GM Moves: Soft, Hard, and the Standard List

Your moves are tools for when you need something to say. They should inspire you, not constrain you. Don't worry whether every choice you make matches the list verbatim.

• Soft moves push the action and crank up tension. Make them all the time, as the core loop demands. They warn, threaten, or offer — and give the PCs a chance to act before badness lands. "As your hand finds your knife-hilt, the crinwin hisses and leaps for your throat. What do you do?"
• Hard moves establish badness, no take-backs. Make one when a PC ignores established trouble or rolls a 6- (unless the move says otherwise). Pick something that flows from the situation — and never say the name of the move, just say what happens.

A hard move on a 6- doesn't have to mean the action fails. It means badness lands. Sometimes the worst hits before they can act; sometimes they do what they wanted, but it triggers something terrible.

When you don't know what to say, pick one of these:

• Announce trouble (future or offscreen) — versatile; provokes a reaction or sets up future consequences
• Reveal an unwelcome truth — establish something that's true that they wish wasn't
• Ask a provocative question — spur a decision or emotional response; useful with Persuade or Seek Insight
• Put someone in a spot — they've got to do something now or it'll get ugly
• Use up their resources — concrete (shield, torch), abstract (supplies, ammo), intangible (reputation, trust), mechanical (HP, Loyalty)
• Turn their move back on them — good for a 6-; flip what they were trying to do
• Demonstrate a downside — show the cost of being the Heavy, of wearing warm armor in heat, of cheap gear
• Hurt someone — inflict a specific, problematic wound on a PC or someone they care about. Always means damage, often a debility, always a wound to deal with later.
• Separate them — split the party; pair with put someone in a spot for extra menace
• Capture someone — soft version stays in the scene; hard version cuts to "bound, dragged off, who knows where"
• Offer an opportunity (with or without cost) — give an opening, a chance to act
• Tell them the consequences/requirements — interrupt and clarify the stakes before they commit; or give them a path forward
• Advance towards impending doom — tick a grim portent on a Threats; usually manifests as one of the other moves

Making a move that warns of permanent harm ("if you keep this up, you'll lose the arm") before you actually inflict it is just decent table manners. Don't spring disabling injuries on a PC without telegraphing them.