C. Adventure Moves
Adventure moves encompass broadly useful actions to overcome obstacles, reinforce your position, conduct investigations, influence others, and support your fellow players.
When you attempt something risky or react to an imminent threat, envision your action and roll. If you act...
- With speed, agility, or precision: Roll +edge.
- With charm, loyalty, or courage: Roll +heart.
- With aggressive action, forceful defense, strength, or endurance: Roll +iron.
- With deception, stealth, or trickery: Roll +shadow.
- With expertise, insight, or observation: Roll +wits.
On a strong hit, you are successful. Take +1 momentum.
On a weak hit, you succeed, but not without a cost. Make a suffer move (-1).
On a miss, you fail, or a momentary success is undermined by a dire turn of events. Pay the Price.
The Face Danger move is a catch-all for risky, dramatic, or complex actions not covered by another move. If you’re trying to overcome an obstacle or resist a threat, make this move to see what happens. You select which stat to roll based on how you address the challenge.
A strong hit means you succeed. You are in control. What do you do next?
A weak hit means you overcome the obstacle or avoid the threat, but not without cost. Choose an option and envision what happens next. You don’t have complete control. Consider how the situation might escalate, perhaps forcing you to react with another move.
A miss means you are thwarted in your action, fail to oppose the threat, or make some progress but at great cost. You must Pay the Price.
When you assess a situation, make preparations, or attempt to gain leverage, envision your action and roll. If you act...
- With speed, agility, or precision: Roll +edge.
- With charm, loyalty, or courage: Roll +heart.
- With aggressive action, forceful defense, strength, or endurance: Roll +iron.
- With deception, stealth, or trickery: Roll +shadow.
- With expertise, insight, or observation: Roll +wits.
On a hit, you succeed. Take +1 momentum. On a strong hit, take both. On a weak hit, choose one.
- Take charge: Add +1 on your next move (not a progress move).
- Prepare to act: Take +2 momentum.
On a miss, you fail, or your assumptions betray you. Pay the Price.
The structure of Secure an Advantage is similar to Face Danger. You envision your action and roll + your most relevant stat. This move, however, is proactive rather than reactive. You’re evaluating the situation or strengthening your position.
This move gives you an opportunity to build your momentum or improve your chance of success on a subsequent move. It’s a good move to make if you want to take a moment to size up the situation, or if you’re acting to gain control. It will often encompass a moment in time - such as shoving your foe with your shield to set up an attack. Or, it can represent preparation or evaluation spanning minutes, hours, or even days, depending on the narrative circumstances.
A hit means you’ve identified an opportunity or gained the upper hand. You moved into position to covertly study the enemy camp. You prepared a clever disguise. You assembled an experimental chalk-engine boosting device. You scouted the best path through the trenches. Now it’s time to build on your success.
A miss means your attempt to gain advantage has backfired. You acted too slowly, presumed too much, were outwitted or outmatched, or were confounded by unlucky chance. Pay the Price.
If you are in the midst of a fight, do not make this move. Instead, you should Gain Ground when attempting to reinforce your position during combat scenes.
When you search an area, ask questions, conduct an investigation, or follow a track, roll +wits. If you act within a community or ask questions of a person with whom you share a connection, add +1; if you share a bond, add +2.
On a strong hit, you discover something helpful and specific. The path you must follow or action you must take to make progress is made clear. Envision what you learn (Ask the Oracle if unsure), and take +2 momentum.
On a weak hit, the information complicates your quest or introduces a new danger. Envision what you discover (Ask the Oracle if unsure), and take +1 momentum.
On a miss, your investigation unearths a dire threat or reveals an unwelcome truth that undermines your quest. Pay the Price.
Use this move when you’re not sure of your next steps, when the trail has gone cold, when you make a careful search, or when you do fact-finding.
There’s some overlap with other moves using +wits and involving knowledge, but each has their purpose. When you’re forced to react with awareness or insight to deal with an immediate threat, that’s Face Danger. When you size up your options or leverage your expertise and prepare to make a move, that’s Secure an Advantage. When you’re spending time searching, investigating, asking questions—especially related to a quest—that’s when you Gather Information. Use whichever move is most appropriate to the circumstances and your intent.
A strong hit means you gain valuable new information. You know what you need to do next. Envision what you learn, or Ask the Oracle.
A weak hit means what you learned is unsettling or ambiguous. To move forward, you need to overcome new obstacles and see where the clues lead.
On a miss, some event or person acts against you, a dangerous new threat is revealed, or you learn of something which contradicts previous information or severely complicates your quest.
When you attempt to persuade someone to do something, envision your approach and roll. If you...
- Charm, pacify, barter, or convince: Roll +heart (add +1 if you share a connection).
- Threaten or incite: Roll +iron.
- Lie or swindle: Roll +shadow.
On a strong hit, they’ll do what you want or share what they know. Take +1 momentum. If you use this exchange to Gather Information, make that move now and add +1.
On a weak hit, you succeed, as above, but their agreement comes with a demand or complication. Envision what they want (Ask the Oracle if unsure).
On a miss, they refuse or make a demand which costs you greatly. Pay the Price.
When you act to persuade someone to do as you ask, or give you something, make this move. It might be through bargaining, or intimidation, charm, diplomacy, or trickery. Use the appropriate stat based on your approach, and roll to see what happens.
This move doesn’t give you free rein to control the actions of other characters in your world. Remember: Fiction first. Consider their motivations. What is your leverage over them? What do they stand to gain or avoid? Do you have an existing relationship? If your argument has no merit, or your threat or promise carries no weight, you can’t make this move. You can’t intimidate your way out of a situation where you are at a clear disadvantage. You can’t barter when you have nothing of value to offer. If you are unsure, Ask the Oracle, “Would they consider this?” If the answer is yes, make the move.
On the other hand, if their positive response is all but guaranteed—you are acting obviously in their best interest or offering a trade of fair value—don’t make this move. Just make it happen. Save the move for times when the situation is uncertain and dramatic.
On a weak hit, success is hinged on their counter-proposal. Again, look to the fiction. What would they want? What would satisfy their concerns or motivate them to comply? If you accept their offer, you gain ground. If not, you’ve encountered an obstacle in your quest and need to find another path forward.
If you promise them something as part of this move, but then fail to do as you promised, they should respond accordingly. Perhaps it means a rude welcome when next you return to this community. If they are powerful, they may even act against you. If you share a bond, you would most certainly Test Your Relationship. Your actions, good or bad, should have ramifications for your story beyond the scope of the move.
On a miss, they are insulted, angered, inflexible, see through your lies, or demand something of you which costs you dearly. Their response should introduce new dangers or complications.
Compel may also be used to bring combat to a non-violent conclusion. Your approach dictates the stat you use—typically +iron when you threaten with further violence, +heart when you attempt to surrender or reason with them, and +shadow when you use trickery. However, Gain Ground may be more appropriate. Your foe must have a reason to be open to your approach. If unsure, Ask the Oracle.
When you act in direct support of an ally, envision how you aid them. Then, Secure an Advantage or Gain Ground to take action. If you score a hit, they (instead of you) take the benefits of the move.
If you Gain Ground and score a strong hit, you both have control. On a weak hit, your ally has control but you lose it.
Make this move when you are helping an ally (a protagonist played by another player) by taking a supporting action. You might be distracting a foe in combat, scouting ahead on a journey, or giving an ally encouragement as you stand against a dire threat. Outside of a fight, your effort is resolved using the Secure an Advantage, move. If you are in combat, use Gain Ground. If you score a hit, your ally takes the mechanical and narrative benefit of your success.
In combat, this is a proactive move, made when you are in control. If you score a strong hit, you and your ally are both in control. On a weak hit, your ally is in control, but you sacrifice your position for their benefit and lose control.
If you Aid an Ally and have an asset that gives you any additional benefits on the outcome of your Secure an Advantage or Gain Ground move, your ally also takes those benefits (instead of you).
If you score a miss as you Aid Your Ally, one or both of you should Pay the Price as appropriate to the circumstances and your intent when making the move. If you are in a fight, both of you have now lost control.
Don’t ping pong this move back and forth between two characters in an attempt to build momentum. Envision what you are doing to Aid Your Ally, make the move, resolve it, and hand the reins over to your ally as they leverage the advantage. Keep it moving. Make things happen.