Category: Lampblack & Brimstone: Freebooters on the Frontier

Some of you know that I use Freebooters for long-term campaign style play. I’m over fifty sessions in with one group, and approaching 25 with another.

This gives me the chance to see the rules across many different scenarios. The game adapts and evolves. Today, I’m looking to discuss the mechanics of DURATION and INFLICTED CONDITIONS and how I find myself wanting to fine tune them.

As a FotF Fighter, you can spend one METTLE to “Inflict a condition–stunned, hindered, etc.–of your choice on your foe (subject to Judge approval), with a Duration equal to 1+INT (minimum 1).” Mage and Cleric players make the valid argument that their spells/invocations should be able to inflict conditions too. I buy it. I’ve seen thieves use poison to inflict conditions, and I’ve even been tempted to add it as one of the items in the list for “Backstab”.

The condition STUNNED–suggested in the move’s own language–is a powerful and effective one to inflict. A stunned creature is unable to react or respond in any way. I have no problem therefore, allowing conditions that mimic the same mechanic. We’ve used PARALYZED, BLINDED, BEWILDERED, DAZED, KNOCKED DOWN, etc. Spell conditions can be more creative: TERRIFIED may actually cause an opponent to flee, while CHARMED can change the course of an encounter altogether.

I’ve noticed, however, especially at DURATIONS of 2+, that the right condition can run away from you. When players inflict a condition and then subsequently avoid rolling, or roll moves against their best abilities, this can (mechanically) go too far in blocking the failures that deplete DURATION counters. This can be done artfully in the context of well-crafted fiction, or it can be done in a more exploitative way. In any case, DAZED, Duration 3, can turn a dragon to mincemeat while player misses and partial successes merely chip away at DURATION, even when–as described in a previous discussion of DURATION as a “shield”–you also make players MAKE A SAVING THROW to deal with the immediate fallout of the failures that also deplete duration.

Imagine a great protracted antagonist, the Dragon Agazbek, STUNNED by an intelligent fighter (Duration 3) and then lallygagging helplessly while players “take a moment to rest and catch [their] breath,” “brood and plot in silence,” drink some potions, cherrypick a treasure or two” then poison her nest and slip away. There is an implicit danger that she might snap out if it, but everyone rolls Defy Danger/Make a Saving Throw, and after a few successes and an keen eye on the duration counter?

I am therefore considering a house rule as follows:

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

When you make any move that worsens the state or stakes of a creature whose instinct is suppressed by a condition or effect, reduce the duration of that condition by one.

For my Friday night FotF group, I’ve re-written the Dungeon World move “Turn Undead” as follows. We play with 2d12s, so scale move results accordingly.

TURN==============

Each time you take this move, choose a specific type of creature or and enemy of your faith that you can turn:

o Undead

o Demons/Devils

o Lycanthropes

o Elementals

o Paladins/Clerics of opposed alignment

o Heretics ____________

o Followers of the Deity __________________

When you hold your Diety’s symbol aloft and call upon Divine power to turn, roll +WIS:

24+ : Hold 5

20+ : Hold 3;

13-19 : Hold 1

12- : Mark XP; The GM makes a move. You may not attempt to turn this individual or group again until you level up.

2- : As above, but expect the worst.

Spend hold as follows:

1h: The turning is successful with duration 1.

1h: Increase duration by 1.

1h: Among those turned, the intelligent are momentarily dazed; the mindless flee.

1h: One intelligent or LEVEL mindless turned creatures are dealt damage equal to your current favor. Any creature that would be destroyed by this damage may instead be compelled by the cleric.

So long as you continue turning, no turned creature may come within reach of you. The turned may find ways to harry you from afar.

If you succeed with a split (13) or better, you may make this move again against the same opponent(s).