The Ranger, the Fighter, and the Wizard are holed up in a mostly-buried building, like an old cellar or something: sturdy, its one entrance covered by brush. Easy to defend. They’ve bound their wounds, eaten, and set watch.
During the Fighter’s watch, he hears something creeping about outside. Getting closer. They’ve been dodging the mutated inhabitants of this ruined city, and they’re on edge. The Fighter rouses the other two, quietly.
The Fighter and Ranger each notch arrows. The Wizard stands back a bit and gets ready with the magic. (It’s a small space… like a big closet.)
It’s getting closer, closer, closer. NOW! The Fighter shoots through the brush. Maybe we resolve it with a Volley, maybe it’s Defying Danger. Doesn’t matter. He rolls snake eyes, a miss.
So CRASH… this thing bursts through the brush and into the room! Tall and gaunt, eyeless, tentacles coming off its shoulders, creepy fine hairs all over its skin. HIISSSSSS!
One of its tentacles lashes around Fighter’s bow-arm, the other tentacle wraps around the Wizard’s throat, and it kicks the Ranger in the stomach and sends her flying back, gasping for air. In close quarters, this thing is awful.
The Fighter draws a dagger with his left hand and lashes down at this thing’s tentacle, hoping to chop it off and get free. He rolls Hack & Slash, gets a 7-9, does some crap damage (maybe 2 HP, and this thing has 8). For its attack, it flings the Wizard into the Fighter, hurting them both (d8 damage each) and dazing them for a moment. (using a monster move: perform a feat of terrible speed and strength)
You’re the GM. You turn the spotlight on the Ranger.
Option A: “Ranger, you just saw that happen, all in a blink. You’re slumped against the far wall, gasping for breath, bow in hand. What do you?”
Option B: “Ranger, you just saw that happen, all in a blink. You’re slumped against the far wall, gasping for breath, and you realize that those tentacles are like poking and prodding, about to piercing into the flesh of the Wizard and probably the Fighter, too! Your bow is hand. What do you do?”
These are your only two choices. Which one do you do?
Not necessarily the one you think you should do, but the one you think you would probably do if you were the GM?
(Assume using standard Dungeon World rules & moves!)
So, the fighter missed a roll and the monster moved against all three characters. (Which seems to take away the wizard’s readied spell and the ranger’s readied arrow.)
Then the fighter missed another roll and the pulled a hard move against the wizard and fighter on a 7-9. (Deal Damage + move against two different targets.)
So yeah, I don’t feel like the monster should get an additional soft move on top of the hard move. If anything it feels a bit like the monster is stealing some fictional initiative here unless the player characters aren’t speaking up.
BTW, exciting scene, good description.
First one definitely, I want to have the ranger feel they have a bit of options because they probably haven’t had a turn yet.
If however they dawdle and don’t know what to do then I might put in the soft move to get them to move.
I’d go for the second option because it creates urgency and makes the fight more exciting.
The Ranger player has already heard your description about the creature and the danger it represents for the whole team (and particularly the warrior and wizard). I think it’s enough for the stress. I’ll go for the quick first option.
I wished I’d have done the 2nd one but in the heat of action I’d probably chose the lazy first lol
I think it’s important to give players something to react to during combat. That’s what keeps the players immersed in the action, and makes them feel like the action is intense and requires immediate action.
Without describing the monster’s tentacles and what it’ll do if the ranger doesn’t intervene, it’s easy for the ranger player to feel like he’s got a moment to think. The action basically stopped. My players would feel like it’s time to start strategizing together, and the game would turn into a pow-wow that I’d have to fix.
However, if your further implying that his friends are in immediate danger, he feels like he has to act now. That’s exactly the feeling I want during a fight. That pressure works in your favor as the GM.
I voted B but I feel like the “you have your bow in hand” is sort of begging for a particular solution. So remove those few words.
I vote for A, because B feels like the GM is setting up for a hard move if the ranger fails. And right now it feels like the creature is getting a lot more moves than the player characters.
In my game both the Wizard and Ranger had probably rolled to ‘aid’, so it’s not that they hadn’t acted*. Magimax is right in that the Ranger would know, but I’d say the “you still have your bow in hand” just to avoid the likely question + it also indicates it’s still working.
It’s actually about 50/50 for me, as who was playing the Ranger would have a strong effect on how I care to describe it. Hell, even who’s playing the wizard who’s accosted by tentacles would influence how I describe it.
If they didn’t roll ‘aid’ I’d probably take it as a golden oppourtunity and do as the example, but I might just yank the Fighter outside….
First one. You as GM already did lot of things/moves against the party, before to asking the Ranger that question. The only thing I see that could make me choose the second one is: this monster is pretty creepy and powerful, from the description. However if it’s alone, it needs some “boost” as “additional spotlights”, ’cause three PCs could turn it into deadmeat in a single “round”, if you don’t introduce heavy resistances or the necessity to hurt a special point.
Andrea Parducci One would think, but in the scenario the party seems to have been pretty ineffective against it so far.
Option 2
I wish i did the first but I’d probably go with the second one 😀