Author: Tom Walker (UK)

Any news on when Freebooters 2nd Edition might be published and if hardcopies will be available?

Any news on when Freebooters 2nd Edition might be published and if hardcopies will be available?

Any news on when Freebooters 2nd Edition might be published and if hardcopies will be available?

Here’s my interpretation of the different ways the GM responds to player actions, by changing difficulty and threat.

Here’s my interpretation of the different ways the GM responds to player actions, by changing difficulty and threat.

Here’s my interpretation of the different ways the GM responds to player actions, by changing difficulty and threat.

Is this correct? Does anyone have any other way of looking at this?

Player Move Difficulty Levels

4 Impossible: That’s not fictionally possible at this moment. Try taking some other action that would change the fictional circumstances to make this possible.

e.g. Well the dragon is 1,000 feet in the air, so you realize your arrow would never reach it. Do you want to shoot anyway knowing it would be a futile gesture, or would you like to see if you can commandeer that airship other there?

3 Requires multiple Moves. Before you can roll for that, you must roll for some other move (commonly Defy Danger).

e.g. the kobolds are keeping you at bay with sharpened 10 foot pikes, so you will have to firstly Defy Danger to avoid those and get into range in order to Hack and Slash with your dagger.

2 Move. Roll your Move as written.

e.g. You are engaged in combat with the Orc, so roll Hack and Slash to attack it with your sword.

1 Auto success. Either it’s something that your character would never reasonably fail, and/or the result of a failure or partial success would not be interesting. You can just do it automatically without having to roll (however you have to deal with whatever consequences the GM says).

e.g. You have the halfling held firmly from behind with your dagger to his soft chubby neck, so if you’re sure you want to slit his throat, you will kill him instantly (but messily).

e.g.2 The door to the warehouse is stuck fast, so at first you can’t open it. However with a bit of shoving it springs open revealing what appears to be a recently vacated ritual. WDYD?

[As a hack (not RAW): difficulty 2.5 or 1.5: GM gives the PC +1, -1 (or advantage or disadvantage) on the Move roll based on circumstances.]

GM Move Threat Levels

4 Hard Move plus Soft Move:

e.g. The troll hits your arm for x damage, knocking you off balance; she now looms over you, ready to deliver the death blow. WDYD?

3 Hard Move

e.g. The troll hits your arm for x damage, knocking you off balance. WDYD?

2 Soft Move

e.g. The troll raises her giant club above you as her sinews pull taut, WDYD?

1 Fiction (no threat)

e.g. the troll turns towards you and licks her lips. WDYD?

An example of Low Difficulty, High Threat: The king is right in front of you and not expecting violence, so, yes, can can quite easily punch him in the face and automatically deal your damage. However, the many surrounding guards immediately knock you to the ground with their batons for x damage and pile on top of you, holding you fast. WDYD?

If there’s no Threat then you should usually have the PCs automatically succeed, but if you are Playing To Find Out, then you could require a Move roll with only a Fictional Change as the consequence. e.g. Well I don’t think it’s a given that you will be able to lift the gang leader’s unconscious ogre guard over your head in order to impress him. Roll Defy Danger with Strength. Failure? You struggle to even move the hulking brute, the gang leader laughs at you derisively. WDYD?

Feedback or better alternatives sought for this custom move, which aims to expand upon the Hireling core rules (and…

Feedback or better alternatives sought for this custom move, which aims to expand upon the Hireling core rules (and…

Feedback or better alternatives sought for this custom move, which aims to expand upon the Hireling core rules (and also the ‘Order Follower’ or ‘Do Their Thing’ moves from the Perilous Wilds supplement).

Command a team or force

When you command a suitably skilled and equipped force or team to undertake a task, roll with modifiers:

-1 Difficult or unusual task for a group with these skills and training

+1 Notably easy task for a group with these skills and training

-1 Makeshift equipment or supplies

-1 / -2 Insufficient or inappropriate size or strength

(Note: for combat actions ‘sufficient force’ is usually at least twice the strength of the opposing force, after defensive arrangements have been taken into account. )

-1 Adverse conditions

-1 Insufficient or incorrect intelligence (gained either beforehand or during)

• Maximum of one character achieving a successful Parley result may provide +1. (Employment, military or other organisational rank counts as leverage.)

• Maximum of one Bolster move applies (+1 for a week of preparation, +3 for a month).

• PCs may Aid, max +1 per PC, and can use a suitable ability instead of +bonds, or +loyalty if Followers are being commanded (but usually this would mean the action should be covered in the normal course of play instead of using this move).

Roll:

10+: achieve a reasonably expected result with reasonable loss of strength and supplies.

(Note: for combat actions ‘reasonable loss’ is usually around half the strength of the opposing force, after defensive arrangements have been taken into account.)

7-9: You achieve at least partial success with reasonable losses and the GM chooses one or more, or offers a choice between one or more:

• No report, no return

• Takes time

• Severe losses or injuries

• Resources or equipment used up

• Instructions followed incorrectly

• Decrease in loyalty, mutiny and/or extra payment demanded

6-: Mark XP. You do not get the result you want and the GM makes a move that may include those above.

Rules for extended abstract gear types.

Rules for extended abstract gear types.

Rules for extended abstract gear types.

Why not take the Dungeon World abstract concept of “Adventuring Gear” and extend it to other categories of gear?

I think this would be particularly useful for determining mundane spoils of looting, and if your game style has opportunity for problem-solving with mundane items, but you don’t want to get bogged down in item-by-item tracking. 

Examples:

The party loot a kitchen and the DM awards 3 uses of “kitchen gear”, defined as anything one might reasonably find in a kitchen. So the next time the party need a small cauldron, carving fork, apron, jar of herbs, fish slice?? – no problem, strike off a use.

What can the rogue swipe while the senechal’s back is turned? 1 use of “Black Keep administrative/clerical gear”. E.g. Letterhead parchment, wax seal, generic letter of authorisation, quill, small ledger etc. 

What’s on the goblin’s body? Nothing valuable, just 2 uses of “goblin’s pocket gear”. E.g. Stick of oily warpaint, ragged hood, stinky goblin rag, gambling bones, rat jerky warg treat? 

Thoughts on whether this would work or not? Other examples?

Quote from rules: “Adventuring Gear 5 uses, 20 coins, 1 weight

Adventuring gear is a collection of useful mundane items such as chalk, poles, spikes, ropes, etc. When you rummage through your adventuring gear for some useful mundane item, you find what you need and mark off a use.”