I’ve officially pulled the trigger in #Stonetop: no more +1/-1 forward/ongoing. Instead, advantage and disadvantage!
Here’s a look at what the basic, special, etc. moves look like for Stonetop now, including ‘vantage.
Other things of note if you if you haven’t seen these before:
1) Split Aid and Interfere into two different moves
2) Aid-before-the-roll is just advantage (with exposure). Aid-after-the-roll is a retroactive +1 but the GM tells you the cost
3) Parley is completely rewritten from core DW. It’s as much an info-gathering move as it is a “convince them” move. Parley now also works against PCs.
4) Travel is kind of a big deal in Stonetop, so Undertake a Perilous Journey is replaced with a set of moves that help plot out the journey as an adventure in itself.
Let me know if you have questions or input!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/532xbmvvjrmp1a2/Moves%20%26%20Gear.pdf?dl=0
Yes. Good. This is better most of the time.
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I like the addition of the “If you want to…” section for players. Maybe even include a more metagame version of it? For example, if the group wants a more social and intrigue focused game, what decisions would they make for that sort of experience?
Ooh, interesting! Is ‘vantage from AW2?
* Aid after-the-fact doesn’t discuss stacking… is the intent that no matter how many people aid, you can only add a total of +1? I feel the numbers would get too big if that wasn’t the case…
* The text of the last option of Defend finishes with a dangling “with”
* When Parley-ing with a PC on the 7-9, who picks 1, “you” (the player making the move) or “them” (the player whose character is being pressed or enticed)?
* Spout Lore: you changed the “the GM might ask” text from “how do you know this?” to “how do you do this?”… what’s the intent of that change? Asking how the character knows something invites some world-building and background exposition, while asking how they go about consulting their accumulated knowledge seems to only invite them to say “I remember it” or “I pull out my notebook and flip through it”.
* Last Breath: if you choose “your time has come, but…” on a 7-9, do you also get to choose from the options listed under 6-? If so, then perhaps instead of saying “*On a 6-,* your time has come. Choose 1:”, it could omit explicit mention of 6- and say “When your time has come, choose 1:”, with the implication that a 6- means your time has come?
* Forage: if it’s winter it explicitly says “roll twice and take the lower result”… presumably this could now be changed to “roll with disadvantage”?
* Weapon tags: for me, I find “Close” and “Near” confusingly similar. I don’t expect anyone else to change on my behalf, but I’d personally prefer if the not-far-ranged ranged tag was something other than “Near”, like say “Ranged”: Hand, Close, Reach, Ranged, Far.
* The “Outfit” and “Trade or Barter” moves are listed twice… presumably intentionally.
* “If you want to…” “Increase Defenses” says “You can temporarily boost Defenses via the Muster move”, but the Muster move now gives you advantage on Defenses rolls. I guess you could argue that advantage is a boost, since “boost” isn’t a rules term, but I reckon it would be more harmonious if the text said “You can temporarily gain advantage on your Defenses via the Muster move” or something.
Robert Rendell
Aid-after-the-fact isn’t intended to allow stacking. I’ll think about whether it’s worth putting that in the move text or not… it’s definitely going in the full discussion of the move.
Defend: typo, fixed
Death’s Door: sort of intentionally vague. In play, I think that someone choosing that option is going to go into with the mindset of “yup, I’m done” and intends to step through the Black Gate. I’m probably going to leave it as-is, and
let that become a conversation for the players & GM to have at the table.
* Foraging in winter*: disadvantage would actually be different. If you have gear to hunt & trap, you’ll be rolling 2d4. Disadvantage would be [w2]3d4. As written, you’d roll 2d4 twice and take lowest. Not sure which one I prefer. Good catch, though.
* Weapon Tags*: I hear you, but I probably won’t change it. I’d like to keep the tags synched up with DW so that items can freely move between Stonetop and DW material. I know that adding in advantage kind of messes with that, but still. (If I was going to change the tags, I’d go with these: tight, melee, reach, thrown, ranged, extreme.)
Outfit & Trade/Barter Yes, listed twice intentionally. They’re in the Homefront moves because that’s where you trigger them, and their in the gear lists because they directly relate to gear.
If You Want To Increase Defenese Good catch! Fixed.
Peter J maybe? I’m not really sure what that would look like? I mean, the amount of intrigue and politics (or mystery/arcana, or action/adventure) is going to be based largely on choices made during character creation. And in my experience, players pick what appeals to them and things evolve organically from there.
If you’ve got specific ideas, I’m interested in hearing them, but anything that I can envision right now ends up feeling like something that would never get used.
Jeremy Strandberg That’s what I was getting at. Let’s say you want a game with more intrigue. What choices at both character creation and world-building would accomplish this?
A gimmick that may be cool with helping/hindering.
If player A roll with (dis)advantage because of player B actions, than it’s up to player b to roll the third dice (or they may hand the third dice to player A)
Andrea Serafini yeah, that’s what we did prior to implementing advantage across the board. I’ll mention that as an option in the full move discussion, but I think it’s worth baking into the move text.
Jeremy, you are really doing a great job with stone top. Go on!
Looks great as others have said. I love the idea of advantage over +1 forward. It’s always more fun to roll extra dice; it feels more special. Now, I know this has been discussed elsewhere but how does your advantage system compare % wise with the traditional +1 system? Are they basically similar in outcomes or significantly different?
The median moves up to 9, the average benefit works out to about 1.5.
Peter J Thanks! Thats not too different. I think worth it to have a more exciting mechanic.