Out-of-Character: Rules Questions and Answers

About Battles:

The two basic moves that let you deal harm are Go Aggro and Seize by Force. Let me quickly explain the difference between these two.

Go Aggro is using the threat of violence, and the willingness to follow up on that threat, to get what you want from somebody. If they already have a gun trained on you, you can't go aggro unless you can change up your situation and gain the advantage first. If you're only bluffing about using violence and wouldn't really unload your shotgun into their kneecap, that counts as manipulation.

Seize by Force is the move you use when you want to just flat out TAKE something. It could be their life, control of the situation, or an actual physical object, or even their position in battle. But the important thing to realize about this move is that you are setting the stakes when you say what you're seizing. This move is for when weapons are drawn and all parties are going for it. Seize by Force means exchanging harm as established by the weapons and armor of both parties.

When in doubt, just describe what you're trying to do and roll some dice, and I'll tell you what the move is.

It's situational, which might be a bit tricky in this format what with the lag in response time. If they guy also has his gun out and you're both within range of each other, that's probably sieze by force. If he's got a shotgun and you're using your sniper rifle and you're far away enough to use it properly, that's probably going agro. Think of it this way: if you go agro on somebody you can name what it is you want from them: to get out of your way, to tell you where roark is, to give you the keys to their jeep. But using it more loosely, you could say the thing you want them to to is DIE!

It really depends on the options you want, so look them over on both moves. If you want to take definite hold of something or impress, dismay, or frighten somebody, sieze by force is your move. You're going in guns blazing and all bets are off. However, part of that exchange is them getting the full power of their weapon into you, which can be negated by your armor and the option from the move, "suffer little harm" (-1 harm)

Also note that the options for go aggro are actually for the person you're using it on to pick. You wave a gun in their face, they get to choose, do what he says or don't and suck up the damage. On a 7-9 they get more options, but they could still choose to take the damage. However, this is for when you're in a position to use your muscle as leverage. If it's you against a small gang in an open field, go aggro isn't available by default. You could still use it, but you'd have to avoid a bunch of guys and maybe get a knife to the throat of their leader or somebody the leader cares about, and you'd certainly be acting under fire to do so.

It's all situational, so don't think so much about "i want to make this move." Think more about "i want to do this badass thing" and name the badass thing you're doing and then figure out which move supplies you with the correct options for it. Or else roll dice and i'll name the move for you.

I made a sub-board in apocalypse world for all of your character sheets.

It's here.

Everyone kindly create their own thread there and post their sheets. I moved your original posts with your character sheets there. That way you can go back and edit them to do Hx, post new moves as you take them, and mark your advances.

About rolling dice: Kindly do so in a separate post from your role-play post. So in the post you say "i walk into a room and do a bunch of stuff. one of thems stuffs counts as a move i reckon" and then you make another post like so.

Hey good roll!

This is just so we keep all our ducks in a row and can keep the mechanical bits of the game in order more easily. You get to mark four, and then on your fifth you start over at zero and improve, like so

Highlighted stat: cool. Taking improvement

Of course, there are other things that allow you to take XP, so just note them in a similar fashion. You don't have to name your improvement right there in the scene, head over to your character sheet and make a comment on that thread that you improved and name your improvement there, then edit your sheet as necessary if desired.

This might seem slightly convoluted, but it lets me watch your progress and such and plan ways to screw with you better.

We should not be starting any scenes without completion of the highlighting for all players.

Vernacular is more than fine and is encouraged. Grammar has no place in Apocalypse World as it can't be traded for expired spam or blowjobs.

If you'd acted more directly on my answers, you'd have gotten +1 to your roll, plus Husher could have assisted you, tipping the scales to a passing roll. That's alright, now you know that Seize by Force is not always the best move when you have no armor. Live and learn!

Let me just clarify. You made good use of my answers in your post, warning Hush about the foam and pointing out the big dog, but the move you made didn't act on those answers so you don't get the +1.

You chose to seize by force, which is going straight in the fray, when I'd advised avoiding the pack's frontal attack (act under fire), and attacking their rear flanks (go aggro). You'd have gotten +1 to both those rolls, just based on the first answer.

If you'd specifcally mentioned you were avoiding their bite, you'd have to act under fire for it, but you'd have gotten a +1 to that roll also.

If you had rolled to attack OR avoid the large dog, I'd have granted the +1. If you had rolled to manipulate Husher into attacking the big dog for you, I'd have granted +1.

You're not married to those moves, and you're certainly not obliged to act on my answers. But if you're going for that +1 to your roll, make a case for how your action ties in to the answer, out of character, if you have to.

Gotcha. I still struggle to wrap my head around the dramatic nature of combat in AW. Trying to bypass the whole pack sounded damn near impossible despite it actually just needing a good act under fire roll. I also didn't recall act under fire could be rolled in with other actions immediately. Sorry for the stupidity.

Oh, and I entirely agree with PC dialogue. If your character is talking like a stuffy English professor there better be a damned good reason for that shit. I was purely refering to my OOC posts. I've know people to become surprisingly irate when one does something like begin a sentence with a conjunction. (Which after a quick google aparently seems to be a semi legitimate sentence construction again. Cool)