The Fighter’s signature weapon is wrested from his grasp and thrown into the burning building.

The Fighter’s signature weapon is wrested from his grasp and thrown into the burning building.

The Fighter’s signature weapon is wrested from his grasp and thrown into the burning building.

The Wizard’s jaw is shattered as the Armored Orc Emperor drives his iron-clad fist into it.

The Ranger’s panther mistimes it’s leap at the kobald, who dodges suddenly, and she falls into The Decade Chasm.

How often, if ever, are the abilities of your character’s Class Moves hampered or (temporarily?) taken away by GM Hard Moves?  Is this acceptable?  What kind of setup should a GM feel obligated to perform before making such a Hard Move?

11 thoughts on “The Fighter’s signature weapon is wrested from his grasp and thrown into the burning building.”

  2. It’s totally fair game to take them away with a hard move! I’ve had my Fighter’s signature weapon wind up in the hands of the enemy for a while. More than once. But, like the move says, it’ll always wind up back in the Fighter’s hands eventually. I also had the Ranger send off their animal companion to distract an angry treant.

    You should really just do your setup just like you’d do any other. “The iron-fisted Orc Emperor slugs a heavy punch at your face! What do you do? This one’s gonna shatter bones!” In these situations, I like to do it as part of a hard choice, like a Defy Danger failure.

  4. As GM, those are the hard moves you hope you get the chance to use, because they make for such interesting fiction. They’re also really hard as far as hard moves go, so I would probably heavily foreshadow future badness before dropping them, and/or offer hard choice to avoid the consequence. 

  5. These are great moves to use, as they force characters to “try another way”.  It’s akin to the line of thinking the sets up a character to take on the roll of another because the typical go to character is already engaged elsewhere (e.g. the rogue is doing his crafty business at keeping the dragon distracted, so you’re looking at the lock now… considering just beating on it until it opens).

    I guess the only thing I want to add to the conversation though is probably pretty obvious: these characters paid for these moves, so keep anything that disables them temporary (like Andy Hauge pointed out).  If a ranger loses her companion, give her great opportunities to get another one.  If the wizard breaks his jaw, give him opportunities to fix it.  I played in a game (not dungeon world) where a big barbarian lost an arm.  Most of what he built into the character involved two-handed weapons, and now it felt like he’d be better off just starting a new character.

  7. I would point out that if you check out AW it cautions against that because what you’re doing is taking the cool thing that they have and taking it away, even temporarily.

    It’s not as definitive as say taking the gunluggers guns away, but it’s along the same lines. If you do that kind of things you’re going to want to make sure that it’s only very infrequent and temporary move.

  8. Fair game, sure.

    But it can get stale. After all, playing the Fighter is playing the Tank Swinging an Awesome Signature Weapon, not playing the Tank Who Can’t Stop Losing its Awesome Signature Weapon. I’m with Jonathan Lavallee on this : you’re going to want to make sure that it’s only very infrequent and temporary move.

  9. I think Andy Hauge nailed it with making it part of a choice.

    Remember that one of your GM moves is “tell them the requirements or consequences and then ask.”  That could be:

    – a soft move, before the roll (“Yeah, Krikor, your cougar can pounce on him but he’s right in front of the Decade Chasm, they could go tumbling in. You sure?”)

    or

    – a hard move after a miss (“6 huh? OK, Ovid, as you start casting fireball the Orc Emporer comes hurling at you, fists like cinderblocks. You can get the spell off and take the blow, shattering your jaw, or fizzle the spell and defend yourself. What do you do?”)

    Without some sort of “tell and ask” move, or at least some serious foreshadowing, I’d avoid hard moves that straight-up take their signature stuff away.   Put it at risk and see what they do, sure.  But don’t just take it away out of the blue.

  11. Okay, so :

    Yes, mess with a character’s moves, but only as a result of their willingness to push forward in a tough situation at the expense of their unique power(s). 

    Don’t ruin them, make them ruin themselves.

    It’s evil and empowering and I love it.

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