Custom Move: When you Interrogate a Large Group of People

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Custom Move: When you Interrogate a Large Group of People
« on: August 11, 2014, 01:18:14 AM »
Here's a move I made up on the fly, when the Gunlugger said she said she wanted to interrogate a large group of farmers, and to find out which of them tipped off the raiders.

Roll +hard.  10+ Pick all three.  7-9.  Pick one.
-You don't have to hurt anyone.  Much.
-You find the rat.
-No one else is obviously suspicious. 

Hadn't decided what a fail would be.  Something bad!

The Gunlugger then proceeded to "interrogate" the farmers, with the Driver's assistance.  Knives were involved.  The Gunlugger still got a 7-9 result.  I said she can pick one of those options, but the other two would come to pass.  The Gunlugger chose to find the rat, meaning she ended up hurting most of the farmers, and killing one.  Also another of the farmers seemed really suspicious, and would get the ire of the others. The Gunlugger found the rat, but she won't be soon forgotten by the tortured farmers.

Feel free to use, and no comment/feedback.

Re: Custom Move: When you Interrogate a Large Group of People
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2014, 05:12:04 AM »
Why not use Go aggro or Manipulate as torture instead? I think the Aggro move is a good simulation of real torture as they'll often say what they think you want to hear instead on a 7-9.

Re: Custom Move: When you Interrogate a Large Group of People
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2014, 11:28:35 PM »

Yeah I just don't think you need this move. Who is this 'large group of farmers'? Everybody in Apocalypse World who matters has a name, and a face, and at least some kind of personality. You don't 'have to hurt' a random person, you have to hurt a specific person, who has friends and skills and connections to the community. Large faceless groups (that are not clearly represented by some sort of leadership figure) are pretty far outside the game's basic premise. If it's something like 'Michelin and his gang of two dozen toughs' that can be ok, because the PCs are actually just interacting with Michelin. But if there is ONLY 'two dozen toughs' then it's the MC's job to start differentiating some of them, so the PCs can interact with them using the moves of the game.

Obviously this is not rule without exceptions; the Hocus in particular has a move that addresses a 'mob' of people. But I think that in general I'd try to avoid anything that generalizes interactions like this, unless I had a flavour of Apocalypse going that specifically involved a lot of groups like this.