So yesterday we started a new game of DW to introduce the system to a new player. I decided to go with Grim World as a main source of tone and rules and it was a blast.
Our party was composed of an Elf Templar of Gaia (Godess of Nature), a Human Paladin or Flarius, god of purifying fire and a Centaur Battlemaster (she decided to put some spirituality to fit with the party more so she worships the stars). The game took an interesting twist when I announced they’ve been summoned to a council to talk about the imminent planar invasion. I think last session was 80% world building (mostly from the players) and 20% actual gameplay. It was awesome. The 20% was punctuated by the opening of a storm portal and they had to fight lightning soldiers.
We had major conflicts in the party and I used their bonds against them sometimes (Templar sees the Paladin as an heretic for instance) and at one point they spout lore and the Templar rolled a 5 and the Paladin a 7. So I thought: Why not separate them..not physically but have them say opposite stuff? It was awesome. I might make a move for when the party is sinking into arguments and when someone tries to stop it.
When you try to make peace between your arguing friends, roll +bond (both of them combined). On a hit, you manage it. On a 7-9, one of them hates you for it — pick one. On a 6-, can’t they both see that your viewpoint is the only correct one? You need to convince them.
Bestow a Satyr on that Centaur Battlemaster!
What exactly was the squabble about? If it is a legitimate concern between two people with altering alignments or something to that nature, I am not sure how i could see a move helping with that. If someone rolls on a peace-making move, I would have to just shut up and accept it? Maybe a Defy Danger before the council, the danger being that I would be locked up for contempt. I could see that type of resolution.
I definitely am curious about how people manage PvP or altercations between players within DW or similar hacks as I myself had my first PvP moment last night. I never really go into a game with that intention but I don’t fight urges that I get in games, regardless how crazy they seem.
The game was turning out to be a bit linear and I felt that I wanted to really shake things up. I was playtesting my new Cloak playbook and took a brutal vampiric assassin background (one cliche, coming right up). Basically, at one point, with no real connection to the other players and having used them to get to where I just needed to be, one player went up through a hatch and was out of the scene while I bit the other player that was about to go next. This let me regain HP and paralyzed the “ally,” causing him to fall into the shark infested water below, but I failed a defy danger roll to stay where i was and also fell. The underwater fight with circling sharks was epic and I commend the other player on rolling with it and being a good sport, as he really got it good in that scene. Two paralyzed limbs and a shark bite. Ouch.
The GM got us all into the next scene and it really ended well with neither of us dying. The player I attacked actually got a magic item that I was trying to steal from these two characters and prevented my escape through a portal. It was a fantastic turnaround. I really enjoyed making this get into PvP but some of the actions seemed difficult to roll for. In the end, I though the basic rule systems worked out just fine for what we were doing but I am curious if others have certain ways they deal with these situations.
Please let me know if you feel that I am hijacking your post, but i felt it was relevant and am genuinely curious on the topic.
Kaillan Reukers John Campbell
Damian Jankowski So I just wrote a huge answer and my browser crashed on me so here’s a summary: Moves are not necessary.
I think when characters argue for some time it should be treated as a golden opportunity the GM should act accordingly. Use their resources (time, fatigue, even bonds? don’t know), separate them (next fight I’m not sure the Paladin will want to help the Templar after she called him weak), Put someone in a spot (yelling in the middle of the dungeon is not a good idea and in the middle of the market you’ll probably get noticed).
When it gets to outright physically attacking one another I’m not sure what I’d do…my players know the system is not meant to support PvP so I’m sure they’ll keep their conflicts interesting for the story. I’ll probably have one roll their attack and the other interfere and see what happens…
From this discussion http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/17868/dungeon-world-how-do-you-handle-player-vs-player-situations
You could make up a funky custom move.
When two members of the same adventuring party try to kill one another, and both insist that they acted first, both roll 2d6, take the lower result. If it is tied, take that as the result.
On a 10+, they do each other as much damage as they can in one round and then come to their senses if either one is alive and re-write their bonds for one another.
I tried to kill __________ but came to my senses and decided not to kill the bastard because ___________.
On a 7-9, the one who rolled lower dies and the other is knocked down to 1 hit point. If their results were a tie, they both die.
On a miss they both die.
Heh, I think that move is a bit too hard for my taste.
Damian Jankowski That thread has several good ideas for pvp. I just happened to really like this one.