How would you guys portray a character that for some reason has attained superhuman strength in DW? I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I have no idea how to handle it as a GM.
To me, the problem is that Strength is a statistic in DW. Modifying statistics outside the normal advancement system is something I’m a little concerned about doing.
I don’t want it to be “+X ongoing when using brute strength” or “+X damage”, because that’s just really boring in my book. Let me see your custom moves! 🙂
It doesn’t have to be an all-compassing move. It might be several.
Meaty arms
You ignore the two-handed tag on melee weapons.
Mighty bound
You can leap across vast chasms.
When you are superstrong, you kill any ordinary enemy in one hit, no damage roll required.
To infinity and beyond
Treat all thrown weapons, improvised or otherwise, as if they had the Far tag.
OK, so far I listed three moves, but I don’t think they are true to the fiction. How can I be super strong with a Strength of 8?
I was thinking if you could just forget about STR altogether, mark it as a (-) and always treat a STR roll as if you have rolled 10+.
The problem with this is that it doesn’t let you make the Strenght into a complication for wharever reason and it seems a little boring.
The thing is you’ve taken your Strength to the next level. Roll +5 for every task that an ordinary man could possibly do with his muscles. Roll +STR when you do a thing that challenges even your bulk. Like crushing a castle wall or wrestling with a giant.
I like both of Vasiliy Shapovalov ‘s suggestions.
A) Do you assume super strength allows you to violate physics like catching a train without derailing it a la Superman?
B) Does super strength only allow for big hurt, super Olympics type stuff?
where you start from opens up avenues for custom moves.
IE option A means super STR 8 can try to do amazing things like lifting mountain ranges but usually enacting that leads to complications. The score more represents the characters “comfort”, confidence or facility in applying that resource.
Also, ask your player which branch they prefer.
Joshuha Owen I’m looking at designing my own AW hack for Vampire: the Requiem. Vampires can have superhuman strength in these systems, and if I stay true to the tradition, Strength is an Attribute there. As such, I currently have no players 😉
Then don’t stay true to the tradition.
I’d suggest looking at Monsterhearts and then jumping off of that for a *W based WoD hack.
Edit: Vasiliy has the right of it move from WW’s tradition and look at what you want the storys to be about.
If it’s an Underworld style game that is more superheroes with a supernatural skin than horror/ personal internal struggle with the beast inside.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about moving away from it. I wanted a more “I’m a frickin’ monster and people might die from fear, should my nature be revealed” kinda game.
Screw tradition… 😉
When you use your hideous unnatural strength, make this move. Roll plus Str. Regardless of your roll, you demonstrate your awful physical power. The roll determines whether you can channel it effectively. On 1-6, the GM decides what happens. One 7-9, pick one. On 10+ pick three.
O You don’t accidentally break something or hurt somebody with your strength
O You don’t accidentally make things worse with your demonstration of unnatural power
O You hold a victim powerless in your grasp
O You lift or hurl an impossible weight
O You leap or fall an impossible distance
O You crush the life from one weaker victim
O You achieve some other stated goal related to strength
Have you seen then undying hack?
Undying is a good one.
Kasper Brohus, have you seen the Urban Shadows hack by Andrew Medeiros and it’s World Of Darkness addon being developed by Tommy Rayburn?
Undying is also really super killer. It’s one of my favourite hacks to date, after Dungeon World.
Kasper Brohus and Eric Duncan, Andrew Medeiros started a game called Urban Shadows. Great supernatural game but closer to Buffy and Dresden. Myself and a few friends built from that as our basis adding a lot of content from Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, Hunter and now Orpheus giving entire addons to each of his Playbooks.
We have built out Clans and Displines for Vampire. Built out Auspices and Tribes for Werewolf. Built out Orders and Paths for Mage. Built out Creeds and Organizations for Hunters. And I am currently building out Shades for the Speecter/Wraiths, We plan on adding Changeling to Fae and later on Demon the Fallen to the Tainted.
We are currently a few playtest in, with Andrew Medeiros with a vast amount of playtest through his game.
Check the document here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vAfokBManOfs96xyvhPB2q6P1lR3PrN1OGNmjkLoqk8/edit?usp=sharing
As both World and WoD gamers, I would love your feedback. The better our games become, the better we have material for everyone.
that reminds me that i still have to write the Druid for that…
Kasper Brohus: you’re looking at this from the wrong angle.
A character can only ever do what would be reasonable for them to do within the fiction.
A roll is never required for something that has no consequences on a failure, where nothing is at stake.
Having superhuman strength means you are able to do more things within the fiction, and that some things that previously had a chance of failing no longer do.
You don’t roll +Str to crush a pebble with normal strength, so you don’t roll +Str to crush a boulder with super-strength; both just happen.
You wouldn’t get to roll to lift a building with normal strength, but you do get to with super-strength.
Remember, Fiction Comes First. Don’t think of things in terms of the rules, think of them in terms of what makes sense within the fiction.
Well, Alex, it’s not so simple. That would work with Defy Danger rolls and Bend Bars, Lift Gates. But DW has damage system that is scaled to normal strength, it also has Hack’n’Slash that can go wrong even if you’re superstrong etc.
Vasiliy Shapovalov: …it doesn’t; damage isn’t scaled to strength at all.
Hack and Slash can go wrong even with super-strength, which is exactly why I am not the one advocating that super-strength let you auto-succeed on Str rolls. 🙂
Not directly, but there is an assumption of humanlike strength built in.
Vasiliy Shapovalov that is exactly my point. All moves that base around a roll+STR mechanic assumes that the characters have a human-like strength.
Alex Norris Yes, fiction comes first. But how would Hack & Slash work now? It assumes that melee combat is a feat of strength.
Moves are both prescriptive and descriptive. Adam Koebel once wrote a post here about when moves are triggered. He gave an example about hack & slash, where he said that if you couldn’t meaningfully engage with a foe, then it wasn’t triggered.
You cannot meaningfully engage a vastly superior foe in melee combat, it’ll just smack you around. You cannot meaningfully engage a vastly inferior foe either. You can only crush it.
The trouble is that there is a very important difference to these to scenarios; the first forces you to defeat an opponent by a less direct approach, a great once-in-a-while story element, but the latter just trivializes something the game is about.
Kasper Brohus: what is Hack & Slash about, as a roll? What does it resolve or determine?
It doesn’t determine how much damage you’re doing or how strong you’re swinging your weapon; it determines how good you are at hitting the other guy without being hit back.
How does super-strength make you better at not getting hit by someone with a sword? It doesn’t, really – I mean, it might make it easier for you and harder for them to parry, but ultimately footwork and your ability with the sword are what determines who wins in a combat. Super-strength doesn’t make you a better swordsman.
When you roll a 7-9 or worse on H&S, you’re not doing less damage. Super-strength doesn’t factor in here.
If for some reason you still feel like strength should give a bonus to damage, you could probably make it roll twice keep highest on damage rolls where you’re actually hitting them.
Hack & Slash is about engaging monsters in melee combat. It is considered a feat of Strength, hence roll+STR. Being stronger makes you better at whacking people, hence being super strong should make you “super better”.