Hi All. Been a long time as I am so busy in my non-gaming life. Just a note here in case anyone is still interested in our “d12 World” Freebooters campaign.
Recently, we added a new type of DURATION. It is measured in MOVE ROLLS. Any roll for any move causes that duration to decrease by one. Examples of this type of duration include the STUNNED condition inflicted by some attacks, the effects of certain poisons, and temporary afflictions that take characters out of action. The GM may make a move to increase or decrease roll duration by 1. We track duration with white glass stones.
An example.
Ahasio the Mage is gripped by a ghoul and paralyzed for (d6) (rolls). 5! His first response is to try to make a saving throw. Futile but simply because the move is rolled, duration on the paralysis is reduced to 4. Success! Athasio reduces the duration of his paralysis again to 3 (had he failed, it may have gone back to 4 or the GM might have taken another move. On a split, duration would still be reduced but would be accompanied by the usual unwanted (lesser) cost. With Athasio still paralyzed (3) and at risk of being devoured, Another player steps in. Honarth the warrior pushes forward to drive the Ghouls away from Athasio. [Saving Throw (STR)]. Upon rolling, d(Paralyze) is reduced again to 2. Success! Athasio is out of harm’s way for the moment. Sleerth the thief backstabs, inflicting damage against one of the ghouls. Since backstab requires no roll to “inflict your damage” this just happens with no effect on duration. The ghouls press back upon Honarth as he is joined by Jukko the cleric. Holy symbol held aloft, Jukko calls out an Invocation (+WIS). Rolling reduces Athasio’s paralysis duration to 1. A split. Jukko takes +1 forward from the effect and tries to Turn Undead (+WIS). Failure!!! Athasio loses a white stone. Just one left! A GM move determines that Jukko has been attacked and is now also paralyzed for (d6) 2 rolls. Ug! Sleerth glides in, defying danger with a Saving Throw (+Dex) to “snap his friends out of it.” Merely making the roll has the desired effect! Athasio comes around and Jukko loses a stone… just one left! Rolling a Critical Success, Athasio also grants +1 forward to Honarth, whose swing of a broad axe (+STR+METTLE) not only kills a ghoul, but gives Jukko the time to snap himself out of it. As he successfully rolls TURN UNDEAD, the ghouls scurry away as the party recoups with healing potions.
In comparison, in my previous by-the-book GM style I would not have used duration at all for Ghoul paralysis. A single saving throw would have reversed the effect on a split or better. The method above draws danger along over longer lines of play. When used to describe the effects of PLAYER inflicted durations (sleep poison) for instance, it forces an economy of rolls that really invokes an old-school problem solving mentality.
See you all in a month or so when work lets up 🙂
Does your move have to succeed to remove a stone?
Chris Shorb No. ANY roll removes a stone. Splits (7-9) and failures (6-) also come with the usual consequences for whomever rolls them. In fact, as we saw in one example above, a success is parleyed into removing TWO stones: one for the roll, and one for the success.
I like! Thanks for sharing.
Interesting. It works a lot like Clocks from blades in the dark. In that system clocks apply both to time tracking and to more abstract things like e.g. “once four ticks have passed the guards, descend on the vault” or “four moves of type x until that gnarly wound gets healed”