Good complications for "Act under fire"

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Good complications for "Act under fire"
« on: October 21, 2010, 12:13:41 AM »
Hi
I´ve been testing AW with some friends (not playing truly, since I ran it with only one player), and one thing that wasn´t easy for me (as MC) was to create interesting complications for "act under fire", particularly for weak hits (7-9).

If I recall correctly, I have to offer a hard bargain, a difficult choice or a worse outcome. But sometimes I can´t find how to include the first 2 of them. Maybe because my first session scenario was rather weak in conflicts, but some regular actions didn´t allow a hard bargain or difficult choice.

I´ll throw in some examples of things that might happen because of a weak hit. Any addition or correction is welcome:
-You do it fine, but someone you didn´t want to see noticed it. You´ll have to convince him so he doesn´t reveal your position (sneaky stuff).
-You can do it, but it will open a wound you were recovering from, or you will have to take a bullet yourself first (action stuff).
-You can grab it, but the enemy takes a hostage first and tells you to drop it off or he´ll shoot him/her.
-You manage to run away from him, but you drop or forget something important on your way.
-You may avoid the fire if you take cover behind Dawson.
-You may drive their attention off from you if you mock at III or otherwise humilliate him.
-You wanted to close on him (for this he rolls) and then shoot him with your silenced gun without being noticed? You close, but the vigilance is tough, so you´re in a bad position to shoot: -1 forward.
-You resisted his look enough to get his trust upon you, but something unexpected is revealed. Roll+weird to open your brain. OR now he knows that little secret about Lili: what it was?
-You can´t turn on the "computer" without taking the damage. It seems you´ll need to help Fucker with his "issue" if you don´t want to take risks.

Out of play, I see that building weak hits isn´t that hard. Any advise about setting up a context for this move during the session that helps building good complications?
« Last Edit: October 21, 2010, 01:16:11 AM by Khimus »

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noofy

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Re: Good complications for "Act under fire"
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2010, 01:08:31 AM »
G'day Khimus,
It seems (as you rightly surmise) that you have a great grasp of the 'hit with complications' clause of moves. All those seem cool.

I too (as a new MC) have struggled with responses to moves, however, since we are only playing one-on-one at the moment, it really focuses back to the sole protagonist, which in some ways had made it easier. The way I look at the Act under fire move, which is a pretty broad and often tested, is to think of the 7-9 hits as success with an MC move thrown into the mix.

Context provides the suitable MC move. Peripheral fire (actually acting under gunfire) points at harm. So the hard bargain may be that you achieve your action, but suffer harm.

I love Ugly Choices for non-combat acting under fire! Just choose any of the MC moves and say: "Huh, well you do it, but which of these bad things is gonna happen too?" and give them a choice of two or more MC moves.

Hard bargains are like hidden gems. This is where you get to inject MC flavour and it be justified. "So you want to do this huh? How bad I wonder? O.K you can, but if you do you will:
Have your stuff taken
Get hurt
Lose your support
Have your mate captured
etc...

I just have the MC moves in front of me on Mr. Harper's cheat sheet and let them inspire the narration based on the contect of the PC Move. 7-9 is the best result you could hope for, since everyone is invested in the authorship post roll. Just remember the principles and never name your MC move, and misdirect all the time.