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Messages - RobRendell

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Dungeon World / Re: DW Hack: Shadow/Corruption, please comment
« on: May 27, 2016, 03:24:19 AM »
On the other hand, I don't like at all as a GM to take an arbitrary control of PC behaviour.
A few months late, but if you're still reading this thread: one approach I've seen DW using to handling mind-control-y effects on PCs is to use the carrot of XP.

"When you succumb to (specific temptation), mark XP."

That gives the player free will about what their character does, but presents them with a genuine temptation in parallel with the temptation their character is experiencing.

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Dungeon World / Re: Druid Shapeshifter house rule
« on: May 25, 2016, 11:02:25 PM »
Based on feedback on the G+ group, I've amended the third option.  The move doesn't need to spell out the mechanics ("defy the danger"), it just needs to present the fictional complication; the details can be worked out during play.

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Change the 7-9 result: hold 2, but also choose one:
  • You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how.
  • The spirits tire of your demands; take -1 ongoing to Shapeshifter until you spend some time quietly communing with the land.
  • The animal spirit takes a strong hold; you are not completely in control, and the spirit will take time or effort to dismiss when you try to leave this form.

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Dungeon World / Druid Shapeshifter house rule
« on: May 19, 2016, 04:26:30 AM »
So, I've read the discussions here and here and here about the Druid's Shapeshifter ability, but none of them addressed the main problem I have with it, which is that the 7-9 result isn't really very interesting.

Most active moves have some concrete drawback on a 7-9 result which modifies the fiction in some interesting way, as well as the character achieving what they wanted.  Shapeshifter on the other hand simply gives the druid 2 hold instead of 3.  More passive moves like Spout Lore, Discern Realities or Defend have nothing bad happen on a 7-9, but since Shapeshifter's hold can be spent directly on active moves, the risks should be more commensurate with active moves like Hack and Slash or Defy Danger or Cast a Spell or Arcane Art (IMHO).  In fact, the justification for the druid being able to spend their hold to perform moves in their animal form without rolling is "they're spending saved-up successes, they've already risked failure when they rolled to shapeshift", so that risk should have some actual teeth.

So, I'm planning on house-ruling the 7-9 result for Shapeshifter in my game:

Quote
On a 7-9, hold 2, but also choose one:
  • You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how.
  • The spirits tire of your demands; take -1 ongoing to Shapeshifter until you spend some time quietly communing with the land.
  • Your mind begins to slip; when you attempt to leave this form (for example when you are out of hold), you must defy the danger of forgetting yourself, remaining trapped in this form and acting as a natural animal for a while.

I quite like the first option of drawing unwelcome attention... as well as the more obvious ones of "the monsters decide you're the biggest threat" or whatever, possibilities abound around the fact that you're now an animal, and other animals will react accordingly.  A mob of smaller birds swooping your eagle form to drive you away from their nests aren't a real threat to you, but it's not like you're just going to kill them - you're a druid!  Not to mention the PepĂ© Le Pew-like possibilities of other animals of the same type treating you as a potential mate or rival (or just reacting to you invading their territory).

The second option is obviously an analogue to the similar option in the wizard's and cleric's Cast a Spell move.

The idea behind the last option is that you get to spend your hold and do what you want initially, but once you're out of hold you need to Defy Danger to remain in control of your rational mind and revert to your normal form.  It also covers the case of shifting directly from animal form to animal form, if druids can do that in that game.

Does the proposed house rule look like it would be workable and interesting?  Would anyone who has played a druid care to comment?

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Dungeon World / Re: End of session: resolving more than one bond
« on: May 03, 2013, 06:40:24 AM »
An extreme example would be a session where a character with whom you have 2 or more bonds dies.  Those bonds are no longer relevant and thus should be resolved, but it seems by the RAW that you have to resolve them one session at a time...

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Dungeon World / Empowered Magic difference intentional?
« on: April 20, 2013, 06:38:06 PM »
The Cleric advanced moves Empower and Greater Empower and the Wizard advanced move Greater Empowered Magic all give the same options to choose between:
  • The spell's effects are doubled
  • The spell's targets are doubled
However, the Wizard advanced move Empowered Magic (which Greater Empowered Magic replaces) has a slightly different set of options:
  • The spell's effects are maximised
  • The spell's targets are doubled

Is that difference intentional, or did something not get updated from an earlier revision or something?

Actually, I just went back and checked in my Dungeon World Red Book pdf - Empowered Magic was doubled/doubled back then.

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Dungeon World / Re: Concerning a few rules questions.
« on: April 18, 2013, 09:43:57 PM »
I'll give these a go

1. Explain to me how clerics choose spells and how wizards choose spells. I have walked around the rules for hours now trying to find concrete rules about how these two classes work and had to simply allow the cleric in our game to have access to all her level 1 spells and the wizard to choose only three as the example showed in the example of character creation.
You are correct, the Cleric has the entire range of Cleric spells to select from, while the Wizard starts with all the cantrips and three first-level spells in their spellbook.

The details are in the starting moves for those classes, on the character sheets.  The Cleric has the Commune move (p. 93 of the rulebook), while the Wizard has the Spellbook and Prepare Spells moves (p. 146).  The Wizard's Spellbook move says
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You have mastered several spells and inscribed them in your spellbook. You start out with three first level spells in your spellbook as well as the cantrips. Whenever you gain a level, you add a new spell of your level or lower to your spellbook.
So, that's the three first-level spells for the Wizard you were asking about, at least at first level.

The Commune move and the Prepare Spells moves are very similar to one another, allowing each character to prepare a selection of spells whose total levels don't exceed the character's level plus one.

I suppose the Cleric's move doesn't explicitly say they have the entire Cleric spell list to draw from, but that's implied because it doesn't outline any restriction.

The Wizard's Prepare Spells move, on the other hand, does explicitly say they prepare spells from their spellbook, so that (in conjunction with the details in the Spellbook move) is where the Wizard's limit comes from.

2. The Druid's shapeshifting move I understand, but the player was slightly confused as to why they can only hold the shape for only 1 or 3 moves. She felt extremely limited and was not satisfied with her character after that. I'm also wondering if it's possible to simply increase/decrease the druid's damage die depending on what kind of animal they turn into?
I think that for an appropriately dangerous animal form, having a move that adds extra damage to an attack is a perfectly reasonable move they could spend hold on.

Note that a "move" is not the same thing as a "turn".  Your Druid could shift into a bird and fly around for hours of game time... that might cost 1 hold (if they were attacked and used a move like "escape to the skies"), or might not even cost hold (say, just to travel along above the rest of the party without doing anything in particular).  The move says they have the animal's innate abilities and weaknesses, so it's only if they're doing something special that it costs hold.

Also, there's nothing that says they can't roll to get more hold while still in their animal form... it just exposes them to the risk of GM moves if they fail.

I've ruled in my game that their hold is expended when they complete the move, so they don't revert to human form the instant they "escape to the skies" with their last point of hold, they can carry on for a bit until they actually land or stop trying to escape.

For some good examples of Druid moves in play, I've enjoyed reading a Dungeon World AP on Penny Arcade.  Here are some examples:
1a- What actually happens, or is supposed to happen when something forces your alignment to change?

I'm not aware of anything that forces you to change alignment, but changing your alignment is discussed on pp. 34-35 of the rules.  Mechanically, it simply changes what behaviour you earn XP for each session.  In the fiction, changing alignment might be a big deal like an epiphany, or a slow slide from one alignment to another.

Note that you can choose a different alignment move for the same alignment, if the character has simply changed priority rather than changed fundamental morals.

2a- What's the deal with spell forgetting? It seems kinda.. broken, how a wizard can be rendered completely useless if their rolls fail. Hell even with a partial success you can make them forget spells, so what gives? D8

You or he must not have played much OD&D, where a Wizard starts with one spell that they can cast once a day :)  In Dungeon World, they can cast the two first-level spells they prepared and all their cantrips multiple times each day, depending on the dice and their choices.

Note that there's nothing that says the Wizard in Dungeon World forgets their spell on a failed Cast a Spell roll.  The GM can certainly do that as a hard move ("use up their resources"), but there are plenty of other moves he might make which don't result in the spell being forgotten.

On a partial success, the player can choose to forget a spell, but if they don't like that option they can simply take one of the other two options instead.  They might end up with reality so disturbed that they can't cast anything any more anyway, or dying from too much unwelcome attention, but that's their choice.  Balancing those three options is part of the fun of playing a spellcaster.

3a - Is it possible to make a character that doesn't fit the stereotypical convention of its class. ie. can a wizard actually be weak in wizardry but excell in other areas and only use their title of wizard as misdirection to sleight other characters?
I'm not sure, but my feeling is not really, no.  You could always assign your stat points such that your main class abilities aren't rolled with much bonus (or even with a penalty), but you wouldn't particularly be excelling in other areas.

There are more options at higher levels.  Some classes (but not the Wizard) have cross-class advanced moves, allowing them to take moves from other classes when they've advanced a bit.  There are also Compendium Classes, which give alternate advanced moves to select from.  But basically, the game is built to emulate the OD&D classes, which didn't have a lot of scope for significant mechanical variation within a class.

You'd probably be better off playing (say) the Thief going around dressed as a Wizard, claiming that you're saving up your magic for things much more important than this, and possibly setting up tricks and judicious uses of Goldenroot to "prove" your magical abilities.

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Dungeon World / Re: Creating new spells
« on: April 17, 2013, 08:52:51 PM »
Interesting concept.  I like your move, although it's not clear if they have to memorise the prototype spell when they Prepare Spells - I presume so?  Also, you'd probably need to rule that a new Cantrip requires 1 Mastery to perfect if you don't want an arbitrary number of zero-level spells being created.

After reading it, though, I started wondering how to do the same thing without a custom move.  You could simply say that creating a new spell could be one of the effects of a Ritual (with an appropriate cost or caveat).  Once created, if they memorise and cast it, you could require that they Defy Danger with Int (in addition to rolling to Cast a Spell), the danger being that their new spell doesn't function exactly as expected this time, backfires or otherwise behaves like a buggy 1.0 release of software.  You'd need to have something to decide when they can stop Defying Danger to cast it, though, like your Mastery value.

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Dungeon World / Re: HTML character sheets
« on: April 15, 2013, 07:38:09 PM »
I've dreamed of doing this, but my HTML design skills are weak. That's amazing!
Thanks, Sage! :)

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Dungeon World / Re: HTML character sheets
« on: April 15, 2013, 07:36:32 PM »
Currently, no, they can't be filled in online.  Sorry.

However, the urge is building in me to give them the whole javascript treatment, making them editable.  I did that for my D&D 4e html sheet back when I was enthused about 4e, and could potentially pillage some of the coding from that to make it work.  I'd certainly try to make it data-driven like my 4e sheet, where you can override or define your own classes, advanced moves, compendium classes etc.

(The 4e sheet was only shared with friends who were also playing 4e, and we all sort of moved on.  I haven't touched it in ages, so it may have broken with browser updates and/or in different browsers.)

But if I did start on that, I wouldn't expect anything usable for a while - that 4e sheet sucked many, many hours.  Obsession is a funny old thing...

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Dungeon World / HTML character sheets
« on: April 03, 2013, 01:17:01 AM »

I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone, but I've done up an HTML file with the standard 8 character class sheets, using in-line SVG so they look somewhat similar to the official sheets.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~m_rendell/AllClasses.html

I mainly did it so that I could edit them and fill in values and customise things for my group, like this.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~m_rendell/Thursday.html

It prints out nicely in Firefox, but doesn't seem to like Chrome much (and I have no idea how it looks in IE :). 

I've put the html on github, in case anyone wants to yoink it for their own use.

https://github.com/RobRendell/DungeonWorldHTMLSheets

Enjoy!

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