Splitting Armor into Armor and Dodge
Adam recently posted a move which gave you Armor equal to your CHA under certain circumstances (https://plus.google.com/112484087750169360510/posts/HkSBdGiJzHf). It got me thinking about the awkward double role that Armor plays as representing both your chances of being hit and your protection when hit.
This dual role would be fine except that there are chunks of the rules that interact oddly depending on the source of your Armor. For example, the Angel’s ability to bypass Armor with its burning sword doesn’t make much sense if the Armor comes from your winning personality.
You could adjudicate this on a case-by-case basis, but (1) that’s an interruption that we don’t need and (2) sometimes that stuff is obscured (for example, a monster entry won’t tell you what share of the Armor comes from protection and what share from dodging).
The change I’d suggest is to split Armor into Armor and Dodge. Both stack and reduce damage. Weapons that pierce or ignore Armor do not bypass Dodge. Area weapons could then bypass Dodge. Moves like Underdog would give additional Dodge rather than additional Armor.
You could even create a third type, ‘Deflect’, which would reflect force fields and so on that aren’t vulnerable to piercing or to area effects, but that’s probably a step too complicated.
What do you think?
Okay, so: why is the split needed?
As far as I see it, it doesn’t add anything to the game. You can already dodge – this is done by Defying Danger! Armor works very well as damage reduction in DW.
For Adam Koebel’s Don’t Touch Me, I’m Super Important move in particular, it’s up to you to determine the fiction behind the mechanics. The mechanics are +CHA to armour against creatures that recognise your authority – to me, that suggests they’re holding back because there’s a chance you or your organisation may be merciful if they don’t try to kill you too hard.
The angel bypasses this form of armour as well, because the angel gives no fucks (about any earthly form of authority, and in general).
Every time someone mistakes me for Sage or vice versa, an angel gets its wings. *grin*
Adam Koebel: whoops, sorry! This was misremembering, not mistaking. I blame it being earlier than 11am.
Edit: it’s actually doubly stupid, because Chris’ post does point out it’s your move. I blame it all on the lack of coffee. Mornings are evil.
It’s okay! It’s actually a pretty funny running joke that we get mistaken for each other.
Alex Norris, what about Underdog (+1 armor if outnumbered)? And why is a monster armed with a piercing weapon better able to harm the person with Don’t Touch Me? We might be able to justify these or work around them on a case by case basis, but I don’t think it’s worth the effort.
It’s true that people can dodge using defy danger. It’s not the right word to use … but I still think it’s a worthwhile split.
Remember, armour is an abstract measure of your ability to not take damage when hit, much like hit points are an abstract measure of your ability to take abstract damage.
For Underdog, you’ve learnt to fight by manoeuvring so you keep your enemies in a position where they get in the way of each other and can’t hit you as hard. For Don’t Touch Me, sure, there’s no real reason why a spear would be better against you.
If Don’t Touch Me’s fiction involved being obnoxiously strong-headed and shrugging damage aside through magical force of personality, would that cause an issue for you? Because if not, it seems like the issue is with Don’t Touch Me’s fiction not being wholly believable rather than with armour being a problem.
Edit: the fiction takes precedence, anyway, so why not simply agree that Piercing doesn’t work against the +CHA armour from Don’t Touch Me?
Sagdam LaToebel.
Don’t Touch Me is about people who recognize your authority flinching or hesitating and not putting their whole effort into hurting you, even subconsciously. So it isn’t really armor or dodge.
Alex Norris, I don’t have a problem with Armor representing multiple ways of not taking damage when hit, including armour, dodging, holding blows, etc. The problem arises when there are methods of bypassing Armor that make sense for bypassing armour, but not bypassing dodging, holding blows, etc (or, alternatively, methods of bypassing Armor that make sense for bypassing dodging, but not bypassing armour).
“If Don’t Touch Me’s fiction involved being obnoxiously strong-headed and shrugging damage aside through magical force of personality, would that cause an issue for you?”
Yes, because there’s still no reason why piercing weapons or ‘ignore Armor’ would bypass it.
‘Edit: the fiction takes precedence, anyway, so why not simply agree that Piercing doesn’t work against the +CHA armour from Don’t Touch Me?’
I think there’s room in DW for another category of damage reduction – which, for want of a better word, I’ll call dodging but can include opponents holding their blows. It would give a role for area attacks, which could bypass it. After all, if you fill a room with a fireball you can’t avoid damaging the person whose authority you respect.
We could adjudicate these things on a case-by-case basis with reference to the fiction but, as I said above, that has its problems: (1) that’s an interruption that we don’t need and (2) sometimes that stuff is obscured (for example, a monster entry won’t tell you what share of the Armor comes from protection and what share from dodging/people holding their blows in awe).
Adam Koebel, thanks for clearing that up. However, I think its damage reduction would still fit in the Dodge category.
Dodge was a bad choice of name. What about Armor and Avoid as the two options, with Avoid including enemies holding their blows?
We’ve chosen to merge all damage reduction of any source into armour, but there is no reason a GM and group couldn’t drift it, creating Fort, Reflex and Will armour, if they liked!
Interesting thread, too.