The Watchmakers sword V1, edited/corrected with ideas from

The Watchmakers sword V1, edited/corrected with ideas from

The Watchmakers sword V1, edited/corrected with ideas from

Christopher Stone-Bush , PK Sullivan , Jonathan Spengler , Alfred Rudzki

The blade itself looks totally normal, but crossguard and grip tell a different story. Trough a round small glass panel in between hilt and crossguard you can see a multitude of small gears and counterweights, in motion and making clicking, whizzing sounds whenever you move the blade.

When you spend time winding the sword’s gears, roll +nothing. On a 10+, gain 3 torsion and on a 7-9, gain 1 torsion. Spend 1 torsion to give the sword either the precise or the forceful tag for your next strike. Spend 2 torsion to throw the sword with Volley.

Example picture from Deviantart: http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs31/f/2008/220/1/b/Gear_Sword_by_NerinokuKai.png

I would have imagined the mechanisms much more concealed though, as you see from my description!

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs31/f/2008/220/1/b/Gear_Sword_by_NerinokuKai.png

10 thoughts on “The Watchmakers sword V1, edited/corrected with ideas from”

  1. What is a “battle”?

    I would suggest something more fictional, like “When you activate the sword’s clockwork mechanisms you can treat the sword as having the precise or forceful tag. Roll + nothing. On a 10+ activating the sword doesn’t harm the delicate mechanisms inside it. On a 7-9 the GM will tell you how the sword now needs repairs, how its activation caused unwanted effects, or how the tag the sword gained lasts for a much shorter time than you wanted.”

    Something like that, I’m not very versed in making moves, but what you’ve written doesn’t work like a Dungeon World item. (The Roll + nothing reflects the sword’s workings itself, I figured the strength or smartness of the wielder has little effect.)

  2. Ah, your move actually works much better than what I had written down! Yeah, limiting it to “battle” wasn’t a good idea to begin with. I’d probably add a +2 or +1 to the roll, to make it less probable that the sword fails so often, but that could be an ongoing bonus for a specific duration after having a specialist ‘recalibrate’ the sword. I’d make the duration be a specific amount of hours though, similar to an old clock that you had to rewind every couple of days.

  3. You could have it start off with a bonus but then each activation of the sword counts down by 1. That way failure becomes more likely as the sword gets used. Maybe on a 7-9 rather than breaking the bonus decreases, to make it more of a gamble.

  5. Per battle is absolutely fine, and not something to worry about as long as you tie it into the fiction.

    In this case, for a clockwork weapon, it sounds like twice per battle [do the thing] but it knocks the delicate parts out sorts, and you must spend time on maintenance to retune them.

    A move where you roll is also fine, but “charges per fight” is completely in line with DW as long as its fictionally relevant.

  6. Both moves work great, though personally I’m not a fan of the “per battle” limits. You could do something with hold, too. Something like:

    When you spend time winding the sword’s gears, roll +nothing. On a 10+, gain 3 torsion and on a 7-9, gain 1 torsion. Spend 1 torsion to give the sword either the precise or the forceful tag for your next strike. Spend 2 torsion to throw the sword with Volley.

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