The tree spirits gave Herath wooden hand until he does what they want.

The tree spirits gave Herath wooden hand until he does what they want.

The tree spirits gave Herath wooden hand until he does what they want. We established that. We didn’t establish, however, what exactly they wanted.

My instinct here is to come up with an idea for what they want, then introduce it as a soft move (“Reveal an unwelcome truth”) when it’s possible to act on it. If I come up with some other idea in the mean time, and see a situation where it’s possible to act on that, I may use that idea instead and discard my original one.

But do you have any other suggestions for how to do this?

6 thoughts on “The tree spirits gave Herath wooden hand until he does what they want.”

  2. Do the characters know what the tree spirits want, but it didn’t happen “on screen” so the players (including the GM) don’t yet know the specifics? Or are the characters also in the dark?

    If neither the players nor the characters know what they want, I had a thought that the hands themselves could be the means by which the spirits communicate their desires. Like, as they walk through the forest, suddenly the hands jerk to life and point at something apparently innocuous or wave or something else ambiguous. The players can then play charades trying to work out what the hands want, and you as GM sit there listening to their ideas and go “ooh, I like that!”

  3. If the whole thing happened at the table I would say that the unwelcome truth was the fact that Herath’s hand was turned to wood. Knowing how to revert the hand to normal actually mitigates the move somewhat.

    Consider the following scenarios:

    1) Herath, your hand is now made of wood. It will come back to normal when you apologize.

    2) Herath, your hand will turn normal after you have driven off the orcs that are cutting the trees.

    3) Herath, your hand is now made of wood.

    Out of the three which one is the worst for Herath?

    Being in 3) I would either come up with a task for Herath and retcon the scene or have Herath and the party find a way by investigating the matter.

  4. I love the idea Robert Rendell suggests, because

    1) The scene would be hilarious and really provoke creativity from the players.

    and

    2) It’s minimal work for you as the GM, because it’s the players’ ideas

  5. The only issue you might get is if players just follow along and don’t even think of what the hand might want. Then the gm will eventually have to come up with something

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