Position and Effect is one of the trickier subsystems of Forged in the Dark systems, and is one of the main things that distinguishes it from Powered by the Apocalypse systems. Position and Effect add crunch and system mastery to the game, but as they're determined by the GM it's easy to lose track of their use and value. In this article I'll outline their value and how to get the most out of it.
Position
Position determines the scale of consequences of an action in the event the PC doesn't roll a full success. Therefore, we adjust position based on how dangerous we feel a particular action is. "Risky" is the default, and we understand intuitively that a gunfight or a tense conversation with a crime lord is Risky, at best. But it's less obvious when we're supposed to fiddle with that dial.
Position is directly related to the fictional positioning of a PC. Fictional positioning encompasses everything we know about the PC in the shared fiction of the current scene. "I stab them" is a common thing to hear during an RPG session, but the implications depend on a wealth of factors not described in three words. Does the PC have a sword, or a shiv? Are they standing next to the target, or across the room from it? Is the target a helpless old man or a six-armed demon with a mini-gun in each arm? All these combine to make up fictional positioning.
An example will again reference our PC's propensity to stab people. A PC trying to stab an NPC that has a gun while wrestling in close combat is Risky, maybe even Controlled. A PC trying to stab an NPC that has a gun on the other side of a 20' room is Risky at best. A PC trying to stab an NPC that has a gun on the opposite side of a football field is certainly Desperate.
The versatility of Forged actions often throws off new players and GMs: if a PC is trying to convince an old friend of theirs to help them on a mission is that a Consort or a Sway? If you Consort, you might be referencing past adventures, appealing to their fondness for you, or bringing up a favor they owe. But if you Sway, you're turning on the charm and exploiting those same feelings. Both can get you what you want, but Sway is more likely to leave the NPC with hurt feelings or even a grudge: Consort is Controlled, Sway is Risky.
Mechanically there are two mappings between Position and the scale of the consequences: harm and clocks. We'll cover clocks more in the Effect section. The rules describe the harm suffered for Controlled and Desperate actions as "lesser" and "severe" respectively, but we can map these to level 1 and level 3 harm. This doesn't mean we have to apply that level of harm, but it gives us a baseline. A fistfight with a gang member is unlikely to be Desperate, but a fistfight with a gang member on top of a roof could be!
In some cases, mechanics determine the Position before fictional positioning is defined: the engagement roll, for example, or when you apply "you end up in a risky/desperate position" as a consequence for another roll. It's vital that our fiction follow the Position in these cases: if the PCs are infiltrating a fancy party and end up with a Desperate position from the engagement roll, don't describe them calmly sauntering through the party with no one aware they're there; describe the moment they come face-to-face with a long-term rival. Similarly, a PC whose Position goes from Risky to Desperate as a consequence of a Scrap roll in a firefight must've been flanked or flushed from cover. Just as mechanics follow fiction, fiction follows mechanics.
Effect
Effect is an even subtler dial than Position, and one even more tied to mechanics. Careful manipulation of Effect allows you to control pacing of a mission as well as reward players for use of abilities, equipment, and coordination.
Effect, like Position, is both informed by and informs fiction. The default Effect of our stab-happy PC stabbing our beleaguered NPC is Standard, but if that NPC is heavily armored it might go to Reduced, if the NPC is armored and hiding inside a carriage it might start at None! Being able to turn the dial all the way to "No Effect" is a feature: when your players first hear it, they'll be nervous, but when they figure out how to push it up and get what they want, the reward will be that much greater.
When Effect is used that way it can feel punitive, but it can be flipped around as well. You could tell a PC going into combat with a room full of mooks they'll only kill or disable one or two with a single roll at Reduced Effect, but half or more with Standard Effect, and nearly all or all with Great Effect. With the armored NPC example, the PC will feel like they're struggling against a superior enemy, with the mooks example they'll feel like they're tearing through an inferior one, even though Effect is being used in fundamentally the same way in both. Each one may be appropriate for different scenes, one more often than other depending on the tone or pace of your game.
The above offers us a fictional representation of Effect: "one or two", "half or more", "nearly all", but the rules offer us a mechanic to work with: Clocks. Clocks are a fantastic GM tool that can be used as hit points, timers, PbtA-style soft moves, long-term projects or consequences, faction or world events, and nearly anything else you can think of, but in a mission they're tied closely to Effect. A Clock has 2-8 segments (any more and it should be broken up into multiple, smaller Clocks, like a to-do list for cleaning your room) and Reduced Effect translates to 1 segment, Standard to 2, and Great to 3. Thus we can use Clocks and Effect in concert to create a multi-step challenge with a very clear scope.
For example, the above room full of mooks could be a 4-segment clock, with the PC's initial combat roll filling in 1-3 segments depending on Effect, but still fictionally mapping to the above descriptions. If the first roll succeeds at Great effect and leaves only one segment, the PC may switch tacks to a Command roll to cow the survivors. Commanding enemy mooks may start at Reduced Effect, but with only one segment of clock left (and only one or two, presumably terrified, mooks left alive) that's all they need! Similarly, a PC trying to convince an NPC to work with them may look like an easy, one-roll action, but after a partial success you may decide the NPC is more stubborn then they look and offer "reduced effect" as a consequence of the roll; if the PC chooses not to resist that consequence, they'll need to make a follow-up argument (and roll) to finish convincing the NPC. It's as if you created a 2-step clock for the argument.
Bigger challenges invite bigger clocks, but may or may not come with a lower effect. Sneaking into a military base could be an 8-segment clock, with each partial success or failure ticking up an 8-segment "sound the alarm" clock. Rather than a single, high-impact roll, you ratchet up the tension with a series of actions and challenges, but each one will likely start at Standard Effect. However, a demon might also have an 8-segment clock to kill or banish it, but every action is likely to start at Reduced or even No Effect – after all, it's a demon.
Why Bother
The previous sections have outlined the core mechanics of position and effect as used by the GM, but it's important to remember the subsystems in Forged in the Dark games that twist these dials without (or with less) GM intervention, as they allow the player's ingenuity and understanding of the mechanics to give them control over how the fiction plays out. For example, in Scum and Villainy the "Ace Pilot" special ability gives the PC "potency on all speed-related rolls." Potency gives an increase in Effect, so a game in which Effect was disregarded would eliminate the value of this ability!
Additionally, many Forged games implement a system called "tier" that abstracts the equipment and skill level of the PCs and their enemies. Whenever the PCs take an action that interacts with a faction of a superior tier's training, facilities, or tech, they suffer a penalty to Effect – often putting them at Low Effect before any other factors come into play. However, PC's have access to different varieties of Fine equipment depending on their playbook, which allows them to take appropriate actions as if they were one tier higher and bridge the gap against established factions. For bigger gaps, the downtime action "Acquire Asset" can allow PCs, with a bit of skill, luck, and financial investment, to acquire a piece of equipment with a tier far above their own.
This all combines to create a system that both feels and plays like the PCs are in over their heads, facing up against far more powerful factions, but have the tools to go up against them if they can just figure out how to use them.