Seeking advice for a set of custom moves involving tracking/hunting, trapping, and foraging for dungeon rations when your PCs don’t have any and don’t have a shop to go to for more.
The PCs in my PbP Dungeon Planet game and I have written several version already, so I’ll post the two latest ones with some feedback/concerns from the PCs. We wanted to try ourselves first, but we’re still not coming to a consensus, so I’m turning to the Tavern, because you are all awesome and I’m more than certain I’m not the only GM who’d love to have a set of custom moves like this for their DW game. 🙂
Version #1:
TRACK & HUNT
When you spend the day hunting, roll +WIS,
On a 10+, you may then roll VOLLEY or HACK&SLASH;
On a 7-9, as 10+, but you got lost while tracking your prey
On a hit on the VOLLEY or H&S roll, you kill your prey and, if you rolled 7-9, apply the result of either move you chose
TRAPPING
When you spend the day trapping, roll +INT, or +WIS.
On a miss, something ate your trapped animal, now the predator wants you. On a hit, you’ve trapped 1d3+2 rations-worth of animal(s).
On a 10, pick 1, on a 7-9 pick 2:
* Slim pickins, -2 rations.
* You’ve attracted a predator.
* You contract a disease from your prey. The GM will give you the details.
* You suffer 1d6 damage from the environment.
FORAGING
When you spend the day gathering, roll +WIS. On a miss, you’re lost. On a hit, you’ve trapped 1d2+2 rations-worth of plants. On a 10, pick 1, on a 7-9 pick 2:
* Slim pickins, -2 rations.
* You’ve attracted a predator.
* Your rations are poisonous, or otherwise disagreeable. The GM will give you the details.
* You suffer 1d6 damage from the environment.
Version #2
TRACK AND HUNT
When you spend a good amount of time tracking and hunting down prey, roll +WIS.
*On a 10+, you successfully hunt down a sizable quarry or several, smaller ones without any complications. Describe what they are. Add dungeon rations (5 uses, 1 weight) to your gear after you skin them.
*On a 7-9, as above but not without complications. Choose one:
• You’ve become lost while tracking your prey, and you run into danger. The GM will describe it to you.
• You’ve contracted a disease from your prey. The GM will describe what kind. Take the SICK debility.
• The prey you were chasing put up a good fight. Take d6 damage.
TRAPPING
When you spend a good amount of time constructing a trap and waiting patiently for your prey to fall for it, roll +INT or +WIS and describe your process of trapping the prey accordingly and what it is. On a hit, you trap the prey successfully. Add dungeon rations (5 uses, 1 weight) to your gear after you skin them.
*On a 10+, choose 1. *On a 7-9, choose 2:
• The trap falls apart or, otherwise, can not be reused.
• Slim pickings. You’ll have to make do with what you can. Subtract 2 uses from the dungeon rations you acquired.
• You’ve contracted a disease from your prey. The GM will describe what kind. Take the SICK debility.
• You’ve attracted a predator, placing yourself in a dangerous situation. The GM will describe what it is.
FORAGING
When you spend a good amount of time foraging for fruits, vegetables, nuts, or anything equivalent and edible, roll +WIS.
*On a 10+, you successfully gather a sizable portion of edible, non-meat, food without any complications. Describe what you found. Add dungeon rations (5 uses, 1 weight) to your gear.
*On a 7-9, as above but not without complications. Choose one:
• Slim pickings. There just wasn’t a whole lot around. Subtract 2 uses from the dungeon rations you acquired.
• The food was spoiled, rotten, poisonous, or otherwise disagreeable. The GM will describe how. Take the SICK debility.
• You’ve attracted a predator, placing yourself in a dangerous situation. The GM will describe what it is.
Cool, so there are the two versions. Version #2 is, essentially, a revision of #1.
Concerns:
• Player feels it’s weird only using +WIS for Hunt and Track – that strong/dextrous PCs wouldn’t be as good at hunting as wise/perspective ones.
— Fair point; however, I’m not a fan of calling for another move within a move. Perhaps leave it as a choice between WIS, STR, DEX?
• Player said, historically, foraging usually brought less food per time unit than hunting or trapping and suggested Foraging shouldn’t bring in as many rations or should simply take more time.
— More time, perhaps. I defended keeping the rations the same for two reasons: 1) ‘Historical accuracy’ falls apart when we’re talking about a game of Dungeon Planet and being stranded on a planet similar to Earth, but millions of light years away. Things could be totally different. 2) Simplicity. If we’re designing two moves to bring in dungeon rations, the same thing should be acquired at the end, right? You could make the argument that since they’re different moves, they can bring in different amounts, sure, but that’s not keeping things simple. And this is DW.
Point is for the PCs to spend background time tracking and hunting or trapping prey or foraging for food when they’re completely out of dungeon rations and have no place to buy them (or steal them from).
OR are these custom moves a waste of our time, and I should just let them find rations somewhere or have some NPC/monster carry some? That sort of defeats the struggle of being stranded on an alien planet – for this game, at least (though these are custom moves that can be used in any DW, I think).
I’m dying to hear what you guys think.
Cheers!
Richard Robertson Philip Espi Matt Smith Chris Sakkas Joshua Royer Tagging you five, since you’re playing this game!
Kasper Brohus You used to play in the game, so I’m tagging you too. 🙂
