So a kung-fu master, a brick and a speedster walk into a bar…but seriously how do you handle “high level”…

So a kung-fu master, a brick and a speedster walk into a bar…but seriously how do you handle “high level”…

So a kung-fu master, a brick and a speedster walk into a bar…but seriously how do you handle “high level” superhero like progression? How do you make that kung-fu master just better at hand to hand combat than anybody else? The same with the brick – how can they best all normal people with their strength? 

Is it a super move? Or do you enable them to never fail on the basic moves? 

But what about the kung-fu master? Even when you don’t fail with hack and slash – you still take damage. That’s not epic kung-fu like. 

And then how do you scale threats accordingly. Oh the black ninja’s…YAWN. Wait there’s a pack of red ninjas – watch out… ???

9 thoughts on “So a kung-fu master, a brick and a speedster walk into a bar…but seriously how do you handle “high level”…”

  1. It’s really just a matter of scaling up when the basic moves even trigger. The brick might not need to defy danger to endure being plinked with goblin arrows; they’re so puny, they don’t matter. You wouldn’t have a normal DW character defy danger if kids were throwing pebbles at them; same thing. But if an ogre is whacking them with a club, yeah, defy danger.

    Same with the others; the kung fu master doesn’t have to hack and slash to engage with a foe way beneath their level, it just happens, whether that means dealing their damage or just taking them out. But against red ninjas, sure, hack and slash.

    This is naturally a lot cleaner than auto successes or inflating hit points and damage.

  2. What James said. Move triggers are super important.

    Here’s a custom super Kung Fu move, for fun.

    Master of the Third Form

    When you engage in close combat with any number of foes of the Second form (or lower), choose one:

    – You defeat them utterly, measuring your fatigue against their losses.

    – You drive them off with terrifying displays of singular violence.

    – You escape effortlessly without harm, leaving them exhausted and dismayed.

  3. Since I’m in X’s group, perhaps I can help clarify. 

    We came from a FATE background, so we understand that fiction drives what is possible. In FATE aspects define what your characters can do, the skills and stunts describe how mechanically. We’re looking for something like that in DW.    

    While its easy to use fictional hand-waving, as a player we still want some crunch that the moves bring. Because leveling is fun, and getting new moves is fun. So we were looking for examples of moves or ways other groups have used. 

    And as a GM, its nice to keep things simple on the opponent side with a few tags. Its already there in DW with tags or qualities like amorphous or “inch thick metal hide.”  

    I like John Harper’s example. It is like what we’ve been playing with, but with more panache. If the foe’s are “beneath you” to such a degree it is a Defy Danger move to oppose them instead of Hack and Slash and Volley.

    To paraphrase what Dwalin said in the last Hobbit movie: “No problem. Its only a hundred goblin mercenaries.”  

    This all stems  from us playing a Planescape-ish game where we’re all high-powered celestials – Angels, Archons, Guardinals, and Eladrins. And we’re chartered to protect the Prime Material from incursions. We were going to use Icons, but decided to stay with DW and just build our characters from the ground up – every move is custom. 

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