Hey all you Dungeon World-o-philes!
In the last session of my home game, my 11 yr old son’s wizard (he’s 5th level) was taken to 0 HP, but made his Last Breath roll. The “killing blow” was an ice mephit’s essence freezing his right hand. We stopped the game after the roll, but we’re picking back up tonight.
My question – I’d love to have something “weird” going on with the wizard’s right hand, some kind of cold-based power or effect. More flavor than mechanical. What are some suggestions?
Maybe any liquid he touches with the right hand immediately freezes.
Or his cold hand throbs when undead are near.
Or his hand is immune to damage/injury from fire effects.
Or he gets +1 ongoing when casting cold-based spells. (I know you say you want flavor over mechanical, but I thought I’d throw this one in anyway.)
His right hand can pass through ice like it was water.
– Since his hand is cold as death, he builds a connection to undeads around, they see him as the messiah?
His mephit-frozen hand counts as a place of power, but only for rituals involving ice, specifically.
He can break off his frozen fingers and retain a connection to them, letting the party use them as talismans to stay in touch with him/one another.
Anything he runs his hand over becomes slick to the touch for anyone else. Not the most useful, but if you give him a few minutes to prep a battlefield, oh man, watch the prat falls begin.
Oh, Derek Jones, those ideas are super cool (get it?)
Marshall Miller, that is amazing. I am using that one for sure.
hahaha, Yan Périard I think my wife (also a player) might object to her son playing the undead messiah, but that’s super!
oh Alfred Rudzki, those ideas are super!
The mephit’s soul lingers in his hand. He can see the mephit’s reflection in ice. If he touches ice that is cold/old enough, an mephit egg will form and his hand will return to normal.
These are all awesome suggestions. I really want to see where this goes, and what your son’s wizard does with this new quirk. 🙂
The Cleric has a 5th level spell called Words of the Unspeaking that lets him “speak” to the spirits within things. A Dwarf Cleric gets to take it as a Rote, but it only works with stone. Maybe one of the abilities it grants to the Wizard could be that spell as a Rote, and it only works with ice.
Possibly more mechanical than you want, but how about this?
Your right hand and forearm (up to the elbow) are cold to the touch, bluish, and a bit numb. That hand and forearm are completely immune to cold and freezing.
Also, you learn the Freezing Touch spell and it is always memorized. If you would forget this spell, you instead mark a consequence.
Freezing Touch (level 3, evocation)
Ice spreads from your hand, coating an object or creature that you touch. A creature takes 1d8 damage (ignores armor) and might find their mobility impaired. Should you cast this spell again without breaking contact, the ice grows thicker and stronger each time.
Consequences
[ ] [ ] [ ] Your freezing touch cascades out of control. You might be able to bring it back under control, but maybe not!
[ ] Your entire body becomes cold and bluish. You are unfazed and unharmed by even the bitterest cold but take -1 ongoing in hot environs.
[ ] If you take damage from heat or flame, roll twice and suffer the highest roll.
[ ] The icy numbness deepens, and your skin is rigid and icy. Gain +1 Armor but take -1 ongoing to DEX.
[ ] Your become more elemental than mortal. You no longer need to eat rations, but no longer benefit magical healing.
[ ] The icy numbness spreads to your heart. Your Alignment goal becomes “Alienate another with your lack of empathy.”
[ ] Your regard for your fellows is entirely cold. You can no longer Aid or Defend another, but roll+INT to Interfere.
[ ] You draw the unwelcome attention of a planar being of elemental power. It wants something. The GM decides what.
Whenever people shake hands with him they go on about how cold his hand is. For ages.
Aaron Steed Cold hands, warm heart.
Damian Jankowski, my grandfather (on my mom’s side) used to say “Cold hands, warm heart. Dirty feet, no sweetheart.”
Some great ideas here, but none of them open the path to an impromptu SNOWBALL FIGHT!
He can summon a handful of snow/ice at will, and he can do whatever he can think of with it. To introduce him to it, wait for a soft move, and let him know he has a handful of snow, for no reason. If/when he investigates, tell him he learns that he can create snow whenever he wants, but just one ball at a time, in that hand. Ask him to describe the montage where he figures out how to control it!
Now that he has this power, he can do whatever he wants with it! If he throws a snowball, it’s a volley and he cannot choose to lose 1 ammo. Whatever else he does may trigger some other move.
Heck, it may be fun to make this a compendium class, and make the snow creation the first move, and then use some of the other ideas above for CC moves.
And when you make further hard/soft moves against him, you can freely work in how his hand is numb, his palm spontaneously slicked with ice, causing him to drop a thing, or he failed that parley because his handshake with Duke Baddie was ruined by a painfully cold grip, and now the Duke is offended! Maybe use that to explore whether or not he can learn to fully control the power.
ok, Andrew Fish, pig moves and now snowball fight? You are TOO MUCH!
(good too much, like awesome ice cream)
I’m so excited to spring the new icy hand on my son tonight you all! Thanks for your suggestions, the idea of Compendium Class is probably where I’ll take several of these moves!
Maybe too late, but what if: since his hand is that part that touched death, maybe it can interact with the spirit world?
Snap it off and top a staff with it!
Dwarves want to hire him to hand out mugs of stout.
So Richard Rogers, how’d the session with your son go? What powers did you give the ice-hand, and how did he use them? There were some REALLY great ideas on the list!
The session didn’t go, sadly (family stuff, had to reschedule). We’re going to try to make it happen this weekend.
I’m going with the change in coloration, moving through ice like water, and the soft move of creating snowballs because it’s hilariously fun. I’m going to offer him a Compendium Class with most of the moves here as options, because they’re so awesome.
UPDATE!
I got my son and wife back to the table this week and we picked up “some time after Indiffint returned” and I described his frozen hand to him. I even did some photoshopping on his character pic to make it look white and icy and showed that to him.
Right off the bat, he was not having it. He immediately said he wanted to research a ritual to “fix it” and asked if there was a spell to heal it. I told him, “Sadly, no.” Then I pushed them towards an adventure. He insisted on going to the general store in the village to buy a glove (just one glove), then he let it go, and started playing.
During the first fight when they faced a wolf, I had a snowball appear in his hand. His eyes bugged with surprise and he started hopping in his chair with excitement. Now he’s all about his icy grasp and his snowballs. We’re hopefully going to play some more tonight and he’ll get up to some more mischief!
Richard Rogers
Glad to hear he ended up enjoying it. However, I think there may have been a great direction to go in if you had allowed him to follow a path of trying to fix his hand. You make it sound like he really didn’t like it, so I assume he didn’t take to it so well. Just saying no often is tough for adult players to handle, let alone younger ones. That’s a whole different conversation and I’m sure this choice as a GM was purposeful and for good reason.
However, allowing it may have opened up an opportunity for him to meet with a magic healer or some other NPC that could have brought additional lore into the game, providing him with some new ideas and decisions to make that he might have really liked – not to mention some time to work around his initial reaction.
I didn’t completely shut down the idea of a cure, it was more along the lines of “not right now in this tiny village”. I agree, if he wants to go that route, it could be cool.