Whether you’re improvising adversaries and environments or using existing ones, you might find a moment where you want to put your thumb on the scale to make something dramatic happen or to escalate the scene. You can always improvise a GM move, but there might be situations where you want to make an especially hard move. In those situations, you can make a Fear move. By spending Fear when you declare the move, you communicate and respect the scale of the action you’re taking.

A Fear move should redefine a scene, change the terms, raise the stakes, modify or move the location, or accomplish another pivotal action.

Fear moves commonly include one or more of these elements:

• Introducing new adversaries to a scene when their appearance hasn’t been foreshadowed or lacks context.
• An adversary activating a powerful spell or transformation to deal massive damage or boost their capabilities.
• An environment exerting a strong negative effect on the party.

For additional guidance on creating Fear moves, reference the existing Fear moves included in the “Adversary Features” and “Environment Features” sections and stat blocks of chapter 4.