And while I’m about it, I’ve got one other question that i’m copy/pasting from the barf-forth-apocalyptica forums.
So I was just wondering other GMs of Dungeon World, how do you handle failures for Druids shapeshifting? I’m normally really creative, and have found multiple clever and dangerous ways of handling failed rolls (the last session we had, my bard failed a healing song roll in a castle that oozes necromantic magic…she accidentally raised one of the dead mages who was previously being nommed on by ghouls who almost TPK’d in a hilarious succession of bad damage die rolls.) Anyway, I can’t figure out a way to handle a failed shapeshift. To me it just seems like they don’t shapeshift. Any ideas to help this GM get some creativity flowing?
I haven’t had a lot of Druids in my games, but I will in my next campaign so sub for now!
Someone did mention, however, something along the likes of a Druid being successful in the shift, though it goes awry. Like they take the form they wanted, though part of them is a different, previous form, or perhaps only part of their body successfully changes.
Perhaps the best version I heard was that they shapeshift into something misshapen or helpless. They generate two or three hold, but the moves they get for the form are things like “Shuffle around without getting anywhere,” “Get in the way,” and other stuff like that, and unlike a normal shapeshift they can’t return to their normal form until they spend their hold on performing moves.
So basically make it like when Misty accidentally summons Psyduck and can’t call him back because of tournament rules.
Oh man, I was like why would they ever use the holds, but having to use them to return to your normal form… that’s gold!
I have a druid in my game and this question comes up all the time, thanks to his sucky dice. When possible, I look for an interesting result of the failure that relates to the current narrative, but I have a few fallback results too. I’ve done things like:
1) He transforms successfully, but is a true wild animal. The animal spirit is stronger than he is, so it has full control until he defies danger with Wisdom. (This has resulted in him attacking his allies! — A form of hard move from me.)
2) He transforms into a different animal, one that would not be at all helpful, and again is stuck that way until he does something to warrant changing back.
3) He fails, is momentarily stunned, and I make a hard move, which might or might not be related to his actions.
4) He fails and takes damage from the pain (a specific example of a hard move from me).
I keep a list of ideas like this on my GM binder/screen, in case I need inspiration.
You could have something interrupt his concentration as well. From getting tumbled into to anything else going on around him that may interfere or distract.
Or depending on the fiction around how he channels nature, he might not be able to feel rooted in nature easily where he is, or perhaps he was denied the magic for some earlier slight.
Here is an entire document of shapeshift failure options:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h4_WNjdFtLRaTM-6dD3ovH4eOl9jrJyBwX-qBGvvsDc/edit
Eric Lochstampfor Oh my god that is glorious!
Also do a search in this group for #druidweek LOTS of druid based info.
Druid Week was maybe the best one we had.
Wow, I love the Happy Spirits idea! A reward for rolling high. I also like the idea of using up their resources / having the druid’s gear not transform with him. Beautiful. I’ll be hanging onto this document for a bit.
Ben Harrison “Depending on the fiction”… great thing to think about, honestly. Asking your folks how their moves function and what they look like is a great way to get an idea of what kinds of mishaps can happen when they go horribly wrong.
Pretty sure Tim Franzke touched on that in his “what to do in the first session” post a few days back–though from a somewhat more positive angle. 😛
(Me, my next character is going to be a Druid whose animal forms eat their way out of the original body like in Hemlock Grove. Have fun with that one, future GM!)
A failed druidic shape shift is the messiest shit ever. Who has a goat head until the next full moon? YOU DO.
I had one that was not because of a failure, but because the player was out for a week and the rest wanted to play. So, he turned into a jewel-stealing crab who couldn’t control the urge to find jewels (in a Dwarven mine). Made for a good plot device, actually. The druid-crab kept walking away from the party until they tied him down with a heavy rock. There was some cultists performing a ritual on the mother of all these crabs that was driving up their normally minor desire to steal shiny stuff.
Joseph Moore Jewel-stealing crabs sound like the best thing ever. I’m not sure what exactly makes me find the idea so awesome, but I do. They totally slot right into a fantasy setting, too. Top notch!