So, here’s my predicament:

So, here’s my predicament:

So, here’s my predicament:

My Artificer wants to chop off his own leg a replace it with a mechanical/magical one. The twist is that he wants to teach the Templar to amputate it for him. Should I write a custom move? Should just use Defy Danger, maybe on both of their parts?

I left the session on a cliffhanger as the two go off to find a spot to amputate and I’m in need of some guidance.

8 thoughts on “So, here’s my predicament:”

  1. Honestly, I’d recommend just letting them do it. No rolls, just let the fiction dictate it.  Make a custom move for your Artificer for his new leg. Add “messy” as a tag for any bladed weapon your Templar wields. Toss in fiction during battle how he now slices the limbs off his enemies, etc. I would let the players have what they want as long as it adds to the fiction.

  2. +1ing this. Treat the mechanical leg as a new element to draw on when you make a move. “Rolled a 7, huh ? Well you can escape the ogre. But only if you leave your leg behind.”

  3. Surgically amputating someone’s limb on an operating table doesn’t have very much in common with de-limbing enemies in combat, so I don’t see how that justifies handing the Templar a free Messy tag on all their attacks.

    But yes – just let it happen, no rolls involved. If the Artificer just wants the leg to be mechanical then that’s fine, there’s no need for anything else, it’s just another fictional element for you to draw on like Eric pointed out. If it’s going to have special properties or a custom move, make him pay money for it or take the move at next level up, respectively.

  4. For the amputation, I’d go with a slighly more precise Defy Danger, something like “roll +(whatever makes sense, I’d say DEX or WIS). 10+ You do it clean and fast, 7-9 you choose : either you do it but your victim patient take a hard move (possibly damage) or you don’t go through. 6- the patient takes a hard move and you don’t go through.” 

  6. My first instinct was to just let it happen. However, these are not exactly the best conditions for an amputation. They’re going out to the woods to find a “safe place” and the artificer procured a root that, when ground up into a paste, has numbing properties. On top of it all, the Templar is not exactly a trained surgeon, so all of these circumstances combined makes me feel like something could go horribly wrong.

  7. Well, make a move that follows. Identify what you see as plausible dangers, and ask questions! “What are you looking for, when you say ‘safe place’? Okay, how much of this numbing paste are you using? You still have to be able to perform the grafting procedure, right? Templar, you ready for this? Are you sure? I mean, your last brother-in-arms who lost a leg, how long did it take him to bleed out and die? That’s serious shit, right here.”

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