Defend

Yes, it's stated in the moves discussion. In my pdf, at page 308:

Quote

Defending yourself is certainly an option. It amounts to giving up on making attacks and just trying to keep yourself safe.

Thanks for pointing that out!

Thanks forever ones thoughts. :)

Defending yourself is certainly an option. It amounts to giving up on making attacks and just trying to keep yourself safe.

Reading the pre-release pdf and it struck me that "giving up on making attacks" could mean when you're defending yourself you can't pick  option 4: Deal damage to the attacker equal to your level. Is that right?

You could house rule that I guess, but it doesn't seem necessary.

I think that dealing damage by defending is not an attack; it's based neither on your damage nor on the weapon you're using. However, what is that deals damage comes purely by the fiction, and if you are attacking, then it's not defending.

Adam has the right of it methinks. Author in your character managing to hurt whatever they are defending against in a fictionally satisfying way, then  Deal the damage by  your level.

I see: both offensive and defensive actions can deal damage. Yeah, that's  makes sense. Thanks.

I'm totally OK with a character doing more damage on a Defend but taking damage in the process. I think it's also worth pointing out that the holds gained from the Defend move don't stack. If you have 1 hold left from a previous Defend and then roll a 10+, I'm pretty sure you *don't* have 4 hold but still only have 3 hold. The Defend move says "you hold 3" and not "you hold +3".

As a contrary opinion, I think they do stack. It does say "hold 3" not "choose 3" (as in Discern Realities). I also don't require the defended target to be "about to take damage right now", just "under attack" broadly. ("The orc army begins its charge, what do you do?" "I stand in defense of the Wizard!" "Great, roll+Con"...)

Of course, if a player just spends the whole fight defending, they'd better find some way of making that interesting, for their own sake, if nothing else!