Matt Capizzi and I were pondering, this past Monday at our weekly DW game run by Christopher Grau : does the ranger’s animal companion have HP? I know there is the Man’s Best Friend move (which I intend to take for my human ranger, Isaiah Greylocke, next level), but what happens if the fiction moves in the direction that the animal might take a hit (for example, if I Defy Danger by running away from a hail of arrows, but only get 7-9, and a hard bargain must be taken)?
Matt Capizzi and I were pondering, this past Monday at our weekly DW game run by Christopher Grau : does the…
Matt Capizzi and I were pondering, this past Monday at our weekly DW game run by Christopher Grau : does the…
Wow, Isaiah Greylocke is a splendid name.
As far as I remember they don’t. So the animal might get a hit in fiction with fictional consequences or you can fiddle with other numbers: -1 ongoing to ferocity or +1 to the instincts or something.
Well, you could stat up an animal companion using the monster creation rules. But I think it’s more like the Driver’s car. You trust that the GM is a fan of your character and that, if your animal companion is a big part of your character, it won’t be killed casually.
Judd Karlman thanks 🙂 Isaiah comes from the biblical prophet. Greylock(e) is the name of a street down the road from a former FLGS. He was originally a 19th-century pact mage who had a pact with a vestige who essentially keyed him into the Akratic Registry.
Vasiliy Shapovalov the Man’s Best Friend move says that the animal can defend the character, and if it’s hit then it takes -1 ongoing to ferocity.
I know. Actually Man’s Best Friends sets ferocity to 0. The difference is that you can chose this to happen, not the GM.
Yeah, seems reasonable to me that the GM could just do that as a result of the fiction saying your animal companion gets hurt. “Can’t fight quite as good until it recovers from those arrows, you know.” Make a move that follows and all.
It doesn’t have hit points because it supposedly would just be taken out our killed outright. The idea is that the animal companion is not a near shield. If course fiction says what happens, but overall you should warm the player that it is not a shield and treat it as an asset, so taking it out is party of a use up their resources move.
The animal companion is deliberately a resource to the ranger, not a creature in its own right. it doesn’t get HP because then the ranger would have to play it like it’s own character, basically. (That’s an interesting option for level 10+ rangers though…)
Being a resource doesn’t mean it’s invulnerable. First of all, putting the animal in danger is a golden opportunity to make a move, like “use up their resources.” An animal companion could be “used up” by being taken captive, gravely wounded, snared, etc. Since it’s a big part of the ranger it shouldn’t be taken away except on the most golden of golden opportunities where the ranger basically willingly sends it to its death.
I would treat the animal companion as equivalent to a fighter’s Trademark weapon. Removing/breaking it would be “using up their resources” and a hard move. I would not do it lightly and there would be a way for the character to recover it.
You know, I was thinking that exact same thing at work today. The Animal companion is prime target for a hard move that will really knock the wind out of the player’s sails.