even just for now) the issues, then remove those weaknesses from the holding. At the same time, always be willing to add new custom ones that fit the fiction.

Does that help any?

I wasn't saying this is the only way to use Love Letters, just that I've found it works out pretty consistently.

As for Newton. I mean, she's just an idea right now. My first reaction would be that the strings attached to her with the other factions are more important than she is at the moment, and by bringing focus on them you point to their strings to her and thus create more player interest. In the end, it's the players that elevate NPCs through these stages. Right now, what makes her interesting has nothing to do with her, but her position. So my honest suggestion is to make that position more interesting by bringing the players into that drama.

If you don't want to do this, and you want to bring them into contact with her immediately, then my suggestion would be to bring her back to the players in such a way that forces hard decisions. Make them choose what to do, what to lose, or what to get. Since the player delegated when it could've been him, that, in the vein of AW, is ripe for ALL KINDS of shit to go wrong.

What I wonder about is if she wasn't stolen away from someone she loves--someone with a less then favorable opinion of our Hocus sullying her, or his deal to sell her. So if I brought her back, I might do it by force, with her in tears, and the surviving one or two of the NPCs being all like, hey--boss, I don't think those folk is giving up. Then let the players decide what to do.

Still, though, it depends on your fiction, your cult, I don't know these things. But I can say that you should make the most of anything interesting you got on screen--just don't overestimate the importance of someone st stage 1. The stages represent player involvement after all, and no involvement often means no attachment to what happens.

She sounds like she's been introduced. Although, I cannot help but notice that your bullets for her don't list another PC. I have 4 rough stages of character development.

StageOne: Imagine them on the scene. (Ideas)
This has to happen for anything to ever involve an NPC. Sometimes you can do this over time, name them first and drop them in somewhere later, but both are part of stage one. NPC's at stage one are Ideas.

Name them.) There are three guys sitting on stools in the bar: Thumper, Mix, & Freddy.

Place them.)
Thumper is a big balding laborer drowning in cheap booze.
Mix is a skinny weasel little fuck, counting through his bag of loot with a shotgun on the bartop.
Freddy is a manly man, with a glorious pitch black lumberjack beard. He is on the stool in front of his own bar, bored out of his mind.

StageTwo: Introduce them. (Pawns)
This happens when 1 of the PCs has a connection to an NPC. This can happen through the player's input, or by player choice. The MC can also prompt a relationship, but it's only really introduced when the PC picks up and adds to it. You'll know when a PC has been introduced for real. And you are right, like with this Girl-- they are someone you want to use again, but. You first and primary goal should be making that NPC move to stage 3. Pawns are just pieces to move around the narrative, they're color, distractions, hooks, and reactions.

So lets say when the [PC] Gunlugger walks into the bar, we do something like:
Hey [PC], you know all three of these guys. One of them has been your friend forever, you've destroyed things another one cares about, and the one is absolutely terrified of you from that time you shot up his gang. But I forget, which is which?

Freddy turns around and groans, "[PC] I told you never to come back here. I'm not cleaning up any more of your fucking corpses!". Ignoring him... Mix sees the Gunlugger and gives him a big grin, "Heyo Buddy! Get over here, I've got some really cool stuff to show you." The drunkard turns, looks towards the [PC] in horror and screaming... he bolts out the back of the bar immediately, stiffing Freddy. [PC] flicks off Freddy as he walks over the Mix to see the cool loot. (they start talking) Freddy cocks the bar's shotgun and aims it at the [PC] "I said get the fuck out.". Mix chuckles, "Alright alright buddy, let's go someplace else" But... What do the [PC] do?

Basically, We have some color now, and the player picked who was who, so now they've had a say in these people's history with them. Maybe this is done with opened ended or leading questions, maybe just picked from the list. Often times it'll happen purely by player action when they take the initiative to interact with someone new and then do something that has consequences for that person.

StageThree: The Triangle. (Characters)
At this stage, you or one of your players has imagined the NPC, and you've introduced them on the scene to at least 2 PCs. Now I don't mean at the same time, If both PC's have the same relationship with the NPC then this doesn't count. The NPC needs to be shown to both PC's at a different angle.

Let's say Mix is a Character. Because the Savvyhead [PC] has also had him on the scene. We learned when we were talking to the [PC], that Mix is some sort of free-wheeling hard drug dealer, not a nice guy. So we start a scene with the [PC] hearing a scream from just outside his workshop, he grabs a claw hammer off a tabletop and rushes out to find Mix beating down some woman just around the corner. Mix is snarling, "You Traitorous little bitch!" Kicking her in the ribs, and again, and again. She's gasping for breath, what does [PC] do?

Assuming the Savvyhead played the hero and did something to stop what he was seeing. Maybe he threatened Mix with the clawhammer, and Mix thought better of it. Maybe he threatened Mix with a claw hammer, and Mix kicked the shit out of him too. So long as we have some tension, it's all good.

Now, Mix is a character. What happens to him might piss off his best friend the Gunlugger. However, the Savvyhead might not tolerant this fucker anywhere near him.  Sweet! Characterization achieved. Now when this guy moves around, more then one person is watching. This is where you want to get as many NPC's as you can.

StageFour: Develope them. (Story)
You will find that things will happen to your characters over time, and their relationships they've established with the PC will begin to change. When they changed enough that the person you (and everyone else) thought they were at the start, isn't really who they are now. You've hit this point.

(The following example is from one of my games, this was not the focus of the game. It took place now and then over the course of everything else)

I once imagined an NPC for a [PC] Hardholder, Dallia, his second in command, as being hopelessly in love with him, and that translated into going above and beyond in her job. Dallia, well, she had met and enforced the "law" on all the other PCs in her own way, with varying degrees of success. She was even recommending to the Hardholder that one of them be "dealt with". She was a character now. Everyone knew her and had an opinion.

However, the PC Hardholder didn't notice her affections, or didn't take the time to care, or just decided not to act on it, and got involved in countless other characters. One of those flings was particularly bad, flaunting him in front of Dallia on purpose. So Dallia uncharacteristically retired to get smashed at the bar, where another PC lived (the one she hated the most and had recommended the [PC]Hardholder get rid of, ironically). She sort of asked for advice, without saying exactly what the problem was, and the other PC told her to take what she wanted and not let anyone stand in her way. (He was that type of PC) He didn't know what she would do next.

So the drunk and pissed off version of Dallia decides he's right. She pushed her way out to the bar, slamming into one of the other [PCs] as they entered. That one was the squirrelly curious type, so he snuck after her spying. This set up everything, honestly. With a witness, this kept snowballing. Anyway, Dallia went and found MsFling, and butchered her in the bedroom, taking for herself a valuable neckless the [PC]Hardholder gave to her as a gift. The Witness freaked out, but Dallia caught him too, and dragged him into her lies. They framed someone else (by accident mostly, they just pushed blame and it fell squarely on someone else), someone another PC cared about (was actually in bed with) and the Hardholder went to war. The Other PC and the Hardholder spun out of control and became enemies.

Meanwhile Dallia was struggling to do her job, her performance in the pits. So the [PC]Hardholder replaced her with someone else, and told her to take a break (which is not what she needed). Then the [PC]Hardholder ended up in another relationship (marriage), this one a political arrangement between powerful Holdings. Dallia was spinning out, and went to accuse the PC[Gunlugger] that talked her into this. Instead of hurting him, he gave her someplace to be.

Over the next few sessions, she became more and more. The Brainer at war with the Hardholder got into her head and saw things about the past. The PC[Gunlugger] gave her a home, showed her what love was, and prepared her to stand on her own feet. The Witness, wary as ever, only started to come around, but he had a performing troop of actors, and showed her a place where Death wasn't the goal.

By the End of the game, she was a fucking badass NPC. She had loved, murdered, been broken, and mended. The thing with the gunlugger wasn't to be kept, it was just helping hand. During credits she did what she always wanted to do, she went to go find out what was beyond the horizon.

It was a very powerful little story. But that's when you know you've got a character in stage4.


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This is somewhat off-topic, I know.

The point was to showcase how I approach development. When you've got bunches of triangles all strung together, you can push on one and they slam into the others. The entire network bends and pulls like a web someone stuck their finger into. It becomes easy to get complicated realistic reactions without having to do much work. That's how I run a game anyway.

What I didn't show here, is all of the other triangles that made this possible. So what I recommend for you to do with your love letter, is not to try to answer your stakes on that Girl within love letters. But instead, since this Girl sits at the center of a web already attached to a network of NPCs... and they're all ready to do something depending on what happens. I would reinforce those stakes by drawing triangles between the various sides to your players. Get them involved. Have Ambergrease come around with a big fucking gang to see how she is doing, make sure the Hocus knows that this guy might shoot them all if he feels betrayed, or if he can't trust the Hocus. Now the Hocus has to decide whether or not to admit the kidnapping to him, or if he's got to cover it up. Tensions! Have the one that talked the 5 into going to fetch her be involved, or maybe have to go after the 5 and help them, or pull them a different way.

You might want to draw some triangles to the Dread Teeth too, maybe let one of them get found out somewhere the others arent, some teen or something. Someone that isn't immediately ruthless, probably more vulnerable. Let a PC interact with them, show the moral side of them. Make them human by making getting them to sort of like each other. Maybe talk about people in the gang, speak highly of them, the actually good things they've done for the kid. Enforce what threat they are, but make sure that another side is seen before the funs go off and people start dying.

Now you've got fertile ground for anything to happen.

Until you've got triangles with someone, developing them is just an arbitruary decision. It doesnt really count. Do it for sure, if you need to, but it's best when someone is there to witness or better yet, trigger the WHY. I guess.... The real reason I wouldnt use my example as a love letter, is that I would want to set up all the other scenes before resolving it. Skipping to that makes it impossible to use as a source of narrative tension.

I'll get it up and running again once work settles down. I might strip out the server and switch to a different method of data storage so I can package it for other people. I won't have much in the way of free time unto somewhere mid-February. I'll be sure to post any updates you guys might want to take advantage of.