Tag: Alasdair Lawrence

I’ve been thinking about Managing Provisions lately, and rations in general

I’m increasingly persuaded that rations should not be a “one per player” deal, but rather a “one per party” deal, so that there is a shared pool of rations and the whole party eats once a day.

Why is this? Well mostly it’s because when somebody inevitably has more food than someone else, they just give the excess to the famished teammate. If you have a group that thrives on petty interpersonal conflict then by all means keep personal ration-tracking in, but what effectively happened in my games was that we had a shared pool of communal food that was broken up and tracked across four-five player sheets. If we reached a point where one person was hungry, it probably meant everyone was hungry, or soon would be. Streamlining this process – having them share that burden, eating and running out of food as a group rather than individuals – increases its dramatic tension and presents hunger as another team obstacle that drives forward the evening’s play.

I’ve decided I want to try out something else – treating rations as another ammo like in Volley. You don’t use up a ration every time you eat – you use it up whenever you get a 7-9 or a GM move or whatever.

This also solves the related issue I’ve had of Manage Provisions having the option of “you use less rations than usual”, which always left the nitty-gritty down to the GM in a way that wasn’t especially interesting. Letting them use less rations than required never mustered more than a “huh, neat”, because food management wasn’t really something they thought of. They just ate when they were told, and gave extra to those without.

Here’s what I’ve thought of so far: Dungeon Rations become an ammo (5) item. The players can describe whether the food is shared among all their packs, or nominate someone to carry it. The weight isn’t really important.

Manage Provisions

When you prepare and distribute food for the party, roll +WIS:

on a 10+, everyone eats well

on a 7-9, everyone eats well after choosing 1 from the list below.

Mark off 1 ration/ammo

The smell of food attracts unwanted attention

(something else)

I’ve been thinking recently about what might be called Social Combat and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about how to implement it elegantly in FotF or DW or how the current moves might be used to create a more structured social confrontation

Currently, as I understand it, a physical combat has HP which is attacked with Damage dealt by successful Fight/Hack n Slash/Volley/etc rolls

a social combat might come down to a Negotiate roll or a Charisma-based Defy Danger/Saving Throw

The difference between the two is the 10+ outcome of a Fight roll is not “the monster dies” since it’s understood there is an HP stat which must be exhausted. On the other hand the Negotiate roll is rather all-or-nothing – if the player’s intent is to convince the king the evil baron is not to be trusted, a 10+ roll will thus convince the king. Perhaps you could make them roll more than once on the same stat to represent various stages of convincing, but that’s quite boring and unfair as you’re basically just asking them to try over and over until they fail.

There is a system called Honor & Intrigue in which social combat is represented with a social HP called Composure and there are various ’rounds’ of repartee where players and NPCs roll + relevant modifiers and a successful roll lowers the other’s Composure. Reaching 0 Composure means that person is defeated, and might storm off in a humiliated huff or spill the beans or confess to the murder etc.

I think there are situations which might call for a similarly-structured social combat where there is a Social HP to exhaust before victory. Perhaps I’m overcomplicating things, but here’s an early, very rough rule. It’s basically Fight/Hack n Slash but with an attempt to include HP into a Charisma roll.

PARLEY

When you engage with an intractable or uncooperative group or figure in verbal repartee, say what you want from your opponent or what you want them to do. Then describe how you want to approach your opponent (schmooze, mock, intimidate, plea, etc.). Then both sides hold 3 Composure.

When you make a verbal attack, describe what you say and how. The GM may award a +1 for engaging roleplay. Then roll + CHA

10+ your wordplay overcomes their defenses. They lose 1 Composure

7-9 you make some headway but they retort with a smart comeback. They lose 1 Composure, but retaliate

6- mark XP, you are tongue-tied or your delivery falls flat. GM makes a move

When Composure reaches 0, that character is defeated. They will storm off, burst into tears, reveal hidden information, etc. If the player is defeated, describe how your character deals with the humiliation or intimidation of their loss and mark XP.

Struggling with my cleric to properly use and explore the bless/curse move.

I’ve seen one or two examples that rely on the god in question being vindictive or wrathful and having domains such as Fire or Pain.

however my player is adamant she follow the good-natured child-god of Flowers, Growth, and Kindness.

One answer is that because of this array of beliefs she shouldn’t really be getting into fights and such, but it seems unfair to deny her gameplay because she wants to be a kind cleric.

I have one or two ideas but I’m interested to hear other people’s anecdotes of interesting curses and blessings drawn from not-obvious domains

For my next session my party ventures into a landscape of dizzying cliffs and perilous rock-cut staircases. I envision the idea of there being ziplines for the locals to get around, and I want my party to also take ziplines.

I’m trying to think of some kind of rule to represent the benefit of ziplines over walking. Perhaps making a Thread where the final knot is “arrive at destination” and the zipline is an instant advance-1-knot whilst I withhold a Judge move to regress them by 1 knot (i.e. they get lost or took a wrong turn)

Anyone got any thoughts on other ways I could represent shortcuts, and if there is a move I could use like

“use Zipline roll + DEX

10+ make it across

7-9 pick from

* something slips out of your bag, lose an item

* you get vertigo burn WIS

* something else?

Any and all thoughts welcome