Presenting challenges

Once the PCs head out on the journey, you need to present the challenges that you warned them about, plus any others that they couldn't have seen coming. That includes both surprises that you've prepped in advance, or things that arise naturally from the fiction or the dice.

As you resolve a leg of travel, ask yourself whether this is a good place to introduce a challenge. Likewise, as you pick points of interest, pick spots where you can introduce a challenge. You can also introduce a challenge after you've framed a scene for any reason, often in response to a PC's move.

Usually: introduce a challenge by making a soft GM move. Ask the PCs what they do and resolve their actions. Repeat as needed. The PCs might overcome the challenge quickly and easily or things might snowball into a steaming mess. Follow the core loop and play to find out what happens. When the situation is resolved, move on to the next one.

If you introduce a challenge in response to a 6- on a PC move, then feel free to drop them right into the thick of it. If someone gets a 6- to Forage and one of the challenges is "you risk getting lost," then you can just have them get lost as your hard move. You don't have to threaten them with getting lost, first. They're lost!

Present each challenge only once. After the party deals with it, then tick that challenge off your list. Present a different challenge, or the next point of interest, or the next leg of travel, or have them arrive at their destination.

With that said: a challenge that they've addressed could come back to haunt them if they make poor decisions or if the dice don't go their way. Yeah, they might have Struggled as One to handle the treacherous mire of Ferrier's Fen, but they're still in the fen! A 6- on a future roll could still send someone plunging into the water, and running off blindly into the mists is still a good way to get drowned.

The PCs are en route to Three Coven Lake from Marshedge. Their current leg of travel has them following the Sruth into the Steplands. This seems like a good time to add a challenge: "the terrain is treacherous."

I keep things zoomed out and tell them the consequences. "The rain has made the soil loose and muddy. If you stick to the river, you'll be Struggling as One, risking a fall or even a mudslide. What do you do?"

Rhianna uses her Read the Land move, asking for the best way through. I improvise, saying that the southern slopes look a bit rockier and more stable. She leads them that way and gets advantage on her Struggle as One roll Struggle As One. Good thing, too, because Caradoc and Vahid both roll a 6-, getting caught in a mudslide. Rhianna uses her 10+ result to rescue Vahid (yanking him back from the scarp), but Caradoc is in trouble and starts to get swept away down the slope!

We zoom in and play out the scene. Caradoc barely manages to save himself, taking some damage, getting very muddy, and losing all his supplies in the process. They take a brief rest and press on.