Alright guys, help me out: PvP. How do you handle it in DW?
Normally I don’t even come across this but yesterday the frisky thief stole a ration from the dashing hero and got kicked in the face for it. After which he decided to bakstab a goblin, which the princess character had just saved and befriended.
Later, the princess (who was still pissed about her goblin friend) and druid teamed up with the Alpha vampire who basically said that he’d give the princess a kingdom and destroy a kingdom for the druid, provided they stop their “companions” from killing him.
The Brute tried to rush through the druid, who turned himself into a giant rock, the princess tried to convince the brute to leave well enough alone and was thrown across the room for her trouble. The time mage got sick of all the shinanigans and froze time…all the while my head was pounding and I couldn’t come up with a plausible reason why these people wouldn’t kill each other.
Help!
I think you just have to let this run and let them kill each other.
I have only had this happen once but I just used hack and slash and rolls to interfere done simultaneously until someone falls over.
My group uses opposed rolls for the rare pvp encounter. If one player tries to hit another the player initiating the action rolls+ strength, the defender rolls+dex. Highest total wins, nothing happens in the event of a tie. It’s not the most eloquent solution, but the game wasn’t designed with pvp in mind.
I’d just run it as is. Let them fight it out. Although, you could always have a huge event break up the fight. Orcs marching into the town or something. Something the players have to really against.
The game, as is, doesn’t have any problem handling pvp Mike Garza. It may not be optimized as a tactical PvP board game, but it works just fine for when the players come to blows. It’s a PbtA game after all, it has inter player conflict at its heart. Lol
There’s no opposed rolls, there’s no special PVP rules, you just ask what everyone is doing and roll.
For example, hack and slash vs. hack and slash.
Both roll.
Player 1 gets a 10+, chooses to avoid harm and deal their damage. They deal their damage to player 2. At the same time, Player 2 get s a 7-9, deals their damage and Player 1 gets to make an attack on them. Player 1 can deal damage or narrate some other attack-like-thing that may or may not trigger Defy Danger. So on and so forth. Any miss and the GM gets to make a move – they slip in some blood, their shield is lost, whatever.
If one player is just trying to fuck with the other, it might go like this;
Player 1 rolls hack and slash. Player 2 rolls to interfere. Player 1 gets a 7-9, rolls damage against player 2 but player 2 gets to make an attack.
Defend or Volley or whatever else might just come up. As the GM, stick to your agenda and principles, make moves as necessary. The whole table should listen and discuss when moves are made, etc.
Thanks everyone. I’ll bring some extra character sheets to my next game. 🙂
Matt Smith that’s a lot of PvP for a single session… is there some other problem going on?
Maybe Paride Papadia . The players aren’t really a “regular” group. There were 9 players plus myself. This was the second game of the “campaign” but it was the first game for 3 of the players.
So, I’d have to guess that yes, there was something going on. I just have no idea what it might be.
Unless you’re asking if there is a problem going on with me personally, in which case I’d have to take some time for introspection.
Either way, thank you for your comment.
Matt Smith I actually meant some kind of issue among the players, that reflected on the characters. It’s strange to have grudges after one single game, but it could happen.
Also, you could emind them the “you’re a team” intro from the DW book.
Kaillan Reukers and I seem to get into PvP more often than not, and I think we handle it pretty much how Adam Koebel explained it. As the GM, just perform as you normally would, and the situations will work themselves out. You might just need to get creative with your 7-9’s and fail rolls. That’s my favorite part, personally.
On a side note, I also like to ask questions to the players outside of character to determine what drives their emotions or actions. This sometimes gives me ideas for things that will reinterest the player in the world instead, though I still love to see players turn on each other, even if it’s just an argument. Fighting/arguing/negotiating NPC’s never compare to another real person. You could even present a situation where the players that were fighting have the choice to let each other die in a scene or save them from it. Imagine how that would reshape their bond.
9 players, huh? I think that’s your problem right there, especially if they don’t know each other and have different tastes and agendas.
Inter-party conflict comes from the players having different goals in what they want out of the game and/or the players playing their characters honestly and with passion. The more strong personalities you introduce to the mix, the more likely you are to get them opposing each other.
Where I work, we have a rule: never try to get something done with more people than you can feed with two pizzas (we’re gluttonous midwesterners, so that comes out to 4-6 people max). Seems like a good rule to apply to adventuring, too.
That’s a fun rule Jeremy Strandberg!
Jeremy Strandberg Midwestern pizzas must be very big…
YOU’RE GODDAM RIGHT THEY ARE
Here is another discussion that could help http://goo.gl/6BTety my favorite move from that thread was this:
SUDDEN DEATH
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.
Or higher wins?
The size of the group is…a dilema, but I’m not fully convinced it’s the cause of the hostilities.
All the same, thanks for the input everybody!
Follow-up on the PvP front. Two of the four major aggressors were at the latest game and it went really good.
I asked some questions and pointed out some facts about the last situation (as in one player who was considered the “evil one” never actually attacked any of the other players).
By the end of the session the “good” character saved the “evil” one and then played it off like it was nothing…But he did save her.
Lots of fun all around.
Moves + Interfere is your friend.