My recent questions about Discern Realities stirred up some interesting discussion, including a few custom moves…

My recent questions about Discern Realities stirred up some interesting discussion, including a few custom moves…

My recent questions about Discern Realities stirred up some interesting discussion, including a few custom moves that folks had developed to address some of the issues they felt it had in their play.  In that spirit, I’d like to propose my own hack on the move to see what people think.

Penetrating Insight

When you ponder a penetrating question about a situation or person, roll +WIS

– On a 10+, you get an answer and may ask a follow-up question to get more information.  Take +1 forward when acting on the answers.

– On a 7-9, you get an answer.  Take +1 forward when acting on the answer.

Examples of penetrating questions include those in the Discern Realities list, at least when they are applicable to the situation at hand.

I feel like this might work better in play, since it puts the question first, with the fictional trigger being the innate wisdom of the character manifesting to pull together information that others might miss.  It’s also way easier to remember as a move than Discern Realities, with plenty of flexibility of interpretation for the GM.

12 thoughts on “My recent questions about Discern Realities stirred up some interesting discussion, including a few custom moves…”

  1. Interesting….i must ponder a bit. Comments to come

    Edit after further thought:

    Your original post and example (invisible wall blocking books). Wouldnt this be better suited for a Spout Lore? Even a thief with a high INT can find a way to spout information on the subject.

  2. I changed ask a penetrating question to ponder a penetrating question so that it’s phrased better as from the perspective of the character.  The major difference between this and Discern Realities is that it’s not triggered by actively doing something to investigate, which may give you less fodder to work with for interesting consequences on a miss.  That said, I think it’s fair game for the GM to respond to a question (without requiring a roll) with “you don’t really have enough information to try to answer that question; do you want to do something to try to gather more information?”

  3. I also really like the Uncharted Worlds specified 6- result of “You get an answer you probably wish you didn’t know”.

    PC asks if he can see what’s wrong with her eyes by focusing on them when they chat. GM has nothing really planned, mentions the eyes in passing.

    – Roll a hit, “they seem to shimmer and move inside, making you feel nice and fuzzy”

    – Roll a miss, “they look pretty normal until the worms burst out of them and she screams”

  6. Aaron Griffin If i had seen the move, based on most of the characters i make, i would have asked for the miss anyway (I might or might not be a tad bit chaotic)

  7. Mark Weis well it sounds like what you “probably wish you didn’t know” is: you gaze deep into her eyes and you can see the structure and order of the universe… it all begins to make sense!

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