Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

I’m reading the documents for v.03 and am seeing that the Defend move was removed. I am curious to know: what conclusion you guys had about this move as to why remove it? Will there be a replacement for it?

Also, I’ve seen that the ammo label has been removed. How will ammo be treated now?

Finally, this project is really nice! Looking forward the definitive version.

15 thoughts on “Hello.”

  2. I know almost nothing about 0.3 (GIVE IT TO ME NOW!), but they removed CON ability score, so “Defend” has to be at least reworked. As far as I know, the Fighter has “Thicket of Blades” which does basically the same in a better way, and having it as a prerogative of the Fighter definitely helps making that playbook useful and enjoyable. The Barbarian as a couple of “tank” moves too.

  3. I’m happy to answer some questions! Yochai might stop by later and add anything I miss.

    Defend has been removed (for now) for a few reasons. Firstly, because of CON getting rolled into STR; it didn’t make much sense to key both Hack and Slash and Defend to the same stat, and keying it to something like DEX would present similar issues. Secondly, because it played with a different scale of combat than the rest of the game – more akin to a stance you enter than an immediate, impactul action like any other move.

    More importantly, though: Because I (in particular) felt that, in a way, Defy Danger achieved much the same result – that of avoiding incoming attacks. And if you want to protect someone else, you could either Defy Danger on their behalf (if fictionally appropriate) or just Aid their DD roll. It should play just as smoothly as the old Defend move did, though I do miss it.

  4. As for Ammo, that goes along with removing Weight and Rations. These aren’t really a part of the game that I’d like to focus on, and the ways they’re handled in v0.2 don’t really create good scenes.

    Rations, for example, are nearly entirely trivialised by the Forage move, boiling down what should be a tense moment (Oh no! We’re out of food!) into a single die roll. Reworking or removing the Forage move is an option there, but the goal of rations themselves – preventing player characters from spending too long away from Steadings – isn’t really something we’re all that much interested in.

    So instead, why not turn that element into a GM Principle? Instead of tracking Rations whenever the players make camp – which has a psychological ticking-clock effect, sure, but nothing mechanically impactful – I’ve been looking into making that a GM decision. When the players trek across the Black Expanse, just let the GM Reveal an Unwelcome Truth and tell them about their dwindling supplies when they feel it fictionally appropriate. Same goes for Ammo; let the GM Show Them the Downside of their Gear by telling the crossbow-wielding Ranger that they’re on their last three arrows, so they’d better make it count. Or Weight; let the GM Tell Them the Consequences and Ask when the Thief tried to carry the whole hoard on their back.

    Consider it an experiment. Maybe we’ll go back to tracking that kind of stuff in the future – but other PbtA games seem to do just fine without that kind of stuff.

  5. Cameron Burns very nice. I actually don’t like the Defend move. In my sessions it is never triggered for the very reasons you said.

    And the ammo part, I agree with everything that you said. Thank you very much for the answer.

  9. Maxime Lacoste Some people have some of the documents, yes. We’ve got a few folks running playtests and the like to try and get the v0.3 rules a little polish before their full release.

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