GM Hard and Soft Moves always land. They represent the world pressing back: consequences, threats, or shifts in the fiction that cannot be avoided by “rolling higher.”

Players may resist, soften, or redirect these effects, but only through invocation, expressions, or statuses.

• Soft Move: A warning, escalation, or setup. It foreshadows danger or shifts momentum but leaves the PCs room to act before the full consequence lands.
• Hard Move: A direct consequence or danger coming to fruition. The effect is immediate and definite: a wound, a loss, a rupture, or a new threat.

Soft moves create pressure; hard moves deliver consequences. Both always happen in the fiction.

When a GM Move lands, the player may attempt to soften or redirect it. The following tools are available, but not all may be combined freely:

• Invoke a Lens Aspect (Fate Point):
  • Guaranteed mitigation. Reduces severity by 3 shifts (or equivalent).
  • Mutually exclusive with Expressions or Statuses.
  • Represents certainty purchased with a scarce resource.

• Roll an Expression:
  • Risky mitigation.
  • Success → reduces or redirects the effect (usually 2 shifts).
  • Tie → partial reduction (usually 1 shift).
  • Failure → full effect, and may worsen.
  • May be combined with a beneficial Status.

• Use a Beneficial Status:
  • Automatic absorption equal to its value (e.g., *Warded 2* absorbs 2).
  • May be combined with an Expression roll.
  • Cannot be combined with an Aspect.

• Aspect: Stands alone. Most powerful but limited.
• Expression + Status: Allowed. Risk supported by prepped defenses.
• Aspect + Status: Not allowed.
• Cap on Resistance: No single resistance attempt may reduce more than 4 shifts total. Any excess carries through.

It is possible to completely avoid taking a status or consequence from a GM Move — but only by choosing the right method.

• Aspect Invoke: A well-timed invoke may reduce the effect to zero. The Move still happens in the fiction, but the character shrugs it off, evades, or nullifies it through narrative strength.
• Expression + Status: Together, these may cancel out the effect. A strong defense in preparation (status) plus skill in the moment (expression) can entirely blunt the Move.

Important: The Move always manifests in the fiction. The Choir screamed, the censer spilled, the ground shook. Complete mitigation means the PC emerged unharmed — not that the Move never occurred.

GM Hard Move: “The Mendicant’s censer spills fire across the floor. Take ‘Burning 3.’”

• Accept: Mark *Burning 3*.
• Invoke Anchor: Pain is a Teacher → spend FP → reduce by 3 → *Burning 0*.
• Roll Expression: Endure the Unendurable + Status *Blessed by Water 2*:
  • Status absorbs 2 → *Burning 1*.
  • Expression success reduces 1 more → *Burning 0*.

The Move always lands in the story — the fire spilled — but the PC may emerge unscathed through resistance.

• Fate Points = resistance currency. They guarantee reduction.
• Expressions = risk currency. They might save you or make things worse.
• Compels tempt players to accept the full consequence in exchange for FP, keeping the economy alive.