I killed two party members tonight, the bard ran away (rerolled Paladin), but the Thief came out alive and fighting. As a reward, she recovered a bone wand from the Gelatinous Cube that devoured her friends, and got the following new move:
Activate Device
When you activate an arcane device, roll+INT. On a 10+, the device functions exactly as intended. On a 7-9, the device functions, but choose one:
* The device loses one charge
* The device affects another target of the GM’s choice
* The device’s effect is halved
Thoughts? I’m not 100% certain on the third option…
—EDIT—-
Thanks for the suggestions! The final 3 choices are:
* The Device loses one charge
* The Device affects more or less than you wanted
* The Device’s effects are maximized, but the device becomes inoperable until after you next Make Camp.
I’ll keep Charges, even though other magic items may not use them- after all, not all Ranged weapons use Ammo! Magic Staves may just have a limited number of daily uses, for example, and be unable to choose the Charge option.
Thanks for your comments! I’m thinking about a Wizard move for Use Device as well…
Maybe “the item produces a weird side effect”?
EDIT: I would change the second to “it affects more or less than you wanted”.
Very cool move. Thank you for sharing =D
How about instead of halved the device is overcharge creating an exaggerated effect and useless for a period of time.
I like Giovanni Lanza’s suggestion. You could also go with “The device functions, but not exactly as you intended.” That would give you some interesting wiggle room as a GM.
Cool idea. Who will keep track of how many charges have been used? There’s nothing wrong with having an option that expends charges, but that means all arcane devices will need to have them or the option becomes useless. Personally I would change option 1 to a more generalized “low battery” effect.
Ack! Not Lady Amsel! Not Fink!
Fink? Lady Amsel? NO!!!!!!!!!!!! Sad day!
Christopher Stone-Bush the idea is that charges are like ammo for wands. I’d let the player track it- a standard wand probably has 3 charges.
If you wanted to make it a bit more generic, you could change the first to “Uses up a charge or the device expends it magic and cannot be used until it recharges the next time you Camp”. That would let you have stuff without charges as well.
Possibly replace the third with “The device functions as desired, but also generates a side effect that creates a dangerous situation or puts you in a spot.”
So what does the wand do?
Wand of Disintegrate. B[d10] damage, ignores armor. Far. Requires Thief, Wizard.
I’m going to make the options be:
* Lose 1 Charge
* Device affects more or less than you wanted
* Effects are maximized, but the device becomes inoperable until after you next Make Camp.
Thanks for all the suggestions! Glad you guys like the move! 🙂
You should put spoiler alert for those of us who follow the podcast, lol.
Haha! Sorry, Eric Lochstampfor 🙂 Hopefully it was still entertaining anyway!
And don’t listen to the haters who are trying to give you flack for putting the pcs up against a monster that was “too high a level”.
Nah, that cube was a fine challenge. In old school games, you don’t necessarily want to fight everything you find…. But I do think they could have killed it with much less trouble. I have no qualms about the encounter difficulty. 😀