Rule suggestion

This looks very solid as a house rule to me, and I would go as far as suggesting this should be a default: what do people think?

Many advances allow a PC to roll (other stat) instead of (usual stat) for a move. E.g. the Maestro D' can take "You call this hot?" to roll +their key stat (hot) instead of +cool when acting under fire.
This means some stats, such as cool in this case, get little use outside of custom moves, and can lead to a problem highlighting stats for advanced characters: Either highlight the key stat, and give out shovels of experience, or highlight something that might never be rolled. A parallel problem is when you really want someone to be Cool today, but they tell you "I roll hot for cool, so highlight that instead", as it means you can't incentivise them mechanically to do cool stuff if they're a player that responds to XP incentives.

Proposed solution: If stat (a) is highlighted, but stat (b) would be rolled for a move that usually uses stat (a), gain experience whenever stat (b) is rolled as a substitute for stat (a).

If I want you to be Cool, but you'd rather be Hot. That's your perfectly valid choice. Thats awesome for you. Rock that Hot! But I still didn't get to see my Cool. Tell me again, why you need more of a reward than getting to pick your best stat despite what I wanted?

Because the player's _trying_ to be cool here, but doesn't have any option to choose to roll that stat anymore.

They can always choose to act Cool rather than Hot. To do it, you do it, right?

They can always choose to act Cool rather than Hot. To do it, you do it, right?

Whoa... I just got my brain opened... again!  It's obvious, yet insightful... I LOVE Apocalypse World!

They can always choose to act Cool rather than Hot. To do it, you do it, right?

Are you suggesting that this ever happens, and is something other than abstractly true? I have never seen it, myself.

I do it all the time.

I do it all the time.

Cool -- how does it work? Could you give an example of a time when you did this, and how it went down in terms of what you narrated, what you might have otherwise narrated (to use the substitution move), that sort of thing? I'm particularly curious how much player-level communication is required (or not) to establish that you are circumventing the substitution move in favour of the base-stat version.

While your idea is quite possibly better than mine (noclue), we're both essentially house-ruling it here: you're allowing players to ignore their ability, and roll their initial skill  if they choose to, in contrast to the letter of the ability.

So I still think some alteration of the rule-text would be beneficial if there were to be a next edition.

Hey Ged!

You should know that I chose the rule as written on purpose and don't intend to change it.

Strictly speaking, what you're doing is adding a custom move to your home front, which both I and the game fully, enthusiastically support. You don't need to see your idea into the game text in order for it to be legit.

-Vincent

Cool -- how does it work? Could you give an example of a time when you did this, and how it went down in terms of what you narrated, what you might have otherwise narrated (to use the substitution move), that sort of thing? I'm particularly curious how much player-level communication is required (or not) to establish that you are circumventing the substitution move in favour of the base-stat version.

I'm trying to remember a good example, but it's been about 8 months since we wrapped our last AW campaign. I know my Operator, Proust did roll hot to manipulate an NPC, rather than triggering her Easy to Trust move by remaining all cool as a cucumber.

While your idea is quite possibly better than mine (noclue), we're both essentially house-ruling it here: you're allowing players to ignore their ability, and roll their initial skill  if they choose to, in contrast to the letter of the ability.

I don't think what noclue said is a house rule in any respect. To do something, you must to say what you are doing. The book explicitly says: "In order for it to be a move and for the player to roll dice, the character has to do something that counts as that move". So, if you are being hot under fire you must to say how hot you are. But maybe you are not being hot right now, just trying to remain cool. So, roll Cool, not Hot.

Thanks Alejandro. The GM of our game remindedme of one scene where my manipulating another character. I then noticed I had recently taken the Easy to Trust move in an advance, which would allow me to roll Cool instead of Hot. The GM rightly asked if Proust was being easy to trust at the moment? If so, I'd need a little retcon to show how I was being that. I said no. Proust is all up in his grill. This is about my reputation that when I promise a thing I do it. And I was promising to make his world a living shithole.

And I was promising to make his world a living shithole.

So of course the guy gave in, cuz that would be an improvement on most AW living conditions... :)

That sounds good to me Alejandro: thanks! A better solution and better justification than mine.

Though I'm surprised that if it's this straightforward Vincent didn't choose to clarify it when he posted to the thread: he wrote he had a good reason for writing things the way he did, but then didn't explain how the interpretation refers in a simple way to a basic rule, which leaves me scratching my head somewhat?

I greatly appreciate all the input from everyone here: so much better than my teenage days in the 90s where the local hobby shop was the only source of ideas!