21 thoughts on “Please critique: When you are bitten by a zombie, roll +CON.”

  1. It might be clearer as a “On a 10+, choose all.  On a 7-9, choose 1” format.  That would also open up electing to be infected without visible signs… 🙂

  2. Gordon Spencer I think he means “you don’t fall ill (taking -1 ongoing to CON rolls)”

    And I agree with Marshall. Doing it as “on a 10+ you pick two, on 7-9 pick one” would be clearer.

  3. You could also do it as:

    When you are bitten by a zombie, roll +CON. On a 10+, it didn’t break the skin and you’re fine.  On a 7-9, you fall ill while your body fights off the infection, take -1 Con ongoing until you Make Camp and consume a ration.

  4. Patrick Smith The problem is that if you have the choice between two bad choices but only one has a real mechanical backing, then most of the time people will pick the one that doesn’t have a mechanical penalty.

  5. I think it is best practice for moves to push the story forward, rather then looping back into more mechanics. 

    the fun part here is getting infected right? start the move there…

    When you get infected by a zombie roll plus Con

    10+ you’re fine | 7-9 pick one | on a miss, all three

    -you crave flesh

    -you start to decay

    -you develop a shamble in your step (or whatever)

    when a move ends with mechanics, the ball stops rolling. We have to pick it up and get it going again. when a move leads back into the story it gives us all of this new stuff to talk about.

    “so you’re craving flesh now, what is that like?”

    “how do I stop myself from decaying?”

  6. Hmm, I don’t know if that came out right. I guess I just mean that when it comes to AW engine games…I like my mechanics in the middle (mostly), DW has a different approach which is cool but I am always trying to play it like AW. 🙂

  7. I don’t think it should be a move. They got bit? Secretly decide if they’re infected or not, then let them worry about if they are. A healthy dose of paranoia adds that extra zombie flavor!

  8. Good point; it probably makes more sense as a monster move: “Infect someone with the zombie virus”.

    Alternately, you could do some sort of countdown clock, like the disease track in 4e.

  9. I put together an as of yet unreleased supplement that treats diseases as character-specific fronts.  When you develop the disease, the GM can advance your disease as a GM move just like he would advance any other front.  It’s a nice, existing framework for transformative processes.

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