Driver playing chicken?

  • 8 Replies
  • 5328 Views
Driver playing chicken?
« on: July 17, 2015, 02:40:28 PM »
Johnny the driver says: I drive straight at him to make him swerve.

It's chicken, right? What move is being triggered here?

To me, it's go aggro, and the thing Johnny wants the other guy to do is get out of the way. But on a 10+, the other guy can just suck it up and force Johnny's hand (ie, force a head-on collision). So they exchange harm? That's weird for me -- I don't normally think of exchanging harm as something that happens when you hit going aggro on 10+.

I don't think it's seizing the road by force because that means the other character's player has to decide if he's chicken before Johnny even rolls his hard -- that is, he doesn't get a chance to back down... which seems to be the opposite of what playing chicken actually is.

And it's not acting under fire... like, playing chicken is all about who is hardest, right?

So what do yall think?

Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2015, 04:25:35 PM »
I think playing chicken is at least a bit about keeping your cool. You don't want to crash into the other guy, otherwise you'd try to swerve into him when he flinches..and loses his cool. Someone is going to lose their nerve or else you both crash into each other (which sounds like a miss result).

I suppose it depends who is the actor in this drama. If you are trying to get the other guy to back down under threat of violence, then go aggro. If they suck it up well unfortunately your weapon of choice also deals damage to you.

If on the other hand he's the hardass you started this contest, you are acting under his fire. You flinch, you swerve around him. Otherwise he flinches. Or you crash.

Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2015, 04:32:31 PM »
It's about being hard? No, clearly it's about being cool. If you lose your cool, you'll panic and swerve. If you're able to just keep driving straight, confident that the other car will swerve, you're damn cool. Roll to act under fire, with the fire being "you turn before they do".

Regardless of whether the Driver chickens out, will the NPC? Will they chicken, or do they have enough of a death-wish to crash if the Driver stays on course? Or will they stay in for longer than their driving skill can handle, thus crashing while trying to swerve? You as the MC have to make this call, I think, but you can use any of the handy options to disclaim decision-making. With this information, the cool roll above is clear. Perhaps you want to be generous with the truth, and tell the Driver "it's no use, Tum Tum is crazy, they'll just crash into you" if that's the case.

If you decide they would swerve "at the last moment", though, then a cool roll would be great to determine whose "last moment" is actually last. 10+, Tum Tum chickens out. 7-9, maybe they crash from being overconfident (you prove your cool but they do too, to grievous bodily harm for you both), or Tum Tum swerves but the Driver also wavers. Miss, maybe the Driver panics and swerves first, maybe Tum Tum or an accomplice draws a gun and starts firing at your windshield while you're at it.


Alternate ruling: you're threatening them, but you don't actually intend to follow through. Roll to manipulate. Your promise is that you'll keep driving, and the concrete promise is... driving so fast and furiously that it warrants an acting under fire roll not to dent their car while passing, perhaps, or just to not crash after passing them? Or, I dunno, locking the pedal and climbing on the roof. That's concrete assurance you're committed (if you don't want to die you can still "chicken" by jumping off, but you have staked your car).


If you really think it ought to be hard, write a hard custom move with the outcomes you envision. Maybe they are you swerve / you crash / they swerve, or maybe they're something else. I'd say it depends on the NPC. With a crazy enough NPC, it's not about whether you're hard enough to stay in; it's whether you're sharp enough to realize they have a death wish, and chicken out in time. Imagine playing against, like, any of the characters at the end of Fury Road. Rictus Erectus would crash a car and die to bring a halt to the war rig, as would any other war boy.

Being a fan of the player's character, however, means that if there's no reason to believe the NPC would stay in to the end, a successful cool roll means the NPC chickens out.


Finally, if you really want it to be not only hard but go aggro, I think exchanging harm on a 10+ makes sense in this context. Imagine you're going aggro with a grenade at close quarters, like Leia (disguised as a bounty hunter) in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi. If they force your hand, they take harm, but your weapon of choice happened to have a hell of a recoil. If you can go aggro with a messy weapon, hurting people other than the one you threatened when you fire, then I think you can go aggro with a car, hurting yourself when you "pull the trigger".

I think the cool roll is more appropriate, though.


Fake edit: yeah, derendel said much the same things as me.

*

noclue

  • 609
Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2015, 05:13:34 PM »
Go Agro
James R.

    "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which can not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
     --HERBERT SPENCER

Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2015, 02:48:10 AM »

It depends on what the Driver is doing. If they are just gonna drive straight and fuck the other guy, Go Aggro is the clear winner. If they think the other guy is going to break first, but are not willing to die to find out if they're right, then it's Acting Under Fire -- and if it turns out the other guy really doesn't give a fuck, the end result even on a 10+ might be losing the game of chicken. (If as MC I've decided the other guy is a psycho or is otherwise super unlikely to swerve, then on a 10+ I would probably give the driver that information explicitly and then let them make a decision about what to do at that very last second.)

Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2015, 11:24:19 AM »
I can see the argument for either Go Agro or Act Under Fire. Personally I would call it Act Under Fire unless the driver explicitly says they want to put their car and possibly their life at stake.

An NPC not caving on a 10+ doesn't sit right with me, though. I mean, fuck, I'm looking through this guy through crosshairs. Even if he's a crazy fucker, on a 10+ he is just chicken shit compared to my PC, who I'm a fan of. Even if as MC I truly thought this NPC would never cave, I am probably going to respect the roll. He is just not as cool as the driver.

*

lumpley

  • 1293
Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2015, 09:03:53 PM »
I'd call it going aggro every time.

As MC, when you're making the decision whether to have the NPC cave or force the driver's hand, be sure to read and understand the rules for how much harm the NPC would take in the crash. If the NPC is capable of any risk assessment at all, this should make the decision easy.

(Answer: Supposing that they're both in normal cars, p162 says that both vehicles will take 4-harm ap. P171 says that taking 4 harm means that the vehicle suffers catastrophic functional damage, and that 3-harm ap can blow through to the NPC. P168 says that suffering 3-harm means, for an NPC, either instant death, or else terrible wounds, shock, and death soon.)

-Vincent

Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2015, 02:59:28 AM »
An NPC not caving on a 10+ doesn't sit right with me, though. I mean, fuck, I'm looking through this guy through crosshairs.

Eh, as Vincent points out this guy is going to die if it does come to a collision, and the Driver is almost certainly going to live. I agree that this would be a very rare case, but sometimes making apocalypse world seem real is more important than letting the Driver 'win' a game of chicken -- and nor does 'be a fan' mean they have to look cool all the time (if anything I think an argument from giving the players the full effect of their successes, or whatever, is stronger). Some Drivers have other things going on.

Re: Driver playing chicken?
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2015, 09:40:39 AM »
Thanks all. Good to know. This did not come up during play, but was motivated by some weird driver stuff that did come up in play. I appreciate all the responses.