Our fighter has a quiver (1 ammo) of the Arrows of Acheron and asked if he could notch two arrows in his bow, since the arrows never miss. Not wanting to say no, I wrote up a custom move.
Trick Bow Shot
When you notch two arrows in your bow, take aim and shoot at one or two targets within range, spend one ammo and roll+DEX. On a 10+, you have a clear shot. You may choose to either deal your damage -1d6 to two targets or deal your damage to one target +1d6. On a 7-9, you still hit, but choose 1.
– You have to move to get the shot placing you in danger as described by the GM.
– One of your arrows goes astray and hits an unintended target determined by the GM. Deal your damage -1d6 to both targets.
– Your bow is damaged. You’ll need to spend time repairing it before you can use it again.
If you use this move, your GM may ask you where you learned to shoot like that.
It might have been helpful to the GM to ask where he learned to shoot like that first, then be able to perform the move if the fiction makes sense, but it’s always good to try to be a fan of the character! Also, on the choices, -1d6 is quite a bit. Some classes only do that much damage as their maximum. Also, how exactly would you damage your bow in this kind of move, fictionally?
Good point on asking the question first.
I was wondering about the 1d6 for that reason. I borrowed it from the Volley 7-9 list.
For damaging the bow, I imagine that there’s more strain on the string. Snapping it is the most likely damage.
If they never miss why do you have to make a move?
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Have you looked at Bloot out the Sun?
“Yes you can do that but you won’t be able to decide who gets hit by the second arrow.”
Eric Lochstampfor I wondered that at first, too, but the Volley move is still triggered, even if it is a certain hit. “When you take aim and shoot at an enemy at range.” Since you still need to aim the Arrows of Acheron to indicate which enemy you wish to hit, you are triggering the Volley move.
Tim Franzke Ah! I had forgotten about Blot out the Sun. It’s good to see that move. It’s a little more powerful (and more simply written) than this trick shot move. I’m glad of that, because I don’t want this one to outshine a move dedicated to a class like that.
Alex Barrett that’s actually a really good catch about the Arrows! They always hit, but you’re still instigating the trigger for Volley. The magic of the arrows just limits the GM’s options for misses: the enemy will always take damage since the arrow can’t miss, focus the hard moves elsewhere. Totally cool catch.
Alex Barrett
I was imagining a scenario where you didn’t have to aim. The arrows could be fired willy nilly and you had to think about your target, Arrow of Slaying style.
Bah. I’m unimpressed by the multishot trope. Both arrows hit, but each does the square root of the rolled damage.
(Fan of the character, yay)
well a failed roll with arrows that cant miss might end up badly. what happens if you fire the arrow at nothing? does the arrow fly around in circles until it finds something liveing to hit? if you were aiming off to the left of a guy and fired… would the arrow just decide to hit the nearest thing and pull a 180 to hit you in the chest?
the arrow doesn’t miss so you will always hit something….. fun fun