Here’s a move to represent being supper strong!
Herculean Strength
You are capable of attempting incredible feats of strength that would be impossible for a mortal (Moving boulders, Wrestling giant monsters, Leaping over canyons, etc.).
When you tap into your herculean strength to perform a task a mortal could do, take +1 forward but also suffer a consequence of your excessive use of power.
Perfect example of what a custom move should look like.
This is sort of like the fighter’s Bend Bars, Lift Gates. I would rather see something like this move being able to instead lift a horse cart, break a wall, or something that a mortal would indeed not be able to do and in doing so have a chance for complete success (10+), success with a conditon (7-9), or failure (6-).
I definitely agree with Damian. Moves based around doing crazy strong things can mechanically be a lot more interesting than a +1 forwards, e.g. include options to break stuff, get hurt, careen through objects, cause structural collapses, throw monsters around, all kinds of stuff! I’ve got a lot of moves like this in the Brute, which seems fun to play 🙂
Damian Jankowski I’m sorry, but isn’t that what this move does already?
It gives you a fictional license to attempt all of all those things you mentioned like a defy danger.
The +1 forward only applies when you attempt something where super strength would be unnecessary, but helpful.
When you tap into your strength to do what a mortal could do…
To me, that just sounds like whatever farmer Joe can do, you can take +1 when you do it instead. Where is the fiction in that? It’s not wrong to do that, it just isn’t as flavorful as providing some meat to the move instead of simple mechanics.
Compare that to,
When you attempt to overcome a physical obstacle with the use of your herculean strength, roll+STR. On a 10+, choose 1. On a 7-9, choose 2.
– You affect much more than you intended
– You make an immense amount of noise
– It takes a strain on your body, take -1 Forward to the next time you perform this move
I made a 6-10 move that is somewhat similar to this for my Skald class, except you’re singing a song to make someone else super strong.
Song of Strength
When you use song to inspire allies to feats of great strength roll+Cha. On a 10+ an ally can perform an act of strength worthy of Hercules, and choose 2. On a 7-9 they perform just as well but only choose 1:
• They don’t suffer b[2d8 + 4] damage from the strain.
• Something important isn’t destroyed in the process.
• They don’t take -1 ongoing until the next time they Recover.
I have yet to playtest a skald to level 6, but if I did this would be the move I’d take. The fictional repercussions seem fun.
Damian Jankowski But you don’t just get a +1, you also “suffer a consequence of your excessive use of power”.
There’s always going to be a fictional consequence to using your super strength on mundane tasks.
Why would you need to tap into your super strength to do mundane tasks? Or do you always have to use your super strength no matter what? Like, while eating an apple, you just crush it in your grasp by accident?
The idea behind this move is that super strength wouldn’t just allow you to attempt incredible things, but also make doing mundane things “easier”. But because your tapping in to some intense strength, using that power for boring old mortal tasks will result in consequences. Sort of like using dynamite to open a jar pickles.
Damian Jankowski Okay, now I think I understand what your confused with.
This move lets you do two things:
1) You can attempt the impossible. If a normal player tried to catch a falling boulder, they probably would not be able justify attempting it. This move gives you a justification to just straight up try things like that. In this case, you don’t receive any special bonuses or consequences, you can just try it.
2) You can make the possible easier, but at a cost. By possible I mean things like swinging a sword, climbing a rope, etc. You don’t need or have to use the super strength here, but it can help if you don’t mind some destructive consequences.
Having this move is like having a jackhammer.
1) is using a jackhammer against concrete. 2) is using a jackhammer against a stuck pickle jar.
Does that make sense?
Why does this move require a roll? If the character has herculean strength, and is using that strength to do something a regular person could do, shouldn’t they just do it? Shouldn’t it be:
When you tap into your herculean strength to perform a task any mere mortal could do, you do it but suffer a consequence from your excessive use of power.
I’d lean toward Christopher Stone-Bush’s approach for the #2 use-case: you just do it. I’d phrase it as “…but –
suffer-risk a consequence…” That opens the door to using your strength but being careful about it, possibly Defying Danger with +Wis (the danger being your own damn strength).Ooh! Also, if you use your herculean strength in a fight, your physical attacks get +forceful, +messy, and +dangerous. (I love the dangerous tag.)
Christopher Stone-Bush Jeremy Strandberg I think you guys are right. Just destructively plowing through mortal tasks better represents the fiction of being super strong than a +1.
Defying Danger to control your strength sounds kind of cool, but I don’t know if I want players to have that much control over their consequences. I think if you don’t want things to get messy, you should probably just not throw your herculean might in to something.
Adding tags to your attacks makes a lot of sense though.
Nah. I’d leave off the Defy Danger to control your strength part. You can control your strength by simply not triggering the move. I other words don’t use your herculean strength when normal strength will do. Just make it something like “you do the task easily, but with consequences”.
Players also have little control over the result of a defy danger…
Anyway, imagine you are playing a Kryptonian fighter. You can do all the superman things. You just can. When you do them that might trigger a move but you do not need a move to do them.
I like it, though it seems to narrow the scope a little bit. I was playing a session as my Paladin and a few of his pals against an undead frost drake. I did Defy Danger – Power Through against the dragon’s incoming claw strike… and rolled a 12, then my modifier of +3. So my character was able to stop a dragon’s strike with one arm and his shield. As the GM explained, he was filled with the fury of the Most Holy. I like the wiggle room.