I find the quartermaster role in the Undertake a Perilous Journey move redundant with the trailblazer, and less interesting. Getting to destination faster means something tangible in the fiction (and also means less rations consumed), but consuming less rations means just that.
I’m thinking about changing this role with something else, maybe scavenger or hunter. On a 10+, you find something useful or intruiguing (poultices and herbs, a hip bone etched with runes, some rare berries worth 10 coin, whatever). O a 7-9, nothing out of the ordinary.
What do you think?
Sounds reasonable. Any ideas for a 6 or less?
Think about 10+ and 6- results appropriate to each role:
Trailblazer: 10+ means you find a quicker route. You get there ahead of schedule, impacting the narrative. The mechanical effect of consuming fewer reasons is less interesting; focus on any advantage that comes from a few extra days, if possible.
6- means you get the party lost. GM should make a hard move here. They may need to work to find the path, may get wrapped up in some distraction. Maybe they are on the path but it becomes impassable (mount gets lamed? Wagon axle breaks? Landslide destroys pass? )
QM: 10+ I agree that they may scavenge up something useful. May be a good hunt, increasing rations, or adventuring gear, or poultices. Maybe they come across an item that spawns a new front if they show interest. Maybe their QM throws together ingredients in a new way, maybe they invent a dish that garners fame at the next steading…..
6- another hard move. They lose rations or some other item. Poorly packed foods go rancid and poison a party member, or the smelling attracts an owl bear. Those berries you scavenged and added to the meal? Yeah. … they were psychoactive. … tell me, why do you wake up naked, and where did you leave your gear?
I really like this idea, actually. To respond to Bastien Pilon, however, I’d say that on a 6-, you find something you shouldn’t have. You stumble onto a cursed burial ground in your hunt for vegetation, or the berries you feed to the group are poison, or maybe made of flesh.
The 6- on the Perilous Journey move is RIPE for throwing in plot hooks.
Flesh berries, I love that. Maybe they’re the egg/seeds of some horrific fleshy tree thing! Which is now pissed as only a giant plant monster made of meat who loves it’s delicious babies can be!
Meat Treant! Woo!
Really interesting suggestions. The gathering idea should be in the book!
A 10+ for the Trailblazer can mean all kinds of beneficial discoveries. Not just material goods, but information too. Maybe they find some evidence of what direction an orc warband passed through here a few days ago.
I’m totally with Jon Landers on this with the 6- : it is the perfect place to plant the seed of an adventure. But I did not put any suggestion here, because the move from the book doesn’t. Andrew Fish gives good suggestions!
Great idea. Personally, I’d prefer this to the mechanical tracking of rations that’s the default in the game. (I’ve thrown up a thread about ration tracking to find out how/if others use that in play.)