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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8475389" data-attributes="member: 5142">I have no idea how other tables will use Persuade (vs. PCs) or Stonetop. Hypothetical tables and groups are outside of my ken. There is, however, plenty of guidance and play principles in the book that should help inform play procedures for other groups. In fact, I'm fairly confident that Stonetop will become one of the new gold standards for understanding how to run and play Dungeon World. The writing for Stonetop is top notch, and it demonstrates a lot of firsthand experience of running Dungeon World. This is all to say that I think that a GM who reads Stonetop through should have ample ideas about how to safely handle PCs who get into tense, awkward, or even unwanted Persuade (vs. PC) issues. Moreover, I don't think that the GM not calling immediately for a move necessarily requires doubting player sincerity. It may also involve clarifying the stakes or the fiction that is in play, which is particularly useful when it comes to social scenes. I think that it came out of a general dissatisfaction with Parley as written and in practice, and a desire to account for differences between Parley (vs. NPCs) and Parley (vs. PCs). The use of social PCvPC is actually fairly common in a lot of PbtA games in some sort or another (e.g., Apocalypse World, Urban Shadows, Monsterhearts, etc.). It's honestly more surprising that Dungeon World doesn't have it than that Stonetop has it.IMO, there are a number of benefits to a mechanic like this in PbtA games. (1) It allows players to play their characters with greater integrity by off-loading some social pressure and resolving conflict onto an intermediary mechanical resolution. (2) Subsequent soft and hard moves keeps play interesting and propels play forward. (3) It creates dramatic tension and stakes between player characters. Plenty of ink has been spilt in these forums about Point #1, including on the aforementioned thread about social/mental mechanics that [USER=7031982]@Bill Zebub[/USER]  alludes to in his OP, so I am not particularly interested in re-hashing that debate here. I also think that another motivating factor for this mechanic is less about what it "solves," but, rather, what it generates in the game: i.e., the revelation of character. Here is what Jeremy says about it on his Spouting Lore blog (emphasis in bold, mine): He is talking about Parley/Persuade (vs. NPCs), but I also suspect this is also a motivating factor for Persuade (vs. PC). You will still roleplay this all out, but this move will also reveal something about the personality, motivations, and desires of their characters, while also possibly generating dramatic consequences from soft and hard moves.</blockquote>

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