Anyone have any good custom moves (formal or that you made up on the fly) for dealing with weather?
Like…
– When you press on despite the driving rain,…
– When you trudge through the snowy plains,…
– When you seek shelter from the coming storm,…
That sort of thing?
Bonus points if the move has seen use in play and you share how it went.
Consider making the weather a front.
On that note, do you have any resources to better explain fronts? It’s the part of the system I’ve always struggled with, and DW doesn’t do much better of a job at explaining them than AW does.
They aren’t typical to the roleplaying experience (OSR), and I’ve found that I often ignore them.
When you make a move, in the open, during a storm, roll+Str. On a 10+, the waves are manageable for now. On a 7-9, you are buffeted by waves, salt stings your eyes, and water fills your mouth and nose – choose 1:
• You make progress through the waves but that is all
• You do what you intended but are then washed far leeward
• You hold your ground but all possessions are washed from your grasp
Ryan M. Danks a Front is a file folder of notes. In this file folder, you’re putting topics you’d like to talk about at the table. The Fronts chapter lists the major notes you might need to have to successfully ad lib at the table. That’s really all it is, nothing more complicated.
You might make a Front about the growing war between jade smuggling gangs and call it The Jade Rush.
Inside this file folder you stick notes about what Threats best represent the Jade Rush… Maybe that includes a businessman driving up prices and destroying the economy but making the town boom (“Baron Moneybags”), and the gang smuggling the stuff and selling cheap knockoffs (“The Iron Pigs”), and the crooked police looking to pin the smuggling crimes on anyone (“Inspector Chan & the force”), and maybe it includes the poor people negatively affected by diluted and ogre-bone dust supplemented jade who shamble like zombies (“The Jadesick”).
You write down what types of Threats they are so you have, at a glance, what their motivations are – so you always have a frame of reference to guide what kinds of things to say about your Threats when things get crazy at the table.
You write down Grim Portents to keep tabs on what your Threat’s big plans are. Your bad guys are alive, and the game is about seeing what happens, so you need to know your villains’ agendas. Maybe Baron Moneybags is going to •steal a map to a jade fortune, •uncover the jade fortune, •pillage the dungeon in which it’s located, •buy out the whole damn town, and •purchase his own dukely title. You also write down what the final end game of their agenda is… maybe the Baron •Becomes Duke of the realm and all his subjects live in squalor and crime.
During the game, when things get crazy you refer back to these bullet points: did someone miss a roll or has someone handed over a golden opportunity? Check your portents to see if one of them can conceivably be fulfilled and broadcast to the players’ characters. Did the players just surprise you badly? Check the portents and see if they just set one in motion or completely wrecked the chain of events… your villains are clever! If the players interfere, they will adapt! You know their motivation and their endgame, so rewrite their portents and start broadcasting the new info.
Its all about always having something to say at the table, not having to stumble or draw a blank when the player’s ask questions or do something surprising. Fronts are just folders for note-taking, a heading for all your baddies and villainous plots and moves so you can keep track of all your totally cool ideas.
Jeremy Strandberg forgive my sidetrack to address Ryan!
Marshall Miller
Zing!
Alfred Rudzki, thanks! That’s the best explanation I’ve seen of them.
The part that threw me off was in how tey advance, but if that’s just their plot (not necessarily what will happen, but the initial ideas for it), I like them way more.
I had one for sandstorms for Apoc World
When you make your way through the sandstorm, roll+hard.
On a 10+ choose 1
On a 7-9 choose 2
– you arrive not where you wanted to go
– you take 1 harm
– something of value to you gets damaged
A good weather move for pcs probably needs a setting that focuses on that weather pattern. Maybe it’s always snowing/raining and going outside is always juxtaposed with being indoors/underground. It should be a choice players will want to make.
Perhaps:
Beat the Storm
When you take a chance on a break in the storm, roll+STR. On a 10+, you reach your destination just as the weather begins to turn ugly. On a 7-9, choose 1:
=You have to push hard to beat the storm – upon arrival, take -1 ongoing until you Make Camp and recover.
=You’re caught, out in the open, as the storm resumes but you can see your destination in the distance.
= You reach a place that is sheltered from the storm but you’re close enough that you can reach your destination as soon as the storm’s furry lessens.
subbity sub sub
Untested :
When you seek shelter from the coming storm, the character acting as Pathfinder rolls +WIS. Adventuring Gear may be spent before making the roll, granting a +1 for each piece of gear thus used.
On a 10+ a safe haven is found or built where the group may rest in relative comfort. The party may rest during the storm, recovering hitpoints or curing debilities depending on the storm’s length.
On a 7-9 the party finds a place to bunker down in relative safety. No hitpoints or debilities are recovered, and it is impossible to concentrate on memorizing spells or devotionals, but the storm is weathered.
On a miss the place the party bunkered down in is woefully inadequate and they end up fully exposed to the storm. Each member takes a debility of the GM’s choice.
There’s one in issue #1 of Grim Portents ‘zine to handle a blizzard.
A lot of debilities in my custom moves, I’ve noticed.
Used in one session during an escape from the Frozen North :
Every day you travel through the Frozen North either expend one Adventuring Gear or Roll+CON
On a 10+ you push through.
On a 7-9 take one point of damage which heals as soon as you rest someplace warm for a few hours.
On a miss take a debility of the GM’s choice.
Designed for, but never used in, my last game, which featured a demon-infested supernaturally expanding desert a human army was patrolling the border of :
When you travel in the Burning Sands, instead of making a PJ roll, expend a ration for every day’s travel undertaken. One player Rolls +1 for every five people in your party, -1 for every day traveled.
(Unusual structure I know, it was experimental)
On a 10+ choose one :
* You encounter a group of Sand Demons, but have a situational advantage (the GM will tell you how before you commit)
* You avoid detection by the Sand Demons
On a 7-9 you encounter a group of the Sand Demons
On a miss, a group of Sand Demons catches you unaware.
Good call, Matt Horam.
When you brave the freezing cold, roll +CON. On a 10+, you shrug off the ✴ effects of the cold.✴ On a 7–9, the cold bothers you; take −1 forward. ✴ On a miss, you are chilled to the bone; take −1 ongoing until you shrug off the effects of the cold or take a break to warm up.
That’s a solid move. Thanks!
(Edited: Originally misread Matt’s post.)
That’s the one!