A mechanic for continuous effects with a limited duration, e.g. Potions, spells, scrolls, etc:
You gain any benefits and drawbacks of the effect. You may end this effect when ever you would like. If you make the “Make Camp” or “Recover Move” the effect ends. Depending on the expected duration of the effect the GM may end the effect when changing from one scene to the next when appropriate time has pass; the GM will tell when the effect ends.
Roll+(?):
10+: Hold 3
7-9: Hold 1
<=6: You get momentary benefits along with any other moves made by the GM.
From now until the effect ends if you roll a failure on a move spend one hold. If you can not the effect ends.
Not super tight but it’s a good mechanic for taking time in a non-turn based rules set.
Seems unnecessarily complicated to me.
Most (all?) ongoing spells have a conditional duration (“as long as you continue to stand and fight” or “until the target attacks”) as well as a penalty/limitation imposed on the caster. This makes spell durations mostly a matter of fiction and player choice. So there’s no real need for a hold mechanic. I could imagine a spell that granted you hold, and let you spend hold to use the effects of the spell, and ended when you spent your last hold (in fact, I think that’s how I’d make a Haste spell). But spells in general don’t need a seperate duration mechanic.
For potions/scrolls/other non-spell effects, I’d prefer to write them up in much the same way as ongoing spells.
Beyond that, the GM already has use up their resources as a move. As a soft version of that move, you can tell the player that they feel the power starting to fade/flicker. As a hard version, you can have the effect fail at exactly the wrong moment.
I definetely use hold as a timer mechanism. That is how I see it in e.g. the druid’s shapeshift. In turn based games it is “x turns”. In DW it is “long enough to do x things.”
This is not true for all hold moves, but definetely for some.
Are you sure? I mean, that’s for the druid to decide. He could stay shapeshifted for days, using whatever basic moves seem fit, figthing and adventuring, without any restriction and without using holds.
I know. But it still measures time. That is, time spent usefully!
Alright, so my initial post //is// overly complicated. I still think that hold and spend on failures is a decent method of measuring time and especially action/dramatic time.
What easy mechanic might you suggest for things like potions, and scrolls with limited duration and effect. Something I can use on the fly when the player says, “Oh, hey! I find a potion of Bear’s Strength!”
Ahahah! What I meant was: if you want to make it time-based, just either leave it to the group or put a vague duration (like detect magic which lasts “briefly” or the time needed to prepare spells which is “an hour or so”). There’s no need to find a mechanical substitution to turns and rounds!
Bear’s Strength? As either a spell or a potion, I’d go with something like:
Hold 3 Might; while you still have Might, you get +1 ongoing to damage. Spend your Might 1 for 1 to:
– Skip a damage roll you make; inflict max damage instead
– Add forceful (and messy?) to an attack
– Lift, hurl, or break something
(BTW, Alexander Harms, is that the Northwestern Patten Gym in your pic? Looks like the Remenyik fencing tourney.)
Jeremy Strandberg 1) I like that interpolation of the spell. Nice.
2) Yes, it is Patton Gym at Northwestern. Fencing at the big 10 dual meet for U of Iowa Fencing club in 2009. I currently coach for Penn State’s Student Club. Always nice to cross paths with another fencing person (at least knows what the Remenyik is.) 🙂
Just because you are stronger you can deal max damage?
It’s a little fictionally weak, but it basically means you’re spending 1 hold from the spell/potion to say “I hit you wicked hard.” Plus, you’ve still gotta get to the point where you’d be rolling to deal damage.
And since max damage varies based on your class’s damage die, it scales. The merciless fighter gets more out of Bear’s Strength than the wizard does. Seems right to me.
But ultimately, it’s just an example of how you could use a hold mechanic to represent a magical effect with limited duration. Tweak the specifics to taste.