[RPG] How to GM “An arresting skinner” in a balanced, fair and fun way

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In Apocalypse World, the social and beauty oriented class Skinner has a move called "An arresting skinner" which does pretty much what it promises:

An arresting skinner: when you remove clothing, your own or someone else's, no one who can see you can do anything but watch. You command their absolute attention. If you choose, you can exempt individual people, by name.

We've had our share of laughs with this, but I find this move often develops into something of a risk-free exit move for characters trapped in sticky situations… or worse, something they rely 100% on to carry out their mischief. I'm a bit conflicted on how to handle it as a GM.

The text is pretty clear: "no one who can see you can do anything but watch" means it effectively ends tense combat or escape situations – any enemies that see the Skinner strip will simply freeze to ogle. Since the Skinner can exempt their friends, they can go around bashing in the skulls of their incapacitated enemies while the Skinner slooooowly removes their garterbelt. The effect is unconditional, 100% reliable – against anything that can see, at least, although I interpret the effect to mean only creatures capable of appreciating beauty in human terms.

Now, I am a fan of my PCs, but I also want to make the PCs lives not boring. Being able to disarm almost any conflict with a quick striptease gets boring quite fast, and a completely reliable enemy-freezer also makes Apocalypse World not seem very real. The move has no obvious downside I could activate. The worst that I can see happening is that the Skinner is already naked or restrained to prevent further teasing, but making those situations very common would hurt immersion. Or the Skinner might be wearing a diving suit, but that's a different kind of immersion. One time I surprised my players by having an enemy sniper not see the Skinner because of aiming at another character through a narrow scope, but I can only use the same trick so many times before it gets boring.

As the GM, what sort of moves and narration could I use to make the move work as a cool mechanic, without ruining tension or sense of realism, or taking away the appeal of the Skinner class?

Best Answer

You are not the first GM thinking about this, and there has been quite some discussion about it on Barf Forth Apocalyptica, the forum run by Vincent Baker. All quotes below are taken from posts there. There is one thread discussing specific examples of how this move can be made real, which is where most of this insight is from.

Most MCs there play the move as written and give descriptions how to do that consistently with Agenda and Principles, and the fact that it has not changed between the first and the second edition of the game is a strong indication that it's not broken if you use it right. But given the discussions around it, I expect the 2E rulebook will contain some more insight on it, too, once it is out.

The advice given for running with “An arresting skinner” as written are

  • Player's stylistic choice putting a natural limit on when it will be used,
  • Movie-like spotlighting makes this seem far more real than straight narration,
  • There are obvious choices for consequences of over-using the move in the real Apocalypse World.

Player's Stylistic Choice

The first thing to note is that it doesn't need to be abused like that.

The way I have seen the move limited in play: the player taking it agrees not to use it to shit all over the fun of the other players by constantly mind-controlling their characters with it. That seems to work fine.

The player does have the stylistic choice over when to use it, and they can decide to use it just in situations where they think it fits. And if you do that, you can nicely use it even for a skinner who is not a stripper.

Picture a dapper violin-cello player whipping his battered top-hat off with a flourish; the last lounge singer removing and hanging up her shawl with an "I own this place" attitude; the skinner whipping off his trademark ankle-length leather coat and flinging it over the back of the chair as he enters/interrupts the meeting. Consider that such non-sexy uses of the move might be the only way these skinners ever invoke it.

Guiding the Narration

[F]or me, this is another example of how AW mimics movie reality, not "real" reality. I don't find it necessary to consider the Skinner's power supernatural, because my group and I are creating something that flows rather like a movie. When that moment comes, and that sexy leading character is hit by those perfect blue lights and the soundtrack is awesome and the perfect body is being revealed, the plot may be in the middle of a fire or a fight scene, but for ten to thirty seconds all the camera sees - and therefore all we are looking at - is the Skinner.

In a moment we may find out that while that scene was going on, some of the other characters were doing things. So the next few player moves are like tiny "flashbacks" just going back a few seconds or minutes. That's cool, because those other characters weren't watching the Skinner scene. They were busy.

We see things like this in movies all the time. The smokin' hot protagonist drops the shoulder of their blouse, and everyone's eyes are pinned to that little patch of bare skin. The camera is pinned to it. Our shot goes medium-close, and all we see is the curve of their neck, the shadow of the clavicle. Reverse shot to the antagonist, nostrils flared, pupils dilated, lip glistening with just the smallest dot of unrestrained saliva. Shot retreats to medium distance, and we're suddenly surprised that one of the protagonist's teammates has somehow been next to the antagonist the whole time, and slits their throat!

These are the core narration options, and for these the MC needs the collaboration of the players. Personally, I did not need to go any further then this in the only game I saw use of this move.

If they are enough, that's cool – but if you still get the feeling that you need more tangible or unilateral ways of making Apocalypse World Seem Real, there are options for that, too, without sacrificing how the move works.

The Move happens in the World.

Don't make the "frozen" people be in love with the skinner; that's not the move. It's not a seduce and it's not a hypnotize. No, they KNOW that what they're doing isn't natural and the MC should tell her about how she can see that in their eyes.

In our game, the male skinner used this on a noble woman (our setting was drifted) to distract her. But she KNOWS what's going on, the way we play it. She knows she should have looked away and she knows she's being held there by how supernaturally hot he was, but she can't look away. How does that make her feel, after? She HATED him before. The MC talked at length about how she felt the need to shower. And her threat type jumped to 11, I'm sure.

And if the Move takes time and happens in a somewhat public place, Announce Future Badness:

[…] more people show up. And then more people. Dozens of people stop what they're doing and go nuts when a) the Skinner stops short or b) hits the naked zone and tries to get dressed and bug out.

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