Directly Engage a Threat

When you **directly engage a threat**, roll + Danger. On a hit, trade blows. One a 10+, pick two. On a 7-9, pick one:

* resist or avoid their blows
* take something from them
* create an opportunity for your allies

* impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition

## Description

Directly engaging a threat is the move for straightforwardly duking it out with something—a monster, a villain, whatever. If you’re playing a bit of the ropea-dope, hoping to tire an enemy out, you’re not directly engaging, so the move isn’t triggered. If you’re up against someone or something that isn’t actually all that dangerous to you, then they’re not a threat, and the move isn’t triggered.

Trading blows means both you and the threat get in some good hits on each other. Tat can lead to changes in the fction—getting punched by a giant monster probably leaves you nice and bruised, unless you’re utterly invulnerable. Beyond the fction, though, this most ofen means inﬂicting conditions, or triggering the move take a powerful blow.

When you trade blows with an NPC threat, the GM marks one of the NPC’s conditions, and tells you whether to straight up mark a condition on your PC or to roll to take a powerful blow, depending on the fiction. The GM gets to choose what condition the NPC marks. If the GM tells you to take a powerful blow, then you follow that move’s rules to determine what happens next; if the GM tells you to mark a condition, then they tell you which condition to mark. When you trade blows with a PC threat, you both roll to take a powerful blow.

## Options

**Resisting or avoiding their blows** means you aren’t aﬀected by the trading of blows—you either get out of the way of the threat’s strikes or you can just shrug them oﬀ, depending on what makes sense for your character and the threat. This ensures that you come through unscathed, but it doesn’t get you anything else—it means all you’ve done is struck the threat and most likely inﬂicted a condition on them.

**Taking something from them**means you can take something physical or conceptual from the threat. You could, for instance, take the Doomray they’re holding in their hands, knocking it out of their grip with one of your punches; or, you could take their footing, knocking them to the ground and giving you a chance to run; or, you could take their position in front of the controls for the Tachyon Cannon. This is your chance to use your attack to change your position and theirs.

**Creating an opportunity for your allies** means you’re giving your teammates (or other allies) an opening to act or to gain some kind of advantage. Maybe you hold the villain oﬀ to the side, so your teammate has a shot at reaching the Neutrino Bomb. Maybe you smash the villain straight through the air towards your teammate, giving them a chance to land a follow-up strike. Either way, this option sets up team maneuvers.

**Impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition**means you’re aﬀecting how the threat perceives you after you’ve traded blows. Maybe you’ve put on such a show of force, suddenly they view you with greater respect; or maybe you’ve proved that you’re a danger in a way they didn’t see before, and now they try to get away from you. The GM picks which option (impress, surprise, or frighten) makes the most sense when you choose this option against an NPC threat. For NPCs or PCs, the GM might inﬂict a condition to represent the character’s new perspective (if it fits the fiction).