Frustrated

That's a great point about the skinner. For the record, here's the warning about the Battlebabe, which also seems apt.

Warning: you might find that you're better at making trouble than getting out of it. If you want to play the baddest ass, play a gunlugger instead

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Well I had this long thought out response to this.  Spent like 40 minutes typing it and I believe the Psychic Maelstrom got a hold of it cause it has disappeared.  So here goes a quicker response...

I am the MC for this campaign.  Most of the players have only played D&D & were true Hack & Slash players, relying heavily to the tracks that I railroaded them with.  We all saw a chance to break away from the rails and learn something new here with AW.

The Third, The Hocus, was one of my favorite characters.  I specifically changed fiction that was established and made the world feel less real so that The Third didn't die when he dug himself a hole so deep that two PC's ended up attacking him.  Spent a week trying how to come up with fiction to explain his disappearance and reapperance just for The Third's player to give up on The Third at the end of the session.

Quitus came into town got himself in trouble and couldn't figure out how to get himself out of trouble he put himself into by either making bad choices, not using moves he could have used, and not using chances given him by me to get out of the situation, on top of insulting the largest holder in the area. Instead of playing it out and see where Quitus story would go, his player gave up on him.

Now the newest character Pluto, The Skinner, has done nothing!  She has taken a couple of chances to manipulate the Chopper and one other NPC but for the most part has attempted multiple times to spam Artful and Gracious when the fiction truly doesn't allow for it.  I have multiple times asked Pluto what are you doing to which the answer was nothing really.

I have established that we should play all these as real people.  That when you make bad decisions bad things happen.  The bad may not happen right now but it will happen.  Also, I took this as a chance to have the players provide narrative to the game other than relying on me to give them everything.  Try to have them see me as an MC and not a DM.  So when the PC's look to me to move the story forward cause they can't or won't move the story forward.  I make a move from the book or from one of my fronts.  A lot of the times they are HARD moves.  As I understand it the players have enjoyed this.  It has for the first time in a while allowed them to go tell stories about their characters and the game sessions as if they were watching a tv show or movie rather. 

I like having The Third/Quitus/Pluto's player at the table.  However, if he is not enjoying it or if he believes I am a bad MC he is welcomed to leave or start his own gaming group.  If you want to stay then bring narrative to the story, to do something do it.  If you want to perform explain what you are doing.  If you want to seduce someone explain how you are seducing them!  I should be able to figure out that you are doing a move with out you actually saying the move's name.

Also, know that every problem cannot be solved with a gun or a knife.  That you can't demand, insult, and force people to do things over and over again with out some consequences occurring. And just cause things look bad now doesn't mean that it will be like that all the time.

The thing is that you can be aggressive with your moves without being violent, and it's clear that violence isn't going to work because of the way your MC is running the game. Is it possible that s/he has some animus toward you? Or is this just some kind of misunderstanding?

This is what everyone at the table has tried explaining to him.  You can be aggressive without being violent, or insulting, or etc...  Violence solves some problems sometimes but alot of times it's just going to get you in trouble.  No animus, I have tried to protect his characters more than I have others alot of times.

Also don't forget that you can manipulate with barter, which as a skinner you do start with a little of. Artful & Gracious can net you more resources (in the form of barter, information, favors) to use as leverage. Can you get the Operator's move and some gigs?

This is something I just noticed from reading this post.  Urzae seemed to be min/maxing the crap out of these characters from the start.  While I have no problem with this you are only focusing on one or two moves and forgetting that you have other tools that you could be using.  Just cause you have a stat highlighted doesn't mean you can't use another move that may get you in a better position to use a highlighted stat.

The MC establishes situation and asks. If the battlebabe's choice is to hell with the consequences they can deal with the consequences. What you don't do is go from killing a guard to jumped by 5 dudes captured and stripped naked and ridiculed without the Battlebabe rolling a miss. The OP's Battlebabe rolled a 10+ followed by a 7-9.

And each junction of escalation (from fighting the guard -> Shots fired at him -> 5 Guards approaching you -> Being brought to The Mouth of Tiki -> Being brought to gate naked)  was either due to him escalating it to the next level through fiction or him failing his roll or sometimes both.

Okay, that's very different from what was presented. I'm back to there's a dynamic at the table that isn't working. The OP's descriptions of play paint a picture of an MC who is not making moves and not offering choices to the player and arbitrarily punishing the PC. Monte, your rendition suggests a player who really doesn't get the fact that they don't have plot immunity because they're a PC and their choices will lead to unexpected consequences and getting what you want involves risk in AW.

Expectations appear to be out of whack. How are he other players doing?

Expectations appear to be out of whack. How are he other players doing?

The other players are doing fine.  Some have learned that when you do "stupid" stuff bad things happen.  The Gunlugger that loves using Open your mind to the Psychic Mealstrom, has learned that if she rolls bad she is going on a bad trip that may lead to "bad" things.  The Angel has learned that "Damn it Jim you are a healer not an action hero!" when she decided to jump from vehicle to another and got ran over a bus.  The chopper has learned that his pack won't follow him blindly into the fray.  That he will do things he doesn't want to do to keep his gang together. The newest Brainer has learned messing with peoples heads can lead to some real aggressive things happening to them.  But in the end each of them has taken that and made it part of their character and shaped their fiction/story to have the characters grow. 

The other players go visit friends and tell stories about there characters because they are that invested in them and the story that is developing. They seem to work with me to tell a story rather than seeing me as an adversary. (That make sense?)

Totally.

Has Urzae read the MC's play book?

Also, can we discuss specifics for a bit? The Battlebabe started things off by attacking the guard and rolled a 10+. what move was that?

To tell you the truth this was weeks ago and I am not so sure the Battlebabe rolled a 10+.  As for what move, it was a straight Go Aggro (as a matter of fact I am leaning towards he didn't roll a 10+ since it was a Hard move),  "Take me to Tiki or I'll rip your head from your shoulders".

One thing that I think might be relevant that people haven't mentioned yet is mistakes and corrections.  If the MC says (for example) "ok - you attack the guy and then the sniper tower shoots you - take 3 harm", it's perfectly ok for you to say "I hadn't realized there was a sniper tower here - instead I'm going to ...".  It's something that everyone does, but I like that it's written out explicitly in AW.  Characters are assumed to be aware of their surroundings and the possible outcomes of different courses of actions even if their player hasn't explicitly asked about things.

To tell you the truth this was weeks ago and I am not so sure the Battlebabe rolled a 10+.  As for what move, it was a straight Go Aggro (as a matter of fact I am leaning towards he didn't roll a 10+ since it was a Hard move),  "Take me to Tiki or I'll rip your head from your shoulders".

Well, even on a 10+ your NPC can force their hand and suck it up, which might end up with a wounded guard. I'm not sure I would have used armor if the knife was at the dude's throat, but that's a minor nit.

The sniper tower isn't a hard move yet. But then the PC goes to finish off the guard and rolls a partial success. Did he roll Go Agro again? It's not about Tiki any more, it's about killing the guard. So it's Acting Under Fire? And you gave the BB a worse outcome by having the 5 guys knock her out and capture her? Or did you have them deal harm?

The sniper tower isn't a hard move yet. But then the PC goes to finish off the guard and rolls a partial success. Did he roll Go Agro again? It's not about Tiki any more, it's about killing the guard. So it's Acting Under Fire? And you gave the BB a worse outcome by having the 5 guys knock her out and capture her? Or did you have them deal harm?

Once again this was weeks ago so I am not sure 100% of everything that happened, this being one of the things that is fuzzy. 

As I remembered it when he killed off guard the guard in the tower shot at him.  (No harm done just enough to scare him.) Which set off the warning to other guards in the area and basically gave Quitus a warning that future badness was about to occur.  Giving him the choice of finish off the guy and possibly run into any of Tiki's Guards or find a way out.  He chose to finish of the guy, which by then the reinforcements were seen down the street.  He again had the chance to get out of there or attack.  He choose to Seize by Force by attacking the advancing guards. He failed. Tiki has a welled armed gang. They were a small gang at the time vs a guy.  He ended up getting hit with 4 harm. Dealing some back.  With his harm roll, not sure what he rolled but, instead of sending 4 harm into him, I traded some to knock him out.  The guards brought him to The Mouth of Tiki.  That turned into Quitus insulting The Mouth and being strung up as "the new guard of the west gate."

Once again sorry if vague or doesn't answer all your questions but again this was many sessions ago. 

Wow, this kinda took off, didn't it?

I'm one of the other players, and I considered chiming in earlier to fill in some details that Urzae glossed over.  I decided not to, but looking at it now that might have been the wrong decision.

Anywho, probably the most significant bit that hasn't been spelled out is exactly how Urzae was handling Quitus' entrance into Par...

He strolls in through one of the main gates...
Declares that he was walking up to the first person he saw...
Turned out it was a sick townsperson (there's a plague that's wiping out this half of town)...
So Quitus punches the fellow in the throat, killing him...
Then declares that he's moving on to the first person he sees who isn't sick...
Asks this guy if there's any work to be had...
Then specifies that he's looking for assassin work...
The guy shrugs and says that there's been a farmers revolt in town, could be some work there...
Quitus offers no incentive for the guy to stick around or give more info, so the guy starts to walk off...
Quitus asks again about other work, but the guy keeps walking...
Urzae asks if the guy's still close enough to attack and goes for the kill...
Drops the guy to the ground in really bad shape, but gets the attention of surrounding guards (he is still in the vicinity of one of the main gates of the largest holding in the area)...
Bullets start peppering the ground around him...
MC lets him know that he's got time to move for cover or finish the guy, but not both...
Quitus elects to merc the downed guard, then turns to face the others...
Takes a good chunk of harm and gets knocked out...

So yeah, that was the "uppity" guard he ran across.

And with the whole "first person I see" bit and no attempt to interact with anyone beyond "hey, I'm looking for this" and "you die now," I didn't see the situation as the MC witholding information to screw Urzae over.  On the contrary, I saw Urzae being so recklessly aggressive and willfully oblivious to anything beyond getting what he wanted by force, that it seemed like Urzae was trying to screw Urzae over.

But yeah, those are some key details that didn't get fully explained.

Sigh... i knew this would turn out badly : /

With the hocus I stopped playing the 3rd becuse at the end of the next session i had no allies left at the table and i dident want to play a villian for the entire group.

As far as the comment about "trying to spam Artful and Gracious" i only started that after the chopper started using the skill with almost every npc interaction since he picked it up.

And as using only highlited stats, everyone at the table does that. Heck the angel lept from a car needlessly just for the exp bubble. I dont see how i am "min/maxing" if i want to try to get more options by leveling up.

With the aggressive comment, i admit the battlebabe was viloent, but not much more than other characters. The driver plows though everthing. The gunlugger blows up everthing. The chopper wants to rule it all. The only time the hocus ever pulled a gun is when he was staring down fruitlessly by 2 player character tanks. ive been trying to play the skinner more passivly simply becuse my more "aggressive " characters ended up getting shredded.

As far as the entrence into town by the battlebabe this is how it happened (as i remember it). I go into town and the guard isint being any help suggesting work. So i then ask if there is anyone else there. There are a bunch of sick peaple in the streets. i try to talk to one and he tried to vomit on me. So i stopped him (yes by killing him since i was playing an assassin) and went back to the guard. He still wasent telling me where to go and i used "go argo". the guard, when pressed with a blade to his neck still wouldent tell me where to go chose to suck it up.

It is then when i did attack him. I dealt 2 damage after my swing and he was on the ground. however when i swung he got a shot off wildly which alerted the sniper tower. then i try to finish him off while being shot by the tower. thats when the group of guards came out of nowhere (since they where not in sight a few moments ago when i was looking for someone to talk to). So now i rolled sharp, to try to find a way out and fail, getting shot to heck and knocked out. And when i attempted to break free i was knocked out, to wake up already tied up and hanging.

But ultimatly i understand why the battlebabe got killed. i tried to be to agressive without any backup. I mean since then the players have basically started a war with that hardholder killing many guards, though they havent got the resistance i encountered as the assassin.

I understand the hocus had problems becuse he put his followers before the group. So know im trying not to be aggressive and not to hurt another player so they wont gang up and kill me.

I dont want to leave the group, nor do i belive it's a bad game. its ... just i know am frustrated becuse i feel that i am falling behind the other characters. And when it does come to my actions i cant think of anything to do when it happens or that something horrible is going to happen if i try to reach out and do something.