Working on a compendium class and was hoping to get some feedback.
Monkey Friend
When you befriend a monkey, you may take this move when you level up:
Monkey Friends are the Best Friends
You and your monkey have a special bond. You can’t talk to it per se, but it will always act as you wish it to. When you and your monkey work together, take +1 on any move where a distraction or an extra set of hands would be useful.
Once you’ve taken the Monkey Friends are the Best Friends move, you may take the following moves whenever you level up as if they were class moves:
Oooh, Shinies!
When you let your monkey roam for a while in a civilized area, roll. On a 10+ he returns with an interesting or valuable item. On a 7-9, the item is also dangerous or draws unwelcome attention to you. Take +2 on this roll if you also have the ‘Dial M for Monkey’ move.
Alarm Call
Your monkey is always looking out for you. It will scream at the first sign of danger, ensuring that you are never surprised. When an enemy would get the drop on you, you get to act first instead.
Dial M for Monkey
Your monkey is exceptionally smart. It can follow complex orders and understand speech, though you are the only one who can understand what it says. If you consult your monkey while attempting to discern reality, take +1.
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What do you folks think? Any advice or suggestions? Thanks!
Great class. My only concern is the +2 on scavenging for Dial M, which makes things more predictable and thus less interesting. Taking a new move should always make things more interesting. Like, when your monkey can communicate, you should finally find out why it’s doing all this stuff for you and what it expects in return.
How about “If you also have Dial M for Monkey, the GM will ask ‘Why did the monkey bring you this item?’ Answer and then take +1 forward on Oooh, Shinies.” That way the move stays somewhat unreliable, but there is still a bonus for understanding the monkey a little better.
I think it definitely needs some bonus or it risks just being more trouble than it’s worth. A +1 does favor the 7-9 result most heavily, so that’s probably a better option than the +2.
Not sure about the implementation of the ask a question option. Asking that question assumes that he will always bring something back. What do you do in the case of a 6, where a +1 would bump it to a 7-9 result, but as a 6-, he might not have brought anything back at all?
No, the +1 would be on future uses of Ooh, Shinies. The idea being he brings you some random thing, you ask ‘Why did you bring me this, monkey?”, he gives an answer, and then you take a +1 for next time as a reflection that you guys understand each other a little better. Actually, you wouldn’t even need the Dial M move. You could just make it a regular part of the move.
It’s a little bit like Spout Lore’s “How do you know this?” except with a bonus.
I see. That’s an interesting idea. Might be tough to come up with too many satisfying answers if he just comes back with something valuable rather than something interesting, though.
I suppose if you do have Dial M, you could just have him tell you the story about how he found it and why he took it, which would work on either valuable or interesting things, so having Dial M would make it easier to get the bonus without directly granting it or making it a requirement.
Does this class work with apes?
James Mendez Hodes I would imagine so, right? I was trying to work a Lancelot Link reference into it but couldn’t come up with one…
Hm. Interesting. The Alarm Call is a bit (sorry) boring in its unconditional phrasing. Does the monkey also scream for other things?
Now you’ve got me thinking about Alarm Call and I can see a potential problem with it. It’s a clone of the “Shoot First” move from the Thief, though slightly less useful since it requires you have your monkey with you. It would probably be good to differentiate it a little more so that if a Thief becomes a Monkey Friend, there would be a trade-off between choosing either of the moves. As it is, “Shoot First” is plainly the better choice.
I could see adding a conditional bonus like “If the source of the surprise is a nearby humanoid, take +1 forward against them” just to bring the two moves closer to parity, but that’s still not particularly interesting.
Hmm…what would other possible benefits/drawbacks would there be to having a shrieking monkey on your shoulder?
Daniel Lewis As for Ooh, Shinies, I don’t think there is anything wrong with leaving it as just a straight-up roll. I think the fun in the move is that it gets the party into trouble (and the Charlatan will get XP when it misses).
In the alternative, we might be nuking it a little bit. You could just have it be +CHA, which kind of makes sense–How much does the monkey want to impress you?
I contemplated +CHA or +INT (how well you’ve trained him), but I’m not sure either of those really fit. I think a straight roll could be OK with a slight tweak to the wording: “You let your monkey roam for a while in a civilized area and when he returns, roll.” That way a 6- result can’t just be “Your monkey doesn’t come back, now you have to go find him”, which could get old real fast.