Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: Custom Moves

The thief cried “BUT I WANNA A FERRET” so I came up with this:

Hairy Accomplice

You are followed by a little ball of fur that shares your interest in theft and deception. Name it and choose its species:

ferret, parrot, monkey, mouse, magpie, cat, owl, spider, viper, bat

Choose a base:

Cunning +2, Skill +1, Malice +1, Humanity +1

Cunning +1, Skill +2, Malice +1, Humanity +1

Cunning +1, Skill +1, Malice +2, Humanity +1

Cunning +2, Skill +2, Malice +1, Humanity +2

Choose as many talents as its cunning:

quick, stealthy, cute, talking, camouflage, keen senses, tiny, agile, intelligent, threatening

Choose as many fields of competence as its skill plus 1:

pick locks, pick pockets, find traps, disarm traps, misdirect, juggle, lookout, investigate, secrete poison, spy, extortion

Choose as many flaws as its humanity:

greedy, coward, liar, naughty, clumsy, noisy, vain, annoying, garish, yucky

When you work with your hairy accomplice in one of its fields of competence…

…and you use your tricks of the trade, add its skill to your roll.

…and you act as a trap expert, add its cunning to your roll.

…and you make some doses of poison, you make as many extra doses as its malice.

…and you discern realities, add its cunning to your roll.

…and you parley, add its cunning to your roll.

…and you backstab, add its malice to your damage.

…and someone interferes with you, add its humanity to their roll.

First of all, the tweaked version of “undertake a perilous journey” we use in my group: the quartermaster rolls on Int, the trailblazer on Con and the scout on Wis. In this fashion, various classes tend to prefer one job over the others and this adds cool details on what the class’ role is even during travel. Also, we already played with standard seafaring in the past and I just replaced the trailblazer with the pilot and the scout with the lookout.

Now that the pcs are sailing on a interplanar ship, I’d like to throw in some serious custom moves. Currently, they travel on a catamaran capable of sail in various environments (we’ve seen it “floating” in the plane of fire and going full-submarine in the material plane). Basically, the plane-jump works in this way: the navigator selects the right amount of raw elemental particles that the big, column-like steampunk engine at the center of the ship processes like a sort of code; a harpoon is then launched and it breaches through the aether sea reaching the plane with the same proportions of the elemental particles processed. The ship then follows, crossing the opened portal, pulled by the harpoon, traversing the aether sea until it arrives at destination. The trick is, using very specific and highly detailed ingredients, you can reach out individual places; e.g., the players used a fragment of a unique mineral found in the first rooms of the dungeon to come back to that place.

They’ve got hirelings who do the job for them, but they’re very prone to mutiny, so we will soon need a custom move to have the characters handle the ship. I was thinking of reworking UaPJ, using these four roles:

The Shipwright (Con): on a 7-9, the ship is ok and will be able to sail again after the few hours of usual preparation and maintenance every ship needs; on a 10+, the ship can sail again right away. [he’s the mechanic of the ship]

The Navigator (Int): on a 7-9, you lead the ship within reasonable vicinity to your designed destination; on a 10+, you may also automatically sail back from whence you came as soon as the ship is ready to sail again. [he keeps, gathers and selects the elemental particles the engine processes]

The Pilot (Str): on a 7-9, you’re steady and precise, avoiding the obstacles of the aether-sea; on a 10+, your skill allows you to seize an opportunity during the navigation, the GM will tell you what. [he’s basically the helmsman that keeps steady the ship while it is pulled by the harpoon; by opportunity I mean things like having the drop on a target or crossing the aether sea unexpectedly quick]

plus the lookout, who acts exactly like a scout and rolls on Wis.

Suggestions, feedback and any kind of comment is much appreciated!