A comment on my last post on hacking Earthdawn into Dungeon World suggested mapping elements of the fiction directly to DW. That got me thinking about the difference between how characters interact with civilian communities in Earthdawn and D&D.
This is a set of moves to handle “going to town” with a bit more depth.
One change I made here is that generally a 7-9 result is a complete success, with 10+ getting a bonus on top. That’s to mark a thematic difference, being in town is safer.
https://sagefault.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/world-of-legends-communities/
Nice!
Don’t think of ‘safety’ when writing moves. A 7-9 isn’t unsafe (though it could be), it’s still a success with a [story] complication.
7-9 moves are gold for the GM and introduction complications and story hooks. If anything, I would encourage more 7-9 style results for town.
One of the weird and great things about Earthdawn is that so many game mechanics actually MEAN something in the fiction. No person in D&D will ever introduce themselves as a “7th level fighter”, but in Earthdawn, you totally can and it means something.
Nathan Roberts, this might be a different in GM style. I tend to find 7-9 results better for introducing flavour and challenge. I tend to use 6- results for story hooks. On a 7-9 you often have harsh limits on what you can do (because the move says what happens on a 7-9), but on a 6- you basically have a free hand.
By having them make more moves in town, I get more 6- results to work with.
Sweet Jonathan Beverley! Whatever works for your group 😊
Sounds like an awesome game.