p. 23-24 Ranger Feedback
Always Prepared and Ruthless slayer seem out character for the rest of this hack. It’s the only two part move, and uses named hold. Doesn’t really seem to have much ranger flavor either.
All Ranger affinity for Volley has been removed. Called shot seems like an iconic Ranger move shouldn’t have been excluded.
There are a lot of ranger moves that let you ask GM questions.
This is My Turf seems really clunky. Also uses named hold.
I do like moving Setup Strike from Paladin, it’s good here.
In general the Ranger does not really bear much of a resemblance to the DW Ranger besides Animal Companion. Of all the classes that could have had such a dramatic departure, the Ranger doesn’t seem like the class that really needed it.
What is the Ranger, fictionally and iconically? In our reflection and adaptation of the Ranger, we found that we didn’t really have much to go on at all besides this bizarre “nature-warrior” trope that we inherited from DnD (which has been around since 2nd edition, if I remember correctly).
The examples of the Ranger in media – Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, and allegedly Geralt from the Witcher – don’t do archery, don’t have animal companions, and just don’t do a lot of what you’d consider “typical Ranger stuff.” Hence why we went the direction we did, creating a class that uses its cunning (as opposed to the Druid’s unity with nature) to give a new spin to the same concept (that is, of the Druid and the Ranger, who have historically both shared the concept of “nature’s warrior”).
Your feedback on the moves is good, though; we’ll be looking into what we can do to fix the class.
We talked about the Ranger for something like a week – it seems everyone has a different idea of it should be!
Your explanation of the changes makes sense. I’m not sure “cunning fighter” is that distinct from “fighter”. I do like the ideas of hunting and trapping being brought in though.
I agree that the Ranger trope is kind of a grab bag of “naturey” and “shooty” things that have just been built up from years of DnDesque games. Animal Companion always felt tacked on to me, and I like to treat it as a Compendium Class rather than as a Ranger class feature.
When I think of iconic rangers though I think Legolas much more than Aragorn. Or Robin Hood. For me both fictionally and mechanically I think that it’s important that a Ranger be a “ranged” class. I think there’s something to be said for having a class that showcases each of the basic moves among the standard classes. As is, no class showcases Volley.
FWIW I’ve always thought that the Hunter and Scout companion classes from Perilous Wilds were very much in the vein of a Ranger.