Woo, a few random questions that pop into my head, randomly!
Can a paladin Lay on Hands on themselves?
Can a druid in animal form still speak their normal form language?
Why don’t wizards have an option to start with a little bit of gold and/or some Adventuring Gear?
:3
1) I don’t think so. Otherwise where would the damage go on a 7-9 result?
2) Ask the player. If they can, that’s cool, but no one who hears them talk while in animal form will assume they are a “normal” animal.
3) Probably because the Wizard starts with other stuff. And if they need some cash, that’s a perfect reason to go adventuring!
No
Ask the player
Who needs adventuring gear or gold when you have unbridled cosmic powers? 😉
Alfred Rudzki True, but can unbridled cosmic power really substitute for when you need a piece of chalk to draw out a complex ritual array? Hm….maybe it can with the “color it” feature of Prestidigitation?
1 : Not anymore. The deities have tried it. Man, made unkillable, tends to cause them problems. They redacted the ability after Skorrah the Deadly went on that rampage in the Idle Fields.
2 : If the animal has vocal chords similar enough to a human’s. Which usually means “No”
3 : Tools are for cowards who bend to the will of the world. Mages use their will to change the world itself.
They can lay hands on themselves, but they’ll go blind…
1) Ask the player
2) Ask the player
3) Ask the player
But seriously, lay on hands is a no; its been answered here before by Koebel/Sage.
I was serious. That’s the way the move had been written and the way I myself use it, but as soon as a player ask the question I open it again.
The answer could open new, wonderful and strange worlds, maybe even leading to new moves, threats or compendium classes.
If nobody asks I’ll leave there, untouched, but if someone has their imagination stroke by the idea… it’s an obvious jump-start
I agree with Ezio. If the choice is between game balance (i.e. avoiding “unkillable characters”) and giving players nigh-complete creative freedom (i.e. doing whatever they think is fun), I’ll take the latter. I’d rather they run wild with self-healing paladins of their own design than have me tell them how to play the game, but I’ll admit my games get pretty wacky sometimes.
That’s my priority, too… but fortunately we don’t have to choice.
The game balance will not break with things like the one we are discussing about, they are just new, interesting things.
If, for example, you allow self healing Paladins you will have plenty of questions to ask (What happens now that you rolled a 7?isn’t very selfish to use your power on yourself?) and plenty of tactical choices: yes, you can heal yourself, but while you do so, in that split second, the Orkaster will release the sacrificial energies on the kidnapped villagers. What do you do?
A PbA game will not break for a simple change of a move, it will just shift to a slightly different theme and aesthetic.
The real question isn’t “Will a self healing Paladin unbalance the game”, but “Do we like to play in a world where Paladins heal themselves?”, trying to mediate between the different aesthetic instances at the table (the rules to do so are at the end of the manual).
Ok. I have to say the “Ask the player” option lies in the very soul of the game and I like it AS LONG as the answer makes some kind of minimum sense within the fiction and the game gets cool with it.
Of course.
To really dig into these methods you have to be all clear about the final objective of the game: to create a shared fiction that everyone can enjoy.
It’s good to accept and invite differences and unexpected answers, the offer new blood to the game and are probably the most fun ones, but if one player is just beign disruptive or doesn’t understand that you are all working toward the same goal and tries to hoard “advantages” for themself (it will not work)… it’s better to step aside a little and remember to all what are you doing there and what is the ultimate goal of your questions.