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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7931599" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Before I get into the full response to this post, I think Threaten needs a rider:When you weave threats into your demands and your target has reason to believe you can follow through on them...That comports with DW's leverage in Parley, AW's Go Aggro rider (when the target isn't expecting a fight, can't fight, isn't prepared for one, and doesn't want one), and Blades' Command requiring fear/respect/et al (as leverage).Also, I think they don't plot to betray you, may need a little bit of expansion both in how it can manifest and when it can manifest.  I'm thinking:They don't give in to resentment If the player doesn't hedge against this outcome by choosing it on a 7-9, that would mean that the GM should make a Soft Move immediately in the fiction to Reveal an Unwelcome Truth or Show Signs of an Approaching Threat (maybe an unruly posse shows up and starts hurling warnings to the PCs to back off).  If the PCs don't deal with it (diffuse it or confront it/run it off), the GM should make manifest that resentment in the near future how they see fit with a Hard Move (the Captain of the Guard shows up in force and escalates things, intervening on the NPC's behalf).  Here is the thing though, if the GM hasn't materialized that Soft Move into a Hard Move by the time the social conflict is over, if the social conflict is won by the PCs, the post-conflict materialization of that Soft Move into a Hard Move can't exert pressure on the asset/capital/relationship the PCs have won with their Social Conflict.  Maybe it can complicate their lives, but it can't upturn their winnings.For instance, those "don't take kindly to strangers" rabblerousers showed up and started hurling threats at the PCs.  Social Conflict won.  Let us say an off-duty Watch member owed money to a guild that one of the PCs belonged to and that looming threat was levied in the course of the conflict (and one of the PCs is the guild "leg-breaker").  The Watch member agrees to unlock the back door to the bailey tonight and the PCs promise to get him another week to get the scratch together to pay that debt.  Those rabblerousers are now chucking flagons of ale and one throws a chair while another puts a hard finger into the chest of one of the PCs with an open threat.  This changes nothing for the deal that the PCs just made with the off-duty Watch member.  He isn't going to chicken out because this group may have heard the deal and he isn't going to throw-in with them in hopes of taking down the PCs.He's either going to try to diffuse it.  Maybe the GM disclaims decision-making and rolls 2d6 on a Defy Danger for the Watch member; "Its ok, its ok, just a misunderstanding...we're all square."  Maybe its a 7-9 and a few of them disperse...but a few more are drunk as hell and just want some violence...On the first paragraph broadly and, specifically, "If you're engaging in a social conflict, it's presumably because you can't use physical force to get what you want:"What about the following situations/decision-points?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You want an actual reciprocal relationship or a long term alliance (could mean potentially locking yourself out of a mechanical advantage - Cohort, or a fictional advantage such as protection against a Show Signs of an Approaching Threat move becoming manifest).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Force will complicate your life by making either 1st order enemies (those you're now threatening) or 2nd order enemies (their proxies, those who have their backs, etc).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Force will complicate your life by increasing your profile (drawing the notice of higher powers, the authorities).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You don't want to complicate your life by assuming the risk of immediate cost (HP/Harm/Stress/Debilities, Coin/Stash, Ammo, etc).</li> </ul>On the second paragraph:I think the scale/potency of "a stick" can definitely help "the carrot", even if the stick isn't actually deployed in a physical way.A Cutter (Bill the Butcher style) hacks his brisket in two, cleaving the wood table in the same blow and says "...oops" through a toothy grin after all the clatter settles from the wreckage.  Its "accidentally on purpose" right after his Slide friend has made a compelling argument that trailed off with something about "some say me and my crew...we make great friends...but worse enemies..."Stuff like that.That might be a case where the PC has rolled a 10+ and chosen the Clock Tick and they don't give in to resentment. But, again, if you take it up a notch to a threat that promises violence and you don't get the result you're looking for/take the soft move off the table...well, you're looking at trouble (as outlined above) and a reframing of the nature of the relationship that you're trying to establish.</blockquote>

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