Goliaths are a rather flavorful D&D race of remote, nomadic mountain dwellers, that are known for having exceptional carrying capacity.
Goliath Racial Move
Your huge frame allows you to carry weight much more easily than other smaller folk. Increase your Load by 6.
It works, sure.
But none of that remote, nomadic mountain-dwelling flavor you mentioned is reflected in that move at all.
Here is one I am contemplating:
Not so Gentle Giant
When you show off your strength in public, pick a living target to influence and roll STR+.
If you roll 10+, the target is afraid of you and acts upon it.
If you roll 7-9, The target is afraid of you, and choose one.
• You draw unwanted attention.
• You break something by mistake. The GM will choose what.
• You get a bad reputation in this locale
I like simple race moves. I also like the load move, and feel it covers the Nomadic flavor you discribed. To add to the flavor Mountain Dweler, you can add Ignore mountainous rough terrain
Chris Stone-Bush I updated the description to reflect that 🙂
Race/heritage moves should do something, not just show that you’re strong. I don’t remember what goliaths do, but I do remember liking them when I read about them. Would probably be good for a Dark Heart-style heritage move.
Sounds pornographic.
I disagree Noah Tucker, but thanks for the feedback. I also prefer the good old fashioned Racial Moves to the newfangled Heritage moves, call me a DW grognard 🙂
Oh, and for the record, the reason I wrote the Racial Move like this is because a defining trait of the Goliath race in D&D 5e is that they double their carrying capacity (without modifying their strength). I thought it would be interesting to reflect that in DW.
Chris Stone-Bush I don’t think Racial Moves need to reflect everything about a race, just an interesting and “defining” aspect.
I think Chris’ point is that the move doesn’t reflect anything about them. Then again, I dislike Load overall, so maybe not the best person to comment on this.
Noah Tucker The move reflects that they, as a race, are better at carrying things.
I had a Goliath player in D&D – his favourite thing was picking stuff up and chucking it. I really like that it’s as simple as increasing your Load (and Load is really good for treasure greedy players).
Perhaps the Move should add some utility to the improved Load – you can pick up an improvised weapon and for each 5 Load you have free you can add a tag: Forceful, Messy – or remove Awkward
Dion Kurczek sure but carrying stuff doesn’t evoke “nomadic mountain dweller” in anyway. Horsepeople and seasloths may also be good at carrying things.
You can get a mechanical effect while also evoking the flavor you like so much.
Maybe
“Increase your Load by 6 when you travel alone”
or
“When carrying a mountain yurt, it does not count against your Load”
Aaron Griffin it is not meant to evoke nomadic mountain dweller. It is meant to represent the iconic racial ability in the corresponding D&D class. And restricting it to traveling alone doesnt make sense to me.
It seems like you’re trying to shoehorn something from a mechanically-based system into a fictionally-based system. Sure, you can do it, but it doesn’t work that well.
“Dwarves are a rather flavorful race that I love. Here is my proposed racial move: you can see well in low light” :S
Noah Tucker I think it works rather well actually :). And dont forget many of the Racial Moves in the core playbooks are expressed as mechanics.
Dion Kurczek clearly you like this move, and that’s important in the game.
I find “+6 Load” to be rather uninspired for a PbtA game. It’s a mechanical benefit, and runs afoul of the same game philosophy that makes a +1 weapon lacklustre.
I don’t have an 5e reference materials handy, but i suspect there is more to the Goliath than simply carrying extra stuff. Perhaps its that they’re self sufficient, and always have “stuff” on hand? This seems like a boosted version of Adventuring Gear, and might lead to a move like:
Goliath – used to being a lone, self-sufficient wanderer, you tend to keep everything on and about yourself in case you need it. As long as you have your “stuff” on you, you have Adventuring Gear (unlimited uses, 0 load). Anything that you pull from your bags through this move that is 1 load or less counts as 0 load as long as you carry it.
Andrew Fish Yes, I am proud of this Racial Move, how it elegantly expresses a core aspect of a D&D race. I’ve written plenty of other moves that are much more narratively focused, and I understand the focus of narrative in PbtA games, but I stand by this Move. It’s no less mechanically oriented than the Druid’s Halfling move, the Fighter’s Halfling and Human move, the Ranger’s Elf and Human moves, and the Thief’s Halfling and Human move. I guess the only caveat is that these moves offer one sentence of narrative explanation before the statement of mechanical benefit, so I will adjust my move to do the same.
Regarding the 5e Goliath, you can find it here http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf There are certainly other aspects of the race, but the one I am expressing here is the “Powerful Build” – “You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.” The game effect of this in 5e terms is a doubling of carrying capacity.
If it’s good enough for officially-sanctioned supplements, it’s good enough for me 😛 From Number Appearing:
Hill Giant of any class: You can carry +6 additional load. The huge weapons appropriate to your size are Messy.
Thanks Em0srawk and interesting we both settled on 6 for the value, I thought quite a bit about that before deciding on 6.