SURVEY QUESTION: MOVES!

[Sans]

QUESTION #2: What do you consider to be absolutely necessary information when writing moves?

REMINDER: Remain respectful of what our admins both past and present have worked to create, please. Don't hurt each other. Thank you.

I actually decided, given the topic, to take a look at the move rules and some of the move examples to see how, when one applies them to the writing format, how easily one can slot it into a fight.

As an example, I took the Red Revolver move as written and analyzed it a bit.

Red Revolver (requires Ranged Proficiency) – 300 OM

A rust-red revolver that holds six bullets with a rate of fire of about one bullet per second. It is reloaded one bullet at a time, taking about half a second per bullet. It is powerful but difficult to aim at long distances.

Let's go point by point here.

"A rust-red revolver that holds six bullets..."

This is, in my opinion, needed information. As Dane and others have mentioned, some people like to use ammo as plot points and points of creativity in stories. I know I've used ammo and its shortages in some of my stories as well. Alongside the physical description of the gun, I believe ammo amounts are vital to stories, or at least to projectile weapons, as they provide additional elements of creativity in their amount number.

"...with a rate of fire of about one bullet per second. It is reloaded one bullet at a time, taking about half a second per bullet."

This is less-needed. In fact, I'm willing to say anything specific with time (one second, two seconds, three seconds, etc.) is more or less arbitrary. No one that I've seen that has written fights really uses these, and that's mostly because it's wasted word space. Hell, even in fights with larger word counts I don't see it, and that's mostly because it's needless detail. As I have said, time is almost entirely controlled by the author, so "one bullet per second" can mean anything. It'd be much easier to state it as something more general, like "It fires fast. It reloads one bullet at a time at a quick pace."

"It is powerful but difficult to aim at long ranges."

This is another example of needed information. Since it is a weapon, it details weapon damage (powerful) and a drawback (less accurate at long ranges.) No need for anything like "Fires half-inch bullets that go the speed of normal bullets. The gun is good at 13 meters but bad at 55 meters, etc." That part is an exaggeration, but the general principle is there.

In short, the usage of numbers to quantify these types of things inherently specifies things that might not need specification. That's why moves are overly complex; people THINK they need to be in order to get them approved, resulting in moves so cluttered and so completely outside the realm of what they want that it becomes a hassle for both Moderators AND Writers. This is why, in my opinion, numbers should only be used for things that absolutely, positively, need quantification.

As an example of what I think is a bit more proper, lemme rewrite the Red Revolver with all that I've added.

Red Revolver (requires Ranged Proficiency) – 300 OM

A rust-red revolver that contains six bullets. It has a fast rate of fire. It is reloaded one bullet at a time. Each bullet is reloaded quickly. It is powerful but difficult to aim at long distances.

More generalized terms like "short, long, fast, slow, etc." more easily serve the circumstances of writing and writing RP, while also allowing the specifications of numbers for the actual RP process. Most writers do not want to make more specifications than need be, and definitely don't want to feel like it's a requirement to do so.