Hi Everyone! I’d really like to let a player use the Wizard Hack playbook by Anthony Giovanetti, but I’m having trouble understanding/creating a distinction between the “Alter Reality” move and the “Ritual” move. Any suggestions? I’d be fine with homebrewing a distinction that’s not written on the sheet.
Here’s a link to the Wizard Hack (that I discovered in this community; thank you!): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vdpv5x83v87lsza/AAA9EUnIU51g_jRzwJw9ec0oa?dl=0&preview=WizardHack.pdf
And while we’re at it, any suggestions on balancing our desire to give the wizard creative freedom in his spellcasting while preventing him from getting overpowered? I imagine it’s just making big moves on 6-s and 7-9s?
Some postscript thoughts:
– I imagine that in the original Wizard playbook, the purpose of the “Ritual” move is to enable the wizard to do magic beyond the limits of their spellbook?
– Why we’re not going with the original Wizard playbook: the spellbook mechanic is more limiting than either I or the player prefer. We’d both like him to be able to conjure up all sorts of surprising spells. Plus, he’s never played an RPG before, and the Wizard’s a lot to take in. I want to be able to launch the player into gameplay as quickly as possible. Show him that DW is about limitless possibility.
– Why not the Mage: My player basically just wants to be Gandalf. The Mage’s foci mechanic makes that difficult to pull off… (Suggestions welcome!)
-Why not the Witch: i loooove the witch but the elemental limitations won’t work for this character (as with the mage). Also the whole broomstick and potions thing isn’t quite the right genre of magic for this player.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vdpv5x83v87lsza/AAA9EUnIU51g_jRzwJw9ec0oa?dl=0&preview=WizardHack.pdf
The Alter Reality move in that playbook seems quite tactical and combat-oriented in its range of effects – it’s basically able to damage, stun, debilitate or repel things. The implication is that it’s quick too, something you could realistically attempt when a swarm of goblins is charging at you.
Ritual is much more open-ended in its effects – you could use it to cure diseases, enchant items, regrow or replace severed limbs… anything, really. It’s not something you can just whip out in combat however. At the very least you need to seek out “a place of power”, and it will often take a long time (sometimes days/weeks/months).
Robert Rendell thank you so much for these thoughts! I really like your interpretation. Do you mind if I push back at it a bit to try to nail this down?
The Alter Reality move as written offers the tag “creating.” I like the idea that a goblin could be attacking and the wizard could conjure up a big rock to hide behind or something like that. But if I were a player I would argue that regrowing a limb is creating too. Which would make the move undesirably OP.
Any thoughts on how to avoid that?
Writer of prose I’m not sure. If you feel that the “creating” tag is a bit too open ended, you could homebrew it out, but perhaps you could start with some questions for your player, pinning down how he sees that tag working? If you enlist their help in making Ritual and Alter Reality distinct (including how it works and looks in the fiction), they’ll have a better understanding of how it works and more buy-in to any limitations inherent to Alter Reality.
Perhaps spells which use Alter Reality and the “creating” tag are only temporary. Perhaps they are limited to the four elements (or some other set of cosmological categories). Perhaps they are only crude or simple things, so no moving parts or fine workmanship. Engage your player in the process, discuss how you don’t want Alter Reality to be too OP and see what you come up with together.