What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?

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What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« on: September 29, 2015, 12:53:28 PM »
Could please someone explain me what means Hx reset in the fiction?
I understand it from a mechanical standpoint.
But on a such fiction-centered game like AW, I don't get how it works in the fiction.
Your Hx with someone is +3. Then it gets +1, going to +4, you reset it to +1 and mark experience.
So, you know this guy so well, that you are now experienced with the world and suddenly you don't know him as well as before?

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2015, 01:10:23 PM »
My interpretation is that people are made up of layers and façades. The reset represents when you are no longer paying attention to someone else's superficial self, but going off a new set of cues that you don't understand as well.

What does Clover want? Oh, Clover just wants Domino's girlfriend.

No, what does Clover really want? Actually, she wants to look like the victim when Domino jumps her, so she can slit his throat without retaliation.

No, what does Clover really want? Fuck, she wants to feel gouts of hot blood flowing over her hands.

*

noclue

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Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2015, 01:18:21 PM »
I never look at it that way. Your character knows them the same. You're not going to roleplay lack of knowledge about the other character because your History went to +1. Here's how I look at it. The game is trying to make a space for cool narrative about your relationships, not accurately measure some level of inner knowledge. So, you've had this one lever for a while now and it's been pretty effective. But, we don't want to see you keep doing the same thing. Maybe without the +3 incentive you'll mix it up a bit. Take an XP. You've changed. You're not that guy any more. What that translates to in the fiction is up to you.
James R.

    "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which can not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
     --HERBERT SPENCER

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2015, 03:45:14 PM »
I always saw it as symbolizing your changing relationship to that person. Maybe first you were just an acquaintance, but then you started to know them better. Then at +3 you know them very well for an acquaintance. But when you get another +1 to Hx, you become his friend (/enemy), but for a friend, you don't really know them all that well.

*

Ebok

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Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2015, 05:13:06 PM »
Hx is more about the Players then their characters. Consider the actual mechanics that operate out of the stat. Hx represents how close one player is to another's and changes the dynamics of the scene based on who can best help and who can best get in the way. If you have you players whose characters have a falling out, they might try to distance themselves from each other. The -1 Hx option provides them a way to signal to the other player that there is growing tension between the characters.

Likewise, the ways in which to gain Hx help the player mechanics by virtue of rewarding certain behaviors. Taking damage increases your Hx, makes you better able to handle a hostile PC, thus taking damage isnt just a negative and can be seen as a "at least I got" something out of the exchange. Likewise the Hx reset provides ways to continue to facilitate character growth, healing a character in need... sharing something with them... rewarding them at the end of a session to show that you're character is getting closer to theirs, or at least is appearing to be more open.

The benefits of Hx is that it Complicates the interactions between characters. You could let another character sit at 3 hx for you, just so they can help you out when you need it. But maybe giving them the experience helps motivate them to continue to help you out. Its a trade, a tension, a signal, a complication. See AW has a tendancy not to focus only on a single player's ownership over their character, but as a collective ownership of the entire narrative by the entire group. Hx is a way to socialize the context of the character's relations for the players. If someone is sitting at 3 hx with you, and they piss you off to the point you want to pull out your gun and just shoot them in the head right then and there... it might be risky since they're clearly going to try to interfere with your success... which makes it much harder for you to shoot them in the head right then. Maybe you need to give them another experience first, get closer. Or take some experiences away, giving the other player some /time/ to digest and adapt to the narrative.

Of course just shooting them will also give them hx to lower their further interference, at least for the next roll... but they also get exp out of it. So there is complication. Its confusing, because its not entirely the literal HISTORY between characters, obviously that doesn't go away. But it can help reflect some of the more hard to detail and changing facets of the characters... Emotion (Sometimes things get under your skin, something your believe things as you want them rather then as they are), Perception (you like to think you know your friend, but that doesn't mean you always know where you friend is coming from) Attention (sometimes you've been focused on something else, like... maybe getting the thing you bought with your exp...)

It benefits characters to give each other Exp, and since there is a maximum of one per week... it means a player might have to make a hard choice (or pick a side) by giving hx out or taking it away. AW is about testing the character and player within the scarcity of things, even the scarcity of teamwork. Not saying it will always do these things, but it can be a very neat indicator on how players perceive their own characters (most important) interactions in a given session.

HX is Fickle.

If you really want an IC way of expressing the idea, try this one on for size:

No one is ever actually closer to someone else, its all a matter of degrees. You can push someone away just as fast as you can pull someone in. You can pull them in close to stab them in the heart, or to bear yours and weep on their shoulder. Hx doesnt represent KNOWLEDGE at all. It represents the characters fickle focus of attention.

Hx is the building of experiences. When they manifest as a moment of your affected history (hit 3), mark an experience circle. This resets the Hx "clock" it has no bearing on the closeness between you and they, but those experiences have culminated in something, and that something is a peak. Afterwards your attention moves on to other things, and it takes awhile to refocus back on that person.

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2015, 03:08:17 AM »
We, in Italy, usually use the Hx reset custom move you can find at this link:

When someone else resets their Hx with you, choose 1:
* Tell them a secret about yourself.
* Tell them about some habit you have, annoying, endearing, or otherwise.
* Tell them how you are vulnerable.
* Tell them what you really think about something they care about.

The reason why this move is so common among Italian players is Narrattiva, the Italian Apocalypse World publisher, added it to the Italian rulebook as an example of custom move.

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2015, 03:28:23 PM »
We, in Italy, usually use the Hx reset custom move you can find at this link:

When someone else resets their Hx with you, choose 1:
* Tell them a secret about yourself.
* Tell them about some habit you have, annoying, endearing, or otherwise.
* Tell them how you are vulnerable.
* Tell them what you really think about something they care about.

The reason why this move is so common among Italian players is Narrattiva, the Italian Apocalypse World publisher, added it to the Italian rulebook as an example of custom move.

And I, too, find it very good. I saw something similar applied with Trust (Hx stat) in tremulus, but it slipped my notice, as this slipped. I'm italian too, y'know, but I bought the english version. Once I saw the good work done with the italian version, I realized the error of my ways :D

If you really want an IC way of expressing the idea, try this one on for size:

No one is ever actually closer to someone else, its all a matter of degrees. You can push someone away just as fast as you can pull someone in. You can pull them in close to stab them in the heart, or to bear yours and weep on their shoulder. Hx doesnt represent KNOWLEDGE at all. It represents the characters fickle focus of attention.

Hx is the building of experiences. When they manifest as a moment of your affected history (hit 3), mark an experience circle. This resets the Hx "clock" it has no bearing on the closeness between you and they, but those experiences have culminated in something, and that something is a peak. Afterwards your attention moves on to other things, and it takes awhile to refocus back on that person.

This is really good stuff. A very fitting IC way of expressing this. This kind-of solves my concers.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2015, 03:42:04 PM by Pristine »

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2015, 03:39:50 PM »
Oh, I didn’t know you were Italian, too. We speak a lot (in Italian) about Apocalypse World on the Gente che Gioca forum and on the Gente che GPlus Google+ community.

And I have both the editions of the game, English and Italian.

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2015, 03:50:46 PM »
I'm a 100% lurker on Gente Che Gioca, so I know you of fame. To say it all, you people helped me discover this wonder. I'm so in love with the powered by the apocalypse, that I'm working on my own hack (trying to pitch it as a commercial game, published by Narrattiva. I bet it's a long road).
I posted this question because my biggest design concern was about choosing between the hx system and the strings system (in Monsterhearts). The strings system seemed more appropriate to the genre I was fiddling with (teenage piloting giant robots), since people screw over others all the time and veto things and relations are tools, but I also wanted some consistency in helping and inteferencing (being able to do it at will). But the reset system bugged me. So thanks for the help.
Would you mind helping me with the desing? The hack is about 60% completed already (but sorry for you, my english helpers, it's in italian for now). 

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2015, 04:00:13 PM »
I’m sending my email address to you by private message. ;-)

Everybody else, sorry for the off topic.

Re: What does Hx reset mean in the fiction?
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2015, 01:32:05 AM »
Yes, sorry for the off topic. Your answers were efficient and concise. Thank you all for the help.