I’m workshopping a couple moves.
a bit of backstory: My players are about to assault a goddesses keep, and I want a way to deal with an opponent so superior to them, that going toe to toe with them is functionally suicide. To this end, I designed two custom moves for fighting her.
*Invincible*
When you deal damage to Einora without an opening, the damage is negated, and she instead turns her wrath upon you.
*Wrath of the goddess*
When you face the full wrath of Einora, roll + Dex (If dancing away and evading) or +Str (if blocking, parrying and otherwise goign toe to toe with her). On a 10+, choose 2, on a 7-9, choose 1:
*You evade or endure her onslaught
*You create an opening for an ally (Name who)
* You land a blow on her
can I get some feedback?
Is the first move meant to represent her unassailable skill at arms? Or the fact that she’s, like, literally invulnerable to their attacks.
Assuming it’s the former, I’d make the trigger the attack and not the damage. I’d probably also crank up the language to pretty epic levels. Something like…
Invincible
When you are so foolish as to attack Einora directly, without taking advantage of an established opening, she deftly counters your feeble efforts and… (GM picks 1)
* Launches a lethal counterattack, what do you do?
* Dances past/around/away from/over to you, faster than you can blink
* Flicks your weapon from your grasp, sends you tumbling, stuns you, and/or otherwise shows her disdain for the inconsequential threat you pose
As for Wrath of the Goddess, I wouldn’t bother. It’s actually super forgiving, significantly better than simply Defying Danger. It also takes away player agency, because they don’t get to choose how to respond.
You don’t need it to establish “openings,” because there are already plenty of ways to do that, both mechanically and fictionally. A PC might Defend against her and spend 1 hold to give an ally an opening. Or they might Discern Realities and look for something useful to them, or something that isn’t what it seems. Or move into flanking position (probably Defying Danger to do so) and then Aid their ally. Or, like, collapse the building on her and while she’s dodging that put an arrow in her side.
Damn, thats good. thanks Jeremy Strandberg, exemplary work, as always.
I don’t really think you even need moves for this. (Which is not to say Jeremy Strandberg’s moves don’t work, because they’re awesome.) What I’m saying is that fiction alone should work here.
The character’s opponent is a goddess. What weapons do they have that could mar her divine flesh? What magic can they throw at her that she could not undo with a snap of her fingers? How could they hope to deceive an omniscient being?
If you really want the characters to go up against a foe so vastly superior to them it’s suicide, you could just narrate things appropriately,
Oh, yeah, what Chris Stone-Bush says is totally true. I read the intent of your moves more as “this should be a really, really hard fight” but not impossible, like going up against Wonder Woman as opposed to, like, fighting Superman without any kryptonite.
Even so, you could technically get that with just a monster move or two, like “Counter all but the most inspired of attacks.”
I do like having it written as a player-facing move, though. Not so much because I’d show it to the players, but rather to give myself permission to do that stuff in the heat of the moment.
I too am a little unsure if this is meant to be a fight that’s impossible to win, or just really unlikely.
I do agree with Jeremy Strandberg’s reason for writing down the move. Writing out custom moves has reminded me that I have permission to do really nasty stuff. 😀
it is more of a wonder-woman fight. this goddess is still corporeal, without a heavenly/infernal realm (She recently stole divinity from another god, who is currently travelling with the party).
she is vulnerable to divine weapons (weapons forged of divine ore, which is basically concentrated godly will. ) she is also moderately vulbnerable to magic (It takes a lot to hurt her) and the fighter’s weaon is infused wih the will of a demon lord (long story) so it will wound, but not kill, her.
I, for one, would love to hear how this fight goes.
I would do something similar to what’s already been suggested then.
An alternative is to write these out as monster moves and give the goddess truly formidable stats.
If the players don’t already know her power, it may be a good idea to make sure to show it first. Have some monster/NPC make an attack at her that she effortlessly deflects, and show her force as a counter attack. Unless you’re specifically planning for a player to have their opening attack utterly fail.
As Jeremy wanted an update, I’ll say that, as of right now, the party is within the goddess’ stronghold, and are 3 misses away from The Lady of Treason’s army descending upon them, and 5 away from Einora herself appearing.
the Battlemaster and Fighter are engaged with the honour guard, the channeler’s arm was just turned to stone, the Cleric is surrounded, and The Templar is dangling from the top of the wall, and under fire.
things are going well