Ok so I’ve got two main questions about DW that’ve been coming up from the sessions I’m running that I haven’t been able to figure out from the book.
1) How to differentiate task of varying degrees of difficulty.
Right now it seems that no matter how difficult it is to defy danger, as long as it’s reflex based they only need to get a 10+ with DEX to totally avoid it. Now, one thing that I have seen people suggesting is to make the penalty more severe but I don’t think that really allows enough space for me. Sometimes I’d like to have a difficult task for my guys to do which may only have a small impact on the game. Another possible approach is to make the plays roll defy danger a couple times, but that also seems a bit rough. My possible ideas to fix this is:
1)Tell they to roll defy danger and take 1 away from their score.
2)Tell them to defy danger with three dice and take the worst result.
Both of these though have absolutely no grounding in the rules though so…. suggestions are more than welcome.
2) I don’t really know what I should be doing when the players are trying to convince NPC to do what they want. At the moment I’m just seeing what they say and being a bit more nice or strict depending on what their charisma is. I might eventually go to creating custom moves for specific events. Thoughts?
2) that is parley
1) This has come up before, but the way you make things more or less difficult in DW is to redefine what success means. Not to mess with the numbers.
2) As Tim Franzke said, this sounds like a Parley move.
#2 parley is a specific form of dealing with NPCs, custom moves can definitely be made.
#1 degrees of difficulty is the wrong way to think about DW. What you should be worried about is consequences. Do they finish the job in time, was it enough, was it the right strategy ? Those are the things we’re interested in as DW GMs. We’re fans of the characters, of course they can fix it. The interesting question is, can they fix it in time or will they have to deal with a consequence ?
1) Why do you want to differentiate between different levels of difficulty?
2) You should role-play the NPC however you think they would react until the PC offers them something they actually want, then you should roll the parley move.
Instead of degree of difficulty, think of how many dangers they are exposing themselves to to perform their action and present it as a threat that must be considered. Ask them how they deal with each of these dangers, and roll defy danger accordingly if it’s triggered.
Once all of the threats are dealt with they can attempt what they want.
You could steal the advantage/disadvantage mechanic from DnD5. If it’s super hard, roll 3d6 and keep the bottom two. If it’s super easy, just give it to them (or roll 3d6 and keep the top 2)
You might want to look here:
https://plus.google.com/107157015667650731541/posts/RsbfTDEbDbk
I wrote a blog post about difficulty in DW but it won’t be public for a bit. It’s mostly padding because the answer is so simple:
Figure out what makes it so difficult and break it down.
What makes avoiding Dragon’s breath so difficult? It moves fast. It fills a large area and it is so hot it burns through cover. So first a discern reality to find appropriate cover. Then a defy danger to run to the cover before the flame hits, then a defy danger to duck behind, then a defy danger CON because it’s still really hot.
Rolling defy danger 3 times sounds boring except there’s fiction between each.
“The dragon’s breath looks like it’s coming at you in slow motion but that’s an illusion due to the distance and it’s size. Your only by hope is to find a hiding place.
“You spot a large boulder but can you make it in time?
“Panting you arrive at your cover but you need to suddenly change direction to throw yourself behind it.
“In the cover of the boulder the storm of flame curls around, singeing you. It hurts to breath, can you hold out?”
“What makes avoiding Dragon’s breath so difficult? It moves fast. It fills a large area and it is so hot it burns through cover. So first a discern reality to find appropriate cover. Then a defy danger to run to the cover before the flame hits, then a defy danger to duck behind, then a defy danger CON because it’s still really hot.”
That’s one way to do it Tyler Provick. Another way is to redefine what “success” means for this situation. If Dragon’s breath is that fast, fills such a large area, and burns through any cover, then it doesn’t sound like you can completely avoid it. If it’s that dangerous, then the best a character can hope for is to take less than full damage.
So in that case, a 10+ on the player’s Defy Danger roll would still deal half damage. It’s considered a success, only because the other outcomes are much, much worse.
For #2, you really shouldn’t need a lot of moves. Parley is good to have in your back pocket, but it’s still not a catch-all Charisma move – it’s basically a lighter version of blackmail. “I have something you want, and will use it to make you do something you don’t really want to do.” If that doesn’t fit the circumstances, don’t use Parley.
Sometimes Defy Danger+CHA will be your best move. City guard shows up to arrest the party and the Thief tries to sweet talk them into believing the PCs didn’t start the riot? He’s Defying the Danger of getting thrown in a dungeon (not the kind with cool loot, either) through social grace.
But taken in all, that’s still a pretty narrow set of circumstances! And for good reason; basic conversation is not a high-stakes game. If the NPC doesn’t want to do something — remember that there’s a list of instincts in the “Instant NPCs” section if you need one on the fly — put the dice down and say why he doesn’t want to do it. Maybe he hates dwarves, maybe it’s high risk and in true PC fashion he wants a stack of cash (drifting in Parley territory here) or maybe he just thinks that what the PCs want is morally wrong. Give a yes or no, say why you’re doing it so that players either drop the issue or address the new roadblock, and go on your way. Avoid the mindset of “if I use Diplomacy enough times we’ll become bros and he’ll do what I want.”
If it still feels weird, look to the Paladin’s “I Am The Law” move as inspiration. Even that — the closest thing to mind control short of actual-mind-control-spells — still has the GM/NPC choose how to react. The Paladin drives the NPC to decisive action, essentially saying “I see the world in black and white, and right now you’re going to as well.” But the NPC does what seems most appropriate to him, not what the Paladin wants. Most interactions will shake out the same way, but with the shades of gray filled back in because you don’t have some jerkbag Paladin breathing down your neck.
Marty H Parley also triggers when it is something they would want to do.
Or to be more precise, you as a GM don’t really get to decide if that is what they want to do or not. That is what the move is for.
Tim Franzke I disagree. Parley is specifically about using leverage to manipulate someone. If the NPC is already on board with what the PCs want, you’re not manipulating and the leverage is irrelevant. Stuff just happens and you don’t need to roll for it. (“Sir Telric, can I have your magic sword?” “Heck yes, this thing is cursed, no backsies.”) It’s a done deal.
On the flip side, you as a DM also get to determine what constitutes reasonable leverage. If the PCs aren’t meeting an appropriate barrier to entry (“Sir Telric, can I have your magic sword? I’ll give you a ham sandwich.”) then you as a GM decide that they haven’t triggered the move. They have something they want (the sword) and you have something they don’t want (the sandwich). Being particularly charismatic doesn’t change the fact that you’re offering an obviously bum deal.
If the PCs are offering something valuable (“Sir Telric, can I have your magic sword? I’ll give you a ham sandwich, and by the way we’re in the Outer Wastes and may not eat again for 3 days.”), the NPC has two conflicting interests, and the Parley move is used to determine which one he ultimately settles on.
What Christopher Stone-Bush said. Avoid thinking of difficult things as One Difficult Thing to roll for. It doesn’t work with the system, isn’t all that fun*, and isn’t even such a great model of reality**.
* – what’s more fun, watching one die roll and hoping for a 20, or having to tumble through 5 different difficult tasks, each one complicating things further and further, depending on each outcome? This is one of the places the *W games really excel. Embrace that!
** – Is a hard thing really just one single task, or is it lots of small sorta-hard things to do? Jumping across a chasm in a battle requires: running really fast, avoiding obstacles on the way, dodging incoming arrows, getting your timing exactly right on the jump, jumping HARD, aiming properly, grabbing the ledge successfully, pulling yourself up, dodging more arrows, etc. etc. I’m not saying you should make your player roll all of these things – rather trying to illustrate a point 🙂
Marty H but most of the time i don’t know if my NPCs want to do that or not. That is why it’s Play to find out. I don’t get to decide that, i’d rather see my players roll Parley (especially because they don’t use it enough).
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Don’t distinguish between levels of difficulty. Just don’t.
You aren’t running a player vs dragonbreath simulation like you did in DND any more. Instead, you’re telling a story, or describing a movie action scene. The author or screenwriter doesn’t care how actually dangerous a thing is. The protaganist runs unscathed through a hail of bullets, or catches a single deadly ricochet, because the author thinks that’s what the the plot warrents.
The roll of the dice in DW isn’t about difficulty. It’s about whether it’s time for a plot twist.
And if it is time for a plot twist is decided by wheter move triggers are met or not, not narrative principles.
Aye. And it may so happen that Dragonbreath is unimportant, but that time the party talks to each other about the possible origins of the mysterious scratches was a major turning point.
I had a player dodge a wyvern’s jaws in my session yesterday. He got a partial success with cost or complication on his Defy Danger DEX roll, so I said he suffered the wyvern’s attack but had full cover from his evasive action (+2 armor).