Okay, were we go again! Though, since
jazzisblues called me out on the episode, this should come as no surprise.
So, it was great that you guys were reading out the moves the first few times you did it, but I really think it would be helpful if you read them out each time you did the move. Sure, it could get repetitive, but it's super helpful. Big props to
gina for doing it each time it felt like.
My reasoning is this: You guys rolled
Unleash your powers a bunch in this session. Only on 3 occasions was the full move read out. The importance of this being the 7-9 result. On a 7-9 Take a condition, or the GM will tell you how the effect is unstable or temporary. Every time this move came up, and a 7-9 was rolled, when the full move was not read out loud, it felt like maybe a slight pause, and then JiB just started narrating. When Mr. Clean rolled it at the end to try and fly everyone to the rooftop, the choice of spend 1 Team pool, or drop a teammate was presented. If
cadave had read out the move, he would know he could take a condition to just pull it off clean. If he chose not to take a condition, then the GM gets to do some fun stuff.
Then I would also just argue about spending the team pool. Others can spend team pool if they describe how they are helping you, or you can spend it if you do it selfishly, and basically be a jerk face to a teammate. You can't spend it on yourself unless you do something to ignore or insult a teammate, because it's about using a team resource selfishly.
Again, I urge you to read out the entire moves out loud, another example being
Enter battle against a dangerous foe In the end, I think maybe you added the right total amount of team to the pool, I don't recall if Mr. Clean had influence over everyone, or if they all had the same goal. I know you definitely removed 2, which was accurate. The final part that was missed, was how the leader can mark a condition to prevent a team from being removed from the pool.
Other thoughts/suggestions would be to ask the players to describe their actions more in depth. i.e. when Derby Girl says she want's to unleash her powers, ask her what she's actually doing, cause the description might end up triggering another move entirely.
Final thoughts/wants: Encourage the players to exert their influence over each other! I want to hear that delicious drama of hearing Derby Girl tell off Mr. Clean, or call Zeke a freak! Embrace the Teen Drama!
And finally
jazzisblues Take off the kids gloves dude. You can go much harder. Your hard moves feel like soft moves, and your soft moves feel like a pillow. Like, Zeke rolled a 6- on assessing the situation, and all that happened was finding the possible remains of someone? That's cool and shocking, but not much seemed to come out of it, and when you are playing 2 hours every two weeks, you probably want to try and ramp things up more.
Zeke's 7-9 to try and track down his mom in his now modified Honda, you told him it would be the temporary effect, and got them to the location? Well, yeah, he was going to get to the location, but nothing else seemed to evolve out of that roll.
Another example was when Mr. Clean tried to blast 'Silverbolt' with his Clean beams, and got a 6-. And He inadvertently cleaned the nice old lady's house and clothes, turning everything white...and she was perfectly okay with it? Come on dude, beat up these punk wannabe heroes. Blow a hole in the building, provide a new threat they have to deal with, with the possible collapse of the building.
And 'Silverbolt', she was just trapped? Without ever taking a hit? Sure, she's guaranteed to show up later, but have her break out, or just describe her attempting to break out, she's got lightning powers, I think, and Derby Girl was being an absolute jerk face to her too, stealing her helmet and all that?
Conway always described it to me as almost every die roll should be avalanching into another threat/situation for the heroes to deal with, and you should never roll the same move twice in a row.
So yeah...umm. Ramp up the drama, hit them harder, read things out more, describe in better detail? The Ramping things up seems pretty important. Ya'll play ~2 hour sessions, which is on average half the time most average sessions are, every two weeks, So in the limited time you have, ramping things up is probably a safe bet. Luckily, next issue, it looks like things will open way ramped up!
I know you can go harder, we all know that. And they can take it, otherwise they aren't actually heroes, are they?
I know I probably come off like a whiner baby, but I do love what you guys are doing. This campaign probably hits me so hard, because of all the playtesting I did for it, so I just really want to hear you guys get to the point where it's all singing for you, and you're having adorable teen romances and rivalries with one another and yelling at each other in the middle of punching bad guys.
Although, that one moment you did call me out on
Take a powerful blow? You got it dude! You can't use the defend move on yourself in Masks!