Custom Move Dissection: Googling Yourself [System]

[breaking this out from Link’s journal as a different topic]

**You’ll Go Blind Googling Yourself
**When you scroll up and down your hashtag for hours or after making a scene, roll+Superior. On a hit, the wholesome memes are me gusta: hold 1 Fan, and spend it at any time for sudden, reasonable civilian assistance.

On a 10+, both of these are true; on a 7-9, choose one:

  • I never read the comments. Don’t immediately give Influence to “The Internet.”
  • “DM me for info.” You’re informed of a lead or opportunity relevant to your heroic identity.

On a miss, you start typing. Why are you typing. Don’t do that. Don’t post that. Why did you post that? Immediately give Influence to “The Internet,” and the GM holds 1 Hatefollow that can be spent at any time to unexpectedly complicate a civilian interaction.

*** Dave H. said:

Doyce T. said:
On a 10+, both of these are true; on a 7-9, choose one:

  • I never read the comments. Don’t immediately give Influence to “The Internet.”
  • “DM me for info.” You’re informed of a lead or opportunity relevant to your heroic identity.

On a miss, you start typing. Why are you typing. Don’t do that. Don’t post that. Why did you post that? Immediately give Influence to “The Internet,” and the GM holds 1 Hatefollow that can be spent at any time to unexpectedly complicate a civilian interaction.

The implication is that on a hit or a miss you also immediately give Influence to “The Internet” (otherwise the 1st 7-9 option wouldn’t make any sense).

author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Custom Move Dissection: Googling Yourself [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Doyce T. said:
I think it shakes out like this:

10+ - You get 1 Fan point you can use whenever for reasonable civilian assistance, plus you get a lead from someone and don’t give Influence to the Internet.
7-9 - You get 1 Fan point you can use whenever for reasonable civilian assistance, plus you get a lead or don’t give Influence to the Internet.

6- - You give Influence to the Internet and the GM holds 1 Hatefollow that can be spent to complicate things later.

It’s totally reasonable to use ‘civilian assistance’ to get a lead, btw, so you can still get a useful clue and keep from giving Influence on a 7-9 - you just won’t carry any potential help forward into other situations.

author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Custom Move Dissection: Googling Yourself [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

*** Dave H. said:
Okay, that still reads to me like hitting (or just plain making the Move) gives Influence to the Internet unless you roll a 10+ or choose to take the no-Influence option on a 7-9. (Otherwise why would you choose “I never read the Comments” on a 7-9? To counter a previous miss? Then it would be phrased, “Remove any existing Influence from ‘The Internet’ on you”).

author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Custom Move Dissection: Googling Yourself [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Dave, what you said is accurate.

The move is structured in the same way as Directly Engage a Threat - in that move, you are GOING to take a Condition unless you pick an option from the list that makes that not happen.

When you directly engage a threat, roll + Danger. On a hit, trade blows [<-- you both get hit]. On a 10+, pick two. On a 7-9, pick one.

  • resist or avoid their blows [<-- this means you don’t get hit/take a condition.]
  • take something from them
  • create an opportunity for your allies
  • impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition

So, unless you ‘burn’ one of your ‘picks’ on “resist or avoid”, you’re going to get hit as well.

That’s the baseline assumption of the custom move: Unless you expend some of your mental wherewithal to stay above it all, you’re going to give Influence to the Internet, and sometimes (maybe even most of the time) avoiding that consequence is just about all you can manage. (Well, not really ALL you can manage: as with Directly Engage, a hit means you affected the target, and in this move, a hit means you’re going to get some external civilian help from a Fan; that is the success-state. Everything else is gravy.)

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470217

Move text aside, what happened in the fiction? You went to the Internet to solicit feedback, maybe praise. You paid attention to what was said. In short you invited the Internet to influence you. Masks just has an explicit tag for when that happens.

author: Bill G.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470250

So some examples:

Lagoon Boy browses his hashtag for a couple hours, intending to see what people are saying about his latest public showdown.

Now, let’s go into this with our eyes wide open: if I directly engage a threat, I’m probably taking a condition in return, unless things really go my way; similarly, if I go out on the internet to see what people are saying about me, there’s a significant chance I’m going to end up giving the Internet Influence over me.

(I mean, that’s what Influence is - caring about what someone/thing/entity thinks and/or says about you. The action of going and looking for that opinion strongly implies that said opinion influences you.)

Now, as long as LB gets a hit (anything 7 or up), he gets the ‘success’ results: 1 fan he can use for reasonable civilian assistance. Maybe he banks that for later, maybe he cashes that in right away to catch a clue he needs. Either way.

Also assuming he gets a 7 or up, he gets to pick from the short list of options:

  • EVEN MORE help from fans/allies.
  • The Internet does not get influence over you.

(Note: someone getting Influence over you isn’t always a bad thing - it can be good! Maybe LB spent his whole session on a pro-LB message board. Whatever. Doesn’t mean it was a bad interaction - it means that right now he cares about those opinions. The problem is that we all know the internet is the Pit of Despair.)

Obviously, if LB nails his roll (10+) he gets even more help AND keeps his ego in check and under control. On a 7-9, he can either log off before things get out of hand (no Influence) or get even more help by digging too greedily and too deep.

If he blows he roll, it’s all bad news: he attracts all the wrong kind of attention (hatefollow), AND walks away fuming about what all those clueless jerks are saying about him (gives them influence).

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470265

Also: +1 for Bill’s far more concise summary.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470267

Okay, that’s what I thought. I just think that needs to be spelled out in the move text (which Bill describes precisely from its story/fiction perspective). Even the Directly Engage move explicitly notes that “trade blows”, and since that Influence has a game effect and tracking mechanism, it should be called out, e.g.,.

When you scroll up and down your hashtag for hours or after making a scene, you give "The Internet" Influence over you. Roll+Superior. On a hit, the wholesome memes are me gusta: hold 1 Fan, and spend it at any time for sudden, reasonable civilian assistance.

On a 10+, both of these are true; on a 7-9, choose one:
I never read the comments. Don’t give Influence to “The Internet.”

“DM me for info.” You’re informed of a lead or opportunity relevant to your heroic identity.

On a miss, you start typing. Why are you typing. Don’t do that. Don’t post that. Why did you post that? Immediately give Influence to “The Internet,” and tThe GM holds 1 Hatefollow that can be spent at any time to unexpectedly complicate a civilian interaction.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Custom Move Dissection: Googling Yourself [System] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

I like it! I’m all for clarity in the move language.

Now I need to find the original google+ author and give them that feedback as well… :slight_smile:

I imagine he wrote it with those “anything you don’t pick, the opposite is true” style of moves in mind.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470285

Seconding “the Internet gets influence except on 10+” as explicit text. Could use some wordsmithing but yeah.

author: Bill G.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470293

+1

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470309

As a side note: there’s no option within the move to remove Internet Influence that’s already been granted. For that, you have to go back to the moves already built into the game. (See “when someone with Influence over you tells you who you are or how the world works” and “when you reject someone’s Influence.”)

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470311

Makes perfect sense.

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5470322