Combat - keeping it integrated

Still some things I need to know about AW, for example about combat. I get that it is comprised of moves, act under fire, seize by force and what other moves can be combat moves?

Does anyone have a transcript of a battle that can showcase how it's done? Or maybe someone would be nice enough to make one up...

Hi WOW, my name is Tod, and I'll be your official greeter from the "AW is like a movie" camp.  If you get really positional (maybe even draw a map) there can be a lot of acting under fire and reading the sitch.  Even reading the opponent if it's close-range combat.

Just remember we're focused on the characters, right, this is not like watching a live battlemap with a bird's eye view.  So we follow the characters around and we do the conversation thing.  Set each scene descriptively.  Describe some bad thing going on.  When they do something, they're doing it.  When they look at you, set them up with a soft move ("you see them moving into position", or "you realize you are surrounded", or "there's a sniper on the roof - maybe more" - followed by what do you do?).  If they fail a roll, the typical Hard Move will be to Inflict Harm as established, but it could be something else.

If this is a large combat scene (explosions, vehicles, whatever), "Barf Forth Apocalyptica" temporarily becomes "Barf Forth the Hell of War".  If gangs are involved, use the gang harm rules.  They will tell you how the overall battle ends up, but in the meanwhile you can push toward it one detail at a time.  Use the gang harm rules to guide these cutaway flashes of hell.

Suppressing fire is not a move, you just do it (of course you can always make up a custom move for it), but it
can be a way of "helping" someone else do their move.

When the battle is over, whatever's left will become more Apocalyptica to barf forth.  Nice how that works. :-)

Suppressing fire is not a move, you just do it

Actually, provide covering fire is one of the optional battle moves and pretty much covers this kind of situation (although you're right, it could also be an opportunity to help or interfere as well).

There have been a couple of threads on this recently:

How to run a good fire-fight
Auxiliary MC Principle to avoid getting stuck in a 'Seize by force' cycle

In the second one, I wrote two fairly detailed examples of what it might look like to either abstract the action into a single roll or to "zoom in" and handle the fight in detail.

I wrote an extensive example of running a battle using just the basic moves, here:
Combat example for Apocalypse engine games

Check it out if you want!

-Vincent

The world-famous combat example above should be edited down and included in the 2nd ed.  Just sayin'. :-)

Thank you!

This will help me a lot.

The combat example did open my eyes to a wealth of possibilities and I would also encourage its addition to future printings.  I will chime in to say that sometimes seize by force is all it takes.  For an epic climactic battle with life or death consequences the move probably needs some assistance.  However if your group is more interested in the social dynamics of the game than constant combat, the swiftness of moves like seize by force or go aggro are a huge benefit to keeping the real story moving.

Just remember that the player does not choose a move - then act. They act, then you choose [the most appropriate] move according to what you think. Play it out in the fiction, feel it out - makes everything more dynamic.

Also, and I'm saying this because my last campaign had both Hard+2 and Hard++3 characters; Seize by force really is a move that can't win you battles alone, even if you have two armour and can regulary choose to suffer less harm. If someone are acting as Robocop, by all means be a fan of the character, but remember that sometimes walking straight up and acting hard is really handing you an oppourtunity on a platter. Even a Hard+3 gunlugger will struggle alone using only Seize by force. Even if she can negate all the harm to the clock, even a 7-9 choice from the Harm-roll will present danger, and present cool oppourtunities (in/for play).

Also, always be fair and use the rules. If there's a small gang shooting at your lone Hocus, it's not like you as MC are to blame. Death, and the personal avoidance of it, is very much in control of the players. They can take Debilities and even at 12:00 they can cheat death (my players did it with a spirit walk were a much younger version of the deceased came back).

A battle is very much still a conversation! Remember that. Someone says something, maybe it (often it) results in a move - someone else says something, maybe another move, and then another move follows, etc... remember this and the players won't just take what they need with crafted moves.

Just remember that the player does not choose a move - then act. They act, then you choose [the most appropriate] move according to what you think. Play it out in the fiction, feel it out - makes everything more dynamic.

I just wanted to repeat this, with emphasis. It's true for the whole game but I think it is extra true in battles/combat situations, where players who are familiar with other games often fall back into inappropriate habits -- suddenly everyone starts thinking like there are rounds and they have to pick one move each round and etc. Just ask them what they are doing, then see if a move is necessary. And if it's not obvious if it is, or what kind of move, just ask more questions, get more detail. The fictional details always come first, and are ultimately going to guide what moves (if any) get used.

^^^ what he said.  This is one of those things that's actually easier for newbies.  Enjoy it!