Tag: Gherhartd Sildoenfein

Defend is a rather unique move in that it hacks the main game loop / the narrative economy.

A hold-carrying player has to power to hijack MC moves. They can interrupt soft and hard moves and change them in a kind of ¿firm? move.

On a soft move, by spending holds, the defending players ensure that the threatening attack effectively happens, potentially bypassing other player’s agency and – in a way – transforming a soft move into something harder.

On a hard move, the player spending holds is saying “oh no you don’t, not so fast”, they are allowed to react when they normally can’t.  With much less liberty then when faced with a soft move, but nonetheless.

Strategically, if playing to win, spending hold on a soft MC move isn’t optimal. Better to address the soft move with a regular move (or no move at all) and keeping one’s hold for a hard move.

I don’t like the agency-robbing and the strategic parts so much.

It seems that interrogating oneself over Defend is in the air, so here is my shot at it.

My foremost trouble with this move is its temporality.

First, when it triggers, on a success, nothing really happens in the fiction. But on a 6-, the GM gets to make a move. It’s weird. Second, what happens when the holds are spent? Not very much.

Secondly, with the hold mechanics, I feel like a pc shouldn’t be able to defend again. Because if the they could, why didn’t they get more holds the first time? What does it means that the holds are spent? As far as I know, other hold-spending moves are usually for more abstract/unique things, giving something like a number of charge for a per-session effect or things like that. They depend less on a fictional trigger.

Now, players and GM may work together to move the game from there to a place where defend is less desirable, but it always feels artificial to me.

I feel that defend should work very well with no holds, as an “instant” move, like Hack n slash or Volley. Like this (untested): When you rise in defense of a person, item, or location under attack, roll+Con. ✴On a 10+, choose 3 from the list below. ✴On a 7–9, choose 1…