A player in my ‘Arabian knights’ style DW game wanted to play An Alchemist, and we settled on the Wizard as the closest choice. I have been working on making The Alchemist class for him and this is my current Draft.
I used the Mage and the Artificer from the DW Alternative Playbooks as my basis.
What do people Think? Any Suggestions? I’m particularly keen for Advanced Move ideas and possibly better Racials.
Please excuse my Terrible spelling and Grammar, it’s only a draft and I’ll work on these mistakes once I’m happy with it.
I think for Resupply on a 7-9 I would have them choose 2 of 4 below from options like:
Doesn’t Take Longer Than Expected
The supplies are of good quality
You don’t gain undue notice
You don’t break your equipment
I always like the lists where the ones you don’t pick nip you in the bum by default.
The limit on three empowered potions seems like an arbitrary mechanical limit that doesn’t tie into the fiction.
Overall, I love the potion brewing. Seems like the Dynamic potions could add a lot of interest to the plot!
I think if you’re going to have an alchemist, one of your advanced moves has got to be Lead Into Gold, right?
Thank you. Flipping the options on supply like u suggested is something i’ll defiantly give some thought.
Lead to gold and Elixir of life are prob going to be advanced moves, I just haven’t been focusing my efforts on those yet.
The three potions limit IS at the end of the day an arbitrary limit. But without making them much harder to make I just can see how to keep them balanced otherwise. The group could save a big stockpile of ‘+1/+2 to roll’ potions and this could threaten the balance of the game. Do you have any suggestions how else I could handle this?
Rollrng dice to see how muck supply you use dosen’t seem to fit DW well somthing closer to the ammo system where you only use up resources on a 9 or less would be better.
I’m not sure where you got the ‘to see how much you use’ part from. Unless you are referring to the ‘dynamic Potion brewing’ using 1-3 supply?
Aside from that you roll to gather supply, not to use it.
You could always add some sort of weight to the potions, which creates a more “natural” limitation to the number of potions that the characters can carry. This also opens up the option to create moves around expanding the Alchemist’s carrying capacity.
My take on the Alchemist was to create a set of “standard” potions that they can choose from (a la the wizard/cleric spell books), which have a supply cost associated with their level. They can still brew custom potions, but that move is closer to the Wizard’s Ritual move, which means the GM can potentially send the Alchemist questing for that “special” ingredient.
Another idea my group had was that Alchemists have to balance risk/reward. Potions (once brewed) are essentially roll-free benefits, so to make things more interesting the Alchemist has to roll+DEX when making a potion (since it requires mixing, measuring, and other precise work). If you get a 7 – 9 you make the potion but you have to take either 1.) a detriment now (damage/debuff due to spilled ingredients) or
2.) risk that the potion wasn’t brewed correctly. This makes the player constantly choose risk now or risk later. In the case where the potion may not have been brewed correctly, a roll is done when the potion is used. If failed the GM introduces some unintended side effect to the potion in addition to its original effect.
Anyhoo, long post.
It’s undergone a lot of revision. But my Alchemist Class is nearly done. Can anyone suggest some alternate Move names?
To get around the ‘Efficient Restocker’ name you cold make two moves instead, ‘Merchant Contacts’ and ‘Scrounger’, one for shopping, the other for gathering.
I also think you need a move ‘Greek Fire’ where your fire grenades don’t go out when in water.
I was trying to avoid splitting it into two moves, But I think your right about that.
Personally I don’t feel the need to make an ‘underwater’ version of grenades. It’s desert setting, so little water, and using it under water would just be a narrative choice anyway.
Thanks for the input! 😀