Heya! So still new to BitD and wrapping my head around certain things, but there’s been a few times where someone wanted to immediately intervene when another PC fails their check. The most recent example:
Our Hound has boarded a boat carrying the Red Sash’s war treasury. He’s successfully subdued a couple of guys with the help of our Cutter but failed a Prowl check to hide when he heard more people coming from below deck. I immediately had the guards attack as part of the consequence (hindsight, might’ve been too brutal, even for a failed desparate roll) and our Spider who’s sitting on their clunky boat that managed to slide alongside them with a rifle.
So, the Spider wants to use his rifle to stop one of the attackers before they actually attack. Was I correct in assuming that he was protecting his teammate and have him roll resistance? Even though our sword carrying Red Sash wouldn’t have been able to actually attack him so the whole “stepping in to take the consequences” didn’t make sense?
I can ellaborate more if necessary. It’s just that there’s been a lot of Protect Teammate move when what’s described would definitely help stop said Mook from causing harm but wouldn’t necessarily divert the consequence of Harm to the Protector.
Fiction first says that if there isn’t a way for the action to happen in the fiction, they can’t use the mechanics.
If you like, however, this could be a case of the Spider drawing attention and the attackers jumping onto their boat. That could justify Protect.
You could also call it an Assist and have the Hound roll Skirmish.
Or even call it a Setup…
The GM should say if a Protect manuever works in a given situation or not. If not, then the GM should let the fiction stand as established so more things can happen. At that point, I’d recommend the player to some new action which aims to deal with the consequence.
So.. in the situation you described, I think that means either: the Spider gets attacked instead if that makes sense – or it doesn’t make sense to Protect. In the latter case, a Wreck roll to create a distraction probably makes the most sense. Or Skirmish to corner them, etc (depends on the fiction)
Also note Protect is not necessarily Resist. While Protecting PCs typically Resist the things they Protect others from, the first intercepts the consequence, the second avoids it (and, not avoids the failure itself, but the consequences of that)