Barf Forth Apocalyptica

powered by the apocalypse => Dungeon World => Topic started by: Lochmonster on May 03, 2013, 06:43:10 PM

Title: Unclear about Spout Lore (and a few other skills)
Post by: Lochmonster on May 03, 2013, 06:43:10 PM

What's to keep every player from making a spout lore check when they are stopping to ponder the Tribes & Towers of the world?

Is the GM expected to improv a seperate possible thing know for each player/class/race combo at the table?

Am I not understanding the move?

Should you only allow one check per instance/area?

I just don't want to run into a situation I find often playing Pathfinder, where the Diplomacy or Knowledge or Perception check just goes around the table until someone hits the "DC". I think it makes skills sort of silly and pointless.

Thanks!

Title: Re: Unclear about Spout Lore (and a few other skills)
Post by: sage on May 03, 2013, 06:56:50 PM

A few things:

First of all, they're always spouting lore about a thing (a concrete object or specific idea) not just "Tribes and Towers."

Then, the GM asks "so how do you know about <the thing you're spouting lore on>?" That narrows it down quite a bit. Does the thief really know about arcane creatures from the deepest depths?

Then, even if they trigger the move, they're always taking a risk. If they get that 6- result, something goes wrong. The GM gets to make a move. Is it really worth that risk?

Lastely, standing around and thinking for too long is likely a golden opportunity to the GM to make trouble. You can't just stand around a dungeon thinking and assume nobody will notice.

Title: Re: Unclear about Spout Lore (and a few other skills)
Post by: noclue on May 03, 2013, 07:58:21 PM

This only becomes a problem if the GM isn't making moves. Don't go around the table. Make moves.

Title: Re: Unclear about Spout Lore (and a few other skills)
Post by: Scrape on May 29, 2013, 12:47:32 PM

This is a plausible issue, but it's never been a problem in my experience. If your players are demanding to spend their game time repeatedly rolling for every in-game fact, you've got a bigger issue.

Usually, I just make it clear that normal world-building conversation isn't Spouting. It's just us talking about the world. Discern comes into play when there's like a weird artifact in front of them, or in the heat of battle someone goes "is this tribe scared of magic?" or something like that. It's up to the GM to set expectations and call for rolls, remember that.