Hello,
An Ear For Magic (Bard)
When you hear an enemy cast a spell the GM will tell you the name of the spell and its effects. Take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
As the Bard is an arcane artist, is he limited to arcane spells with this move or can he identify cleric spells ?
Magi max this question gets my favourite answer: “ask the Bard”. Because, shit, I sure as hell don’t know. I bet the Bard does. And I bet they can tell you why, too.
I gotta be honest: aside from the move being called “Arcane Art” I never once thought the bard used arcane magic. It’s just so very different from — say — the wizard’s spell list.
There’s some gamer-redefinition that’s happened around the word “arcane” where it’s come to mean “magic spells cast by sorcerers, wizards and other not-clerics” but yeah, you can totally interpret that as “mysterious, unusual or occult art”
Laughs ! Alright, I’ll get along with your answer 😀
I’m translating all this (characters sheets) into french and a recurrent answer is :”what the hell is this supposed to mean ?”.
Magi max if you have any translation-related questions about our intent behind certain moves, please don’t hesitate to ask. We wrote some of them to be a little obscure, and it’d be easy for me to clear up where that obscurity is intentional.
Great ! Now that I have your ears (eyes), another question.
Charming and Open
When you speak frankly with someone, you can ask their player….
Does this include GM as a player or is this strictly limited to PCs ?
That move is a bit different from most because you’re asking the player of the character, not the character themselves. It’s not necessarily an exchange that happens in the words of the conversation but in body language and hints. So, you’re asking the player about their character in the way the GM might.
This applies to anyone at the table – the GM is a “player” too, just not a player of a Fighter or a Paladin or what have you. This move applies to anyone to whom you are able to have a frank conversation with.
Adam Koebel Holy cow, I just realized I had no idea how Charming and Open worked until just now. You ask the player? That makes more sense because you can tell them meta information that the Bard somehow picks up on in-game through other “tells” in a sort of Sherlock Holmes type moment like:
Whom do you serve?
“Well you can tell that he works for the Duke Archibald because of the signet ring he wears.”
What do you wish I would do?
“You can tell that he would like you to stay out of the guild’s business by the subtle way he is hinting and softly threatening, perhaps because the Duke has some interest in the recent illicit activities they have perpetrated as of late. “
How can I get you to get out of my way and not tell the Duke about this?
“The man indicates with a subtle gesture of his fingers and in his palm while saying that he could look the other way for a while if you shared some gold with him.”
What are you really feeling right now?
“Right now you can see that his brow is sweating, he keeps looking around, nervous and worried.”
What do you most desire?
“He really just wants to be rich enough to get out of here before the whole deal with the guild goes to hell and the King finds out about what the Duke has been doing behind his back.”
That seem about right?
EDIT: I just realized how old this post is. Sorry about that.
Mike Wice YES. Precisely. Asking the “player” explicitly lets the Bard cheat and forces the player to reveal information that their character wouldn’t. Absolutely a Sherlock-style move, but more socially oriented.
Easily enough hacked, though.
When you study the affectations of a person roll + INT. On a 10+ ask their player three questions, on a 7-9, ask one.
– where do you live?
– with whom do you associate?
– what is your biggest secret?
etc etc etc