Just want to make sure I’m getting this right. The Druids Spirit Tongue move only allows for understanding the speech of critters but not speaking it. He could listen to them and understand what’s going on but be can’t communicate with them. (Although, maybe while shapeshifted he can communicate with animals of the assumed form?)
On the other hand, the Rangers Wild Empathy allows for full communication with animals. Right?
Yes, That’s how I read it too. No communication unless shapeshifted.
Although some trained animals may understand a few words of the common tongue, like “attack”, “track”, “go there” and so on, I guess.
OTOH the Ranger may communicate with wild empathy.
Bastien Wauthoz -> I trusted you! I let you speak with bats!
Joke aside; I really didn’t realize this. Makes communication a bit more sketchy when you have to roll for it 🙂
Kasper Brohus Sorry I misread the rule. More fun if Sinathel has to Shapeshift to communicate. More dice rolls to fail! More XP to get! and more
headaches… work for you. ;-pI could be wrong! That’s just how it reads to me (and Philip). I didn’t catch it till reading Druid again last night.
The text reads:
Spirit Tongue (Druid move)
The grunts, barks, chirps, and calls of the creatures of the wild are as language to you. You can understand any animal native to your land or akin to one whose essence you have studied.
Wild Empathy (Ranger advanced move)
You can speak with and understand animals.
Seems fair the druid can’t talk unless shapeshifted.
OR the Druid can’t talk as easily. The ranger can make himself understood no mater what, the Druid has to work for it.
Spend Hold?
What hold Kasper, the shapeshift Hold? I think Tim might be saying that a Druid could do it with some difficulty, no shapeshifting necessary. I personally don’t like that interpretation because it gives me a headache as a GM to have to fiat-answer whether the Druids pantomiming was sufficient to get his point across. I like either a yes or no from the rules on this matter and I’m leaning “no” now.
Yes. Talk like an animal IS a Move from the appropriate animal you shapeshift into.
Say, I want my druid to be able to talk to that rat, I shapeshift into a Rat and spend a Hold to talk to it. Had I rolled a 6-, I would then revert to my human (or elf, or halfling) form as I would have spent my only hold.
Otherwise, wild empathy and spirit tongue would be indentical.
But the druid’s move is called Spirit Tongue not spirit ears or animal listener. The moves reads to me as if you can speak freely to animals of your land seeing as the move says “…the creatures of wild are a language to you.” What language have you learned where you can only understand the language but not speak it or at least a little of it. Sure you couldn’t talk about difficult concepts to an animal. But asking “where did the running man go?” to a squirrel and get an answer doesn’t seem like it’d break your game.
I don’t think anything we talk about here is going to break DW. Just curious how others read it. Sage LaTorra, Adam Koebel…what was the official intent? Was it meant to be distinct from the Ranger move or are they the same?
I think we intended the Druid to be able to speak with Spirit Tongue as well. And since they can take Ranger moves, they can become able to speak to animals not of their land.
Excellent. Thanks for the input.
Well Kasper Brohus, it seems your faith was well placed in Bastien Wauthoz!
Excellent ! Happy to have been proven wrong ! Thanks Sage, you made my druid happy (and my GM will suffer even more …)