Kick Some Ass move: Too Harsh?

[John Harper]

When you kick some ass, you always take harm on a hit (7+).

This seem appropriate, I guess, unless I'm playing Buffy or some other actual ass-kicker. Sure, invincible helps a lot, but I think it's a bit weird that the most-ass-kicking characters will be taking the most harm. As written, the move should maybe be called "when you get in a fight."

FWIW, Dungeon World's fighting move originally worked like this one (trade harm on any hit) but it turned out to be way too much harm coming back on the PCs, so it was revised.

I haven't played MotW yet, though, so maybe I'm way off. Anyone seen this in play?

[Mike Sands]

John, there may be something in what you say.

Certainly, I envision the move being for a chunk of action, rather than necessarily a single attack.

I certainly haven't noticed it being an issue in my play, although I've only recently been using this version.

Another side is that taking harm in Monster of the Week is a lot less serious than in Apocalypse World. It heals faster, and there isn't a countdown leading directly to death.

I, too, am interested in other people's experience of this (especially if you've played the newest version of the move, with less options to reduce damage).

[Ernesto Pavan]

I've got the same impression as John: I simply can't picture the protagonists getting wounded every time they fight an enemy head-on. It's pretty unheroic. I think that only a slight change is needed: make the player choose 1 on a 7-9 and 2 on a 10+ when they kick some ass. This way, you can reduce harm by 1 even on a partial hit, which, combined with armor and/or an armor-giving move, would be enough in most situations.
Alternatively, you may do it the Dungeon World way: the opponent deals harm on a 7-9, not on a 10+.  Or maybe, on a 7-9, you could be forced to choose 1:

• you deal -1 harm
• you suffer your opponent's harm

That would be a pretty harsh choice if the monster got a good armor and you need that extra point of harm in order to wound him at all.
Just my 2 cents.

[Mike Sands]

I've got the same impression as John: I simply can't picture the protagonists getting wounded every time they fight an enemy head-on. It's pretty unheroic.

Well, my take is that the hunters are the sort of people who can take a nasty hit and then keep going.

That said, I am considering a different list of options for 7-9. I don't want to have two choices/one choice because it seemed to slow combat scenes right down, plus people almost always picked +1 harm inflicted/-1 harm suffered. But a separate list for 7-9 might work, with one choice, and none of them as good as the 10+ options.