Aww cool. Thanks for sharing
jazzisblues.
Looking at the Basic and Advanced moves now.
Yeah, as
joecrak said, you don't need the 6- clause on all the moves. Also, I think that "roll+whatever" goes at the end of the trigger, rather than in the middle. For example:
should probably become:
For Investigate, I feel like "What here is most important to me?" is something that the GM shouldn't be telling the player. Unless I'm misunderstanding it. Shouldn't the player decide what is important the character after the GM tells them what's present? Also, maybe "Why did this happen?" and "Did this actually happen here?" should have blanks in them.
For Rough 'Em Up I'm guessing that doing harm to the witness is something you want to avoid. What about splitting the list of options into two: one 10+ list and one 7-9 list. You can pick from the 10+ list even if you roll a 7-9, but you leave the witness in bad shape if you do.
I think you could simplify Red Tape as all the options are just "Get X". Something like "On a 10+, you get what you asked for. On a 7-9, there's a problem or a cost, the Commissioner will tell you what it will take to get what you want."
Chase is a good, solid move. a 10+ gets you everything you want and more, and a 7-9 is success at a cost.
The "Put yourself in a bad position" option of Shoot Out seems a bit unfair. Letting the Commissioner make a move here is the same as a 6- result. I think something like "You put yourself in harms way" or "You attract unwanted attention" would suffice. Or replace that option with something about collateral damage.
In some situations I could see the harm being completely avoided for Protect & Serve, but in others I see the protecting character taking the harm. Maybe something like "On a hit (7+) you take the harm instead of them. On a 10+, choose one: the harm is halved (round down), you gain 1 reputation."
Cover or Block works.
For Standoff, I'm not sure how characters would take damage. Fictionally, they've drawn on the suspect and gotten them to surrender, but bullets haven't been fired yet. I think the other 7-9 options here need to be more like "something about the bust is questionable".
Is there just a downtime move where cops can rest and recuperate? Socialize looks like that move, but as a player I wouldn't want to roll it that often. The chance of the Commissioner getting to make a move is too high, especially when multiple PCs are rolling.
I think Stake Your Reputation needs a bit more fiction in the trigger. How do cops stake their reputation? What does that look like in the story?
I feel like some of the questions for the information gathering moves, Investigate, Rough 'em Up, Interrogate, and especially Go to the Streets shouldn't be rolled for. What I mean is that the answer to some of those questions should just be given to the characters. Have you read
Monster of the Week? The information gathering move in that game seemed to lay everything out for the characters really easily, and it took me a while to wrap my head around why. In that game, the characters hunt monsters. It's not a matter of "if" there is a monster present or "if" the hunters will find is but "when" and "how prepared they will be". I feel that this is kind of the same thing. There's some kind of crime the characters will be investigating and they'll have some basic information. So it seems like the characters finding the bad guy isn't a "what" or an "if", but more of a "how prepared they are" sort of thing.
It seems like some of the questions in the information gathering moves
must be asked for the game to continue, and making those "roll" moves means you are providing the players with non-choices. For example, "What happened here?" in Investigate is currently a must-ask question. I say remove it from the list of options and just give it to the players on a 7+. The characters are trained cops and so should be able to piece together what happened reasonably well. Give them extra options to choose from.