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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8699872" data-attributes="member: 6696971">So here are the conditions (in AW specifically I'm talking about) where I would say bar the way with respect to "the state of the door" is a misplay by the GM:* The established fiction, stakes, and move results of play prior has rendered bar the way already overcome.  If you're in the middle or tail-end of a scene where the followed fiction has led to a way barred and then overcome/resolved...don't bar the way again.pg 80 AGENDA - It’s not your job to put their characters in double-binds or dead ends, or to yank the rug out from under their feet.  Pg 81 ALWAYS SAY - Same with the game’s rules: play with integrity and an open hand. The players are entitled to the full benefits of their moves, their rolls, their characters’ strengths and resources. Don’t chisel them, don’t weasel, don’t play gotcha.* pg 80 AGENDA - Make the players’ characters’ lives not boring.This is kindred to Torchbearer's "Fun Once" proviso when it comes to Twists.  Don't make players overcome the same obstacle in a conflict-charged situation.  Beyond potentially violating the rug-pull/gotcha/move-result-takesy-backsey proviso above...barring the way continuously with a door or door-adjacent obstacle is just boring.  Deploy different moves if the conflict is still "alive."[HR][/HR]So this is why I think, generally, ways barred are very good as conflict openers:You need to get into the lighthouse (Landscape Threat - Fortress w/ Impulse; to deny access) but the door is surely locked...or there is a sentry...but the barbed wire, high chain link fence that surrounds the property also has a haphazardly painted sign BEWARE OF MUTANT DOG...or maybe there is no MUTANT DOG, but Read a Sitch yields that there is a belltower-sniper in an overwatch position with good vantage of the courtyard.  This is a combo bar the way and provide another way move.If they go fence, you've got a bunch of Terrain moves and that mutant dog/overwatch sniper to employ.  You've still got a bunch of Landscape and general moves.  Follow the fiction, your prep, and use those for subsequent obstacles until the conflict-charged situation is resolved.Maybe the players look for another way in (there are all kinds of divination/perception/contact moves available).  Resolve that and keep moving.Alternatively, they're really good soft moves for end of the situation stuff where victory is still in the balance; eg they've just gotten a 7-9 to evade some kind of threat but now they're running down a corridor and about to get out of the garage...except the steel overhead door at the far end is slowly folding down (eg Indiana Jones) w/ a goon on a catwalk leering down at them with a big dumb smile because he's just started up the diesel generator and pressed the "close the overhead door" big button.  This is present a guardian (Landscape subset of announce future badness) that could turn into bar the way.</blockquote>

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