Love’s Last Cries
These crystalline teardrops, arranged on a simple chain, carry the light of a thousand loves, and the weight of a thousand losses. They have no power in the hands of those who have not known both.
If displayed openly, Love’s Last Cries glow with light as the Cleric Light rote.
When you display the teardrops openly and defend something or someone dear to you, gain an additional hold, whether your defend was successful or not.
When you irrevocably lose something or someone truly dear to your heart gain three hold. Spend one hold to gain +2 against the source of your loss.
When you willingly sacrifice your life to avenge or defend something or someone dear to your heart, you forgo your Last Breath and make one extremely powerful move. Perhaps a spell has its effects and targets doubled, perhaps your attack strikes true to the heart of a great beast; the exact effects can never be certain beforehand.
“The undead host approached the capital, for we had nothing left to stop them with. But Lady Arienne cried for the lost people of the kingdom; she cried for her son, the crown-prince, lost in hopeless battle; she cried for innocence lost. The skies opened, and when we could see again, the unholy horde was cinders and dust, and of our beloved queen, nothing remained.”
(Load 1)
Now that’s a DW magic item.
Very cool.
Super cool magic item.
The death effect is iffy, though, in terms of rules – why not write a custom death move rather than just have the PC make a normal move that’s slightly more powerful?
Alex Norris
Hmm… I want to leave flexibility, because if a player is willingly sacrificing their character, it should be pretty epic, in my opinion, and “epic” is going to depend on the circumstances.
Still, if more structure is desired, I can imagine something like the following:
When you display the teardrops openly, gain the following move:
Love’s Last Stand
When you are avenging or defending something or someone dear to your heart, and you make a move to that purpose, you may choose to sacrifice your very life. If you do so, the move is successful to the fullest extent that is possible; if a roll is required, then the 2d6 is automatically a 12, with any effects that might have. In addition, choose one of the following:
* All damage dealt by the move is doubled. If the damage is doubled from another source, such as greater empower magic, then it is quadrupled in total.
* The move penetrates any armor, evasion or magical defenses of the target perfectly.
* Once defeated, the threat to that which you love is defeated permanently.
Once this move is complete, you die, forgoing your Last Breath move.
I honestly think it works better as a straight death move, rather than a move that makes the player choose to die, but I can understand if you’d rather not lock them in to an item-dependent move. The phrasing of the first move with the options from the second would work best, like so:
Love’s Last Stand
When you willingly sacrifice your life to avenge or defend someone or something dear to your heart, the Teardrops empower you to do one last thing in the name of love. In the moment before you finally expire, you have a few precious seconds to act. Whatever action you undertake succeeds as if you had rolled a 12 on the relevant move. In addition, choose one:
* All damage you deal is doubled
* Your attack or spell penetrates any armor, evasion or magical defenses its target possesses, perfectly
* Once defeated, the threat to that which you love is defeated permanently
You don’t really need to specify that Last Breath doesn’t happen, as none of the other death moves do that.
As an aside, the double damage option is sort of boring compared to the other two.
I like your wording for the move; much cleaner.
How about:
Love’s Last Stand
When you willingly sacrifice your life to avenge or defend someone or something dear to your heart, through your sacrifice the teardrops empower you to do one last thing in the name of love. Whatever action you undertake succeeds as if you had rolled a 12 on the relevant move. All variable effects of the move are maximized.
In addition, choose one:
* Your attack or spell penetrates any armor, evasion or magical defenses its target possesses, perfectly.
* Once defeated, the threat to that which you love is defeated permanently.
* Your spell is expansive, encompassing a much larger area, or number of targets, than usual.
* Take a second move empowered by the teardrops; you do not choose from this list for the second move.
Ditch the “second move” option (it just complicates things), and you probably want to add “(such as damage or healing)” after “variable effects” just to clarify what you mean for people who don’t understand the term, but otherwise this looks fine.
As an alternative, you could have the players make the death moves featured in the Grim World playbooks. The Kickstarter should have them for all of the default Dungeon World classes.