GM Moves on 7 – 9:
The rules say the following: “Each move will tell you what happens on a 10+ and a 7–9. Most moves won’t say what happens on a 6-, that’s up to the GM but you also always mark XP.”
The other night I was GMing a game that had a druid for the first time. He rolled a 7 – 9 while shapeshifting. According to the move the result for getting 7 – 9 is to get less hold. However, there are not listed soft move options for me as the GM to take. So, what do I get to do in this case: do I get to make a soft move of my choice when no options are listed or because no options are listed does the character simply get less hold as the result and things continue on?
He simply gets less hold, as I understand it.
He just gets less hold in this case, yep.
Relative to the extreme versatility and potential power of Shapeshift? Getting less Hold in exchange for the risk implicit in making a roll, is punitive enough.
And then he has to say or do something. Or you do. Bam, back into fiction and soft moves.
Honestly, let the druid do what the druid does. Shapeshifting is just deciding how long they remain in their animal form. They’re still going to be rolling the dice each time they make a move as an animal and all those rolls are subject to the usual 7-9 partial success and 6- miss. Don’t mess with the shapeshift. Play it as it’s written, and don’t go stripping the druid of the one thing people play them for.
I think I should have phrased my question better. I’m not so much looking to mess with this particular move as looking to see if there is any sense of a general rule of thumb about moves that simply don’t have any sort of GM move on 7 – 9. As mentioned above, the rules indicate that 7 – 9 means success with a consequence, and that moves will list what happens on 10+ and 7 – 9. But, there are some (like the druid’d shape-shifting move) that don’t really seem to have a consequence at all (unless you consider less hold to be the consequence). When I, as GM, come across these, what action do I take on 7 – 9? Do I still get to make a soft move, even if there aren’t any options listed?
Less hold is, itself, the consequence. Remember that the player risked GREATER consequences when they rolled the dice. So the consequence of partial success is reduced payout on that risk.
I generally turn on the pressure here, too – you have less hold and things are hairy and man don’t you wish you could make just ONE MORE move?
Thanks for the feedback. The druid in this case was being particularly crafty and often shape-shifted before anything really happened. I wanted to up the pressure with some sort of move when he did this and got 7 – 9, but when I did it was protested that “wasn’t what the move said.” So I let it be for the rest of the evening.
Don’t let him know that you’re doing it because he 7-9ed. Just keep rolling with your fiction. Like the great comedians say, “never let them see you work.”