Resist Disease

Resist Disease

Resist Disease

When your character spends time resting to combat a serious disease or deadly plague Roll+CON. Add +1 to the roll if the character is taking a medicine that has proven to be effective in the past.

+10, Gain 2 Hold

7-9, Gain 1 hold, but your health deteriorates slightly, causing your next roll to suffer a permanent -1 until you recover

-6, Roll Last breath

Characters may spend 2 hold to avoid rolling last breath on a miss. The GM still treats the roll as a miss when making a move against the party. Characters may spend 5 hold to fully recover from the disease.

If a character Rolls last breath: On a hit they automatically receive one hold “per tick” until they finally recover. If they roll a 7-9 and accept Death’s deal, Death automatically cures them after a day or two.

Notes for GM: Edit hold cost if needed to fit the disease in your campaign. This move is intended for serious diseases that go beyond “check sick on your character sheet.” It shouldn’t be used for things like the common flu. Every disease tick should be one or two days if most people die or recover within a week.

18 thoughts on “Resist Disease”

  1. Here’s how I would do it.

    When you are exposed to an absolutely lethal plague or toxin, roll + Con. On a 12+ you are immune. On a 10+ you escape infection. On a 7-9 you survive but choose 1.

    • You are laid up for 2d4 days.

    • You fight through but gain a permanent visual reminder (pockmarks, facial tic, etc.) of the time you almost died, -1 Cha. Describe how it changes you.

    • You face a horrible night at death’s door, Roll Last Breath at +2.

  2. I would say continuing to live despite the sickness trying very hard to stop you would be Defy Danger based on your definition Patrick Schenk​.

    There is too much bookkeeping for my tastes and I would probably do it the way Ray Otus​ has done.

  3. There could be a move for special diseases. A magical disease that causes you to petrified wouldn’t be treated the same way as a disease that drives you insane. Otherwise I would just use defy danger

  4. Chris Stone-Bush What is the act you are preforming? What danger is trying to prevent you from preforming it? Living isn’t an act. A disease isn’t stopping you from doing anything, if you are bedridden for example, you don’t roll to get up, because nothing is preventing you from getting up. The fiction just dictates that your character is to weak to really do anything.

    Using the example in the book. You roll a defy danger when you run across the ice, because instead of taking your time to cross it safely, you are knowingly endangering yourself to get a better result (cross ice faster). The trigger is the act of running, and the danger you are acting in spite of is that there is slick footing with a high risk of falling. If the characters just walk though and take their time, they can cross the ice no problems, maybe one doing the splits in the fiction for a laugh, but no actual rolls.

  5. By your own semantics you wouldn’t let a player roll to defy mind control? Or the effect of a charm spell? I think you are reading too much into the rules. Defy Danger is used all the time as a defense/save kind of roll. Otherwise you are making hard moves against players without any chance for their characters to act, and that’s just balls. Players hate that. It might be more realistic in some ways, but it’s not fun.

  6. Ray Otus Well for mind control specifically I don’t have them roll to defy danger for mind control because if they fail, you’re taking power of their character away from them.

    I always say they can do something and get EXP, like you can push the cleric off the ledge, or just resist the wispers in your mind. They get the choice so they retain the power, but there is a carrot on the end of the stick for making the “bad” choice.

    For a mental attack though. The trigger is you actively using your force of will to protect your mind from an invading force. You have the choice to just let X person, read your mind, but you are fighting against them to push them out through will power.

    A disease doesn’t trigger this, because it just is. Will power is represented just by you making the roll, but having a high will doesn’t mean you can fight the disease better then someone without a lot of will. Your body might be fighting the plague, but you yourself aren’t.

  7. “The trigger is you actively using your force of will to protect your mind from an invading force.” How is that any different than me willing my body to fight a disease? Throwing the word “actively” in there doesn’t make it less mysterious. There are many real world people who have beaten a disease who swear they willed themselves out of it (with and without the help of medicine) through the power of positive thinking.

  8. PS. Your way of handling mind control (XP to do it or just don’t) is pretty cool. I would probably still use Defy Danger, though, and use your technique when they fail. Resisting would probably mean not acting at all while they keep the voices at bay (since they failed the DD roll). That’s just how I would do it though. There’s a lot of lateral room in DW GMing.

  9. Like this:

    When an entity tries to wrap your mind in its coils, Defy Danger Wis. On a 10+ you resist. On a 7-9 choose 1.

    • You keep the voices at bay as long as you concentrate on them and take only simple actions.

    • You do what the voices say and take 1 XP.

  10. I don’t see “actively using your force of will to protect your mind from an invading force” when resisting a mental attack to be any different from resisting a sickness. Another way to frame it would be to say the character is willing themselves to ignore the effects of the sickness to act normally for a bit.

    I know different people use Defy Danger in different ways. Honestly that’s part of what I like about the game. The rules are flexible enough to be interpreted in different ways depending on group tastes.

    Back to being sick though, what about a Countdown Clock?

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