The book seems pretty absolute in what the impulses are for each type of danger. Do you think this is intentional? Do you regularly make up your own impulses when creating fronts?
The book seems pretty absolute in what the impulses are for each type of danger.
The book seems pretty absolute in what the impulses are for each type of danger.
Yes, but I use the impulses listed as a reminder to include them at all. In this way I view them as a form or a guide, not a restriction. The impulses I create come from the fiction, not the manual (which I think is in the spirit of DW’s whole ethos).
This is also how I treat most of Front creation: as a reminder to include certain concepts in my notes/brain, not a tedious exercise in adversary bookkeeping.
I think Sage & Adam said (on the “Tavern”) that it’s completely OK to make your own Dangers, Dooms and Impulses.
And spells, items…
I make my up my own almost every time. Depending on my Front my Impulses often look more like “goals” especially if I’m using a mini-front for a one-shot adventure.
Clearly, you can do whatever you like. I think they give short, hard lists of things in the book to give good examples. I know when I worked on my own fronts, I kind of wanted to softball them, but the book kept reminding me to play hardball.
(softball as in my dooms were not doomy enough)
Everytime I came up with what I thought was a custom danger/impulse/doom, upon closer inspection I realized it was actually included in a pre-existing danger.
The Dangers are a bit like an equipment list or magic items list or monster manual – you can add to, adjust, tweak and rework them as you need to! These are just a set we took from perusing a bunch of old D&D adventures and thinking about the tropes that make up fantasy adventure.
Thanks, everyone.
I say make your own if the provided list isn’t servicing what you have in mind.