Druids!

Druids!

Druids! Tell me about how your games with Druids generally go. Do you find people only turn into natural animals, or do you allow them to change into any native creature? (Roc, Dragon, Purple Worm, etc)? Do you always use hold to use a movement form that is not walking? Like flying as an eagle, or burrowing as a bulette?

Feedback about how Druids generally play in your game and how you define the scope of their shifting powers in your world would help me immensely with prepping for my own game. Thank you.

10 thoughts on “Druids!”

  2. “Do you always use hold to use a movement form that is not walking? Like flying as an eagle, or burrowing as a bulette?

    I wouldn’t make someone spend hold to walk around as a horse, so it doesn’t make sense to force a Druid to pay for a fish swimming or a bird flying. What you can do, though, is make a monster move for that animal type that represents an exceptional action taken by that kind of movement.

    “Fly swiftly out of danger.”

    Generally, moves are a single action, taken now, with obvious fictional results.

  3. Hi!

    Druids are cool! In my experience they transformed also in “not natural” animals. After all, who has the last word on the question “is the Roc an animal or an unnatural monster?”? The druid herself, most probably!

    Ask the players and they will give you answers, therefore telling what they want to see and do in play.

    Another thing: for an eagle, “flying” is a special quality, not a move. “Escape to the air” is a move. If you spend a hold you’ll be able to get out of a fight or some other bad situation by flying, if the move would read just “fly” you’d have to spend holds to do what birds just do themselves. I don’t know if I’m giving you the idea of the difference (english is not my first language and I’m a litte bit tired right now). Another example: let’s say the druid becomes a dog: “enhanced smell sense” is a special quality, it can certainly be used to make some particular Discern Realities. It gives the druid different leverage to make that move, without spending holds. On the other hand “finding the prey through smell” is a move: you spend the hold, you find the prey. Got it?

  4. Remember, especially, that the framework of the moves remain the same but the means by which those moves are accessed is changed. A human being, unarmed, may not be able to engage in melee combat with a troll, but I bet a silverback gorilla could…

    From the GM side, the information that a Discern Realities is going to give you is going to be very different for a hawk or a hound than for a human being.

  5. We had a Druid recently who focused on transforming into earth elementals; sentient boulders, golems, etc. He paid a hold to move–that is, roll forward at a rapidly increasing pace to crush and maim a multitude of goblins and the walls of their fortress.

  6. Thanks for the comments gentlemen! I have read through much of the #druidweek  postings now.

     Adam Koebel is the druid allowed to take any forms which increase armor or damage without taking the advanced moves? Or perhaps these would be moves they could use up by spending hold? What are your thoughts? I just know at some point it will come up in game.

  7. Also remember that Druid forms come from their homeland, so if they say Dragon and Giant Spider, remember to attack their homeland with Dragons and Giant Spiders during the next adventure.

  8. Mike Wice druids have what we call “narrative effectiveness” rather than mechanical effectiveness. This means they get shit done in the narrative, before, after or instead of the dice rolling. Animal moves have to come from the actual actions of the animals. A rhino won’t have “gain armour” because that’s not what Rhinos do. They “shrug off the blow of a normal weapon” or “ignore an attack” or “endure grievous harm without flinching” right?

  9. Adam Koebel Thanks! That makes a lot more sense now. I suppose this doesn’t tread on the territory of the enhanced moves like “Shed” because you could still use Shed even in a form that doesn’t have a “Shrug off a blow from a normal weapon” move. Excellent. I like the way this works much more now.

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