Hey, :)

Quick question: how does one resolve the simple act of a PC shooting an NPC in the face when we don't really want anything from them?

Three choices I see:

1) Just do it. The MC looks at the NPC through cross-hairs anyway, and apparently, so does the PC. Figure harm as usual and go from there.

2) Treat it as an implicit "die or I'll kill you" intent, and use the Going Aggro move. Naturally, on a 7-9, the MC will usually not choose the "cave anyway" option. This works best if there's room for the target to hunker down and hide or flee and escape, as it's one of the more obvious 7-9 options in there...

3) Use the Seize Something By Force, with the "something" being the target's life. This works best if the target can shoot back or somehow stab the shooter in the face with a pen-knife as they hit the bullet with their own skull.

Come to think of it, if my target can neither shoot back nor hide away and I want to make him dead, I guess option 1 makes a lot of sense, but I wanted to know if the other two options make sense as well.

From the examples, I gathered that if it's an NPC shooting a PC, it's just a regular old Hard Move (tm), probably in response to a failure of some sort, and the harm just happens.

Cheers,
J.

We've generally been doing Seize by Force for those situations. Just killing the NPC seems iffy because, "to do it, do it" and doing it is seizing by force. Right?

J, your threefold assessment is exactly right.

In circumstance where it's not obvious which to apply, I recommend going aggro as the most general-purpose. Seizing by force really only works if the victim is armed and fighting back.

For NPCs shooting PCs, there are lots of possibilities, but if your MC move is to inflict harm, then yes, the harm just happens.

- Vincent

Hoy, :)

Cool. :) I thought so, but I thought I'd check anyway.

Cheers,
J.