Tag: Rob Alexander

Anyone else had trouble getting players to use all their bond slots? Not a big thing (I think the groups I’m GMing for are over it now), but players seem to feel awkward when they write two or more bonds to the same PC. I’ve encouraged people to do it (in one group I run, there are only three PCs so most classes need to) but it doesn’t seem to happen naturally.

On Aid/Interfere:

The long-form text for the move says “If a player can explain how they’re helping with a move and it makes sense, let them roll to aid.

No matter how many people aid or interfere with a given roll, the target only gets the +1 or -2 once. Even if a whole party of adventurers aid in attacking an ogre, the one who makes the final attack only gets +1.”

That suggests to me that only one aid roll should be made, by one player – perhaps for the PC with the most relevant bonds then (if that’s not unique) the PC who’s best placed to help in the fiction. Otherwise, you have some people rolling when only the downside can apply to them.

Is that how everybody’s doing it?

On the three questions again:

“• Did we learn something new and important about the world?

• Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?

• Did we loot a memorable treasure?”

We’ve not been hitting the “treasure” one very much, in either of our current games. Consensus (at least in one group) was that we don’t really care – we’re playing a game of fantasy characters having stories, often involving various factions and powers, not actually a game of dungeon crawling for treasure. So, we’re thinking of alternatives.

Some ideas so far:

* Did we acquire a valuable asset that advances our position?

[This is meant to be broader than just physical items, to encourage us to think of allies, legal statuses, enchantments applied to things…]

* Did we do something significant towards rebuilding the shattered city?

[This is a kind of campaign/story goal – it would need buy-in from all the players, and should be reviewed frequently just like bonds are]

* Did we advance most of our character stories?

* Did at least on of our character stories take a dramatic advance?

[These zoom in on individual PCs, but unlike the campaign one above they don’t precommit to which PC(s)]

Has anyone else done anything similar?

Rob

The Bard has a core move that says “When you weave a performance into a basic spell….”

How are people interpreting the minimum standard for “a performance”? We’ve been handling it very loosely – as along as the bard can put hands to a credible instrument, he can play a tune in the same kind of time it would take to lunge with a spear or to cast a spell. This does seem to make him very effective, particularly since he also multiclass dabbled to get Elemental Mastery (also accessed, in his case, through performance).

What has everyone else been doing?

I’ve got a vague memory that people around here think that “chaining” moves together directly, without going via the fiction and a new “what do you do?”, is a bad idea. For example, this wouldn’t be seen as a great move design…

“When you try to cast a spell within the destablised zone, roll +WIS. On 10+, you’re fine – roll Cast a Spell as normal. On 7-9, roll Cast a Spell but also…”

…because this move sends you on to another move (“cast a spell”) without doing anything in the fiction.

Is there actually a disadvantage to doing that?

The bard’s Eldritch Tones – “Your arcane art is strong, allowing you to choose two effects instead of one”

That’s meant to mean two different effects, right? Two of the same is not allowed?

So, bonds, and their type and number:

I don’t find the DW book very clear about how many bonds each PC should have. From a literal reading I think the rules are:

* At chargen, you may fill in the bonds pre-printed on your sheet – you cannot make up whole bonds yourself.

* At chargen, you must have at least one bond

* At chargen, you may have multiple bonds with the same other PC – the only limit is the number of bonds pre-printed.

* After chargen, the size of your bond set is fixed at that size – there’s no way to grow it.

* When you resolve a bond (max one at the end of a each session) you may replace it, and at this point you may make up your own bond text.

* If a character you have a bond with dies permanently, or otherwise leaves the game, undefined.

* If at chargen there is only one PC, undefined (but it seems natural to just ignore bonds in that case).

1) Is that what the rules really say?

2) Is that what Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel meant? (it sounds a bit odd, particularly the set being fixed at an arbitrary size after chargen)

3) Is that good? E.g. for even experienced DW players, is the “you must start with only pre-printed bonds” a good idea? (I suspect not)