If you have any feedback/cool ideas to add to this custom move i’d love to hear it 🙂
When your life flashes before your eyes , roll +Wis.
On a 10+, recall an important memory from your childhood: describe how that recollection has given you renewed strength and optimism. Take +1 forward on your next 3 rolls, and choose 1 from the 7-9 options.
On a 7-9, recall an important memory from your childhood: describe how that recollection has given you renewed strength and optimism. Choose one:
* heal 1d6 of hp.
* remove 1 debility
* take +1 forward on your next roll.
On a 6-, relive an important memory from your childhood: the memory becomes a nightmare with the current dire situation intruding on your recollection. Describe the memory and the nightmare: take -1 forward on your next roll and the GM makes a move.
Brief context:
I’m intending to use it at the start of my next game – the last session ended on a cliffhanger with most of the party hiding in a potential dead-end in a dragon’s hoard, and the Barbarian standing out in the open as the dragon (our version of Salucidiar from Ray Otus​’s Plundergrounds – The Horde) rounded the corner. Things don’t look too good… hehehe 🙂 . It’s mainly intended to encourage some fun character building and to have an impact on the following scene.
I like it. Kind of a pre-last breath move
Ross Kingston Hehe, yep: depending on how things go! I guess one of the other elements of the move is that i’m strongly foreshadowing the danger of the situation they’re in, and that death is very much on the cards.
I’d make it of the “hold 3 / hold 1” format and let them spend hold on one of those options
Aaron Griffin Thanks: I almost know what you mean, hehe… Can you point me towards a move that uses that format?
Discern Realities has that format.
Lu Quade Defend is the classic example. Just remove the “while you stand in defense” clause and replace it with something like “while you fight the dragon or attempt to escape.”
Also, minor thing but this is a Love Letter more than a custom move. The difference being, this is (probably) a one-time move specific to the circumstances: being pinned down by a dragon, over a cliffhanger break in sessions. You wouldn’t want this to trigger when, say, a PC rolls a 7-9to defy danger and finds themselves hanging by their fingers over the bottomless PT, would you?
Assuming it’s just for this session, I’d change the wording to something like “. Things look grim, and you can’t help but think back on your life until this moment. Roll +WIS…”
The difference being: a custom move establishes a trigger and thus should be used any time that trigger is met. A love letter sets the scene or describes something from downtime and then tells the player what to do as a result. Subtle difference, but (I think) a big one!
Jeremy Strandberg Ah… yep. You’re right. It’s totally a love letter intended for one time use! Thanks.
I’m with Aaron Griffin on this. I’d personally write it something like the following. Note that I added a bullet – it’s an experimental thought and I’m wondering how to phrase it more gracefully.
When your life flashes before your eyes , roll +Wis and recall an important memory from your childhood.
On a 10+ describe how that recollection has given you renewed strength and optimism and hold 3.
On a 7-9, hold 1.
Spend 1 hold to:
* heal 1d4 of hp
* remove a debility
* take +1 forward
* you experience an epiphany, the GM answers the Discern Realities question to which you most need to hear the answer!
On a 6- your memory spirals into a waking nightmare or shocking revelation. Describe it and the GM will say how it affects you negatively in the current situation.
On 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend hold 1 for 1 to gain an effect from the list below:
– heal 1d6 hp
– remove 1 debility
– take +1 forward on your next roll
On a 6-, relive an important memory from your childhood. The memory becomes a nightmare with the current dire situation intruding on your recollection. Describe the memory and the nightmare, take -1 forward, and the GM makes a move.
However I’m not sure I like the -1 forward for a miss. Your life is, in fact, flashing before your eyes, and the GM does get to make a move. I can very easily imagine scenarios where that move is “Your vision engulfs you and suddenly there is only searing pain, fire, screaming. Then everything fades to black – roll Last Breath.”
If you keep the -1 forward, then maybe add, “On a 12+, as 10-11, and treat a miss on your next Last Breath roll as a result of 7-9.”
Whoops, totally didn’t read Ray’s post. I like that version, too.
Thanks for your feedback all, i took it on board and it helped to make the move read clearly. None of the 5 players rolled well enough to use the 10 plus result, so the advice to use hold and drop the options down to a choice from the 7-9 results was sound. Couple of failed roll results were very interesting, and someone had an epiphany! 🙂