Couple questions about burned over

Hello ya'll,

Thanks Vincent for writing Burned Over so I don't have to have sex with my friends and family. Unfortunately, there's a couple things I'm unclear on.
1. I'm assuming the scavenge section of each playbook only happens at character creation and not each session. Since gigs are gone, is the intent for barter to be obtained more organically in play?

2. Sucker someone is out. I liked the sniping example from 2E, but with burned over in thinking it would just be an act under fire roll and then MCing inflict harm as established. Curious what others are doing.

3. Living expenses are gone too?

Haven't actually run AW yet but I've run MOTW a few times.

Cool! Pretty easy answers.

1. Barter works like a stat now, measuring your ongoing economic position, which is like a combination of flow-of-resources through you versus your social footprint in the surrounding society. It doesn't go up and down as you spend and gain like cash. Instead, it tells you how much of a hassle it is for you to buy things every time.

I think you can just change your scavenge choice when you want to during play, whenever it makes sense for you to be able to.

2. Sniping is definitely officially doing battle, not anything else. If your target's not in a position to return fire, then in the exchange of harm, they inflict 0-harm, that's all.

3. Living expenses are gone too!

In general, Burned Over isn't about scarcity the way Apocalypse World is.

Thanks for asking!

-Vincent

Thanks for the quick reply! Would you give the NPC zero hold in such a scenario if they were surprised by the shot and instantly killed?

Nope! You can't say that they're instantly killed unless that's the outcome of the move, so follow the procedure of the move to find out whether they are.

-Vincent

I guess I'm not understanding how that plays out in a way that makes narrative sense.

If a PC gets the drop in an NPC rolls a 10, it's strange to me that they get to "retaliate" by using their Holds.
The example from the core book for "sucker someone" made perfect sense to me but this one isn't lining up.

No sweat! I can talk you through it.

Let's make up an example. Who's the sniper and what's their weapon? Who's the target? What's the situation?

-Vincent

You're a hell of a guy.

Let's say a PC named Moshpit has rolled well and crept up overlooking a water tower just outside of town with a scoped sniper rifle (3 harm far loud). There's several guards working for a local family, so Moshpit radios to his gang to set up a distraction pull some of the guards elsewhere. One guard is left standing watch in plain clothes wielding a pistol and Moshpit wants to shoot him. He rolls a 10+ and spends all 4 of his Holds on +1 harm (Not sure if this is legal, but even if he only takes it once, 4 harm is lethal). The guard, who has no idea a battle has even started, could use his 2 Holds to:

?Fight for blood: Moshpit is out of pistol range. Even if the guard were armed with the same sniper rifle, this is a surprise attack.
? Fight defensively: If I just said the guard was standing out in the open, it would feel cheaty to say he ducks into cover just because a battle roll was made.
? Fight opportunistically: Same as Fight for Blood
? Guard someone: Nobody to guard.
? Seize initiative: This is the only one that makes sense to spend Hold on, but he's just going to die with 7 harm coming his way.

I wrote all this out thinking it wouldn't make sense narratively, but I suppose it works. It's just the 2 Holds that seem pointless now since it's not much of a choice.

Thanks for reading all this.

You got it!

-Vincent