Aldarc
Legend
Again, taking the example from the Turn Someone On move in Monsterhearts, the result of the PC being affected by it basically just says, "you're turned on by this person," and as well as an additional rider mechanical effect that's not worth going into. What that means for the PC and what the PC thinks about it is still left entirely up to the player to determine. The mechanics telling a character what they think or feel is pretty darn minimal and leaves a lot for the player to interpret and act upon as they wish. I'll post a bit more from it:From my standpoint I entirely agree that it is more believable that the character is impacted by events in the fiction rather than that the character has perfect control over their emotional responses.
I merely think that leaving it up to the player who best understands the character to decide how the character is impacted by events allows for more believable nuance than any game mechanic ever could.
I personally don't see any increase in believability from simulating the character's inability to control its responses to traumatic events by also mechanically preventing the player from controlling the character's response to those events.
This move is at the heart of how Monsterhearts understands sexuality, especially teen sexuality. We don’t get to decide what turns us on, or who. Part of your agenda is keeping the story feral, and that means letting your character’s sexuality emerge in all of its confusing and unexpected glory.
When someone turns your character on, the emotional dynamic between them shifts. If a String is gained, the power dynamic shifts a little bit as well. How you react to that is up to you. What honesty demands is that you acknowledge the shift, imagine what your character might be feeling, and play from there. If Julia turns Monique on, it doesn’t mean Monique has to throw herself at her. Just play out how Monique would naturally respond. Maybe Monique blushes and turns to leave, or maybe she suddenly gets nervous and starts stammering.
Asexuality is also addressed in this game too.With all of that said, it’s important to draw a line: you aren’t in control of what turns your character on, but you are in control of what they do with that information. If you’re playing Jackson, and Jackson just got a hard-on for another guy, you’re still in control of what he does with that feeling. Maybe Jackson is relatively chill about it, and it doesn’t throw his straight identity off the rails. Maybe he’s confused about it, and starts acting weird around this other guy for a couple weeks. Maybe he gets aggressive. Maybe he cheats on his girlfriend. Maybe he has a big gay awakening. You need to say what honesty demands, which is that Jackson gets this hard-on and thinks something of it. But you get to decide what happens next.
Keep in mind that Monsterhearts is a PbtA game. The GM doesn't roll. The GM is not actively putting the opposition in the way to turn the player on and casting some sort of Horny spell on them. The GM is not telling the players how they have to feel. Players roll when their actions in the fiction trigger an appropriate "move." The player may be trying to turn someone on and then failing (on results of 2-6 on a 2d6+mod), which may result in the GM switching the scenario (and the PC gets turned on instead), or it could be a case of PvP.