When you spend some time investigating a Grub ambush site, roll+WIS.
10+ You collect Grub Salve equal to 2 doses of healing potion.
7-9 choose 1:
*You collect Grub Salve equal to 1 dose of healing potion, but put yourself in a bad spot to do so.
*The Grub Salve is dried and powdery. You collect enough to make 1 dose of healing potion, but it requires an expert to do so.
6- There is no Grub Salve plus whatever the GM says.
Grub
Solitary, Huge
15 HP, 10 Armor
Grind (b2d12) + 5
Special Quality: Blind, Burrowing
Huge grubs wander the world blindly. They’re very difficult to kill because they have a regenerative property and they burrow into the ground to escape. Injuries heal nearly instantly thanks to a substance the grub secretes. The secretion is called Grub Salve to those who collect it, and has well documented healing properties. The only places to get Grub Salve are during a Grub ambush, or at the site of an ambush where some residual secretions can be found. INSTINCT: To Wander
*Burrow to escape
*Roll over grind
I’ve used these guys a few times. They’re unaligned and only attack in defense before burrow into the ground to escape.
The first thing that stands out to me is that 6- clause. I’m really not a fan of “you don’t do it” or “nothing happens” results. I do like that you’ve included the “in addition to whatever else the GM says line”, but personally I would not expressly state that the character finds no grub salve.
Overall the move is good, but I think you could turn it into a 10+ pick 3, 7-9 pick 1 move. The options would be:
– you find a lot of grub salve (+1 dose);
– you don’t need an expert to refine it;
– you don’t attract unwanted attention.
I’d also have the character find 1 dose on a 7+.
Those giant grubs look nasty, but they need a move or a special quality about their regenerative properties.
Thanks Chris Stone-Bush. I was thinking about a “pick 2 / pick 1” list and went this way instead, but I like the way your list works. I might still do 2/1 instead of 3/1 and see how it plays out.
I did really high armor instead of a regenerative ability to simulate the flesh healing itself instantly (their flesh contains a lot a “salve”). It takes a deep cut (11 damage) just to take down 1 HP and if you get too close they may roll over on you, dealing a lot of damage. I treat them as a) a source of Grub Salve and b) interesting encounters rather than to be defeated in combat. The only time my players actually fought one was when they needed to divert it’s path so it wouldn’t tear through town.
Ha! That “choose 3/choose1” thing was a typo. It should have been 2/1. I feel there should always be at least one more option than available picks as that creates tension and interesting choices. Otherwise the 10+ result should just be “you get everything below”.
There’s no wrong way to do things in DW. If I was using these grubs, I would feel rather like I’m cheating to narrate their flesh knitting back together. If there was a move that said something like “heal wounds in the blink of an eye”, then I’d feel comfortable doing it.
I meant to include this in my previous response…
I like that there’s no Salve on a 6- because someone else may have already taken all the good Salve. Maybe instead of “there is none” it should be “you don’t find any”; there might be some there, but so little that you overlook it.
A result of “someone or something has already collected all the salve” is infinitely more interesting than “you don’t find any”.
How about “You don’t find any, but see evidence that someone beat you to it”. That gives players the choice of “tracking it down” or not.
I’m not seeing much of a difference between those two other than sentence length. 😉
Almost identical lol, but “not finding any but seeing something else” is a result searching, whereas “someone already got it” has nothing to do with how well you searched. That’s how it should have been written originally. The fiction needs to relate to the search because someone COULD search really well (10+) but still find none because someone else already got it.
Other 6- option for your grub ambush move: It’s a Grub Ambush!
Isn’t “seeing evidence that someone beat you to it” and “Seeing someone/something else has collected all the salve” the same thing? Both indicate there was salve at one time, but now there isn’t as a direct result of someone else’s actions.
Michael Atlin, I think not because the grubs wander blindly and don’t ambush anyone. They get ambushed to divert them (as my players have done) or specially for their Salve (at least in my world… they can ambush you in your world if you want lol).
Chris Stone-Bush, yes THOSE are the same, but I was responding to “someone or something has already collected all the salve” (you didn’t have the word seeing). Just a nitpick that the result needs to have the word “seeing/noticing” in it to tie back to the “investigation”.
Fair enough. As these are player facing moves, I didn’t feel that “someone or something has already collected all the salve” needed the word “seeing” in there. It’s something that is presented as being evident to both the players and characters.
Then why don’t you like “You find none (changing it from “there is none”) plus whatever the GM says? The GM might say “someone has already collected it” or “you are so focused on finding it that you didn’t notice the trap that snaps shut around your ankle”, or “out of the corner of your eye you notice the goblinoid creature that has been stalking you moving between the trees” or anything else that comes to mind or is tied to existing fiction. Because it’s an investigation check I want it to explicitly say what you “see”, and also leave it open for the GM to do something interesting. “Someone already got it” is interesting, but limiting.
I AM going to change it to a choose 2 / choose 1 format though. That gives the player more interesting choices.