Monster Hunter World Moves
I posted these to my circles, bit I’m looking for more feedback. I am (once again) tinkering with some custom moves inspired by the Capcom Monster Hunter videogame franchise. Basically, characters go out on quests for the Hunters Guild to hunt and slay large monsters. They then use parts from those slain monsters (scales, bone, hide, etc.) and other collected resources to craft special weapons and armor.
I’m not looking to completely emulate the game and I’m intending these custom moves to be additions to “vanilla” DW rather than replace anything. I’d appreciate any thoughts and feedback.
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Exploration:
Whenever you enter an new area while on a quest for the Hunter’s Guild, roll+WIS. On a 10+, you gain 3 hold, and on a 7-9, you gain 2 hold. On a 6-, you gain 1 hold in addition to whatever else the GM says. If you are entering a previously explored area, you gain 1 hold instead.
While exploring a new area the group may spend hold 1-for-1 to:
– discover a resource gathering point, mineral, botanical, or animal, your choice;
– discover a terrain feature useful for fighting a large monster;
– discover the area has no hazardous terrain features.
– discover the area is free of small monsters.
At any time the group may spend 7 hold to encounter the large monster you are on a quest to slay.
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Mining:
When you use a pickaxe to collect resource from a mineral gathering point, decide if you collect 1, 2, or 3 ore and if one ore collected is rare. Then roll+ore collected, adding +1 if you collected a rare ore. On a 10+, choose one, and on a 7-9, choose three:
– your tools don’t break;
– you don’t deplete all other mineral gathering points in the area;
– you aren’t ambushed by a small monster;
– a large monster doesn’t enter the area.
Hmm. Have you checked out the compendium class from a recent Discern Realities contest? There was a Monster Hunter in there…
I have Christo Meid. It’s pretty cool, and there is some definite overlap, but I have some different ideas. 🙂
I like both of them, the only criticism I have is in the Exploration move, and only because I have a background in coding:
“When you enter a new area” … followed by “If you are entering a previously explored area…” before giving the Hold options. The trigger is “enter a new area”, and so the “if you are entering a previously explored area” is never reached, because the trigger is only looking for new areas.
I might alter the trigger to be “When you enter an area while on a quest for the Hunter’s Guild, if you’ve already explored it, Hold 1. If it’s a new area roll+WIS…
It may not even matter lol. I do plan to use this for monster hunting!!!!! 🙂
Yeah, that’s a much better trigger for the exploration move Brian Holland.
Something I forgot to add was finding the monster again after the initial encounter. When weakened, most most monsters flee and if you’re not quick enough following them you have to find them all over again. Or some monsters burrow or fly away, leaving you with no idea where they are. Or if you leave the area the monster sometimes wanders away.
I’m thinking the group should have to spend between 1 to 3 hold to locate the monster again after that initial encounter.
The amount of hold spent to find the monster could also be a variable rather then a set number. That would make some monsters easier or harder to find.
Or it could be a roll+hold move. After spending hold to declare things about the area, players would roll to see if the monster turned up.
Maybe a table or move for hazardous terrain features? Small and/or large monsters?
There do have to be guidelines or at least advice about things that might be in each area Mark Tygart. Though the default assumption is that there is some kind of hazardous terrain geature and several small monsters in each area. Hence the players being able to spend hold to say those things aren’t true.
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For variable hold, what about using a base number (4 or 5) and having monster tags add to that: Devious + 1, Burrowing or Flight + 2, etc. If a creature is noisy in same way, or easily noticed in it’s surroundings, you can subtract from that. Call this modified number “Hide” or “Avoidance” or something that you can add to the monster’s stat block during prep: Avoidance 6, etc.
Then the move can be altered to “At any time the group may spend hold equal to the Avoidance of the large monster they’re on a quest to slay to encounter it.” Maybe you tell the players how much Avoidance a monster has or not, or have the characters learn that information from the Guild, or through study, etc.
Adds a little crunch to calculate Avoidance, but in a game about that I think you’d get pretty quick at coming up with that number.
That is very close to what I was thinking Brian Holland. But I hadn’t thought to allow tags to modify the number of hold the players needed to spend to encounter the monster. That’s pretty clever. 🙂
Something I thought of after posting is that Avoidance (or whatever you want to call it) can be modified during play as well by asking the characters if they’ve ever hunted a beast like this before. Yes may subtract from the roll because that character knows what to look for (and can open up more questions, like When, where, and Who died on that expedition that you were close to?). No or “I’ve never even heard of such a beast before” can add to it.
The only drawback I see to that is when the players catch on and get meta with it and start answer yes every time. But if you have some good questions that will add to the fiction when they do maybe that’s ok.
If I did that, I’d want some kind of trade off. Like each “yes” response would reduce Avoidance but buff up the monster a bit.
Ah yeah…. Yes… Tell me what makes this monster stronger/faster/more difficult to kill.
Will there be named monsters in your game? Fighting this TYPE of beast before and THIS beast before could be really cool
I hadn’t really thought that far. You mean “named” monsters in the sense that there’s only one?
Yeah, a unique monster. There are lots of Baloths in the forest, but One Eyed Ripper (that’s lame, but just an example) is a legendary Baloth that has eluded hunters for decades…
That would be pretty epic. 🙂
My ultimate goal here (and who knows if it will happen) is to make little “Hunters Guild Guidebooks” for a number of locations. Rolling Fields. Lonely Island. Misty Forest. Evocative places like that.
Each guidebook would have whatever “monster hunting moves” I develop, as well as outline the area including the monsters and resources appearing there. It would be pretty nifty to include a named monster as you suggest.
The concept is cool, and I really like both of your moves, so it’s definitely something that would interest me as a player and a GM. You should totally develop it.