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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8309119" data-attributes="member: 42582">What it means to roll with a bad call and clean up the mess can be pretty varied, can't it? And so the ways a system might support this also seem pretty varied. Even Gygax tackled this within the limits of AD&D, when he suggested alternatives to PC death if a skilled player nevertheless, through sheer bad luck, has his/her PC suffer fatal hp loss.Vincent Baker discusses "take backs" in the AW rules. The more intricate a system, sometimes the harder it can be to allow take backs because by the time the mistake comes to light the mechanical egg might be too badly scrambled. But there might be other avenues possible.Do you have in mind a particular example of a system that makes this hard?I agree, but I don't think that makes the boundary a solid one.<a href="http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/2011/05/apocalypse-world-guide-to-hard-moves.html" target="_blank">John Harper</a> has given the following as examples of soft vs hard moves:She stares at you coldly. 'Leave me alone,' she says. What do you do? 'Don't come back here again.' She slams the door in your face and you hear the locks click home.He then goes on:See how that works? The regular move sets up the hard move. The hard move follows through on the threat established by the regular move.Those are clear examples, and the sequencing in particular is clear. But of course if she slams the door and locks it, that's not the end of things: we've all seen this in rom coms, and the next step is to jump the fence and plead at the back door or kitchen window or whatever! Or in an action flick, instead of a promise of companionship - which has failed to elicit any sympathetic response - perhaps what is offered is a truckload of cash.Context is everything: and in a system without emotional harm as a mechanical consequence, some hardness is not as hard as some other.I'm not talking about a lack of sentiment among/between the participants at the table. I'm talking about a lack of sentiment as a consideration in declaring moves. Especially on the player side, but equally on the GM side - a Moldvay GM is meant to be indifferent both to the death of one of his/her NPCs or monsters, and to the death of one of the PCs. But should also take the view that "there's always a chance" (p B60) - but that's a principle whereby required rolls are set. If the dice are unlucky, the GM oughtn't to lose his/her nerve; and at least as written there's no scope in Moldvay Basic for the GM just feeling generous and granting a way out.</blockquote>

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