Here are the basic moves with their triggers from the first edition of Apocalypse World:
- Act under fire – When you do something under fire…, roll +cool.
- Go aggro – When you go aggro on someone, roll +hard.
- Sucker someone – When you attack someone unsuspecting or helpless, ask the MC if you could miss…
- In battle – When you’re in battle, you can bring the battle moves into play.
- Seduce or manipulate – When you try to seduce, manipulate, bluff, fast-talk, or lie to someone, tell them what you want them to do, give them a reason, and roll +hot.
- Read a sitch – When you read a charged situation, roll +sharp.
- Read a person – When you read a person in a charged interaction, roll +sharp.
- Open your brain – When you open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll +weird.
- Help or interfere – When you help or interfere with someone who’s making a roll, roll +Hx [a set of stats, with each PC having a separate Hx with every other PC].
Many PbtA games adapt this list to use as their core, even in other genres.
If your game has stats, you want the basic moves to make a balanced use of those stats. That’s not always as simple as having five basic moves for your five basic stats, for instance, because moves may get used in play at different frequencies.
Now let’s look at the moves for a Powered by the Apocalypse game that’s completely different:
In Pasión de las Pasiones, you and your friends will play out the stories of the greatest telenovela ever to air! You won’t be playing the actors, directors, or camera crew; instead, you’ll be playing characters like El Gemelo, scheming and dangerous, or like La Empleada, innocent character and striving for love. You’ll play through stories with dramatic reveals, explosive confrontations, faked deaths, and more!
Here are the triggers and roll mechanics for its basic moves:
- Demand What You Deserve – When you demand what you deserve, roll with the questions: Are you offering something of value in return? Do they love you in this moment?
- Express Your Love Passionately – When you express your love passionately, roll with the questions: Are you dressed to impress? Do they believe that you are single?
- Manipulate a Superior – When you manipulate a social superior, tell them what you want them to do and roll with the questions: Have you caught them in a good mood? Does your well-being directly affect theirs?
- Strike Out with Voice or Violence – When you strike out at someone with voice or violence, roll with the questions: Have you caught them off guard? Have they just wronged you?
- Accuse Someone of Lying – When you accuse someone of lying to their face, roll with the questions: Do you have an audience? Do you have evidence?
- Act With Desperation – When you act with desperation, tell the MC what situation you want to avoid, and roll with the questions: Are you doing this for love? Are you doing this for vengeance?
- Spot Something Out of Place – When you try to spot something out of place in a social interaction or someone’s personal space, roll with questions: Have you been intimate with them recently? Are you free of other distractions?
- Process Your Feelings Out Loud – When you process your feelings out loud, ask each member of the audience if they are rooting for you, each one giving you a +1 or +0 (max +3), and roll.
(Note that rather than use stats, Pasión de las Pasiones grants a +1 for each listed question you can answer in the affirmative.)
So as you design basic moves for your own PbtA game, think about the core actions that players will take and what they are centered on.
If you want to start with moves centered around violence and exploration, check out the basic moves from Uncommon World, which were voted on by 250 players and are drawn from seven fantasy roleplaying PbtA systems, all available for use in your own games under Creative Commons licenses.
Photo by Nik Korba on Unsplash.
You can download this and other essays in my free ebook, Reflections on PbtA Design.
