Hey guys! New to dungeon world and totally loving it! Quick question though: I’ve noticed that wizard spells like magic missile and fireball, for example, don’t have range tags. How does that work? Does that mean a fireball can be shot over a forest and into a clearing? I’m curious. Thanks! 🙂
Hey guys!
Hey guys!
Sub
you should ask the player! However, I’d go with visual range.
Huh. Both of those things, in my mind, assume a target you can see.
Now, if you’re seeing someone through a crystal ball or something, I’d use that as a GM opportunity for a move: first a soft one (“You can tell whatever magic passes through it may be warped”) and then, if they do it anyway, as hard as I like.
Sage LaTorra That’s a nice approach in general. If a player is about to do something that would really ruin the fun if you just let him, then make up a requirement or consequence and ask 😉
Kasper Brohus that’s one way to think of it, sure. I tend to dislike aiming for “fun” as I think that’s a really hard term to pin down, and it’s impossible for one game to cover all the things I might consider fun.
I tend to think of it as creating a consistent world. The idea that a magical spell being cast through a magical viewing apparatus might get screwed up just makes sense to me, it seems like the way a world would work. The reason I aim for a consistent world so much is that it’s one thing I find fun, and it’s a much easier thing to aim for (since it’s fairly concrete” as opposed to just “fun.”
Whew, that’s a bit of a digression. Don’t let my thoughts dissuade you from what works for you, I’m just throwing out how I do it.
Sage LaTorra I totally agree, but if a wizard could just magically fireball anyone from anywhere, then that would probably make him the only character the party “needs”, marginalizing the other characters. For that matter, every other mage could probably do it, and that would be kind of annoying.
Yeah, I think we’re talking about the same thing. I’m just approaching it from the side of “if every mage could do that, it wouldn’t be much of a world would it?”
I thought spout lore would give you the excuse for saying no?
Sage LaTorra , I think you could make that world work. OK, so every mage out there could potentially incinerate anyone they wanted from the comfort of their drafty tower. I would think that the general populace would then regard magic users as highly suspect at best, and an imminent threat to be eliminated with extreme prejudice at worst. It’d be ‘fun’, to me anyway, to see how that dynamic plays out in an adventure.
Bear in mind, I’ve only recently become aware of DW and have spent my time lurking in this community and absorbing all I can. So, not speaking from experience.
I think that’s an interesting setting, Shaun Johnson, but DW might not be the best suited for exploring it!
Shaun Johnson Well, I think the more logical conclusion would be that the entire world was run by wizards and various other people who had discovered a way to be impossible to scry upon and thus to oppose.
I don’t think that has a very interesting story potential.