September 22, 2024

How Under Hollow Hills emphasizes player choice

Dice aren't an integral part of role-playing,

but they do turn up a lot. I love a good dice roll. Or, to be a little more precise, I love that moment when everyone at the table gets to be surprised by how the story develops. It's one of the things that attracts me to role-play, how you can both experience and create the story at the same, or almost the same, time.

The tactility of dice, the unpredictability—they're great. Only, sometimes I fear our hobby might overvalue them somewhat. Choice can be as surprising as a dice roll or a card draw, with an added bonus of intentionality and even, in some senses, safety.

No misses necessary

Choice is on my mind because I've been reading Meguey and Vincent Baker's game about a traveling fae circus: Under Hollow Hills.¹ It's their latest, big Powered by the Apocalypse game (PbtA). But, you might say, aren't most of those games played with dice? And, you might continue, isn't it so that Under Hollow Hills definitely is?

You're right. A lot of PbtA games are, and Under Hollow Hills is no different. But two interesting bits in the book seem to shift the emphasis of its play from chance to choice. The first of those bits is a particular entry in the chapter 'Consent & Communication Tools', under the header 'Dice Fudging':

If you prefer to roll your dice behind your hand, on your phone, or casually out of other's view, so you can fudge them if you need to, you may.

While a bit of a surprise itself, this allowance will take half of the surprise out of a dice roll.

On his blog, Vincent Baker is happy to explain why they added this entry to the chapter.² As a communication tool, he explains, it might resolve a situation in which only failure would result in severe enough discomfort to make a player want to halt the game. A fudge allows that player to keep this fear to themselves while moving the story along without reaching for the X-card.

Under Hollow Hills allows for this unconventional approach to fudging, explains Baker, because 'there’s nothing and no one in Under Hollow Hills who ever needs you to roll a miss.' No character needs to fail at their intent for the game to tell the stories it's interested in—and that's, I think, where this gets really interesting.

To do it, take your pick

Under Hollow Hills gives its players access to "plays" to influence the conversation in which its story plays out.³ Plays are this game's take on PbtA's moves: rules and procedures that redirect the story at key moments. Generally, they describe the story beats at which they become active, saying, for example 'when you draw someone out'—this is generally called the move's "trigger".

If this were Apocalypse World, the game that started it all, players would activate moves by narrating actions that match its trigger. The old adage: 'to do it, do it'. Players couldn't just name a move, and if they happened to trigger a move while narrating, they'd have to go through with it or change their story.

Under Hollow Hills, though? It does the opposite. It says: 'to make a play, announce it by name and pick up two dice.' In other words: point at it. Pick the play you'd like to play. Everything flows forth from the player's initiative.

Lists of picks

The plays themselves are also full of choices. The classic pick list is everywhere in Under Hollow Hills. To take one of the 'obvious plays'—open to all characters—as an example:

OPEN UP TO SOMEONE

When you open up to someone, roll. On any hit, you capture their attention and they must hear you out. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1.

• Reveal to them what you’d like them to do. If they accede, offer them a reward or a favor, but if they refuse, you may consider it an insult.
• Reveal to them something you’re considering, and judge their reaction to it.
• Ask their player what they think; they have to tell you. This can be implicit or explicit, and they may or may not realize what they’ve revealed.
• Offer them something, explicitly or implicitly. If they accept it, they’re beholden to you, in proportion, as you judge it, but if they refuse, you may consider it an insult.
• Confide in them or explain something to them. Tell them what you reveal and ask them how they take it. They must answer honestly.

On a miss, ask the MC or the other player what goes wrong. They might have you choose 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps you’ve made yourself beholden to them.

Yes, this is the longest obvious play, but there's even longer playbook plays. Plus, even the three obvious plays that don't feature pick lists, still introduce tough choices to the subject or object of the play. For example, 'Confront Someone' asks the confrontee to choose whether they back down or force the confronter's hand.

Intentional depth and change

This all reminds me of another branch of PbtA games: Firebrands. Without much scaffolding conversation, those games string together mini-games to create a narrative. Going around in turns, players pick a procedure, play through it, and continue. With little exaggeration, you could say Firebrands games are a series of very expansive plays.

Vice versa, Under Hollow Hills introduces much of this choice back into a more mainstream PbtA role-playing game. Players are empowered to introduce plays when they see fit. They'll take part in the conversation, narrating and describing, and they'll look at their plays intentionally and think of a use for them. (And, if they need to, they can choose the result of their plays as well.)

The Bakers explain the point of plays this way:

When you want to expand the conversation, change its direction or focus, or take control of it for a moment, you do it by making a play.

When you want to take action to figure out what’s going on, react forcefully to something, affect what’s happening, find out what someone else is thinking or planning, change what they’re doing, or take control of a situation, you do it by making a play.

With these very simple changes, Under Hollow Hills shift its emphasis towards choice. It keeps much of the same structure of previous PbtA games, even the standard deviation of its two six-sided dice, but manages to create a game that feels different. This is not a story of characters getting into trouble, bouncing from one situation to the next. The actions of the fae in Under Hollow Hills spring forth from their intentions.

In Under Hollow Hills, players surprise each other by deepening the conversation or by taking it into an unexpected direction. Of course, this is an element of a lot of role-playing games, but have we seen it expressed this way before?

That's it for now,
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