Guys, we are discussing on the facebook group – Dungeon World Brazil – if is possible for another classes to disarm #traps. If it’s doable, how can we deal it without mess the fun from the #thief?
In my humble opinion, I follow the fiction if they risk themselves trying to disarm the trap and treat the 10+ results as 7-9, and 7-9 as 6-. Or should I do a hard move?
#1 take the Thief move through multiclassing
#2 they say they want to disarm the trap and tell you how. Then you make a GM move.
Anytime someone does something that is not a Move (they have), they are looking at the GM to see what is happening. Then you make your move.
#3 the Fighter Bends Bars, Lifts Gates on it. The fighter counts as something valuable.
lol. It’s the same as someone trying to pick a lock. They describe what they’re doing, then (as the always clear tim said) you make a gm move. It’s a mean, hard move if they were wrong. It’s offering an opportunity without cost if they did the right thing.
Sounds to me like you’re defying the danger of the trap, but that might be too good.
Not a very hard dilemma to resolve!
1) does the party have a Thief? If so, don’t allow others to just roll to disarm the trap – it’s a Thief move, and it’s part of what the Thief does. Same deal if you have no Thief but someone MCed to Tricks of the Trade, that’s their niche and you shouldn’t eat into it.
2) no one with Tricks of the Trade? Then it’s stupid to punish the players for playing the classes they want instead of Fighter/Cleric/Thief/Wizard. It’s not niche protection if there’s no niche to protect.
Assuming they even manage to find the trigger mechanism and access it without triggering the trap, let them describe how they’d approach disarming the trap, then have them Defy Danger with the appropriate stat (probably Int for the most part, but Str or Dex might be applicable depending on what they’re doing).
3) either way, I’d probably go with Jarrah James’ suggestion and let the Fighter headbutt it (but the same caveat as #2 applies) in exchange for counting as “something valuable” for the move, as well as putting himself in danger first should he fail.
mmmh, also defy danger to disarm a trap isn’t that bad. The thief can do it in a nick of time and can choose on a 7-9 the option they like the most, which is a great advantage. Anyone else, it takes a long time AND on a 7-9 defy danger it’s the gm’s call (bwahahaha).
thank you guys, your tips were invaluable!!!
Alex Norris, I think the issue here is not the niche protection, what is the purpose of a movement from
another class if you can do it easily without the correct resource? (movements of certain classes or hirelings). I wish multiclass movements or hirelings had some weight.
I know the fiction goes 1st, but I defy danger shouldn’t do the same as tricks of trade…
It shouldn’t do the same thing as Tricks of the Trade if someone in the group has Tricks of the Trade. Literally every mechanical element that is not actively in your game right now (i.e. either a move that one of the characters has, or a move they’ve said they’re going to take) is design space that’s up for grabs.
For all intents and purposes, if you have no Thief in the game right now, the Thief doesn’t exist and nothing that the Thief would normally do is protected territory relative to what other characters can and can’t do.
Deciding that no one can disarm traps because the Thief has a move that lets you disarm traps is like deciding that no one can speak with the dead because someone somewhere wrote a class that has a move that lets you speak with the dead. If it’s not actively in play, it’s not relevant to anyone.
(Again, unless you know someone is going to bring it into play by taking the move later.)
edit: of course, if no one is playing a Thief, you shouldn’t be putting traps that have to be disarmed in your game! They should be bypassable some other way (that the players can use), even if it’s just “go around it.”
Here’s my take on it. The Thief’s move for dealing with traps is little more than a mechanically stronger Defy Danger that is situationally confined to dealing with traps. Other characters can still deal with traps using Defy Danger. It’s really not that difficult.
Edit: Hell, all that Tricks of the Trade really means is that the player wants to have plenty of opportunities to disable traps and such. If nobody takes any abilities for dealing with traps, maybe your players don’t want to be dealing with traps on a regular basis.
So, I’ve never picked a lock before. You could give me some lockpicks and I could try it, but I will probably fail. It’s not that I’d break the picks or the lock or whatever, but I’d get frustrated and fed up and quit before I ever got close to opening the lock. I don’t have the right move for it. Depending on the lock, I might actually just make it worse.
Same for a Fighter or a Cleric, right? same for a Wizard.
Look at the fictional circumstances (lock) ask some questions (do you know anything about this? what are you going to try?) trigger moves as needed (defy danger if it’s present) otherwise just make GM moves.
A character doing something they have no idea how to do is a golden opportunity. Be as merci(ful/less) as you like.
Thanks Adam Koebel! Thanks guys! After your explanation everything is crystal clear!
I usually work like this: If someone in the party has the right class for the situation: I turn the spotlight to him and ask him if he’s ready to shine. If the party lacks a class with the right move, I ask them how they do it.
I try not to punish the players for not having a class in their group. Remember, be a fan of the characters. So if the Wizard can spout lore about it like :Oh I’ve read about traps present in the Temple of the 9 thieves and since we are on the 4th floor this is either a flamethrower hidden in the ceiling or a huge blade will fly at the height of an average human’s throat. Roll that spout lore and move forward.
I like Adam’s approach the best. There is a problem with people saying that if the Thief isn’t there, don’t put traps in or just let others do it with defy danger. If that is done, then the players are not encouraged to make a thief. If anything you are saying, hey just don’t pick this class and everything is easier for you.
The next time you are all creating characters someone will think back to how non necessary the Thief was. Traps in a party without a Thief should instead be a great time to “Show a downside to their class, race, or equipment.”
The traps should obviously not be insurmountable, but the experience should be noticeably worse than a party with a Thief.
Example: Instead of being able to disable the arrow traps providing a disincentive to moving through the tunnel. The party can make a mad dash forward, Defying Danger + DEX for each of them to make it to the other side unscathed.