When someone comes to collect their due...

Me and Jonatan are working on a hack with an economy based on favors, represented by holding +bond over someone. When someone you owe come and ask you for something in return, I feel there should be some mechanical weight pushing you to make good on your debt.

Like, you know how seduce/manipulate requires a leverage? Repaying your debt is always a leverage.

So, how would you do this?

I ask in Blood & guts, because I feel this raises questions about player control ("My character would never do that!") and economy and stuff.

I've been toying around with rolling their +bond over you. 10+, you have to do what they want in exchange for them releasing bond, 7-9 there's leeway, 0-6, you'll never need to do that. Something like that.

But no other move save 12+ go aggro forces a PC to act in a certain way, so I decide on a in-brain puppet string kind of deal (you may spend hold to their disadvantage until they do what you want)

But then I decide to simplify it, so that you're always disadvantaged against someone who hold bond over you.

But then I realize this detracts from what the move should accomplish: Pressuring you when you don't do what they want, so I go back to rolling to forcing someone to do what they ask...

repeat ad naseum

You complete favours because otherwise other people or even that same person wouldn't give you favours, right?

When someone chooses not to make good on the favour, there could be some kind of chance that the favour rating with all other people decreases - you may have given them favours, but they're less likely to pay those back now.

I don't think you want a mechanic that forces actions and takes away player agency, not one bit.  People do squelch on their debts.

What DWeird said is on the right track, I think.  It's about leverage, and what happens to your rep and your standing in this favor-based economy if you squelch.  Also, is there an internal component to it?  Like, are honorable characters more compelled to act on a debt?  If so, do they get anything out of being honorable?

This mostly gets into what Vincent's always talking about regarding your insights.  How do *you* think owing someone a favor affects your behavior? Or, how do you think it affects the kind of person your hack is about?  How do you think squelching affects the overall economy of favors that seems to be important to your game?  And how does that influence the decisions of the players (or the PCs)?   

Then translate that believe into moves & mechanics.  You've got three cases to address, right?
* PCs calling an NPC's marker
* NPCs calling a PC's marker
* PCs calling a different PCs marker

I'd probably go with something like:
* Keep a list of favors you owe people, and favors they owe you.
* If someone owes you, you can use that debt as leverage to manipulate them
* If word gets out that squelched on a debt, then... (one of these? all of these? the MC chooses?)
**People stop taking your calls
**Someone comes looking for you
**When you manipulate an NPC, treat a 10+ as a 7-9.  Your word ain't worth shit.

Maybe have a playbook move like Man of Your Word. If an NPC knows your rep, treat a 7-9 as a 10+ when you manipulate them. If you ever squelch on a debt, cross this move off.

I have to agree, Jeremy. Bond should probably be material for moves rather than an isolated system.

This is what I wrote up:

1-bond is a gift, or a recommendation
2-bond is an artifact or help in a time of need
3-bond is a wonder, or dangerous, rotten or delicate duty.

4-bond means you reset to 0 and mark experience. Choose 1:
Force them to do high betrayal for you
Learn a secret from them and take +1 when acting on it
Learn one of their moves.
Put them in a position where you want them. (this is just a prototype I farted out for resetting to 0.)

You may use others' debt as a leverage when you sway or force them.

"Force" is getting something from someone by force, replaces go aggro and sieze by force. "Sway" is seduce/manipulate. Bond replaces Hx and ranges from 0-3 for the character holding bonds over another. NPCs can hold bond as well.

MC Moves may manipulate bond, so when an NPC comes to collect their due and the PC refuses, that's acting under fire. Hit, you make a good case, and a miss might mean that the PC makes a fool of themselves in the eyes of others, or that an NPC says "Fuck you bondbreaker", and the PC loses their bond over them.

Or, if the player asks for this particular repayement on their debt, that might be swaying them, and miss might mean that the NPC has made a deal with a loved one to the PC, placing their bond over them instead. Etc.

The reset rules are there to provide some objective value to bonds, just as gold always can be traded with someone else, even if you don't personally need it. It holds a value beyond the fact that two people agrees it holds value right now. The terms will probably need playtesting though.