So I’m just about ready to lock in my Spellslinger class, but I’d love to get the opinions of the community before I finalize it. Spellslinger is a cross between a magic user and a Wild West gunslinger, think Harry Potter meets The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dnbrTRUssVJDlUhlVYBrloo3nXTn17tN-odHdzcokac/edit
Oh, now this is my cuppa.
Clarification question: are runes of power duplicated on wand and skin? The phrasing is just a touch ambiguous.
The “must take several shots” complication is great. I never thought of that, and may take inspiration for my psion class in progress.
Unwelcome Traveler made me laugh in delight.
I’m not sure I like dual wands. I’m not sure I don’t, but it feels just kind of off somehow.
The runes look really good.
Thanks for the comments! Runes of power are designed to be inscribed on your skin, so if you upgrade your wand or take dual wands you have equal access. I may change the terminology to tattooed.
Dual wands has been an ongoing struggle to get a good feel down, they have changed through every one of the 6 versions I’ve done of the slinger so far.
As a matter of personal style I’d favor an overcharging move to get two effects off at once rather than two separate wands. But this is your class, not mine – I could be missing something good here. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Are you going for a Roland from The Dark Tower series feel?
I haven’t read the dark tower series, but i think the Spellslinger and Roland are cut from the same cloth, archetypal figures inspired by the west
By all means, do read it. After all, Roland is Harry Potter meets The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (in b4 HP).
… Not really a feedback, but can I steal the character concept?
Go for it! I’m going to mark anything I make for dw as Creative Commons as well!
I think this concept is amazing 🙂 And as Radaghast Kary suggested, read the dark tower. Roland might not be a magician per say, but he’s badass enough to make the Clint cower in fear.
Crossposting from SA:
Magic Wand: as mentioned on G+, that should probably read “you have crafted it” or “whittled it” or something like that so that there’s no confusion over where the runes go.
Dual Wands: why does the second wand not weigh anything? I don’t really get the reason for this, the Spellslinger has good Load, another 1 weight isn’t going to break anything. I would also remove the “you may choose to deal this extra damage to someone else within reach of your target,” the move is great without it and it just complicates things. Same goes for this provision in Wands Akimbo.
Dangerous Reputation: just “when you use your reputation to Parley etc.” works.
Call Steed: I’d probably reword that to “you have a faithful steed. Give it a name. When you whistle for it, it will rush to your side” or something.
Quickdraw: why “when you aren’t ambushed or surprised?” Doesn’t seem like the move needs this downside and the fiction would be cooler without.
Absorb Spell: I really don’t like the structure for this, and it would work much better if it were the same structure as Deflect Spell, so change it to that. The +1 forward on a 10+ is a good upgrade, and I would suggest the 7-9 choices be “you absorb some of the spell’s energies; take 1d4 damage” and “you absorb the spell’s energies, but it’s too much to handle; take -1 forward.”
Born in the Saddle: not sure “steed deals class damage” needs to be an option.
True Grit: cool move, but “and are captured” is a bit too specific and probably won’t happen often enough in a game to justify taking a move.
Long Shot: change “a moment” to “a few moments” or something, seems like the +1 is a little gratuitous.
Chill/* Stupefy*/Shock: do these need the explicit +1 forward mechanical effect? I think the fiction effect is clear enough – I also don’t know that you need to have three separate runes for essentially the same effect.
Acid: ongoing needs an end trigger. Also, rename it to Corrode.
Feet of Clay: “momentarily” probably needs to be more specific (in order from shortest to longest: a few moments? A minute? A little while?
Disarm: doesn’t need to specify “if the target carries a weapon,” that’s self-evident. Alternatively, I’d change this so that it’s “whatever the target is holding in one of its hands is flung from their grasp” so it has wider application.
Burning Acid: rename to Dissolve or just plain Acid.
Freeze/Debilitate/etc.: should all be Replaces, not Requires.
Freeze: sort of overlaps with Feet of Stone.
Freeze/Blaze: either d6 damage is fair, or else keep the fiction-only effect like Smoulder has, but make it more aggressive (i.e. “a fire erupts from the target”).
Chain Lightning (NOT “Lightening”): nested rolls are still bad – I’d just change it to say that it hits an additional target standing near the primary.
Detonate: “if the next attack” – no reason why you shouldn’t be able to set up cool combos with your Ranger buddy or whatever. This would mean changing the effect to “spread the effect of the last rune other than Detonate that affected the target” though.
All in all, solid class, and it’s nearly ready for the final rewording pass.
I love it!
Alex Norris great changes, I’ve modified the google doc to reflect them.
That’s fantastic – and I know one of my players will love it.
If he bites (and I’m sure he will) I’ll provide some playtest feedback soon..
Mad Adric, I’ve responded in a private post to you, but I think you will need me in one of your Circle to see the response.
With Mad Adric’s permission I’ve thrown together a Playbook for anyone who would like to test out the Spellslinger. The latest version can be found here:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/852127/ApocWorld/DungeonWorld/DWSpellslingerPlaybook_0.3.pdf
I don’t have access to the SomethingAwful Thread. Can I ask someone to cross-post the link for me.
Declan Feeney: loving the font choice.
The SA thread is here, although it may be paywalled: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3501369
Pretty sure the Google doc is the most up to date, since Mad Adric said he’d incorporated most of my suggestions.
Declan Feeney Alex Norris I’ve made a few tweaks to the Google Doc I posted to incorporate Declan’s additions and changes, along with a little housekeeping. mostly it’s just changing a few words and moving some descriptions from Magic Wand to Runes of Power to reduce confusion, nothing mechanical apart from Declan’s changes.
It’s a great looking sheet Declan and everyone should check it out!
I’ll get the updates into the sheet tonight and thyen post the updated sheet. I’m at the inlaws at the moment and unfortunately dont have access to either DTP software or my source files.
First playtest session: \spellslinger seemed to play well, although session was cut short due to two plyers having to leave because their son become ill and they had to pick him up from childminder.
One bit of feedback from the session though: Born in the Saddle as written isnt going to work well. The issue is the trigger ‘when you fight from the back of your steed’ prohibits use of the ability in any non-combat situation. If ‘when you fight’ was replcaed with something like ‘When you enter a charged or dangerous situation on your steed’ then this works much better. Then the abilty works just as well for escaping exploding mines, crossing chasms, chasing mail trains etc.
Mad Adric Alex Norris
The revised sheet with all all Mad Adrics suggested changes is here:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/852127/ApocWorld/DungeonWorld/DWSpellslingerPlaybook_0.4.pdf
I also did a little cleanup work (enlarged the icon at the bottom left, changed the template to black – it used to be dark grey, and fixed two typos).
I have NOT included a revision for ‘Born in the Saddle’. Its Mad Adric’s class and I’d like him to approve it before I make any tweaks 🙂
Declan Feeney “When you ride your steed into danger” would be a good replacement for the trigger.