How would you write a move for a summonable, magical shield that absorbs damage and can be destroyed, but resummoned later? Like a shield made of light and magic that you conjure out of the air, and is gone once it’s taken so much damage?
Something like armor mastery, perhaps? When you conjure your shield to defend against an attack, roll+(whatever — CON maybe?). On a 10+, hold 2, on a 7-9 hold 1. Spend hold to absorb the damage from a single attack. And on a 6-, still hold 1, but when your shield is destroyed it leaves you drained — some other fictional penalty?
If it’s an item, like a magic cloak they can just activate it.
If it’s a spell then they just cast a spell.
If it’s just a move, then it’s something they can fictionally do, maybe it prevents “ignore armor” attacks or something.
Rolling is ONLY if the player can fictionally explain how their character messed up the move, or failed.
If it just has a chance of failing randomly, then you just let the player know it has a fail chance, then you keep it in your back pocket as a soft/hard move you can use against them.
Good advice, though I failed to be more clear: what if this is a move for a custom playbook? An advanced move they can unlock, as a user of the arcane?
Brian Reynolds I don’t know the class so you’d have to come up with one yourself. But for a move I would guess: “When character does X(thematically appropriate thing), a magical barrier manifest around them, protecting them from blows that could bring low even the most well armored of knights.”
X could a thorn magic tattoo, or maybe a gauntlet they put the spell into that they can use like a shield, ect.
Is the magical, summoned shield somehow better than a mundane shield? How? What can it do (or what can I do with it) that I can’t do with a, y’know, shield?
If it’s just a weightless, instantly summonable/dismissable shield… I think you just say that and it grants +1 Armor and that’s that. That’s a pretty good move by itself. If you want more… Maybe it ignores piercing. Maybe you explicitly say it can deflect energy or magic. If you want it to be something that gets overwhelmed and dissipates, that could just be a GM hard move.
If you’re thinking it’s, like, better than a shield, I’d go with something like:
When you summon the aegis arcana, hold 2 Power and it manifests as a glimmering shield of force on your forearm, weightless and translucent and impermeable for as long as you hold Power.
When deflect an attack with the aegis arcana, roll+INT: on a 10+, the attack is nullified; on a 7-9, the attack is deflected but choose 1:
* Lose 1 Power
* The attack is deflected in such a way that you and/or your allies are put at risk
* It’s only partially deflected, and you suffer half the damage or effect
When you run out of Power or dismiss the aegis arcana, lose 1d8 HP (or take a debility, or take -1 ongoing until you _, or… whatever you think is right).
Jeremy Strandberg That’s wonderfully in line with what I was thinking — and flavorful and unique, to boot. Thank you.
I have a custom playbook that does something similar, though it uses a resource that has more points, so each point reduces the damage by 1d6 instead of completely negating it. That class uses the same resource for lots of other things, including its spellcasting, so there’s no roll when they spend it to negate damage, they just have less to work with after.
If your class has spells you could let them roll to focus their prepared spells into the form of the shield, negating up to the spell’s level in damage. On a 10+ they wouldn’t forget the spell they used to manifest it. On a 7-9 they could choose to lose the spell, take half damage or a reduced effect, or draw unwelcome attention/get put into danger as a result (the shield ruptures and they get sent flying back from the backlash, straight towards a cliff/enemy/trap/etc, or something like that)