Looking to get a little help here for a custom move if anybody wouldn’t mind.
Basically, my players are dealing with some undead, whose moans and groans may cause them to be compelled to go mindlessly wandering into the midst. Think of it like a birdcall to get people to come to them, so they can eat them.
Anyway, the players will inevitably be trying to smack their buddies to ‘wake them up’ or break their mind free from the effects. Here is what I have at the moment. It seems a little…drab, to say the least.
When you interfere with the undead’s control over a companion, roll+bond(s). On a…
…10+: you break them free from the curse’s effect, they may act normally.
…7-9: you break them free from the curse, but they take -2 forward on their next move as the shake off the effects.
…6-: they remain cursed and they react violently towards your interference.
Looks good to me though you could add on a 6- they are still cursed and react violently or completely ignore others or better yet they seem broken out but now cursed more where they try to bring others with them (where they’re hypnotized to help the baddies).
My first thought is to make the move “When you are given an opportunity to break free of the mind control” and have the person under control make the roll. The person trying to break them out may have hit them, shot them, or just tried to talk to them and that would have been its own roll (defy danger, hack and slash, volley, cast a spell depending on the circumstances) You could give the posessed the option to roll +wis or +bond with the person who gave them the opportunity.
Mind control is a very touchy subject, since a lot of players resent having control of their character taken away from them. It puts them in the backseat, so to speak. I would instead offer an incentive to go along with the compulsion, and a cost for trying to resist.
While you are under the effects of the undead’s compulsion, take -1 ongoing to any move that does not involve doing as you are commanded. If you embrace the call and start wandering off into the mists, mark XP.
I like Peter Johansen’s suggestion. To add upon it, stealing from Apocalypse World, it could be XP to embrace the call and Defy Danger (with Wis or similar) to do something else, with a Bonds roll to assist to slap them out of it.
Oh, that is an excellent point, Peter, I had not thought about that just seeing it on paper.
So how about having two moves, one for players who are effected, and one for players who are trying to snap their friends out of it? Do you think that might be too much? Something like this:
When you interfere with the undead’s control over a companion, roll+bond(s). On a…
…10+: you break them free from the curse’s effect, they may act normally.
…7-9: you break them free from the curse, but they take -2 forward on their next move as the shake off the effects
…6-: Do I really need a 6- option, maybe the Gm makes a move? Some other idea maybe?
And for those effected…
While you are under the effects of the undead’s compulsion, take -1 ongoing to any move that does not involve doing as you are commanded. If you embrace the call and start wandering off into the mists, mark XP.
I usually recommend keeping things as simple as possible. You don’t really need a custom move to try and shake them out of it.