Help me optimize this move
“When you pass beyond the fiery gates of Muspelheim roll +CON. On a hit, you pass beyond the gates, but something about you has been permanently altered. On a 10+, tell us what fear or painful memory has been burned away. On a 7-9, as 10+, but something else goes with it, a cherished memory or some beneficial trait.
On a miss, go straight to Last Breath.”
So, my players are down in the massive volcanic city of Ang Khazem, where some crazy linguist-wizard has opened a portal to Muspelheim, the plane of fire.
There’s a chance they’ll try to enter this portal. We’ve established that Muspelheim is where the souls of those that are cremated go, and that this portal is messing with time here. The Firebrand(Immolator) has used this in a ritual. I wanted to come up with a suitable move for if they decide to seek adventure on the plane of fire.
Personally (but I tend to be a nice DM and to be more interested in the drama and the character defining moments than combat and rolling for Last Breath), I would rewrite the 7-9 like this “as 10+, but the process is painful, mark a debility”. And the miss to be your former 7-9.
(That’s a nice move, by the way! 🙂 )
Tiburce Guyard thanks! I’m a bit undecided about the lethality, but the portal is a giant column of fire that they’ve been moving towards for a couple of sessions, so the danger is quite clear and present.
Asbjørn H Flø Oh your move makes totally dense. It’s just that, again, I prefer the metaphorical meaning of “walking through the fire” 🙂
Maybe the original move is what happens if someone just decides to wander through the portal, but there’s some preparation or precautions they can take to get the less lethal version?
Robert Rendell yeah, that makes sense! The guy they’re pursuing is trying to open this gate, but he’s not succeeded yet. But if I know the immolator right, he’ll probably want to complete his work. 😈
Maybe…
When you pass through the fiery gate of Muspelheim without the appropriate preparations, roll Last Breath.
When you pass through the fiery gate of Muspelheim well prepared and protected from its eternal flames, roll +CON: on a 10+, pick 1; on a 7-9, pick 2; on a miss, all 3.
* Describe a fear or a painful memory; it is burned away
* Describe a cherished memory or a beneficial trait; it is burned away
* Choose a bond with a fellow PC; it is burned away (mark XP, but don’t replace the bond)
Some of them are obviously “better” choices than others, but I still like the idea of letting the player pick on a 10+. The “best” choice for a particular player might be one that opens up a new angle on player their character, rather than something that makes them objectively better off.
Jeremy Strandberg That’s cool but I’m just thinking about, let’s say, 4 players triggering this move. So, they all roll four times, and they all have to pick 2 or 3 options, narrate these memories, erase their bond, etc. I’d say it would maybe take too much time.
Or… maybe with the trigger “When you guide through the fiery gate of Muspelheim well prepared and protected from its eternal flames, roll +CON”, adding “The people you guide are also subjected to the options you’ve picked.”? So that only one player rolls…
Tiburce Guyard ooh, good call. That is a lot of choices for a lot of players to make.
I think a single individual choice per player is better than having a guide roll for the party.
Jeremy Strandberg I like the distinction in the triggers. The bond option makes perfect sense. Sadly we moved away from bonds for flags. (but the players never remember to play to the flags :/)
Asbjørn H Flø Yeah that’s the problem with flags and why I prefer bonds, personally. Flags are not written on your character sheet. How can you remember everybody’s flags if you don’t have them written on yours? Actually, you should say “Hey Diana, my character flags you as the one to make them do stupid shit. Does that seem right to you?” And so Diana notes on their sheet “I push Throndir to do stupid shit all the time.”
Choosing what 3 or 4 characters will have to do once for everyone is kind of too deterministic? You don’t want to get into a slog, but discussing what everyone is willing to sacrifice and then coming up with all of those things will probably make it even longer.
Mechanically wise, I guess the only result that would have immediate effect is burning away the bonds (and that’s a huge thing if they’re supposed to come out of the gate swinging), so everyone can come up with memories they lose at a later time. But then they can also choose what memory they’d like to lose individually and tell you in the next session? Or at the time it becomes important.
Only thing I propose is having runes or other things they can trigger on the gate itself when passing through, that will not protect them if they roll wrong. That can be + INT instead of CON, since the intelligence ties more closely with memories they’d be losing otherwise. So,when you’ve studied the runes of Muspelheim’s fiery gate and try to pass through, roll + INT: on a 10, pick 2. On a 7-9, pick 1. On a fail, GM chooses 2.
Rune 1: don’t forget a cherished memory
Rune 2: don’t burn away a fear or painful memory
Rune 3: don’t burn away a bond with a fellow PC (mark XP but don’t replace the bond)
If you’d like to stick with CON, then I’d have the debility result definitely, and even a more permanent result like losing 1 point of constitution on a fail. What would be the third option, maybe a condition like blindness, or would that be too destructive?
Maybe have them roll + CON when they’re unprepared and + INT when they’re prepared, and then those + CON rolls lead to a Final Breath on a fail.
I don’t mind setting aside some time for the PCs to think about these questions. The last time we had a move like this, it led to a really nice scene where the Bard described a memory he lost: plus.google.com – Looking for some feedback on this custom move for a magical door. Especially …
But I think perhaps I’ll restructure it so they don’t have to choose several. Maybe 10+ it burns away a painful memory, and you emerge strengthened, on a 7-9, it burns away a cherished memory, and you emerge confused, but on a miss it burns away your sense of self?
That miss seems even harder than Last Breath though. But maybe your sense of self can be restored somehow? It would be kinda nice if it led to a scene where the other PCs have to tell you about yourself to rebuild you anew.
It’s easier for a fighter or a barbarian, if you lose yourself then you still have the muscle memory and easily re-learn how to use those weapons even if you don’t call yourself a ninja or the chief bloodsucker. Other classes though… I mean, what use is the wizard if he doesn’t know that he’s a wizard, or a cleric who doesn’t even know which deity he’s devoted himself to for the last 30 years? They know the words to the commune and/or the spells, but what if they’ve lost any sense of what these spells are for?
I guess it just depends on how deep the Self in this case goes, and on whether they’ll have the time to get over this impediment (whether alone or with their friends) before you throw something at them on the other side of the gate where they might die if they don’t know what a paladin means and how to use the fact they actually are one.
Being a fan of the PCs means that you do offer them a chance to get over this hurdle quickly, so I’d definitely make this a condition fixed by a simple health potion or a couple of nights rest, so if they research and bring a potion, even if they roll badly, they can still survive since I don’t see the fiery plane giving them a couple of nights rest.
Oh, wait… you’re using Flags?
On a miss, the flames burn away much of what makes you, you. Lose all your flags, and replace them with “Help me remember what matters most to me.”
I like the move as is in OP actually,!