Compendium Class: Faetouched
When you eat of goblin fruits and return to the mortal world, you may take this move when you level up:
Trickster’s Bargain: When you exchange promises with someone, you may sweeten the deal with hold, up to a maximum of the number of Bonds you have with each other + 1. They may spend one hold to reroll a throw of the dice. You gain one hold on them for each hold they spend in this way. You may spend one hold to make the person fail a move outright without rolling. If this leads to them suffering injury or embarrassment, you mark XP. If either of you fail to uphold your promise to the other, that bargainer loses all hold and cannot gain more for some time: the GM will tell you how long.
Once you’ve taken Trickster’s Bargain, the following moves count as class moves for you. You may also choose from this list whenever you level up:
Haggler of Heart’s Price: Your Trickster’s Bargain move improves as follows:
– You always gain a minimum of 3 hold, even if you share fewer than two Bonds.
– The recipient of the hold gains the additional option of spending a hold for +1 forward.
– You gain the additional option to spend one hold to force the person to make a basic or class move in a manner of your choosing. You mark XP according to the same criteria as forcing a fail.
Friend of the Court: You take +1 ongoing against fae creatures, so long as you and your allies raise no violence against them.
Glamourweaver: Once per day, you may enchant a mundane object, handful of trash, etc. to appear to all senses as gold or other valuables worth 50 coins. The illusion melts away at sunrise.
I don’t feel this is as strong as my Greymalkin, but should be workable. Does Trickster’s Bargain need special handling for NPCs, who don’t roll dice? The move’s complex enough already…
Yeah, that’ too much mechanics. Better to keep it simple and fictional. Also, it feels like to much control over other PC. How about “you can spend hold to interfere by casting bad luck, if they are in pain or embarassed, mark XP”. And get rid of third option at Haggler.
I’m not sure “cause bad luck” has enough teeth for my tastes, but the comments about overall complexity and agency-busting are noted. How about these modifications:
Trickster’s Bargain: When you exchange promises with someone, you may additionally negotiate to gain equal hold on each other, up to a maximum of 3 apiece. They may spend one hold to reroll a throw of the dice. You may spend one hold to make them fail a move outright without rolling. If this leads to them suffering injury or embarrassment, you mark XP. If either of you break your promise to the other, that bargainer loses all hold.
Haggler of Heart’s Price: Your Trickster’s Bargain move improves as follows.
– Add one to the hold you gain from a negotiation. This may nudge your maximum to 4.
– The person you bargain with gains the additional option of spending a hold for +1 forward.
Here are my concerns about that auto-fail a move (order is random).
First, there are moves without any roll or actual ability to fail, like “Ritual”, “Make a camp” or even “End of session”. How do you suppose to fail those?
Second, many rolls in DW are very important. Last breath is an iconic example, but not the only one. Auto-failing those is grave and often not fun.
Third, there is no fiction and that makes results hard to narrate. So she fails, why? What do I say as a GM? When there is a fictional reason – bad luck, for example, it’s super fun to narrate.
Also I would like to leave the character open to karmic retribution, that is some solid mythical shit right there. And that means to me faetouched has to roll something.
As you can see, my concerns are mostly about PC-to-PC interaction: original version works as a charm on NPC.
Also, how about that: when your victim gets into trouble because he did something no one expected, incuding himself, he can spend one your hold.
Hmm, yeah, forcing a fail on something like Last Breath would be brutal. And good point about missing a fictional trigger. I’ll give this a bit more thought.