I am thinking about running a game (Just thinking until I have fewer than three jobs.) and allowing players to…
I am thinking about running a game (Just thinking until I have fewer than three jobs.) and allowing players to choose any race and class, including a few races not in the DW.
In order to do that, I am writing racial moves, which are to be used when a character chooses a class and race that don’t have a standard DW Move. They will be less powerful than the class moves, making the combo sub-optimal, but playable. New (to DW) races will have somewhat more powerful moves, to make them playable as any class.
Here are some examples:
Elves playing a class without a racial option have the following move:
Mother Tongue
Elves invented language. Whenever someone speaks a language you don’t know, roll WIS+ or INT+. On a 10+ you understand the Elvish roots of that language and get the gist of the conversation. On a 7-9, choose one:
• You understand the subjects.
• You understand the verbs.
• You understand the objects.
Hobbits playing a class without a racial option have the following move:
Eat Desert First
Whenever you have a chance to eat you may consume an extra helping. For each extra helping you consume you gain +1 Plumpness. Your maximum Plumpness is equal to 3 + your CON bonus. If the DM tells you to consume a ration, you may choose to lose 1 Plumpness instead.
Goblins choose between one of the following moves:
Squeeze Through (Goblins)
When you move through a tight space, no smaller than your head, roll DEX+. On a roll of 10+ you move through without hindrance. On a 7-9, you get through, but choose one:
• You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how.
• You lose an item of your choosing.
• You twist a body part in a way it was not meant to go. You gain the debility Sore Back, and cannot Squeeze Through again until the debility is removed.
Shake Spear (Hobgoblins)
When you carry a spear it does not count towards your Load. When trying to intimidate someone, if you are holding a spear you gain a +1 to a Parley roll.
This isn’t so much a custom move as a customisation of an existing move 🙂
This isn’t so much a custom move as a customisation of an existing move 🙂
I posted more details on the forum, but the short version is I want to make the 7-9 result on the druid’s Shapeshifter move more interesting. To that end, I’m house-ruling the move thus:
On a 7-9, hold 2, but also choose one:
* You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how.
* The spirits tire of your demands; take -1 ongoing to Shapeshifter until you spend some time quietly communing with the land.
* Your mind begins to slip; when you attempt to leave this form (for example when you are out of hold), you must defy the danger of forgetting yourself, remaining trapped in this form and acting as a natural animal for a while.
I quite like the first option of drawing unwelcome attention… as well as the more obvious ones of “the monsters decide you’re the biggest threat” or whatever, possibilities abound around the fact that you’re now an animal, and other animals will react accordingly. A mob of smaller birds swooping your eagle form to drive you away from their nests aren’t a real threat to you, but it’s not like you’re just going to kill them – you’re a druid! Not to mention the Pepé Le Pew-like possibilities of other animals of the same type treating you as a potential mate or rival (or just reacting to you invading their territory).
The idea behind the last option is that you get to spend your hold and do what you want initially, but once you’re out of hold you need to Defy Danger to remain in control of your rational mind and revert to your normal form. It also covers the case of shifting directly from animal form to animal form, if druids can do that in that game.
Does the proposed house rule look like it would be workable and interesting? Would anyone who has played a druid care to comment?
So my group and I have started a new DW game set in the world of Thedas, from the dragon age video game series.
So my group and I have started a new DW game set in the world of Thedas, from the dragon age video game series. And I am having some trouble with converting moves.
So in my game the Mage wants to be a blood Mage, and in the lore the blood mages draw their power from blood instead of mana. So for the Cast a spell move I added the ability to cast the spell through the users blood, or the enemies (if the spell is an offensive spell like magic missle.) by rolling + CON.
On a 10+ the spell is cast and the user takes one point of damage. On a 7-9, the user chooses from: The spell requires more power, take 1d4 damage The user takes -1 ongoing to blood magic until they rest. The spell runs wild and affects those nearby.
I felt since they are using there own blood to fuel the spell, the they wouldn’t necessarily need to forget the spell on a failure, and that on a -6, one potential negative would be a 1d6 or 1d8 more damage for losing control.
I’m also working on some moves and spells which could only be cast using blood magic, if anyone has an idea for some, be sure to let me know.
Also, Do you think that they should take a penalty to healing, as that is a mechanic of playing a blood Mage in Dragon Age?
So that I can link to it easily, here is Jason Cordova’s labyrinth custom move for Dungeon World:
When you attempt to navigate the labyrinth, describe how you do it, and then roll +STAT. *On a 12+, hold 2 *On a 10+, hold 1. *On a 7-9, hold 1, but you also encounter a guardian. *On a miss, you encounter a guardian. *On a 1-3, also lose all hold.
If multiple party members navigate in turn, their hold is pooled together for the entire party. To find one of the labyrinth’s treasures, spend 1 hold and describe the room it is found in. You may spend 3 hold at any time to find the entrance to the heart of the labyrinth.
Hi, all. Inspired by some of Justin Alexander’s writings, I’m planning on running an open table Dungeon World game using The Perilous Wilds. The open table format means the lineup of players/characters present at a given session will potentially change radically, so everyone needs to be back in town between sessions. To ensure things wrap up like that, I came up with the following custom move. Does it look reasonable?
Escape to Civilization
If you finish a session away from a safe haven, roll +nothing:
10+ You manage to make your way to safety, no problems.
7-9 You make your way to safety, but choose one:
* The experience had a lasting effect on you (ask the GM what).
* You lost significant pieces of gear (the GM chooses which).
* You left a Follower or (NPC) companion behind (the GM chooses who).
(The idea is that players will try their best to get their characters home in-game; this is just a fall-back in case that doesn’t happen for whatever reason.)
Once again, I’m looking for a “sit down, generate a detailed supers character in 15 minutes, and play the game” experience. This is for episodic games that might include no players from the previous week or any player familiar with DW.
This version varies further from Dungeon World. I cleaned up the Basic and Special moves slightly for clarity. You’ll still see some familiar moves for each of the Archetypes (AT), but I feel like I had to make up more moves in this version. The DW moves, as written, just didn’t make sense with the mechanics and concepts I introduced.
There is once again one single Use a Power move. The stunts you can pick from vary depending on what powers you’ve chosen. I made a 5-6 primary and 5-6 secondary powers available to each AT from which to choose. The advanced moves in the playbooks usually give you new ways to use your powers as you level up (at range, in a cone, more powerful, additional effects) combined with DW moves and some moves based on the same framework as DW. I still like each power as a separate move (When you use Ice Control…, When you use Gravity Control…) as I commented in my last post, but I thought I’d try it this way, since there was advice from the community to do it that way instead.
I really, really liked the Channeler playbook I read. I tried a version where I tagged each of the stunts with tags, but I quickly realized I might have to make up too many tags to suit the ‘quick-boom’ nature of the game I need. I loved the ‘pick specialty of combinations to form techniques’ and I’d totally love to play this class in DW. I’m close to adopting this type of thing, but it would have to be more naratively based than mechanical. Since this is just for me at this point, I can determine what the stunts actually do on the fly (you’re a controller using a minor heal power, roll 1d4, you’re a defender with the same power, roll 1d6 [primary vs. secondary power]). Minor damage, +1 forward, +1 specific move, +1 ongoing, heal dX, etc. mechanics are things I’ll judge on the fly depending on the narrative. I’ll take notes as to what choices I make and get feedback from players as to how they felt the choices worked. They may become static parts of the stunts in a future version. I still may try that ‘make a combo unique to you’ approach if this doesn’t go in the direction I want it to.
Things I’m starting to think about for future versions: Pick only 1 very broad power. I’d combine the effects so that the powers would no longer be primary and secondary. For example, Fire Blast and Fire Manipulation stunts would be combined into one Fire Blast power with more stunt options. This has fewer choices for a faster start, but less variety and customization to the current powers system. I could make more powers to choose from (say 8-10) for each AT, but that might once again slow down the start time as people waffle between too many choices; The Channeler option I mentioned above; How to vary less from the base DW moves; How the powers I have written now might interact with themselves. I may need to make heavy use of the Hold mechanic to represent an ongoing power. Hold is the only thing I’ve seen that the ‘sit down and play’ players don’t seem to grasp intuitively which, again, might slow down start of play.
The numbers of systems I can’t quite use for what I want include Icons, D6 Powers, Venture City, Silver Age, Valiant, Just Heroes, Worlds in Peril, Savage Worlds, Champions, Supers! Revised, Marvel Heroic Role-playing, MSH (FASERIP), and more. The biggest hurdles I had were either too much generation time for characters, dissatisfaction with the powers system (too complex or too simple), the base philosophy of the game was too esoteric to grasp quickly, or any combination of these. It’s not that I don’t like these systems. I just can’t use them for what I want to use them as I need to.
Here’s an unfinished move I found in my notebook yesterday. Kind of interesting, very weird format.
Here’s an unfinished move I found in my notebook yesterday. Kind of interesting, very weird format.
When you foretell someone’s fate with tarot cards, knuckle bones or other tricks of the trade, roll the dice and let them fall as they may. Looking at each dice individually, starting with the on nearest to you,(reading the results from the table below) and foretell their fate.
Dice 1: The Fortune
1: Death (of you or another)
2: Betrayal and Treachery
3: Suffering and Loss
4: Good Fortune
5: Vast Riches
6: Undying Love
Dice 2: Causes and Signs
1. The death of a loved one
2. A friend’s broken promise
3.A dark spirit’s passage
4.A companion’s actions
5.By the command of a king
6.Through divine intervention
Once a fortune is foretold, it becomes a prophesy and is fated to happen, but rarely in the way or the time that you expect. Write down the details of your prophesy to be looked at later.
Example Reading:
Dice 1-Rolled a 6, Dice 2- Rolled a 1
“Your future holds many potential paths, but today I tell you a bittersweet truth. Flips over two tarot card The reaper…and the fool. On the day that death comes for your spirit brother, the fool will come for you. But what is it that the fool wants from you? Flips over a third tarot card The queen. The fool and the queen. On the day that death comes for your spirit brother, the fool will come to lead your heart away, ensnared by a new found love.’
Example Prophecies:
Dice 1-Rolled a 6, Dice 2- Rolled a 1
‘On the day that death comes for your spirit brother, the fool will lead your heart away, ensnared in a new found love.’
Dice 1- Rolled a 5, Dice 2-Rolled a 2
“A vow made in steel will be broken by one who you call a friend, yet vast riches wait for you just beyond the horizon.’
When you spend a day of downtime reading from the blasphemous pages of a vile book, roll +WIS.
When you spend a day of downtime reading from the blasphemous pages of a vile book, roll +WIS. On a 10+ the GM will tell you a valuable and useful piece of information regarding the book’s subject. On a 7-9, as above, but also select one below:
* You read about a particularly disgusting ritual, take the Sick Debility (cannot choose this if you are already Sick).
* You read about infernal forces, the knowledge of which plagues your thoughts. Take the Confused Debility (cannot choose this if you are already Confused).
* A foul presence touches your mind. This is most certainly “unwelcome attention!”
