Barf Forth Apocalyptica
powered by the apocalypse => Dungeon World => Topic started by: Glitch on January 12, 2012, 10:11:03 AM
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With my first game approaching quickly (tomorrow) I'm trying to tie up loose ends I forsee during the session. In my dungeons, the players might drag quite a bit of treasure out, not in coins and gems, but in other valuables that they'll need to sell in a settlement. Any opinions on this custom move to handle these transactions?
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When you seek to sell the valuables you looted from the dungeons, roll +CHA. On a 10+ you get offered a fair value for the items. On a 7-9 select two below. On a miss select one below.
- You don't draw any unwelcome attention during the process of locating a buyer.
- You manage to get everything appraised, and can be confident that none of the items is a worthless fake.
- You are offered a price, but you feel it might not be the best offer you might receive.
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I would rework the last one to be about getting offered a fair price and have a 10+ mean you get all three. You don't need to them the choice of 1 on a miss because that's already a golden opportunity for the MC to make a move.
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Thanks, those suggestions make sense, and I'm going to rework the move accordingly for the next session.
Revised:
When you seek to sell the valuables you looted from the dungeons, roll +CHA. On a 10+ you sell whatever you like for a fair price without any problems. On a 7-9 select two below.
- You don't draw any unwelcome attention during the process of locating a buyer.
- You manage to get everything appraised, and can be confident that none of the items is a worthless fake.
- You are offered a price, but you feel it's much too low.
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Make sure the trigger for this move is rooted in the fiction. First, they need to find a buyer and take the stuff to that location, right?
As written, it kind of looks like they can just say, "Okay, we try to sell the stuff," and then roll the dice.
If I was feeling clever, I'd create three distinctive NPC buyers, place them on the game map, and then write a move for each to reflect each NPC's values and potential threat.
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Ooooh yes, John, that's brilliant!
Maybe also make the NPCs already bonded to different PC's in different ways? I was thinking this in order to encourage triangles, with the selling valuables move driving the fiction toward tension, scarcity or encouraging impending doom.
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My idea was that this move would abstract part of the settlement activity, much like the Carousing move abstracts the pub crawl that happens after the adventure. Fictionally, it would trigger when a character says "I want to sell my gems and that suit of armor I lugged back from the dungeon".
The above would require two rolls, and I could use the outcomes to start generating shopkeepers on demand, with varying levels of trustworthiness and varying ties to the underworld of the settlement. Once an NPC is established, they're named and could factor into the story going forward as needed.
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Oh, I get your intent now Glitch. Sweet.
So my question then is why? What do the PC's want? Piles of gold to buy titles, estates, privilege, magical knowledge? Fame and notoriety? This then ties the move to your fiction, rather than just a simulation of what OD&D would do. 'To do it, do it' eh?
http://planet-thirteen.com/apocd&d/ApocalypseD&D3.0.pdf (http://planet-thirteen.com/apocd&d/ApocalypseD&D3.0.pdf)
I would ascertain that first - what do the PC's want - then use their treasure as 'currency' to influence the old Town Moves that Tony established for Apoc D&D. I use these all the time, as I've abstracted money in DW to a pseudo-stat I call 'treasure', which works exactly like barter from AW.
I really like your custom move, hope these ideas help you some more :)
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Why? I'm sure initially it will be to get enough gold to buy that shiny plate armor! The concept of going with a barter system in DW like the one in AW is interesting, but the game as written has moved to the gold piece standard so that's what I had planned to go with for the campaign. I think each approach could yield some interesting results :)
Also, I use poker chips for gold pieces and I love making the players physically hand over those chips whenever they spend or lose money ;)
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Why? Cause the fictional consequences of those moves are awesome for the story. Rather than abstracting the whole spend loot for stuff bookkeeping, we'd rather have some unbalance to the status quo.
Thats so funny about the poker chips, Glitch! I use chocolate golden coins (which reside in ye olde wooden box as a 'bank') in exactly the same way :)
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Yep, that nails it. And brilliant idea to use chocolate for treasure. The players might even be tempted to consume a little of their loot. I like using little props whenever possible.
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My idea was that this move would abstract part of the settlement activity, much like the Carousing move abstracts the pub crawl that happens after the adventure. Fictionally, it would trigger when a character says "I want to sell my gems and that suit of armor I lugged back from the dungeon".
Hmm. I would warn against thinking of Carouse or a liquidate move as "abstract." Abstract, meta moves aren't very fun and lead to weird problems, in my experience.
When a player says, "I carouse in the town," or "I want to sell my gems and that suit of armor," that's not yet a fictional trigger. The character hasn't done anything. They can't roll yet. The GM's response at that point needs to be, "Ok, cool. How do you do that?"
If you roll for a move before the fictional context is established, it can be hard to adjudicate complications and consequences. You have to invent stuff out of a blank slate after the roll. I find it works much better to strongly establish the action, context, and risks before the roll, then the roll results make sense and are obvious.
You probably know all this! I just like to rant about it.:)
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Thanks John, I see your point, it makes alot of sense. I will keep it in the forefront of my memory next time we play.