I think my group is slowly getting to the point where as GM I need to start thinking about what will happen when they confront the big baddie of the campaign: the blood god Groth, reincarnated into some unfortunate human avatar.
I certainly want Groth to be a memorable enemy, so my first thought is to give him forceful messy b[2d10] claws, which will basically start slicing off limbs when the players get into a fight with him (so it won’t just be about HP damage).
But in order to spice up the fiction I also want to give him a deafening roar (or something else cool). I can do that as a monster move that I activate on bad rolls by the player, but I would much rather make it more interactive using a custom Move such as:
GROTH’S BLOOD ROAR
When you hear Groth roar, roll +CON. On a 10+ yours ears are ringing and you feel a bit unsteady, but you’re still standing. On a 7-9 you have been thrown to the ground and will be effectively deaf for the next five minutes or so.
But that’s not really a player-triggered move, and there is no real sense of ‘succeeding at something’ to the rolls, so I’m not happy with that either.
I guess my question is: can I incorporate this idea of a deafening roar in an interesting, DW-appropriate way that allows for some player initiative, or should I just stick with reactive monster moves that the players can DEFY DANGER to (“You rolled a six, eh? Well, Groth throws back his head and takes a deep breath — you sense he’s getting ready to howl and it’s probably not gonna be pretty. What do you do?”)
You could re-cast it as a Monster Move of “Gronth’s Blood Chant”. The “future badness” of it when you tell the players that they see blood spewing from the ears of those daring too near.
Then, for those who wish to strike at the Avatar, you have them make the Move above be triggered when they try to fight through the Blood Chant to attack the Avatar.
You’ve basically got a “saving throw” move there, which is fine. Its basically a more specific version of the suffer a calamity trigger to Defy Danger, with more specific outcomes.
Given how specific the trigger is, though, you might want to look at the 7-9 result and also consider what a miss would look like. That 7-9 is pretty rough!
Maybe instead of what you’ve got, have a 10+ pick 1, 7-9 pick 2, and 6- all 3:
* You’re knocked off your feat and stunned for a moments
* Drop what you’re holding and cover your ears
* You can’t hear anything but ringing in your ears for a few minutes
Regardless of the actual wording, it’s worth thinking about how you’d wield that move in play, though. Like, Gronth probably will have a monster move: unleash a deafening, earth-shaking roar. You pull that out when it’s your turn to make a move.
And then, instead of asking “what do you do?” you invoke this custom move. Everyone rolls and we find out what the sitch is, and then you ask “what do you do?”
I imagine myself starting with some soft moves to introduce Gronth, like earth trembling and a distant roar as he manifests or as they get closer to him. But when he bursts onto the scene, I bet I’d have him unleash this roar right away! Put the PCs on the defensive, rock them back on their heals. This a blood god, after all.
Not all moves have to be player-driven. In fact, one of the core moves, Defy Danger, has a mode that is not player driven. It triggers when a PC “suffers a calamity” 🙂