Looking for some feedback on this custom move for a magical door. Especially the 7-9 result. I’m frankly not sure if the door should open, or if they need to find a another way in. (They lost the magical amulet that opens all the doors in the complex the last time they entered, and they need to stop the ritual that’s going on inside.)
The Main door to the underground cathedral of the Eirablodkult
A massive door of petrified wood, carved with intricate patterns of dragons and linnorms crushing and devouring people, all pouring forth from a massive dragon swallowing her own tail.
In the center of the door are two large dragon maws. Inside their gullet you can see a bronze bar. To open the door you evidently have to reach past their needle sharp teeth to turn the bars.
When you reach both your hands inside the dragon maws to grip one bronze bar in each hand a jolt of electricity shoots through you, the jaws clamp shut, and the hollow teeth of the dragons drink of your blood. Roll +CON
10+ The door drinks it’s fill and opens. Take 1d8+3 damage.
7-9 As above, but you also take the weak debility.
6- The door is thirsty, and won’t let you go. If you can’t get loose fast, it’ll bleed you dry.
Image: Urnes Stave Church by Nina Aldin Thune. CC-BY-SA, source: wikimedia.
Overall, I really like it. It’s simple but makes sense, creates tension and atmosphere.
I think it should open on 7-9 because a partial success should end with the PC’s accomplishing what they set out to do. Plus, an open door is more exciting than a closed one.
However, if you want to make it more brutal perhaps your 7-9 could be a hard choice? With options such as:
– let it drink more blood (extra D8 damage)
– more mouths open, your companions must offer their blood as well
– It requires a sacrifice beyond blood: feed it something you cherish.
– etc.
D. Kenny Thinking about it, it should totally open on a 7-9. It’s a success with cost after all, and should drive the fiction forward.
Yeah, I think I’m just looking for ways to make it more brutal. I want to telegraph to the players that this could be a way in, but what you save in time is going to cost you at least a pound of flesh.
I like opening it up to choice on a mid result as well. Particularly the further sacrifice – maybe they have to sacrifice their fondest memory. It’s already established that this cult drains people of their blood and soul, leaving them as soulless automatons.
You could also have a 13+ result where the door respects your vitality and lets you pass unscathed?
Nathan Roberts nah. It’s bloody or the long way around. 😈
Shoulda held onto that amulet… ;p
But yea i think the move is great. And D. Kenny has great suggestions. Costs/hard choices are what its all about.
On a 7-8, your blood is remembered, and this has ramifications in what lies beyond the door.
It went over great!
They were really scared of the door, and really didn’t want to put their hand in there. They tried putting some dead cultist in, but the doors spit the “dead” blood back in their faces. Then the Firebrand(immolator alternative) wanted to pressgang one of their followers, Reim Salt, into sacrificing himself. He held a passionate speech, but Reim had just lost his brother to a golem, and demanded further compensation – the magical dagger that the Bard has bonded with. -You’re never getting that dagger! In the end, the follower got 50 coin to hold hands with the bard and they stuck one hand each into the maws.
Mechanically, we resolved this as Aid from the follower. The bard got a 9, and was quite low on hitpoints. Reim became pale and sweaty by the bloodloss, and his knees started buckling. The bard chose to offer up a memory of his mother taking him to the town square to watch citizens debating with each other. No matter how heated the debate, they always squared up after, and the bard remembered how he decided then and there to pursue an academic career. Then the memory faded and was gone, the jaws opened and they collapsed to the ground as the doors started creaking open. Reim slipped into a coma, and his last remaining brother stayed behind to take care of him while the heroes ventured into the deep.
Asbjørn H Flø dramatic and emotional. Awesome.