Dungeon World, page 107When you call upon the spirits to change your shape, roll+Wis. ?On
a 10+ hold 3. ?On a 7–9 hold 2. ?On a miss hold 1 in addition to
whatever the GM says.
You may take on the physical form of any species whose essence you have studied or who lives in your land: you and your possessions meld into a perfect copy of the species’ form. You have any innate abilities and weaknesses of the form: claws, wings, gills, breathing water instead of air. You still use your normal stats but some moves may be harder to trigger—a housecat will find it hard to do battle with an ogre. The GM will also tell you one or more moves associated with your new form. Spend 1 hold to make that move. Once you’re out of hold, you return to your natural form. At any time, you may spend all your hold and revert to your natural form.
I've had some trouble understanding this move. To me it seems like an inexhaustible Adventuring Gear, since it pretty much lets you do a lot of stuff normally only possible because you "conveniently had that grappling hook", or something like that. You, of course, shapeshift into a bird instead. Or a monkey. Whatever.
Unlike the Adventuring Gear however, you oftentimes can't use it to help your friends. A sparrow can't lift a halfling for example. A gorilla, if you can shapeshift into one, could carry a person on their back. That would qualify as one of the moves associated with the animal though, and therefore require the expenditure of a hold. At least in my optics.
One of my players though, wanted to shapeshift into a bear and use it's strength to attack an orc, and it actually had some weird complications.
First of all, what happens to his shield? Does he keep the +1 armor bonus in bear shape? The "you and your possessions meld into a perfect copy of the species’ form" doesn't address whether it means that your equipment effectively disappears until you revert, or not. Only that they "meld together".
Second, in case his shield magically and momentarily dissappear, would it then be a move that requires expenditure of hold to "Hack and Slash" as a bear, since you make use of it's animal features? If the shield disappears, his weapon would too, after all.
Third, how do I as a GM decide the associated moves? Just on the spot? I would have preferred that the rule looked more to the player to explain what he wanted to achieve. I had a hard time coming up with a move for his "Bear form", since he didn't have a reason to use it, except for the coolness factor, but he kept wanting to know what he could do with the form.
It was a lot easier when he wanted to shapeshift into a mouse and spent hold to sneak past some orcs, since he obviously wanted to make use of his small stature. Would have been fun if he rolled 6- then. Then I would have him attacked by a house cat. It would've been pretty funny.
I know that my questions are
very subjective, but I just wanted some advice on how to roll with it.