I was thinking about making a very complex Labyrinth for an adventure, but Joshua Bailey had the incredibly cool (and incredibly simple) idea to make a custom move for exploring the labyrinth instead of actually drawing it.
I modeled it on the undertake a perilous journey move.
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Exploring the Labyrinth
When you explore the labyrinth, choose one party member one as the trap expert, one as the rear guard and one as the cartographer (the same character can only have one job). If you don’t have enough party members or choose not to assign a job, treat that job as if it had rolled a 6 . The trap expert roll+DEX, the rear guard roll+WIS and the cartographer roll+INT.
On a 10+, the trap expert can spot a trap before it goes off and disable it. On a 10+ the rear guard will spot any trouble quick enough to let you get the drop on it. On a 10+, the cartographer finds a very fast route to a new room in the labyrinth.
On a 7-9, each role perform their job as expected; you can spot a trap before it goes off but you still have to deal with it, no one gets the drop on you but you don’t get the drop on them either, and you find a new room though it takes some time and one of your torches burn out.
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I need some comments on this one. 🙂
That’s really damn cool! Do 7-9 rolls include the finding of stuff that could go wrong if handled badly? I.e. if the Trap Expert rolls an 8, do they find a trap but not trigger it?
Strangely enough, I do like the idea of rolling and drawing a map based on the results, but making that a custom move for the players instead.
e.g. on a 10+ the Cartographer scouts ahead/ remembers rumours and their player gets to draw one of these options on the map:
* a treasure trove
* a hidden shrine
* a secret door
On a 7-9, they also have to draw a drawback:
* a guard post
* deadly traps!
* unstable walls
On a 10+ the rear guard notices an important detail. They can re-draw a dead end, add information about a trap or note down patrol times.
Part of the Pirate World’s ship journey move involves the dude stuck in the crow’s nest being able to add descriptive tags to new locations, but I’m definitely going to add in all the players scribbling on a map in there somewhere!
On a 7-9, the Trap Expert would find a trap, but it could be avoided or disarmed, though nothing can be harvested.
Tim Franzke once said that you always encounter something on a perilous journey, because otherwise it wouldn’t be perilous. While this isn’t strictly true, it’s a pretty good guideline, and the same should apply here; there’s always traps and there’s always wandering monsters.
Actually drawing the map could be pretty cool, but it was kind of what this move set out to avoid. 🙂
I really love what you did in this movement. Now we just need to sync it with some dangers happening in the labyrinth.
I think choosing a kind of inhabitant is pretty important. Minotaurs come to mind, but I think that kobolds could be great too 🙂
This idea is full of deft cunning!
I wonder if you can mix in the card dungeon idea from a a couple weeks ago…
I love it! I’d be inclined to reword trap expert so it’s clear a trap was encountered and dealt with – more empowering for the trap expert. Something like: On a 7-9, the trap expert safely deactivates or avoids any traps…
Mind you, I’m biased because I’m finding it hard to include traps in my games right now – all the more reason to use a move like this.
Sub
I much prefer Kasper’s 7-9 result for trap expert; simple success should be reserved for 10+, while 7-9 rolls are really a chance to make the game more interesting.
I’d go a step further than Kasper and say a 7-9 roll is only a partial success: the adventurers find a trap blocking the way, but nobody has triggered it (yet).
Perfect opportunity for the GM to give a cool trap description that the players can then use to defy danger/ disarm/ just plain run through the trap. If they spend time disarming it they’d best be quick, as that goblin patrol is getting closer…
I was thinking about stating up the dungeon as a monster, then giving the players a move for delving the dungeon. The dungeon would probably have a huge list of moves though. Stuff like, Reveal a hidden door, Inhabitants defend their territory, and the like.
Then, for instance, if the players roll poorly on an exploration roll, you make Inhabitants defend their territory as a hard move. A minotaur leaps out from somewhere unseen! Then, during the fight, if a player does something amazing, you could reward them with, Reveal a hidden door, the one the minotaur just jumped through; leading them to safety from the sleeping kobolds you find in a room nearby recently.
I actually had this thought after typing out this message but, I think it would probably be cool to stat up a generic dungeon this way. Then have a set of options GMs can pick from, they put these moves with the default dungeon stats. (GMs could also make their own; this would just be a jump off point.) HP could be used to say when the players have discovered all they can. Maybe the dungeon loses HP for every ration players use? Something like that… but I’m getting side tracked…
As far as mapping is concerned, I figured you could just describe the rooms, and use what the player who’s acting as the cartographer in response as the truth. That way you can get the players to do all the leg work for you. =P I couldn’t figure out how to tie the exploration move in with the way that the place was mapped, but James Hawthorne has an awesome idea for solving that problem!
I love the way you took the idea and ran with it, though Kasper Brohus! I think your’s holds to the spirit of the game better than mine, and probably would work better in practice too. lol
You’re right James Hawthorne that does sound more interesting. And it would work better with the thief’s trap expert move.
I used something similar in one of my first games and it worked really well. You can still add prepped stuff when it seems appropriate too.
James Hawthorne It might need a rewording. It’s a partial success, yes. They shouldn’t avoid traps, just not set any off.
“You do not accidentally set any traps off but you don’t avoid them either”?
I think the best way to word 7-9 is, “Success with complications” The default nice in my head is,
When you (trigger), roll+stat.
On a 10+, you succeed.
On a 7-9, you succeed and the GM can make a soft move.
On a 6-, you probably can’t do what you where trying to do, and the GM should make a hard move.
Made some corrections, based on some feedback.