Gimme you opinion. Had I mastered well/fair those situations (some are hypotetical, but they could come up soon)?
1) Ranger with a wolf near him. An enemy at near (almost far) distance. The ranger want to attack with his bow. He wants to get the wolf ferocity bonus.
My answer: not with the first volley roll, ’cause the wolf have to run to the target and make some “melee fighting” to be useful.
2) Ranger attacks a poisonous blooded creature with his sword. He wants to get the wolf ferocity bonus. If he tells me the wolf is biting the enemy, is it fair to poison his wolf (follow the fiction)?
3) Wolf has no HPs. So, I think it’s a simple resource. Am I fair if I follow a failed roll (ie. a defy danger to avoid a death aura swarming) hitting the wolf with a “the aura make the wolf cry and bend on the floor: what do you do?”
I’m using up his resource.
4) In a melee situation, I follow a 7-9 Hack’n’Slash doing not the enemy’s base damage, instead I describe how “the enemy is really near to you, and he’s raising high his claw for a devastating attack. What do you do?”
Now the player says “I attack again”, and in my mind I was hoping for something more “defensive”, like “I roll away” or “I stay sharp in guard” or “I call for help” etc. The player want “attack again” instead. Ok well. Then, is it unfair hit him REALLY hard, if he misses with this second attack (I see it as a sort of counterblow)? On a 6-, can I do a hard move (using a powerful monster tag), or simply deal more damage (maximum damage without rolling?) to demonstrate the dangerousness of the move that the player chose?
1) the wolf could still run over before the ranger shoots his third arrow. That’s okay. Be a fan.
2) is okay but tell them these consequences beforehand. Also look if the wolf has some related strength or weakness that might help or hinder it.
3) yes
I think you are exactly right in all situations. But remember, you’re not to “punish” the player for his decisions. If you make a soft move on his first partial success, then you’re fully in the right to make a hard move on the second… but be SURE to telegraph it in the fiction. Describe the near-miss blow as being very scary; note the big claws and the strength behind them!
1) It’s ok to just say no, but I’d ask “enemy is too far for wolf to just bite him, say how wolf can help you?”
2) It is fair (golden opportunity, right?). It is also fair not to or to ask if ranger is aware of poison.
3) That’s right.
4) You can. Also you could go with “You attack again, but not before [golden opportunity move]”.
1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) Yes.
4) That’s not a very good way to do it. Instead, deal some damage to him automatically for not doing anything to defend himself (which will teach him to pay more attention to the fiction), then if he fails on top of that, make a different hard move (i.e. not damage).
For 4, its okay to say “No, buddy, its right on top of you now, swinging! You can stab back, sure, but you’re both just going to hurt each other, no rolls. Do you want to react or Defend?”
If the player still just wants to stab the thing, then your move is Deal Damage and that’s totally fair if, in the fiction, you feel like the situation has moved from an exchange of blows and defenses (Hack & Slash) into just smacking each other.
4) I think what you are describing is the monster getting to near range. When the player has a close weapon he can’t attack now, the monster is in in-fight. How do you deal with this player?
If he says he attacks tell him the monster will hit him before he can because its directly in his face.
Closing one range category is an “attack” for H&S purposes. Your next move as a GM is then to show the downside of their equipment.
4) or both just deal damage to each other (or monster uses a nasty move on them)
Thanks to all. Overally, I’m quite happy. Sure thing, I have to speak more, and try to foretelling/telegraph the consequences more openly, like Alfred suggested before.
Sometime, I see my way of master the game like a “challenge”: men, I’m not telling I’m AGAINST my players, it’s more like “if you don’t pay attention to the details I gave, then you get consequences”.
Also, if no player “wastes” a combat “turn” for spouting some useful knowledge, I take this as a golden opportunity to show some enemy’s nasty move (like the poisonous blood of the first post) 😀
1) Definitely yes – The keen senses of the wolf, will surely help the ranger aim better. Remember, the ranger has a “supernatural connection” with his pet. It’s not just about fangs and claws but also superior hearing and smell.
Magi max I’m not sold on this one. Ranger can “communicate” with their animal, not speaking, but giving orders (as every good dog-trainer can do, of course). But without specific moves (or specific bonds in the fiction) I cannot allow the ranger to aim better ’cause “he shares his senses” or “he has augmented senses as his animal”. Repeat, not without specific moves or fiction background.
The wolf ferocity bonus is to Damage. The move says “when you attack the same target.”
If the wolf can’t attack the target, the move can’t trigger, no ferocity damage bonus.
What you could say is:
As I launch my first arrow murder starts to sprint to my target. He uses the distraction of my deadly arrows to bite them in the ass without them beeing able to deal with that AND my arrows.
Voila.
I think for 1) volley doesn’t have to symbolise just one firing of arrows, so you can say that eventually your wolf charges into them while you’re hitting them.
for 2) It is fair, but I would probably save this for a 7-9 or 6-.
3) Yes definitely, but for an added bonus, look at the animals weaknesses (as defined on the Ranger sheet) and see if you can make one of them apply.
4) I’d just apply the damage as a result of ignoring the move, and then perform the H&S. Ultimately its your call.
Tim Franzke I understand what you are saying. Of course, in DW turn is a very abstract concept, and no one force the master to let his players to do “a move” each, however, if in a combat I’d let the Barbarian storming thru the enemies, doing two or three hack’n’slash before the mage could throw a single magic spell, I’d be not fair, robbing the mage his spotlight moment.
All those words to explain that if I concede the ferocity bonus so easily that it seems a fixed bonus in almost every Ranger attack, then maybe I feel I’m not fair with the other players: as starting characters, a Ranger with a +3 ferocity wolf is on pair with a Fighter with his weapon (if he choose both the +1 damage enhancements), while the Ranger is formidable in melee and at range.
The wolf is taken away much more easy then a weapon. It also has it’s own weakness tags that you should lean on hard.
Of course the Ranger shouldn’t get the extra damage on every roll just like that but a clever player that can describe “better” will get it more often.
Michael Walsh about 1), I know that in the fiction the Ranger is hurling lot of harrows, however I think that things like “move from near to close” or “move from far to near” should “cost” some time, an “action” usually. On the contrary, I’d remove some tactical aspects and choices from the combat and the fiction.
Sidenote: this is similar to another aspect of the game. A player should argue: Ehi, if I’m firing a lot of arrows, in the fiction, not just one, why I can’t hit 2 or 3 enemies at the same time???
The correct answer here is: “C’mon, don’t be a dick!”.
Of course, you could tell “It’s game balance. Like in a videogame, your PC is firing more than an arrow, maybe 2 or 3 miss the target, and the fourth hits, however all the arrows are on the same target. If you want to hit more targets, you need a special move (and Ranger gets that move, soon).”
And it’s for the same reason that I like to treat the movement between ranges with “respect”: credibility, game balance, tactical choices.
This is talking about H&S but is also generalyl true:
“If the action that triggers the move could reasonably hurt multiple targets roll once and apply damage to each target (they each get their armor).”
Andrea Parducci No worries, but I say “be fan of the characters”. It’s not just “Lassie c’mere”, it’s a “supernatural connection” !
however to attack multiple opponents at once with arrows you need blot out the sun. If the player doesn’t have the move but describes doing the same thing then you make a GM move instead.