Monster of the Week says, "When you get a hold, you'll get a number of points." (MotW 58) Is there an official way to keep track of how much hold each participant has and what it's for? I don't see any place on the sheets (original or revised) to track hold points, so do people use coins or tokens, or write it down on a scrap paper, or something else entirely? (MotW is my first and so far only entry into the Apocalypse Engine, so perhaps this is described in the system's originating material?)
[RPG] How to track hold
monster-of-the-week
Best Answer
Hold is generally temporary and extremely context-sensitive. It rarely stacks, because hold is particular to the move and the situation, and if it goes unused long enough it usually becomes irrelevant.
On balance, what happens in practice is that hold either gets used soon or immediately after it is gained, or not at all (at which point it's safe to forget). Hold is normally just remembered instead of formally recorded, as a result, and usually is short-term enough that it doesn't get forgotten.
(This is in contrast with +forward or +ongoing, which are a pain to remember in practice.)
There are uncommon times or moves when hold is kept and stays relevant longer than usual. These circumstances are usually exceptional, making the hold forefront in everyone's mind, and rarely needs recording. However, in the rare few that it's inconvenient to rely on memory, these are few enough that making a note in the margin or using a token to represent it is useful.
When recording hold, you may want to note what it's from and for, since it's not a fungible commodity. Though if you don't, and if someone hold up a poker chip representing some hold they got and wonder, "wait, what was this for?" and no-one can remember, it's safe to assume that it's become irrelevant and can be expired.