Splatbook*

Stakes in play

By making something a stakes question, you are resolving not to answer it yourself. Instead, you are disclaiming responsibility, letting yourself be surprised by how things turn out. Here's how you do that.

First and foremost: put your stakes on screen! If you wonder whether Nia's link to the spiders can be broken, have Nia's mother show up on the Blessed's doorstep begging her to "cure" her daughter.

Then, do any or all of the following:

  • Put it in the PCs' hands. Tell them the consequences or requirements, and see what they do about it.

  • Play NPCs with integrity. If a stakes questions boils down to "what would this NPC do?" then base your answer on the NPC's instinct, their past actions and relationships, your sense of who this person really is. Yes, you're making the decision, but you're basing it on how the NPC would act, rather than on how you want the story to go.

  • Follow the moves and the dice. If the PCs trigger a move, and that move can answer a stakes question (or get you closer to an answer), then let it happen. Make the obvious move, the one that moves towards an answer.

  • Let it simmer. If you put a stakes question on screen and it doesn't get resolved, it's okay to move on and leave it unanswered. Don't force it. Come back to it later when it makes sense.

The point of this process—writing stakes that you're interested in, putting them on screen, and letting the PCs and your NPCs and the dice resolve them naturally—is to make the game more fulfilling for you. It's a reward to yourself, to say "I wonder, can they break Nia's bond to the spiders?" and then let yourself be surprised by the answer.

So there we are, Blodwen's sister at her door, begging Blodwen to "cure" Nia of her link to the spiders. I wonder how it'll turn out!

I start by putting it in the PC's hands. "Blodwen, you could try to Suck the Poison Out. It might cleanse Nia's connection to the spiders, but… it'd be like if someone took away your Spirit Tongue. What do you do?"

Blodwen is willing to try, but not without Nia's consent. She follows her sister home and finds Nia in the corner, playing catscradle with a spider, her big tough-guy dad glowering on. Blodwen explains to Nia that the whole spider thing is upsetting her parents, that the link can be broken but she won't do it without Nia's permission.

Nia's instinct is "to befriend spiders," and I think that she likes playing with them. So I play my NPC with integrity and say "But I don't want to lose my friends," all sweet and innocent. "Her mom sobs and her dad chokes up and bites down on his finger."

I'm thinking the issue is settled, but Blodwen presses on. "Your mam and pappy are scared of spiders, Nia, really scared. And it makes them sad and scared when you talk to them. Are you sure you won't reconsider?"

Blodwen's Persuading, so I follow the moves and the dice. She rolls a 7. I have to reveal how Nia could be convinced, but it'll be tricky, costly, or distasteful. "She doesn't want to, but the way her eyes go to her dad, you're sure that if HE said how worried and scared it made him, she'd go along with it. Good luck with that. What do you do?"

Blodwen pulls the parents aside, whispering that they should be honest with Nia, tell her how scared they are and how much they care about her, eyes on Nia's dad the whole time. She's Persuading again, but she gets a 5. Nia's dad loses it, starts yelling at Nia, ordering her to agree. The girl starts crying and runs out of the house and goes to hide some place dark (probably with a lot of spiders).

I still haven't answered the question decisively ("can the link be broken?"), but it won't be answered now. I decide to let it simmer and we'll answer the question later.