In games where the GMs don’t roll dice, or roll very little, how should effects like NPC countermagic or magic resistance be handled?
In games where the GMs don’t roll dice, or roll very little, how should effects like NPC countermagic or magic…
In games where the GMs don’t roll dice, or roll very little, how should effects like NPC countermagic or magic…
Either penalties or “roll twice, choose worst”, those are obvious choices.
I’m fairly new to PbtA, and really focused on DW for now, so i may miss something essential to other hacks. That said, i would base it on how tough the opponent is. Is the counter magic or resistance enough to block the efforts of the players? There is no roll.
The Wizard cast a fireball, it envelopes the enemy, and there is a loud crackle and a blue flare beneath the wreathing flames. As the fire dissipates, the enemy is standing there smirking. He has some powerful barrier against your spells, what do you do?
If the enemy is good, but can be beaten with no special strategy and just a touch of luck, then have the counter spell or resistance work into a roll result.
10+ the enemy raises her hand your fireball slows, coming to a stop in front of her and then stats slowly spinning while hanging between you. Somehow she is holding it at bay, and she stands there smirking at you. But her brow furrows, she starts sweating…. her counter isn’t strong enough, and your fireball begins to move, to advance… to consume her, burning her hand into a withered husk and moving up her arm, as her smirk turns into a horrified scream. What do you do?
6- she stands tall as you throw the fireball her way. With a dismissive gesture, she waves a hand, and your flame stops halfway between you. It hangs in the air for a brief moment before she flicks her wrist and sends it flying back towards the party. You can either draw it into yourself and dissipate the arcane energy into your own body, or let it fall among your allies and erupt there. What do you do?
Start with GM/MC moves: announce future badness, reveal unwelcome truth, tell the consequences/requirements and ask, turn their moves around, show the downsides of the class/stuff.
“As you start prying into Jojo’s brain, you feel resistance like you’ve never felt before. There’s this weird feedback echoing in your head, holy shit it’s loud. You can keep pushing if you want, try and force your way through, but it’ll be risky. What do you do?”
Also, check out the Advanced Fuckery chapter in AW. Countermagic/magic resistance is a lot like fighting Rolfball with his huge hands. You can use custom moves that screw with the mechanics (take -2 to your roll, or suffer 1 harm AP when you try to zap ’em, “when you try to force your way into Jojo’s brain, roll +weird…).
In a few hacks I’ve worked on, I made sure there was some sort of spendable resource (“Effort” or “Stress” or the ability to tap stat/traits). Then added this move:
When you push yourself to act despite a condition, dire circumstance, or constraints, pick 1:
– Spend 1 and act now at no penalty
– Act now, but take -2 forward
– Take your time, hesitate, or wait for an opening, then act
Countermagic – give them a counter spells move.
The player casts a spell. They make their roll. Let’s assume they have a 7+. They choose their option and then they look at you to see what happens. It’s your time to make a move. You choose the monster move counter spells.
You describe how they counter the spell.
I’d say tone wise I’d skip making counter spelling or resistance part of your pbta game. Pbta games are generally about badass characters and most of the time you want them to be able to do stuff. Those two mechanics are about saying ‘no you can’t because an npc is better’ which really goes against the peinciples of AW. Instead make an npc moce that causes additional consequences on a pc who uses magic. Maybe like ‘when a pc casts a spell on ___, the player choses 1:’ then make a list of nasty consequences of magic. That way the player still feels like they were able to do what they wanted and agency of thier character is still in thier hands.
I am not sure I agree with that. Sometimes being a fan of the character involves pitting them against someone that can nullify their best thing and see how they deal with it now. Especially in DW this will then lead to more teamwork and that is great.
If there is no need of a specific moves, i would handle it using the 6- results. I.e. If the wizard fails it means that the target used a counter spell
Thanks everyone! To be clear, this thing I’m doing isn’t actually a PtbA game. I posted this question here because it does draw inspiration from the partial success system of PtbA and other newer games, and input from all angles helps me.
I’m going to go with a simple difficulty modifier. If an opposing mage wants to counterspell, or if a mundane has a particularly strong will to resist mind control, they need to roll better. I don’t want to make it more complex than it needs to be.
And a note on David’s sentiment on badass character being able to do stuff- not sure which games you’re playing, but every session of Dungeon World I’ve played has been a comedy of failures- we could barely even do the shit we were suppose to be good at, even after leveling up after all the times we failed 🙂
I actually have never played dungeon world, but I have heard it does not follow that principle (which is one of the reasons I have not had as much interest) I have seen a lot of pbta games that do trigger some crazy shit from series of fails, but the good ones turn those failures into opportunities for character decisions instead of instances where the character just isn’t good enough.