So, The Druid

Cheers noofy.  I have to say, that this was something of a revelation for me:

Ask questions first, establish why the shapeshift was important to the character or situation in the fiction and antagonise that intent.

I think "find the intent in the fiction and antagonise that intent" is something that could be in the GM section of every game that uses the Apocalypse Engine.  Thanks!

You can always just advance a grim portent and show signs of doom too.

This is something that I've been trying to do.  However, I often find that the situations where I'm struggling to pick a hard move are the ones where the players are located somewhere where it's difficult for me to show the effects of a grim portent.

Maybe on a miss you could say that the animal form is taking over and when spending hold the character needs to defy danger to overcome anything other than the form's instinct? The danger being that the character slips further in to the animal mindset and despite using up all of their available hold remains in animal form until someone they are bonded to brings them back...

Love this.

Other ideas that spring to mind:
 - You attract the attention of supernatural forces in the area (turn move back on them; reveal unwelcome truth; introduce a new type of creature)
 - You lose control, lashing out at your allies (forcing them to defend or defy danger) or running off on your own
 

One of the things listed in the move is to let the beast overcome them.  I've had a druid get ready to scout, miss his roll and turn into a raven only to flap off, go look for carrion, start building a nest, collect shiny things.

Or have the bear druid forget he was a person and become more of a bear.

However, my favorite is to have the land really get to them, and place a gaesa to go put something right.
* The soul of a woman wronged and killed nearby whispers through the land.  You shift and her voice drowns out that of the other spirits.
* The rent in the soil beneath you where the cults meet when both moons are black offends the land.
* The swamp cries out in the south, the burning of the dragon's breath boiling it's brackish lifeblood.

You know give them a cool vision, have their dreams be nothing but this till they right it.  Have them suddenly start needing sustenance.  More stories from failures I say!

I ran our first game of Dungeon World this week, and one of the players selected the Druid class.

We had some trouble adjudicating the Shapeshifter move during play.

During the session the Druid used the forms owl, bear, and raccoon.  How do the "moves associated with your new form" typically work?  Does the player just need to spend the hold, or is a roll in order?

For example, if a bear has the moves:
• tear someone apart
• intimidating roar

Does the player just spend hold, messily tear a bandit into bloody chunks, and cause the remainder to flee? This seems pretty powerful, and could quickly overshadow the other characters. Any sort of "auto-success" moves seem like they could dominate the story.

Some of the players also started a thread about this on BGG:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/890467/sample-druid-shapeshift-moves

The druid just spends to do what an animal would, yes.

Keep the fiction in mind though: a bear has "tear someone apart" which means some poor human is probably dead, but something like a treant? Probably not. It'll hurt and might, say, rip of some branches that won't be there anymore to smack you, but not outright kill.

They way to look at the druid's shapeshift is that it's a bit more like saving up a success for later. Turning into a bear does give you some "free" attacks, but only as a bear would, nothing fancy like the fighter might attempt to disarm or something. Basically the druid is locking in some future successes at the cost of the animal's limitations.

By "limitations" I'm just thinking stuff like "oh crap there's a bear I'd better attack that instead of that chumb in armor" or whatever.

"Intimidating roar" is an interesting animal move. I wouldn't assume that a bear's roar would scare off a group of people—a dude or two, sure. But a big group? probably just draws their attention, which is useful, but dangerous as well.

However, my favorite is to have the land really get to them, and place a gaesa to go put something right.

This is an awesome thread.  Geas on a miss is brilliant, and so is noofy's "find the intent and antagonize it."