122. Reading a Sitch or a Person

There’s a beautiful tension that exists in a lot of Vincent’s designs – a tension between the ways our intuition and experiences as roleplayers are supported at one moment and then given a hard jerk at another moment. He analyzes the way people really play at the table and will serve up a design that falls into those patterns we’ve developed while simultaneously demanding that we do something alien and potentially awkward. PC moves immediately resonate with players as an intuitive way to play, but at the same time, players buck against the limitations of specific moves, like go aggro or seize by force. MC moves are praised for structurally representing how many GMs naturally play, but threats (and fronts from first edition) are often jettisoned for feeling unnatural. Some people are made uncomfortable by that tension, and some might even dismiss the parts that grate as poor design. Personally, I love the tension.

We see that tension at work in the way that both read a sitch and read a person limit the questions that a player can ask when making the move. The idea that we get to ask penetrating questions is satisfying and feels rights. That we only get a handful of questions to ask can feel like a jacket that’s slightly too small, restricting our movements and comfort. Having introduced the moves, explained them in full, and provided examples for them, this next section seeks to summarize a distinction between the moves, answer a predictable question, and give a handy trick to the MCs.

First, the distinction:

When a character reads a charged situation, the player asks all the questions up-front, right then. When a character reads a person, though, the player holds onto the questions and asks them one by one during their interaction. You may have to remind the players a few times before they get in the habit (147)

Check. Roger. Covered that. That last sentence acknowledges the tension I’ve referred to. Asking questions as a freeform conversation between characters unfolds is not natural for most roleplayers, so it will take some time to form the new habit.

Second, the predictable question – what do I do if they ask a question not on the list?:

Strictly speaking, the player should ask questions from the lists, and no other. Some players, you’ll find, won’t do this naturally, they’ll just out and ask whatever’s on their mind. My recommendation is to take it in stride: the rules require you to answer a question from the list, even if the player asks some other question, and there’s no need for you to draw attention to it.

For instance, let’s say that Keeler’s about to step out into some hotly contested territory, so she reads the sitch. “Am I about to walk into an ambush?” her player says. I could be a picky stickly and insist that she choose a question verbatim, but fuck that, right? I’ll just pretend she asked “what’s my enemy’s true position” and answer as though she had. “There’s a fantastic spot for an ambush, a chokepoint you’ll have to pass through,” maybe I say. “I’d bet a hundred jingle that Disember’s fuckers are there waiting” (147 - 148)

There’s that tension again. The answer here is a practical solution to employ before your players pick up the new habit demanded of them by the game. Yes, they technically need to choose a question from the list, but if the question they ask can be answered by you as though they asked a question from the list, answer that question.

What I love about this little section is that it offers a little sympathy to the reader. It says, I know that what I’m asking of you and the other players is hard and unlike what you have done in other games, so here are a few tips to get you through the transition, a workaround while you build some new habits.

Whether you think the tension in these moves is productive or a pain in the ass is up to you. I dig it, but I respect that others have struggled with it. What this section makes clear is that Vincent and Meguey are well aware of what they are asking of - and offering to! - their audience.

And with that, they give a little advice to the MC:

When the player blows the roll to read a sitch or read a person, one of my favorite moves is to turn the questions back on them. “Hey by the way, where are you most vulnerable? Also, what should Roark be on the lookout for? And while I’m at it, what’s his best escape route?” and then use the player’s answers to just fucking bring it home.

Yeah, that’s an awesome thing to do. It doesn’t surprise me that they end with this juicy bit of advice, because they basically just told you that there are going to be some growing pains among your play group as you adjust to the rules of the game, and even though they are giving you tools to deal with those pains, a reader could be put off by the indications of hard times ahead. So to soothe over whatever might have been stirred up in you by the first couple of paragraphs, they end with a reward, the upside of the move’s questions. As an MC, the questions are perfect for you, pre-planned fuckery just waiting for a missed roll. Yeah, yeah, possibly rough waters, but look at this! That’s just a smart rhetorical move.