I need to really understand how fights work :)

There's one situation that still frustrates me sometimes: hunters attacking (with ranged weapons) a monster that lacks a ranged weapon (or ability.) Without the opportunity for exchange of harm, it can't be Kick Some Ass. Unlike the situations in which it makes sense for damage to be automatic without a roll, it seems like ranged attacks are always uncertain and warrant one.

Mostly, I've been calling for Act Under Pressure, but at least once I didn't really like that option. In the Mongolian Death Worm scenario, the Summoned was lugging a water cooler bottle and had climbed on top of a dinosaur skeleton, lying in wait where he hoped a worm might appear (the Hunters had cleverly used the museum's air conditioning to make everything cold except one region to drive the worms there.) A worm did, and he threw. But it wasn't all that tense a situation -- the worm wasn't in position to hurt anyone; it was moving slowly and there would be plenty more opportunities to attack it.

 

There's one situation that still frustrates me sometimes: hunters attacking (with ranged weapons) a monster that lacks a ranged weapon (or ability.) Without the opportunity for exchange of harm, it can't be Kick Some Ass. Unlike the situations in which it makes sense for damage to be automatic without a roll, it seems like ranged attacks are always uncertain and warrant one.

Mostly, I've been calling for Act Under Pressure, but at least once I didn't really like that option. In the Mongolian Death Worm scenario, the Summoned was lugging a water cooler bottle and had climbed on top of a dinosaur skeleton, lying in wait where he hoped a worm might appear (the Hunters had cleverly used the museum's air conditioning to make everything cold except one region to drive the worms there.) A worm did, and he threw. But it wasn't all that tense a situation -- the worm wasn't in position to hurt anyone; it was moving slowly and there would be plenty more opportunities to attack it.

 

This is something I've wondered about too.  It sometimes does seem odd in these situations.  The best thing I can come up with is, "what would the fiction do?"  If it doesn't trigger a player move, from what I understand you can use an MC move that makes sense fictionally.  Some times that is just dealing harm if the monster truly is unaware. Other times that might be another move, like reveal future badness.  Maybe as he steadies his weight to toss the water cooler the bones start to crack and give, "what do you do?"  Or offer an opportunity with a cost.  "You're at a good vantage point, the worm doesn't see you at all.  As you ready to toss the cooler the bones crack, you think it will crumble if you shift weight and toss the cooler."

I could be way wrong also, I'm far from an expert on AW games. :)

badash56, that's exactly how I would do it. Don't worry about just inflicting harm as established on a monster. Or any other move that seems to work.

As a side note, the fact that kick some ass triggers when you are mixing it up with the monsters, exchanging blows both ways is intentional. If there's not a danger of being hit back, I didn't think it needed to be dealt with at that level. The most important reason for this is that the consequences of missing the roll will not lead an interesting snowballing of moves. It's really just a succeed/fail test, and the Keeper moves provide enough tools to manage it anyhow.

For the ranged attack, it is true that a single shot might be uncertain of hitting, but there's nothing to stop a hunter taking a few to make sure! In cases when it's especially tricky, e.g. taking a long shot with a handgun at a monster disappearing into cover, then act under pressure is a good call.