Hey #DungeonWorld fans, can you help me fine tune a move I’ve been pondering for our next game?
When you agree to trade a memory for an item from the fey peddler, remove 1XP and roll+INT. *On a 10+, you feel like you might have been better off without it anyway. *On a 7-9, you can’t think straight for a bit. Take minus 1 to your next action. *On a 6 or less, you needed that thought or maybe he dug too deep. Things get dark quickly…
I get what it represents, but I’m not a fan of the player having to spend an XP as part of the move. I might do something like this:
When you barter a memory for an item on the Fey Peddler’s cart, roll + [stat]. On a 10+, he takes only what was offered, and you don’t feel like something is forever missing. On a 7-9, choose one or the other.
You could have any memory loss reflected in a penalty to Spout Lore. Maybe a -1 Forward to your next Spout Lore. Or -1 Ongoing to Spout Lore, until you roll a 6 -.
Clarify the move for us… do you want this to be a “high level” move that glosses over the actual negotiations? Or do you want the player and the Fey Peddler to actually go back and forth a bit and negotiate a memory? (“This fine fiddle? Oh, I’ll give it to you for a song! What song will you give me? Oh no, it must be a *better* song that *that* drivel for a fiddle so fine as this!”)
If you want to play out the barter, come up with a list of things that they Fey Peddler might want, and rank them in order of value (least to highest) to the peddler. Make such a list for each PC. If they agree to the cost, make it matter. Make it part of the fiction. But don’t bother with mechanics.
If you want it to be high level, where the player doesn’t know what he’s trading, I’d do something like:
10+: it was something meaningful but you don’t seem to miss it, much.
7-9: it was something recent and somewhat important about one of your friends. Erase a bond. You may write a new one to replace it at the end of the *next* session.
Miss: it was something big, something important; the GM holds 1. They can spend this hold at any time to reveal an unwelcome truth about your past.
Thanks all! I’ll have to think about it more but this is helpful.
“Oh this blade? Why yes it is for sale if you are willing to pay the price. No, no, gold is no good to us, don’t insult me or insinuate I would value the stamped yellow rocks that your people do. No, for this a true treasure must be traded. A memory that I can savor and taste for the long seasons of my days. A first kiss perhaps? How about the sound of your mother singing a lullaby when you were a child? Or maybe you would give up the memory of the time you and your father first went fishing together and laughed all summer evening. I can see those, and others, floating there in your mind, glittering in the dark sea of your memory. Sunken treasures waiting to be drawn out… what would you forget?”