Ludi Fabularum, the story game club I facilitate whereat I teach, continues this school year. We’re playing Dungeon World, and I’m fleshing out The Oracle’s Decree by Michael Prescott and Michael Atlin for the first session. Here’s a magic item the heroes might acquire, but probably at great risk.
Spear of Burning Blood: Gyo-ritt’s spear is a relic of his homeland, and it causes blood to catch on fire as if it were oil. When you draw blood with the Spear of Burning Blood in melee, roll+Str. On a 10+, your foe’s blood burns, automatically inflicting +1d6 damage until the fire is extinguished or the foe has no blood left to burn. On a 7-9, your foe suffers minor burns and discomfort. You deal your damage and gain +1 forward against that foe; the foe makes an attack against you.
The only thing I immediately see that I would change is the last part. I would change it to “the foe makes a move against you” instead of attack. That way the GM has more options and it is worded more like Hack and Slash. I really like the item as a whole.
Sounds really cool, but mechanically just feels like a permanent improvement to the Hack and Slash ability (against anything with blood). Maybe have it be a separate move after a Hack and Slash hit so there is an increase in risk vs reward like: “When fresh blood drips from the Spear of Burning Blood and you speak the words of power, roll + Int (maybe Wis or Cha). On a 10+ … maybe some tweaks to the benefits.
That’s thematically super awesome. One issue I see with this is that it requires two rolls if someone uses it in Hack & Slash, one for Hack & Slash and the other for the Spear. It seems, based on your 7-9 result including “the foe makes an attack against you” that you’re looking to have people use this move instead of H&S. Is that right?
You could condense this custom move to work with Hack & Slash by referencing Hack & Slash’s results instead of requiring another roll. Something like:
When you score a 10+ on Hack & Slash using the Spear of Burning Blood your foe’s blood burns, automatically inflicting +1d6 damage until the fire is extinguished or the foe has no blood left to burn. On a 7-9 the Spear causes minor burns and discomfort.
I’m also a little confused by “inflicting +1d6 damage until the fire is extinguished.” Is that every attack against them gets +1d6 damage? Is that just your attacks or everyone’s? Or is 1d6 damage from the flames every now and then?
Cool stuff! I think I’ll add some burning blood to the Sanguine Temple dungeon starter for my Binding World project 🙂
I hadn’t noticed the separate roll aspect. I agree with the other posts that it should be something like “When you Hack and Slash with the Spear of Blood…” etc, etc. Good catch Andrew and Colin!
Andrew, that “When fresh blood drips from the Spear of Burning Blood” trigger is f’ing sweet. Maybe something like
“When fresh blood drips from the Spear of Burning Blood and you speak the words of power, roll+WIS. On a 7+ any blood that remains on the spear boils into flames, the spear deals +1d6 damage ongoing until there is no more blood on the spear to burn. On a 10+ the spear also sets fire to any blood it spills, regardless of where it lands.”
Edit: I think this item is going into Binding World: http://bindingworld.vindexus.net I can’t decide between it going to the Bloodbinder’s dungeon starter or the Helltamer’s. It has blood, but it also has fire. Hmmm
Thanks for the feedback. My intention was not that this require two rolls, but that it coincide with Hack and Slash. I shall clean up the verbiage before it ends up in a hero’s hands. 🙂
I actually think I prefer it as a separate roll. This way the user will have to take on additional risk to have the reward of the items benefits. Otherwise it feels like just a beefed up Hack and Slash all the time. The way I visualize it is the player will have to hit in Hack & Slash and following will have to choose, do I leave the result or do I decide to take it even further and activate the spear. I think it could fictionally look cool if the PC gets some blood on the spear and then “fires it up” holding it a loft and going in for a second, stronger attack or waiting till later in combat to activate. Perhaps after getting blood from other creatures on the spear as well to hit multiple targets when activated. If you wanted a more immediate result you could say on a 10+ the blood on the spear as well as the creatures blood from whence it came ignites; do 1d6 damage to the creature and next attacker takes +1 forward on H&S, on 7-9 next attacker take +1 forward on H&S only. I visualize a fighter slicing up several targets and then “firing it up”. 🙂