Has anyone had the Interfere move used often in their game? Was working on a custom class, and copying a version of the Animal Companion move, and I realized that I’d never had anyone use the Interfere option. Even when the players disagreed and refused to work together, I don’t think I ever had anyone actively try to sabotage another.
Was just wondering if this comes up in other peoples games, or if I’m missing something in mine.
Yeah, it comes up a lot in mine, but it really depends on the vibe in the group and how situations are framed. Like: some PC tries to win over some NPC that you have a crush on: INTERFERE!
Yeah, we use it a lot too. Particularly with social moves, parley and defy danger with Cha… It is often about resolving bonds.
Interfere became the difference between the Wizard who had turned on the party murdering 3 characters with an Empowered Fireball, and the Paladin saving himself and 1 other character with the interfere. Not often, but sometimes crucial. Also of note, a rule variant I have heard used makes aid and interfere much stronger by having them (when successfully done) upgrading or downgrading the result. A 7-9 would become a 10+ 0r 6-. I think key to this is to make the aid/interfere roll more weighty and have serious consequences for failure/partial success that measure up to the influence the move can have.
/sub (haven’t had it come up my games, but interested for similar reasons)
Interested as well. Also curious whether there’s any precedent for NPCs Interfering with players, or ideas on how to do this (simple penalty seems too boring, additional Defy Danger roll seems perhaps too hardcore)
Yeah, in my game NPCs can’t Interfere unless they have a special power that allows it. Like: Mindflayers might automatically be able to interfere with any action of yours that they don’t like, as a monster move. Or some anti-magic creature might automatically Interfere with any spell cast against it. (These are automatic penalties because as GM I don’t roll dice.) But NPCs can certainly do things that complicate PC actions; it’s just not usually something I treat as Interfere. That said, I’m sure there are other ways you could handle it.
Yeah, I agree with Jonathan, just have your NPCs do it, mess with the PC’s actions as often as possible. Tags are golden for this. I love love love the NPC generator at the back of the book and use the ‘knacks’ categories for tag inspiration.
Most of my (important or reaccuring) NPCs go on a card with name short description and a tag or three. In this case ‘nosy’, ‘manipulative’ or ‘belligerant’ are all possible interfere substitutes.
Make your monsters real.
Never had anyone use it, though it occurred to me whilst reading Grim World, that Interfering with the Slayer was a great way to push his murderstatthingy to maximum.
Our house rule is that if one player tries to dissuade another from their course of action, the only way is to have their character roll to Interfere. Otherwise, step off and let people manage themselves.
When we had a One-Shot with the Necromancer i interfered quite a bit…