A totally redone spider playbook! Please take a chance to look it over and put any constructive feedback you might have here in the comments.
Also, what kind of moves do you see a drider or ettercap doing that would differentiate it from this spider playbook?
I look forward to the comments! 😀
Nice! I’m already envisioning this as a playable alien species in Adventures on Dungeon Planet or Sundered World. But including it in the lineup of straight-up DW would be fun, too.
But, Charlotte is still missing from the names list.
#bugreport
It was totally added to the first google doc. David might have missed it when he transferred the moves to the special pdf he has.
I shall thoroughly nag him on it.
Melissa Fisher No no no, keep the vaguely African names you have gone for. It gives the race an accent and manner with name alone. There should be an equal number of names for males and females though, and one name should reference the Black Widow somehow, maybe mangle it’s scientific name.
Have you ever seen the movie or read James & the Giant Peach? I just remembered there is a great spider character in that!
In the Gear section you have a typo, “Choose something you keep from a victims”, drop that sneaky s.
Other than that every Move on this guy looks like such fun! Dragline in particular.
uuhhh Spider
Webspinner
– remove “try to” from the trigger condition
– the options are a bit too specific for my tastes but might work out fine
Spiderwalking
– Is this move needed? When you are a Spider you can move on walls. That is part of your fictional positioning. Also imagine this situation:
“I dodge the dragon’s fire by walking up the wall.”
“Roll DD”
“I got a 10+”
Rather give them +1 forward when climbing up walls to Defy Danger, or something like that
Liquid Diet
– it’s flavorful but a lot of complexity in ressources you need to track extra for very little gain. Especially because you can just reflavor your rations to be something liquidish.
5 bonds seems like A LOT for a rather alien creature. I would have thought they get 3. Any reasons why 5 is the right number here?
Also the bonds seem rather evil in nature.
How does a Spider wear a Shield?
Arachnophobia
– is wickedly strong. You can trigger it all the time and against basically everything. Including Golems or fearless opponents.
Blinding Bristles
– i don’t quite get how this is supposed to work in fiction but that might be because i am not as familiar with spiders
Lift with your legs
– interesting effect but increasing load by 10 is really powerful, especially with the high load they already have.
Lunge
– is better then Hack&Slash most of the time. Is this intended? I would gladly multiclass into this with every STR based character since dealing damage without getting hurt on a 7-9 is just soooo good.
Molting
– the -1 armor basically only comes up when you get attacked immediately after camp. After that the 1 hour becomes highly nebulous.
– Can Spiders molt every day?
Scopulae
– Aren’t your legs reach weapons even beforehand?
– Ah okay. I thought you could climb walls, ceilings etc. even beforehand. Players might miss this in the first session if they don’t read this move beforehand.
Wound Webbing
– What hold are you spending?
– Why can’t you create stuff from webbing without this move?
Death From Above
– Now that is a powerful 6-10 move! I kinda like it but can see it being too strong maaaybeee
Dragline
– I thought i could do that already with Webslinger…
Eight Legged Freak
– wow
– such murder machine
– very damage
– much safe
– you know this can be used by a human with just 2 feet right?
Irritating Bristles
– seems kind of weak to me
– maybe you can use them as a Spray weapon?
Spider Sense
– could be a 2-5 move i think, it gives you more exploration power instead of combat options and that makes for a good low level move. The upgrade could give you Danger Sense like Spidey has.
And now i want to write Compendium Classes for that based on some of the Giant Spider goodness in Burning Wheel…
sub
Tony Ferron I shall let David know that his idea for the african names is liked.
Tim Franzke The spiderwalking move is there because surfaces are climbable to spiders, like really smooth ones.
I had way more bonds than that and I originally asked for people to tell me their favorites, but got little feedback. Also, most people find the spider evil in nature which is why a lot of them are. Which would be the three you’d choose for the final version, if I were to go with just 3? I am also going to point out that I really don’t like there being only 3 bonds (as a player) because I tend to have a hard time coming up with some when I don’t like what’s there. I figure that the more merrier.
As for the shield, I figured the spider can use a shield unconventionally like webbing it onto its abdomen or on its thorax. Gear was a real tough one for this playbook.
For Arachnophobia, how about it only works on humanoids?
Blinding bristles is actually quite neat. Spiders (specifically tarantulas) can fling these specific bristles from their abdomen at a threat and cause some pretty wicked affects, like a rash. If it gets into your eyes, it is pretty horrible.
Can spiders molt every day? Technically no.
I will have to reword Wound Webbing. You are right there is lots of confusion there.
The moves previous to Dragline don’t actually allow you to do the things listed. Just compare Webspinner to Dragline and there’s no similarities at least from my take on it. Then again, this is why I need other sets of eyes looking at my work. 🙂
Oooh! A Spray weapon you say…
Melissa Fisher All the best spiders are.
The number of bonds is important – it serves as a mechanical bonus (or penalty) to aiding others. Classes that are typically more able to engage in teamwork (the Bard is the best example) have a whole bunch, where egotistical or xenophobic folks tend to only have a handful. A giant spider CAN be someone’s friend, but that’s probably an exception to the status quo. It’s also obviously pretty self-sufficient and probably not intrinsically a team player. Thus the push for fewer bonds.
This is probably one of those ‘kill your darlings’ moments where you have to cut something good to improve the overall quality of the work. 3 bonds seems right. Maybe even 2.
Or go with a bunch of bonds and add a base ‘move’ like
NOT A TEAM PLAYER – You may not make the AID basic move. You may make INTERFERE moves as normal.
Ah, but surely the Spider wants to be a team player, even if it’s nature makes such a thing difficult. Everyone has to be a team player in a party based game.
Unless it’s Paranoia!
It’s usually true that PCs are team players. Not always. There’s a mechanic for INTERFERE move which could only affect player characters, the Inquisitor has his “It’s Not Them You Should Be Afraid Of” move to try to force other PCs to follow his will, that kind of thing. Judging from the ‘my fellows are quasi-food’ attitude of the existing bonds it seems appropriate.
Driders are made so by divine fiat, right? Maybe a (limited) Cleric move?
Everyone else already said what I was going to. I like this version much better.
I was mulling over what an AID move might look like for this character…
(STR) Pioty the Paladin goes to kick in the door. Charlotte decides she wants to ‘help’, reaching over his shoulder and tapping on the door a few times. Alternately she goes to headbutt it. Of course, she’s as wide as the door, so she ends up using Pioty as a battering ram…
(DEX) Bilbee the Thief is trying to disarm the Bomb From Space that fell into the castle’s courtyard. He is trying not to tremble as he reaches into the highly-sensitive inner workings of the device to cut the blue wire. Charlotte decides to help! She grabs Bilbee by the upper arm with two of her legs, trying to hold him steady. Oddly enough having two giant, hairy spider legs sharply stabbing into the skin of your biceps and triceps had the opposite effect…
(CON) Vash the Wizard is laid up in bed, trying to overcome the illness she caught last time they went into the Dire Swamp of the Rapid Turtle. Pioty tends to her every day, bringing soup and resting his hands on her back, re-aligning her chakras. When Charlotte has something bad in her she throws it up, so she helps Vash by sleeping in the closet to protect her and entering her room at random points during the day. Charlotte drops her body weight on Vash’s stomach, inducing vomiting, then goes back to the closet. The whole process takes about four seconds, and for some reason Vash is having a hard time sleeping.
(WIS) Vash gets close to the hieroglyphics, trying to translate them.
“Caution…. they…. who…. enter ….. within….”
Charlotte is helping! She knows it’s not ‘within’, but ‘when’, so she jabs the sandstone at that symbol, accidently collapsing the inscribed writing across the wall’s veneer, while correcting her – “CChchhchchchhh!” (When, not within)”
(INT) Pioty thinks back to her time at the courts, trying to place the familiar face of the assassin / nobel. Does he know who it is?
Charlotte helps! “CHCHCHCHCHCchchchhchchchchchhhh!” (I know! I know!)
(CHR) Town Guard – “You are wanted by order of the Baron.”
Bilbee – “Ahhh, but that warrant was issued before we saved Portside! Trust us, it has been rescinded.”
Charlotte (hovering overhead) – “CHCHCHCHChchchchchhchch! Chhhh chchhchchhhh chhhh!” (He said the codeword was ‘blueblooded’, that you would know what that means)
Town Guard – “Jim, go get more men. This is going to be ugly.”
Araña is Spanish for spider. It’s a pretty feminine name.
Lol Sean Fager. However, the spider can talk.
I’m so happy for this playbook. My brother loves spiders so much, he’s totally pumped.
I would probably nix the hunger mechanic, though. If you have no rations, you just can’t trigger the Make Camp move, that’s enough of a consequence for having no viscera.
The 1st, 4th, and 5th bonds are the best ones. If you want 4 bonds, I would include the 3rd, but maybe phrase it like “I enjoy watching __ squirm.” It sounds like more like reason to actually follow someone around.