Noob question warning!
When a Bard selects moves like Eldritch Tones and Vicious Cacophony and Healing Song does she have to make a roll on this move as well as on Arcane Art?
Follow up – Can she use a combination of those moves with Arcane Art in the same round? eg Eldritch Tones allowing 2 choices + Healing Song + Vicious Cacophony + Arcane Art?
The additional moves simply enhance the results of Arcane Art. It is one roll.
A move doesn’t make you roll unless it says to roll.
thank you Aaron Griffin and the moves can stack ok?
You only roll dice when a move says “roll + something”. For example, Arcane Art says roll + CHA. Healing Song Vicious Cacophony and Eldritch Tones modify the move, but don’t tell you to “roll + something”.
If you have all three moves, then yes they all stack. Eldritch Tones allows the Bard to pick two effects, so if they pick the healing option and the damage option, Healing Song and Vicious Cacophony would trigger as well.
Don’t think of it as rounds. Think of it as triggers.
rounds = old habits 🙂
Not having formal rounds is one of the disorienting things about DW if you’re used to D&D. One thing to be aware of is that it’s totally legit as GM to take a move for the monsters whenever you want. They don’t have an official time to go – having them go (“Use a monster, danger, or location move”) is one of your options whenever you can play a GM move, and one of the times you get a GM move is “whenever everyone looks to you to see what happens” (p 165). That’s pretty much any time not in the middle of resolving a different move!
That’s a major way you can make some monsters scarier than others – be more aggressive about having them take moves instead of waiting for the PCs to Hack and Slash them.
Monster descriptions don’t say they go multiple times per round, but if they describe the monster as fast, skilled, or aggressive, it’s on you to play them that way.
so Colin – while we are talking about not having rounds – if a monster attacks the ranger she can choose to do something – if she doesnt choose to defend she gets hit. if she defends then she has had her turn – even though their are no turns… ?
Sorry for jumping in here. If a monster attacks the Ranger, she can react if she is fictionally allowed to. Some monsters are going to be so quick that characters won’t get a chance to react to their attacks before they land. Other times, such as on a 7-9 result with Hack & Slash, a move will say a character takes damage without getting a chance to react.
Generally though, character do get a chance to react to danger. Going back to your example Damian Hupfeld, there are any number of things the Ranger could do in response to the attack; she could try to get out of the way, she could raise her shield to deflect the blow (if she has a shield), she could try to parry the monster’s attack, etc. She could try to Defend herself, but that’s not her only option. Regardless of what she does though, the dice will very likely dictate if she takes damage or not, as unless the character simply stands there, a move will be triggered.
Regardless of what the character does, you follow up with what happens next. She hasn’t used up her turn, as there are no turns. You keep following the fiction, with moves snowballing and triggering other moves, until you reach a conclusion. Of course, as there are probably other people at the table, you need to involve their characters as well. It’s totally cool to pause the action with one character, turn to another character and pick up the action with them. Spread the spotlight around so that everyone is involved; don’t let players sit there doing nothing for too long. So, it’s not exactly turns, but as you should be aiming to give everyone equal spotlight time, it does end up being turns in a way.
Damian Hupfeld, sometimes you finish a previous player’s move and you turn to the ranger and say, “okay, Ranger, the ogre bodyguard saw you drawing down at his priest and he bellows and charges at you. Gonna be on you in a second. What do you do?” And the answer could be run, or draw blade to fight the ogre, or it could be, “Naw man, that priest gotta die. Ogre’s too late to stop me from putting this arrow through his eye.”
Other times, you finish the Fighter’s Hack and Slash move, and instead of going to the Cleric, you say, “you know that scrawny goblin in the back none of you have been paying attention to? Well, a big nauseous green glob of acid comes arcing out of the dark from his direction, and splats right in your chest, Ranger. Take d10+1 damage, ignoring armor, and your bowstring snaps. What do you do?”
And yes, in both cases, after the “what do you do?” the Ranger’s going to get a move. And after the Ranger’s move you’re probably going to go to check on what a different character is doing. But it’s not “has had her turn”, because things don’t have to move ahead in turns. If the Ranger’s move doesn’t feel satisfying, then you can come back to her and check in on what she’s doing a second time before you get back to the Wizard’s big fireball or whatever.
In DW, you as GM are the director of a movie, and you’re telling a story by where you point the camera and how you interleave the cuts. It doesn’t have to be a strict rotation.
what do you guys find a good party size is? had a good group last night on Fantasy Grounds but with 6 players it still felt sow (to me at least) for some of the players in the big fight scenes.
My cap, for any game but especially PbtA games, is four players. More than that and I find players get too little spotlight time.
yes – i think 4 is a good number – Ill run it with at least 2. 6 last night and we were all pretty new 🙂
Being new also slows things down, like in any game. I’m not saying you can’t run it with six players, but I would make a point to explain that the spotlight will be spread pretty thin.
For me, a GM plus two players is not quite enough, three players is great, four players is workable, and five is too many. I usually try to keep four people in the party so that when inevitably someone can’t make it, we still have a good number.