I have had several DW sessions where players try an emphatic speech when speaking to an NPC, but today, I had my first Oscar Nominated, Almost Moved the GM to Tears, We Heard the Film Score Swelling in the Background honest-to-Glob I will not ask this guy to roll+CHA because it was really that good Appeal to Awesomeness speech.
I wish I had recorded it, but here’s my best recollection of the phrasing as the Elven Ranger spoke to the Grizzled Veteran in the Dying Town:
“Those townsfolk down there are sheep, without direction. You’re the only one here with a scrap of honour. Show them. Build something. Take this money, hire someone to start building boats again, and make this town the great port it should be. Once your ships are built, I will sail with you through the mist to negotiate trade with my people.”
Give that player an XP.
Man, I was all but tearing up, it was amazing. The Wizard felt shadowed but I told him everyone has their time in the sun. We discovered his dark past this session, so I’m sure he’ll shine when it catches up with him.
Poor Parley…
Sometimes you don’t trigger Hack and Slash, because your positioning is perfect and they can’t fight back. Sometimes you don’t trigger Parley, because what you’re asking is something that deep down they want to do anyway.
But then deep down you as the GM are always deciding wether this is manipulating or not. Do you really want to decide this every time or let a Basic Move decide that instead?
Tim Franzke I didn’t predict this for a minute, and followed what honesty demanded of the NPC.
The reason I was able to let go of the roll was that they were with another NPC who found the speech so retrograde to his desires that it shook off Charm Person and made him an enemy of the heroes.
What could be fairer?
Tim Franzke The former. Moves don’t decide what the fiction is, the fiction decides when moves trigger. You should absolutely be thinking about the player’s fictional positioning and the NPC’s nature before deciding whether to roll Parley or not, same as you should think about anything else before looking at moves. Especially when it’s an awesome moment like this one, where they’ve set everything up and used the environment to their advantage (if you want to think of it in terms other than “pretty speech circumvents your charisma score,” as it generally doesn’t).