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Messages - sage

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46
Dungeon World / Re: So what happens if someone cant do something?
« on: November 28, 2012, 01:57:34 PM »
Consequences are not how you tell if you roll the dice. You roll the dice if a move triggers, plain and simple. The presence of consequences is baked into the moves.

In general, if someone does something that's not a move you just portray the fictional outcome honestly. Sometimes that means making a soft move, like telling them the requirements and asking.

So, prying out a gem from the eye of an idol, 7 ways:

1
The characters, through a series of clever plans, has essentially secured the area—no traps, no time pressure, no lack of resources. The character prying it out is using some leverage, like a knife. As the GM I look at all those factors, look at the moves, and see no move has triggered. So I say "after some wiggling the gem pops out. What do you do?" I'm playing by the first point of my agenda: portray a fictional world.

2
There's no immediate threats, but the characters are deep in a dungeon and monsters are everywhere. I know the stone is well set (dwarven statue and all) so it'll be tough to get out, but not impossible. The player says they pry it out with a knife. I see some potential danger here: the danger of spending too long here and being discovered. I tell the player they've triggered defy danger, and it sounds like str to me, since they're trying to pry it out with brute strength. They agree, roll, and…

3
In the heat of battle the thief has slipped away, scaled the statue, and is trying to pry out the eye. There's definitely danger being defied, as any second a lizardman might look up and see an easy pot shot. The thief says they're balancing behind the statue as much as possible, so that all the lizardmen can see is an arm reaching around—not very likely to be noticed. Sounds like defy danger with dex to me, and if they fail it may be about their precarious balance instead of being spotted.

4
Having come across the statue the fighter decides to just bash it and take the gems. That triggers her bend bars, lift gates move. Depending on the roll, he might break it in such a way as to be relatively quiet, non obvious, or whatever.

5
Having come across the statue the paladin decides to just bash it and take the gems. The statue's not too strong, and he's pretty strong, so that sounds reasonable. I describe the crash as the statue shatters and make a note that the lizardmen heard, since they're nearby, and they'r eon the way. (That's a soft show signs of doom.)

6
Having come across the statue the wizard decides to just bash it and take the gems. First I ask what he'll use to do it, and he points out that he still has the cult leader's mace. That sounds good enough, but looking at his strength he's not all that strong. I tell him that it looks like it'll take several minutes of concentrated hammering. If he wants to risk the time and sound, he can do it. (Tell them the requirements and ask.)

7
Having come across the statue the thief says he just grabs the gem and walks out. I tell him that when he grabs the gem it doesn't come loose. He needs some leverage or something, there's just no way for a human hand to get enough purchase to grab it out.




Note that all of these are different situations. In some of them the statue is strong, in some it's weak. In some the characters take different approaches to getting the eye out. All of those are important factors in what moves, if any, trigger.

47
Dungeon World / Re: Cure disease
« on: November 07, 2012, 04:06:24 PM »
We've tried and tried to make this clear throughout the text, but we'll keep trying. The new (as of the proofing version) sections on the adventuring life and Gming common situations are supposed to lead to this.

Fundamentally, we tell the GM over and over that their job is to present a fantastic world. That means that they show the reasonable fictional outcomes of the players' actions. The moves are a special case of that.

As a GM, when the player says "I cure his disease" the first thing to ask is "how?" If their response makes no sense—if they say "I stare at him real hard"—the GM just portrays the world and nothing happens. If the players take an action that could, maybe, lead to it—like "I pray to my god, chanting and lighting incense"—you respond with a soft move (they're looking at you to find out what happens). Maybe you give them what they want with a cost ("Yur, god of darkness, heals you but you find that you're uncomfortable in the light now"). Maybe you show signs of  impending doom ("The red blotches of infection go away, all except one. You feel better, but the last blotch throbs with potential.").

We've tried to make this really clear: if a move doesn't apply, the GM portrays the world honestly and maybe makes a move.

48
Dungeon World / Re: Epic Levels
« on: November 06, 2012, 05:13:33 PM »
The main reason for stopping at 10 is that having more than 9 moves to keep track of can become a real pain. We already address that somewhat, with some moves being simple to remember, plus mechanics like replaces, but practically having too many moves can be a problem.

If your group can keep track of more moves: go for it.

Otherwise there's room for all kinds of other advancement past 10th level. Adam and I have brainstormed some ideas along those lines, but haven't put anything into playtesting.

49
Dungeon World / Re: Cure disease
« on: November 06, 2012, 05:10:23 PM »
Mechanically that's largely presented in the Divine Guidance move. Keep in mind that "some useful knowledge or boon related to your deity’s domain" can mean a lot of things.

Is you deity a god of bloody conquest? Then healing the disease of a mighty warrior certainly fits their domain.

Is you deity a god of what lies below? Curing a slime disease probably fits them.

The place where it gets interesting is when your deity is, say, a god of what lies below and you want to cure you tower-dwelling wizard friend of cockatrice flu. Not much of what lies below there, right? So then you have to start praying, bargaining, and trying to look for ways to make your problem fit you deity's interests.

50
Dungeon World / Re: Druid playbook versus the text
« on: November 06, 2012, 05:04:08 PM »
The druid playbook isn't connected to the XML. It's a known issue, but we're focused on the book at the moment: once the book is printed we can't update (obviously) but the character sheets can always be updated.

51
Dungeon World / Re: Cure disease
« on: November 06, 2012, 05:03:16 PM »
The repair spell works too. But yeah, I'd start fulfilling my petition.

52
Dungeon World / Re: Hireling skills
« on: November 02, 2012, 02:22:03 PM »
Intervene doesn't scale with skill. As the protector skill goes up, though, you get more use out of the sentry part of it.

To be clear, a hireling would have something like Protector - 2. That means they offer 2 armor through sentry, and can intervene for you.

53
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 31, 2012, 02:46:56 PM »
I think we're going to stick with multiclass level being determined from the level where you first gained a move from that class.

There are people on both sides of this who have some very smart and well-put opinions. Feel free to adapt the multiclassing rules as you see fit, and remember to follow the fiction.

54
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 31, 2012, 02:43:33 PM »
Edit: A partial solution to the bard situation just struck me: count the character's level in that class starting from the level that the character first learned a move from that class. You still have the situation of Cast A Spell not working the same way as any other move, but at least you don't get arbitrary bonuses or penalties based on whether you took Ritual before Cast A Spell or vice versa.
This is the phrasing in the book as of the proofing version that went our Monday. You count level in a class from the level where you first gained a move from that class.

Hmm, the Thief is the only class locked out of spellcasting by default, and that doesn't quite fit. Feel free to add Multiclass Dabbler to the class list or create a compendium class for The Spellthief or whatever—I don't think we want to risk any changes to the core book at this point.

55
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 30, 2012, 01:03:34 PM »
Adam I talked about this last night. We don't have strong preferences either way. I'm going to look over all the multiclass moves (including God Amidst the Wastes and the other very specific ones) and consider making the change.

56
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 29, 2012, 06:19:07 PM »
There isn't a right or wrong way to do this, just different things to say about the world we're creating.

If your level is one lower than your current level then you can never cast a spell, get to 10th level, and suddenly be a 9th level cast. That's fine, but it doesn't quite fit the world—why did the wizard spend 9 levels working on spellcasting to be that awesome, where you spent 9 levels stabbing things and suddenly become a master caster?

It's not that the actual situation is the problem (the wizard will have 8 levels of spell casting-related moves to make them stand out), it's the logic of it.

Yes, this does mean that if you want to be a viable multiclass caster you're better off doing it early, but I think we're cool with that.

57
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 22, 2012, 02:46:54 PM »
There's a section that explains the Multiclass moves, as described in this thread, in the playing the game chapter. Not worth adding a ton of text to every multiclass move.

The one-level lower requirement is only about choice: at 2nd you can only choose starting moves, you can't choose a 6-10 move from another class until 7 in your main class.

58
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 22, 2012, 02:45:03 PM »
Already fixed, but not pushed.

59
Dungeon World / Re: Multiclass Dabbler
« on: October 22, 2012, 01:30:32 PM »
If you gain a move that counts levels of a class (spell casting, usually) you count your level in that class from 1.

So, 3rd level fighter multiclasses into cleric, gets cast a spell, casts as a 1st level cleric. He gains another level and no matter what move he chooses he casts like a 2nd level cleric.

60
Dungeon World / Re: Ranger - ammo and moves
« on: October 19, 2012, 12:40:54 PM »
And if half the table goes "this seems weird…" usually the answer is to clarify what's going on. Most of the time they think it's weird because we had different unstated assumptions about what's actually happening. Like you didn't quite understand just how skilled Bill the Swordsman was, so you though that splitting his attention would give an advantage, but the GM knows Bill is one of the best swordsman ever. The problem there isn't anyone making the wrong call, it's just that some things haven't been communicated very well. So we might take a step back, clarify some things, and get back to the action.

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