Except that's not what "the fiction" means--at all. You CANNOT add "as the fiction requires." That would be an absolute abrogation of the rules of Dungeon World. Utterly unacceptable.
If you say it, it's true....that is in the rules, right?
You, as GM, can only make a move if it is already obvious that that is what should happen (with one minor exception: "think offscreen too," meaning stuff that will become obvious sooner rather than later, but ONLY in response to a player failing a move--meaning, they still know something went wrong, they just don't know what it was yet.) E.g., the ogre charges at a player, they Defy Danger to avoid getting hit, and they roll 6 or less (a "failed" or "missed" roll.) The fiction just means...the stuff currently going on. In this case, a failure to avoid being attacked. What happens if you fail to avoid being attacked? You get hurt. THAT is what "when the fiction requires it" means. You cannot invoke it as some divine plan that the players must meekly accept. You can only say, "You have to take damage, because you just got hit by an ogre" or the like.
Right, the GM can make a move that is obvious to the GM, By the Fiction.
This is explained in two pithy phrases:
- "You have to do it, to do it." This means, you--whether player or GM--have to actually do the actions, within the fictional space, in order for you to make any moves. A player cannot just declare, "I Discern Realities." That would, in fact, be completely against the spirit of the game. Instead, the player must say something like, "I check the bookcase for anything weird--first, just looking to see if it has any signs of magical effects, but if the coast seems clear, checking for secret compartments, concealed latches, anywhere something might be hidden." That description is doing the actions of Discern Realities ("When you closely study a situation or person") and thus you may use it.
I get that in such a game the player can alter the game reality at will.
Games like D&D are much harder as the player often has to have the character do and take actions vs a static fictional reality. The scroll is behind the seventh bookcase, so the character must look there to find it.
The other game is "my character alters game reality so the scroll is where ever I look for it and find it".
- "If you do it, you do it." This means you--whether player or GM--must use a move when it is triggered. If you are "act[ing] despite an imminent threat or suffer[ing] a calamity," you must say how you deal with it and roll. (This is the move Defy Danger.) Once something has been established in the fiction, meaning, once the table knows a certain situation is true because it's literally happening in front of them in the imagined world, then any moves that are triggered by that situation must be used. Of course, you could simply decide not to act, that's also valid, but then the move wouldn't trigger (because you wouldn't be "act[ing] despite an imminent threat.")
Deft Danger is like a reality altering saving throw?
These two concepts together mean if, and only if, the fiction requires a move to occur, then that move will occur. But "the fiction" just means...the stuff happening around the characters. It emphatically does NOT mean some mystical unknown plan the GM can impose on the players. It emphatically does NOT mean the GM can say, "The fiction requires it" and the players must meekly accept. Exactly the opposite! If the GM cannot show that the CURRENT state of the world--the right now stuff in front of the players--requires a particular result, then the fiction DOES NOT support them.
I get that a big part of such a game is all the times you need to stop playing the game and explain everything to the players at length so that they understand the illusion of the fiction. The GM can take the players through a half hour of fictional finances until the players understand and accepthe price of a item
You can't use the fiction as an excuse--it's right there for everyone to see! Even if the move you make is "offscreen," the reason you've made the move--a player failing a move--happens right out in public for everyone to see. You can't dismiss player criticism with the fiction.
Players is the illusion though, so there is that.
An active game with four players will have four characters each making moves every minute of game time. So in just a couple minutes, the characters can set off like 4-16 triggers. The players will have a hard enough time keeping track of just their personal actions, much less all the actions of all the players.
That sounds absolutely horrible, and yeah, I can't blame a player for flipping out about you telling them that a potion of healing costs 1000 gp!
Why? It's bot game to say "Beep, every single item is available world wide for the exact price listed in the rules. Beep. That's like playing a video game.
Which seems a bit odd, given that the bolded is also the exact function of a script in a play or movie.
Well, to be fair to the game it is a Improv Script. The rules tell you what to do, but make it vague enough you can improv. Like if you get attacked you can take the Dodge action, but your free to write out the game reality as long as you are "dodging".
The problem is how do you keep from frustrating the player to the point that just stop playing.
I use the classic "You have to tear it all down to build it back up" method.
