Passive moves

I'm a newish AW MC. I've been running a game recently (we've had four sessions, I believe) and we're all new to AW. So, we've definitely not quite grok'd all of the gameplay versus other RPGs (we're all late 30-something to 40-something old hands).

As MC, a question came to me last night during a game. We had the hardholder, Colonel M'Beke, wandering across his hardhold and I decided to have a sniper from one of the fronts take a potshot at him.

In most games, I'd give M'Beke a chance to make some sort of perception check, as a kind of passive skill mechanic, to see if he knew anything is up. Me, as MC, telling M'Beke to read the sitch didn't seem write because that is an active move on his part but I couldn't think of any moves that are really passive. The players and their characters always do things to see what happens, which means they have a certain agency. They decide to do thing or something happens and they respond. It is always an active decision on their part.

So, the question is how would I resolve this desire to give M'Beke a chance to notice the sniper before he fires?

What I wound up actually doing is deciding that I didn't feel a driving need to give M'Beke two harm (he's already walking wounded from another fight) in order to have him notice, "Oh hey, there's a sniper!", when the bullet hits him. I had the shot miss but hit nearby and then M'Beke read the sitch, made a weak success and realized where the shot had come from. He then decided to move under fire to dive for some cover.

As a side issue, the fact that I, as MC, don't ever roll for NPCs still weird me out. I wind up in this situation where I simply have to decide whether an NPC harms a player or not in combat, for example. After a few decades of gaming, this feels very strange since I've always played in systems where NPCs have to make rolls too!

It sounds like what you did is Announce Future Badness. And that's cool, because it's one of your moves. The near-miss from a bullet is the "announce", and then you followed up with "What do you do?" Sounds to me that's one correct way for it to play out.

There are other ways you could Announce Badness. "A glint from the rooftop catches your eye. There isn't really anything up there that should do that. What do you do?"

Thanks. Yeah, I basically got that.

I guess the confusion here is the whole mechanic, from other RPGs, of "Oh, something is about to happen to the character that they have a chance to notice" followed by a skill roll.

Instead, I, as MC, simply decide, via my moves and story, what happens and then the characters react (which they did...it turned into a big snipe hunt).

The confusion was the realization that the players really don't have passive moves and skills don't exist in AW as game attributes. So, unless a character has decided to "read the sitch", you as the MC have to simply decide what you want to happen in order for the players to "play to see what happens."

This is related, as I say, to the whole "I decide whether they take damage and how much" aspect of being MC.

As a newish MC, I'm still wrapping my head around this.

I have a side game play question that is kind of unrelated except in being an issue of being a n00b MC here.

After the sniper fired, I had another PC, Jess the Saavyhead, who heard the shot, rush into the area to help.

Jess managed to get shot (I gave 1 harm from a long range hit) and started working through cover (acting under fire) to get close to the sniper. Jess took long enough doing that and bungled a role later, that I basically decided the sniper saw Jess and figured the jig was up, bugging out. Jess had read the sitch earlier when shot and figured out the location of the sniper while shooting (per the questions in the AW rulebook) and, when Jess got to near the location, read the sitch again to try to figure out whether to throw in a grenade through a window or come in shooting through a different door.

Of course, my sniper had bugged out already so then I had a conflict with a player where they said, "I roll a 7 and read the sitch. The question is the true location of the enemy inside the structure" and I said "Well, you don't think anyone is in there." We then had a minor disagreement about whether I was violating the spirit of the rules by not telling him where the sniper was after he'd made a roll.

My justification as MC was:

a) I didn't want him to know where the sniper was yet because it would cause the scene to end (they didn't know who the sniper was and I wanted it to play out a bit as part of a Front).

b) The sniper was gone so I don't care if you made a roll to identify where they are in a place that they've already left.

In that situation, I probably would've dropped a clue to where the person went... "You don't see anyone in the tower, but if you spend a minute looking around you find some dusty footprints...".

For the actual sniper shot, here's another way to handle it...
"You hear a loud bang - a gunshot! - and glance in the direction of the noise. You've got only a split-second to notice that there's a bullet headed for you. What do you do?".

Then, they could (for example) be all "I drop to the ground and hope it misses me!" and act under fire, or "I use my psychic force of will to stop the bullet!" and you're like "You can do that? Since when? How?" and maybe it's a custom move, or "I try to angle so that it catches the most solid part of my bullet-proof vest, of course.". You see?

- Alex

The confusion was the realization that the players really don't have passive moves and skills don't exist in AW as game attributes. So, unless a character has decided to "read the sitch", you as the MC have to simply decide what you want to happen in order for the players to "play to see what happens."

This is related, as I say, to the whole "I decide whether they take damage and how much" aspect of being MC.

As a newish MC, I'm still wrapping my head around this.

Yup. But it sounds like you're getting it. Follow the principals. Be a fan of the characters. Make Apocalypse World seem real. Play to find out.

The question is the true location of the enemy inside the structure" and I said "Well, you don't think anyone is in there." We then had a minor disagreement about whether I was violating the spirit of the rules by not telling him where the sniper was after he'd made a roll.

Read a Sitch has a list of questions right? If they ask, you "Always say what honesty demands."

One question, you're having everyone make the Harm move right?

My justification as MC was:

a) I didn't want him to know where the sniper was yet because it would cause the scene to end (they didn't know who the sniper was and I wanted it to play out a bit as part of a Front).

b) The sniper was gone so I don't care if you made a roll to identify where they are in a place that they've already left.

Well a) is not really appropriate, unless it falls under 'make the PCs' lives interesting' and the scene has really dragged on -- but b) makes sense to me. If there are no enemies there, then there's no enemies there, you don't invent one just so the question has a more useful answer. Suggesting where they've gone (as suggested above) also seems like a fine idea.

@AB, Why was protecting the sniper so important to you? I'm not saying you had to tell him. Deciding what to say when the character reads a sitch has to be grounded in the fiction, but concerns about prolonging the scene or the fact that he's gone to a safe place seem to run counter to Looking at the NPC through the crosshairs.

Reading a sitch isn't magic. But there were tons of ways to give that player information, if you were being a fan of the character. Why not look for ways to give the character interesting info rather than rationalizing not giving him any?

It took me a moment to get used to MC'ing, too. This is what it boils down to: in other games, you the GM have dice and procedures for decision making tools. In Apocalypse World, you have the Principles and Moves instead. The Principles and Moves are your dice and procedures. That's why the start of the MC section says "follow these as rules."

If the dude wasn't in the room, and there was no way to find him because he was long gone, then how was it a charged situation?

Would have been Act Under Fire, IMO.
I had a similar situation when I was running my Conan hack using "The Tower of the Elephant" story as inspiration.
A lion ambushes a PC. How did I do this?
"The hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You suddenly feel the threat of imminent doom at your back and you hear the slightest of rustling. -Roll to Act Under Fire."
On a hit they react in time to avoid Harm. Either way the realize a lion is attacking them.

In your case with the sniper I would have told the PC, "You are traipsing along and get the hideous sensation that you are being watched, in that moment you feel the threat of imminent doom as a large-caliber rifle fires in the distance.  -Roll to Act Under Fire."
On a hit they drop prone, 10+ they take no Harm, 7-9, they might take some harm. On a miss you make your hard move. Either way they now realize a sniper is firing at them.

Anyway, that's how I would do it. I use Act Under Fire for reacting to a threat, ambush, or trap. I have them roll it "as it's happening". It's happening RIGHT NOW. If there is reason for them to Read a Sitch first and they do so, that's cool. Like if they know they are walking into a mine field. But if they don't, I use Act Under Fire as a kind of 'saving throw' to save as much skin as they can.

If the dude wasn't in the room, and there was no way to find him because he was long gone, then how was it a charged situation?

Because it was charged. It was a sniper attack. During the course of the attack and then the player character follow ups (where one decided to move up on position but missed a roll to move under fire), the sniper saw he was being closed in on and bailed. He was positioned on how ground under cover (in a wall made out of ruined jets) so he had quite a bit of time to get out of there before the PC snuck across 50 yards of ground, clambered up and then read the sitch to see where the sniper was a second time.  (This was not the character who was initially being shot at, the Colonel, but his saavyhead who was near enough by to hear the gunshots in the distance. The colonel was re-living the concept of basic training by crawling through a ditch and getting his ass down, acting under fire, to get away at this point.)

Are you saying that I shouldn't have let the player (who thought there was still a sniper in the construct in front of them) read the sitch because the sniper saw that he was going to get caught and bailed?

In your case with the sniper I would have told the PC, "You are traipsing along and get the hideous sensation that you are being watched, in that moment you feel the threat of imminent doom as a large-caliber rifle fires in the distance.  -Roll to Act Under Fire."
On a hit they drop prone, 10+ they take no Harm, 7-9, they might take some harm. On a miss you make your hard move. Either way they now realize a sniper is firing at them.

Anyway, that's how I would do it. I use Act Under Fire for reacting to a threat, ambush, or trap. I have them roll it "as it's happening". It's happening RIGHT NOW. If there is reason for them to Read a Sitch first and they do so, that's cool. Like if they know they are walking into a mine field. But if they don't, I use Act Under Fire as a kind of 'saving throw' to save as much skin as they can.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

Quote from: noclue on July 25, 2012, 06:46:50 PM

If the dude wasn't in the room, and there was no way to find him because he was long gone, then how was it a charged situation?

Are you saying that I shouldn't have let the player (who thought there was still a sniper in the construct in front of them) read the sitch because the sniper saw that he was going to get caught and bailed?

Exactly. The room was empty. The situation wasn't really charged anymore. No move. Just tell the character what he finds when he searches the room, maybe announce a little future badness, and ask someone what they're doing now.

Quote from: Al Billings on July 31, 2012, 02:25:10 AM

Quote from: noclue on July 25, 2012, 06:46:50 PM

If the dude wasn't in the room, and there was no way to find him because he was long gone, then how was it a charged situation?

Are you saying that I shouldn't have let the player (who thought there was still a sniper in the construct in front of them) read the sitch because the sniper saw that he was going to get caught and bailed?

Exactly. The room was empty. The situation wasn't really charged. No move. Just tell the character what he finds in the room, maybe announce a little future badness, and ask someone what they're doing now.

Except he was outside and wanting to read the sitch. It completely deflates the tension of the situation if I tell him no one is there...thud. Anti-climax.

It is a narrative after all.