Here is a move I came up with while advertising Dungeon world to one of my players. We were discussing his future character – Sage’s Battlemind when he said an interesting thing I couldn’t resist turning into a move showing him what DW is all about. What he said was that his character has a hobby, he sometimes spends days or weeks engraving different items, “creating their destinies”. Hence the move.
Destinysmith
When you spend a long time engraving an object to forge its fate, roll +XP you want to spend. On 10+ choose 2, on 7-9 choose 1.
– You tell the GM what is the destiny of the object /this dagger will be used to kill the bug-eyed swamp dragon Lee Qin; this flute will start a war this world has never seen before/
– You tell the GM how the object’s destiny is going to be fulfilled /party’s ranger Bob will stick the dagger deep into Lee Qin’s eye socket; the flute’s tune will charm а queen of a remote land and she’ll escape her country with a young prince, making her husband swear vengeance/
– You tell the GM when it happens
I’m not totally happy with the move, feeling that it is too restrictive and too prone to being exploited /hence +XP roll/ at the same time. Maybe you’ll help me fix it. Correcting grammar is also welcome.
Don’t allow the player to spend more than 4 XP, or possibly 3.
cap XP spent at 3.
At the moment, the how option makes the what option somewhat redundant. If you get to say “Bob the Ranger will plunge this dagger into the dragon’s eye” then do you need an option that says “The this dagger will be plunged into the Dragon’s eye.”
You could change it to:
What the item’s destiny is,
Who will help fulfill it’s destiny,
A sign that will tell that it’s destiny is at hand.
Adrian Thoen Yeah, I saw this idea in Adam’s Create magic item move, that i stole roll +XP idea from, but still can’t understand why cap it? If the player wants to spend a boatload of XP on a single roll let him do that. Any option allows GM to screw with the player to certain extent anyway. Yeah, it kinda allows buying automatic successes, but again why not?
As far as options 1 and 2 are concearned, it may need slightly different terms /e.g. Tell the GM what happens when the object fulfills its destiny – need to think/, but the danger of choosing just option 2 or 2+3 is actually getting into a much thicker plot.
Take the dragon example. Ranger sinks the dagger into its eye all right on the way to fullfilling the item’s destiny which in fact is freeing a host of demons trapped in the tumb that is sealed as long as the dragon lives. That kind of nasty stuff.
Do I need to write something specific for 6 and under is what concearns me most.
You named it. It’s the auto successes. Auto successes are boring. That’d be my guess.
6 or less: choose 1, but the GM will tell you what it means.
Matt Smith Reasonable enough. 🙂
Adrian Thoen Thought about it, but the GM already narrates most if the circunstances.
Maybe something like:
On a 6- the item’s destiny becomes tightly entwined with your own. The GM will tell what it means for you… when the time is ripe.
Usually I’d say something about how moves cross the GM/player boundary, but this one manages to both let the player author stuff in the world and be amazing (and in character). Fantastic!
This is cool, I cant wait to see it played out!
Sage LaTorra Getting kudos from one of the DW creators that’s what I call fantastic. ^_^