When you butcher a freshly killed large monster, roll +carving. On a 10+, you collect 1 rare part and 2 common parts from the carcass. On a 7-9, choose one or the other. On a 6-. collect 1 common part in addition to whatever else the GM says.
When you search an area for resources say what type you”re looking for (ore, herbs, insects, or fungi), then roll +gather. On a 10+, choose three and on a 7-9, choose one:
– you collect 1 rare resource of that type;
– you collect 2 common resources of that type;
– your tools don’t break;
– you aren’t harassed by a small monster.
On a 6-, you collect 1 common resource of that type in addition to whatever else the GM says.
What’s that for? (I ask because of the stats)
The options on the second move turn out to be no options at all.
A hack that tries to emulate the Capcom Monster Hunter game Lenny Pacelli. Carving and gather are determined by your equipment.
What did I mess up with the gathering move Stefan Bernhard?
On a 10+ the choice is basically whether you want additional resources or fight some monster.
On a 7-9 you are basically forced to choose that your tools do not break.
Unless, of course, tools are very easy to mend or acquire, in which case that option essentially becomes obsolete.
Further, the 7-9 would not feel like a success at all to me.
And with 10+, the rules state that ‘everything is fine’. Which it isn’t as you force to pick 3.
That exactly the point Stefan. On a 10+, you get rare or common resources with only a minor hassle (tools breaking or monster harassment), or you get either common or rare resources with no problems.
On a 7-9 you get common or rare resources with major hassle, or bail out with only a little trouble.
OK. I see how the 7-9 can end up not feeling like a success. But there’s nothing in the rules that state everything is fine. You adjust difficulty in Dungeon World by adjusting what “success” means in certain situations.
Christopher Stone-Bush after reading the moves, my first thought was “monster hunter”!
OK. An updated Gathering move:
When you use your tools to forage for resources, say what type you’re gathering (ore, herbs, insects, or fungi), then roll +gather. On a hit (7+) you collect 2 common resources of that type. On a 10+, choose two and on a 7-9, choose one:
– you collect 1 rare resource of that type;
– your tools don’t break;
– you aren’t harassed by a small monster.
On a 6-, you collect 1 common resource of that type in addition to whatever else the GM says.
That might be better.
I’m glad it was that easy to figure out Lenny Pacelli. Though I will have to file off serial numbers. 🙂
Oh, I played MH several years ago, on ps1 or ps2 and not played it a lot, so it was something that now emerged from the subconscious!
Christopher Stone-Bush you will have to create a part breaking move…
Two questions: do you plan on using DW as a base or to do your own hack? Most of MH is inside the fight techniques, so hack&slash would be too generic IMO.
Do you plan to make random tables?
Okay ‘everything is fine’ comes from the Guide not the rules, my bad. Indeed the rules say ‘with little trouble’. I don’t know whether in your setting a tool breaking or a small monster qualifies as little trouble (I would interpret both as medium trouble).
The new version with guaranteed commons seems better to me. Still I think something could be improved. Would you consider replacing ‘your tools don’t break’ with ‘it doesn’t take a long time’? Then 7-9 would feel more like success, just taking longer since you’d want to avoid the monster.
Cool! I’m in Japan, so I see it absolutely everywhere. Which I don’t mind, since I like the game. 🙂
That last comment was for Lenny Pacelli, but I got ninja-ed. 😉
My goal is to keep as much of the DW framework intact as possible Paride Papadia. There’ll be new carving and gathering moves, as well as moves to make armor and weapons from the parts you collect. (A part breaking move is totally appropriate, but maybe that should be a monster move.) Some moves might get tweaked a bit, but ultimately I’d like people to be able to use as much or as little of this as they want in a “normal” DW game.
I considered “it doesn’t take a long time” as an option Stefan Bernhard. But having your tools break happens so often in the game it seems like I have to include it. The tools aren’t all that expensive either, so it’s not as if you lose a lot of money. Breaking your pickaxe just means you can’t mine ore again until you go home and resupply.
The small monsters aren’t all that dangerous either. I see them more as nuisances than as real threats.
In that case it seems fine. As I hinted to ‘your setting’.
The pitfall you’ve helped me identify Stefan Bernhard is that I’m assuming people are somewhat familiar with the Monster Hunter game and setting. Which will not always be the case. I need to mention somewhere that tools aren’t expensive and that small monsters aren’t that dangerous. Thanks for helping me see that.
Most (some might say all) of Monster Hunter‘s gameplay is based on which of the 12 weapons you arm yourself with Paride Papadia. The greatsword plays differently than the bowgun, which plays differently than the hammer. However, emulating that would require me to make completely new weapon-based playbooks, with completely new stats and moves. I’ve fallen down that rabbit hole before and gotten frustrated at how much work it is.
Rather than do that, I’m just planning on the characters using monster bits to make new weapons and armor that have qualities of the monster they came from. A sword made from Rathalos talons and spikes would have the +flaming tag, while armor made from its scale would be fire resistant. Maybe, maybe give each weapon a new move that captures the spirit of how it works in MH without breaking the DW mechanics.
Christopher Stone-Bush I have been monster hunting more than a reasonable amount of time…
My point is that (apart from the setting which is a nice steam/monsterpunk fantasy mix. with cats.) much of the feeling comes from the fact that you try to specific things which are hard to do, and you can get some help from the equipment, but there is always risk involved. In a DW game, reducing it to pile of defy danger would lose a lot of its charm while fiction only doesn’t give the correct amount of uncertainty.
I would create moves connected to use objects (traps, flash bombs, etc) to mimic the chances of monsters avoiding them.
Regarding the specific classes, my idea (never wrote anything about it, tough) was that it would be sufficient to create a single hunter compendium class, with no or easy requirement (like if you killed a wyvern), having one basic move for all the weapon classes at beginning. then, with advances, the player can choose whether to advance in their base class, specialize in a weapon class, or take moves for more weapons. this would need like 3-4 moves for weapon class.
The pickaxe and bug nets could be used with a move like volley, using up picks instead of ammo.
Hmmm, what’s “carving”? Sounds like a skill, which DW doesn’t have… Why not +DEX for example?
Matt Balara well, it’s an armour skill, so you could assume some armours give you +es to carving.
I can imagine ways to explain it, but it’s a fundamentally non-DW thing, y’know?
Matt Balara why? There are moves that let you change the +Ability you roll. Anyway, one of the fundamentals of MH is that only two things count: player’s skill and equipment. The character doesn’t have ability scores influencing the outcome.
I’d totally agree, except that carving isn’t an ability, it’s a skill, which don’t exist in DW. If everyone should be equally good or bad at it, then roll+0, otherwise roll+appropriate ability mod.
Making a single Hunter playbook, or mini-playbooks based on the different weapons would be an awesome way to go Paride Papadia. You’re absolutely right that making all new custom moves for the things you do in Monster Hunter is the way to truly capture what the game does.
But that’s a bit beyond the scope of what I’m doing right now. It would require building everything from the ground up. If done right, I’d have a pen & paper Monster Hunter game that really emulated the video game. But it a) wouldn’t be compatible with Dungeon World which is one of my goals here, and b) it would take a lot of work. Not saying it’s something I’ll never do, but it seems like a big project to tackle right out of the gates so to speak.
“Carving” is a skill Matt Balara. It’s how good your hunter is at harvesting useful or rare parts from monster carcasses. I realize I’m cheating here, since Dungeon World doesn’t have skills. The reason it (and the gathering move) are not tied to an existing stat is to give everyone, regardless of class, an equal chance of success at it.
There are things that are essentially “magic items” that raise your carving stat. Usually books and certain “magic” armors. But being good at carving or gathering usually comes at the expense of something else.
I got ninja-ad again. Rolling +0 for carving and gathering could be an option, Matt Balara. But that might make the wording of items that improve your carving/gathering ability awkward. Maybe not, though.
Usually that’s done with roll+0 Christopher Stone-Bush, like the Last Breath move. But of course if you’re offering a system that tacks skills onto DW, more power to you, though it drifts a bit away from DW’s elegant simplicity.
It does. And introducing two or three new stats is just more for people to grok. Roll +0 might be the way to go here. That’d mean a suit of armor would have to say something like “take +1 forward when you butcher a monster” or “take +3 forward when you gather ore or insects”.
I guess that works.
Not meaning to rain on your parade here. 😉 But yeah, for a more DW feel I’d go with roll+0 and let magic items give you a bonus for the move.
Matt Balara I will check if there are other PbtA that have a way to manage “skills” separated by abilities. Anyway, I doubt having some “skill based” moves which have a very specific activation conditions would be game breaking.
Christopher Stone-Bush Apart from the object moves, which would be anyway independent from characters, I estimated about 5 moves for weapon, although some could be recycled for different weapons (like charged attack, for example, or the charging gauge). There is no need to do it for all the classes of weapons at the same time, tough. I could sketch something and send it to you.
Not game breaking Paride Papadia, just not how DW is done really. I’d never stop any body from hacking anything they want, but I’d avoid skills since it’s a whole new system you’d have to build. And once you have one skill, why not sailing, climbing, dancing, etc? I just don’t see the win.
I feel there’s a decent case to be made either way. Dungeon World doesn’t have skills, and so adding some in feels weird. Monster Hunter does have skills, so including is a more faithful emulation of the game. I don’t think there’s a wrong answer here. I’m planing to go with whatever is clearest. 😉
Paride Papadia a and on the gather move, I’d scrap the monster option (it’s a GM move anyway on 9-) and keep the 10+ all 3, 7-9 choose 1. High rolls should be all win. Just my 2 cents.
You’re not the first person to say that about the tools and monsters Matt Balara. In Monster Hunter you can carry multiple pickaxes and bug nets, so that a broken tool isn’t that big a deal. You just pull another one from your pack and keep going. But tracking inventory isn’t really what Dungeon World does. Much like a wizard choosing to forget a spell or an archer choosing to mark off ammo, I was trying to make the tools breaking a player choice.
Having a monster show up is normally a GM move. But getting harassed by the little monsters while you’re gathering resources is something that happens frequently in Monster Hunter. One second you’re hammering away at a vein or ore, and the next you’re tumbling head over heels from some damn Velociprey pouncing on you from off screen. It doesn’t usually deal much damage, mind. It’s just annoying as they’ll keep harassing, interrupting your resource harvesting until you chase them off.
Perhaps that’s how I need to word it. Not as a monster attack, but as an interruption. Or maybe a note below the move explaining that.
I’d be happy to look at what you sketch out Paride Papadia. No promises on whether I’ll use it, mind. Is that cool?
Matt Balara that’s what Monster Hunter is, tough. So, you have to decide whether to keep “pure” DW or give the feeling of MH. I vote for it, obviously, the point here being emulating the feeling of a specific thing and not generically DW.
I don’t get the comment on the gather move. I haven’t written anything about that.
Christopher Stone-Bush I don’t mind. I wanted to use it in my games anyway, so it’s also a tought experiment.
I quite like the idea of these moves, I might end up using them after hacking them a bit. Personally, (mainly focusing on the gather move) I’d let players roll without tools and put gather bonuses onto tools themselves (e.g. Simple Pickaxe, take+1 when gathering ore) which would also mean dropping the tools-not-breaking option, that’s a pretty standard sort of GM move anyways (Use up their Resources); The “you aren’t harassed by a small monster.” option would probably also get dropped by me for something less clear-cut: “you don’t come across an unexpected danger/complication” or something to that effect; I’d maybe add something about time/traveling – you’re going out and searching for resources, right? It might take a long time or you could get lost (although maybe that could be part of the whole complication idea…); I’d also change something about the resources options but I don’t know what (is this more of a setting out to gather a specific resource you’re aware of, or are you just foraging with a particular type of resource in mind?).
I’m kinda trying to morph this into a more broad-strokes sort of move, then particular settings can play a part in what happens e.g. In a Monster Hunter setting, a “complication” is more often than not going to be a monster attack, but something else may be more likely in a different setting.
Of course, this is if I was using this in Dungeon World when the move was made for your hack, so feel free to disregard anything I just said 😛
Thanks for the comments Em0srawk. There are some good ideas there. As you said, I am making these moves specifically for a Monster Hunter hack, and I want them to capture the spirit of the game. But at the same time, I also want these to be usable by people who are playing “regular” game of Dungeon World.
In the Monster Hunter game, there are tell-tale signs of resources; lightning bugs around insect harvesting points, cracks in the rocks where you can mine ore, mushrooms where you can gather fungi, etc. These points are fixed on the maps and have a set number of times you can harvest from them each quest.
I didn’t want to make a move that required the GM to map out exactly where and what kind of resources were present. Play to find out and leave blanks, right? (You could map out the area later if you wanted to, but that’s optional.) I wanted a move that said A) you get what you want, B) you get some of what you want with effort, or C) you get some of what you want with a lot of trouble.
Making the resources hard to get to is an ida worth exploring, I think.