#RPGaDay2021 Day 16: Move

Today's #RPGaDay2021 prompt, Move, takes me to a couple places. The first is movement in the form of forward momentum in a game session. The other is in the taking the word to mean "Maneuver", as in a specific bit of rules defined action to take during play. Writing apparatus, engage!

Forward Momentum

So, forward momentum in the game... I'm sure most of my readers have experienced sessions that went on for hours, but not all that much got done. This is not necessarily a problem so long as everyone is enjoying themselves, but if it is happening and people are feeling frustrated about it, it's worth investigating what the hold-up is. Here are some regular culprits:

1. Everybody, or a good amount of the group really wants to socialize and discuss matters outside the game. Alternately someone is distracted from the game, and so slows everything down as the rest of the group has to catch them up on what is happening when their character needs to get involved. Likewise, due to the lack of engagement with the game, the quality of distracted folks' contributions tend to be lower.
2. Players get bogged down in planning what they will have the characters do next, or considering hypothetical scenarios and what they will or won't do should such hypotheticals prove true. At times this can be a real "spinning in circles" sort of situation that needs to be interrupted or stopped somehow so things can get back underway.
3. A Player or GM can't be bothered to learn the rules for how their own character(s) work, leading to decision paralysis or lengthy rules look-up episodes, or education of a player about how a game works. Some of this is acceptable as part of learning a new game, but a player that repeatedly needs to be instructed on how a game works is creating a burden for everyone else, as they take up time that could be used to move the game forward and impose on the GM or another player to possibly look up something on their behalf.
4. Some subset of players is engaged in an activity in-character that feels idle or uninteresting to the rest of the players. A long shopping trip, or extensive conversations that don't serve much purpose other than for the PCs engaged in them to soak up some spotlight time. These activities can be great and possibly even memorable or important in fleshing out characterization and relationships, but are good only in so much as they contribute to the enjoyment of everyone at the table.
5. Excessive caution. This often goes with getting bogged down in planning, but doesn't have to. When a player is all about protecting their character or position, building a wall, covering every eventuality, unwilling to engage with the challenge of the session, it can bring the game's momentum to a halt.
6. Lack of motivation. If players haven't created characters that motivate them to engage with the setting, or the GM is not great at either hooking the players, or responding to their PCs' motivations in a way that keep the train rolling, the game can come to a bit of a halt. Both players and GMs are responsible for entertaining each other, and if they feel like it is someone else's job to provide entertainment, or they just can't manage to be entertaining enough to provoke others to get involved... a stalled game results.
7. Just the friction of a large number of players or a lot of rules. As the number of players grows, the amount of spotlight time available to each of them diminishes, as does the amount they can accomplish. Also, the more rules that are applied to a session, well, it just takes time to operate the rules, so the greater the handling time, the less that can happen. This friction isn't really anyone's fault, per se, but can turn sessions into "a large boat that is hard to steer."

Address the above culprits and seek to eliminate them, and I'm thinking your game will be back to having a satisfying amount of forward momentum. Still, lack of forward momentum is only a problem in so much as it's making game night less fun.

Maneuvers in the Game

One of my favorite games, Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game, has Maneuvers at the core of it. Now, in Street Fighter, these are fighting maneuvers, like... Roundhouse Kick, Fireball or Dragon Punch. More broadly when I'm talking about maneuvers I'm talking about specific rules defined actions that can be taken by players and/or their characters. Maneuvers can be created for a few purposes in RPGs. Perhaps an RPG author feels a certain set of maneuvers well simulates the reality of a certain endeavor. Another RPG author may create maneuvers that support engaging tactical play. Yet a 3rd author may create maneuvers that result in interesting fictional conundrums.

Street Fighter's maneuvers are generally about supporting engaging tactical play. A good maneuver is one that increases the variety of tactical play. A poor maneuver is one that is worthless, clearly suboptimal in nearly all situations, or alternately one that is too good and should always be sought, or it reduces the number of viable strategies as it easily counters them.

When it comes to "results in interesting fictional conundrums", here I'm talking about Moves as you see them in Apocalypse World and many other games inspired by its approach. In this approach, a Move is considered good if it generates situations that require interesting, possibly character revealing choices or sacrifices, or forces reactions from NPCs that feel like they have some significance. A poor move in this case would be ones that resolve situations without subjecting either side to a real in-fiction consequence. 

There are those that aren't fans of either of the above kinds of maneuvers I describe. They can strike some as too artificial or too game-like for their RPing tastes, or impose structure in an undesired manner. Anyways, it's worth considering them and your feelings regarding them when it comes to what you want to play and why.

Yes! Move has been addressed! Now to move onto my next post, where I will catch up with #RPGaDay2021 fully. Day 17 coming up!