Me again. I hope for the last time.
Tomorrow we’ll play.
My last question.
In a combat lesser minions die with a 10+.
If i have weapons able to shot multiple times, i’ll kill more; as narration tell me.
But a more important villain?
I think it’s not fun kill him with a single shot.
Thanks.
Hi! So, for an important villain, getting into a position where you can actually attempt to Open Fire at them or Launch Assault will be where you’ll cause most of your extra rolls/Moves, leading up to the Move that tries to take them out. A main villain shouldn’t be taken out by incidental gun fire.
Fictional positioning and narrative causality will be your friends here. You can protect a villain by simply describing the situation to give the villain an easy out. Make the characters work for their shot, and force them to make the shot important.
For weapons that can kill multiple people at once, you can still dictate the grouping of threats (see page 46 for more on grouping Threats). A character almost always deal with only one threat at a time; a spray or explosive weapon just increases the amount of people who will be considered a single threat.
An important villain is a threat by themselves. Unless the characters come up with a way to absolutely hit everyone (a Class 2 explosive charge with High Yield and Breaching, when you absolutely need a city block leveled), or find a way to circumvent the villain’s guards (sniper several city blocks away), you are within your rights to not include the villain in the collateral damage.
Basically, make it clear that there are too many thing in the way between the villain and the characters, and the characters will have to clear a path. Set that narrative expectation, and later state “you’ve got a clear shot at [the villain]”, once they’ve dealt with the obstacles.
(Please note that if the characters do find a way to take a shot at the main villain while bypassing the obstacles, let it happen. No matter how wealthy, how connected, how ruthless, a sniper round to the head or a knife in the back will still kill them. Let the Move dictate the outcome.)
Sean GomesOh yes.
But i think that a main villain, like Darth Vader or Khan must have some more exciting and deep fight.
If i kill my Vader with a single blow, maybe dictate only by luck, i find it somewhat a disappointment and not very fun.
I think that the main villain must be an experience.
I think to give them the damage stats of the players.
Just to make the last battle exciting.
Filo Becherucci An open fire or launch assault isn’t a single blow; the dice tell you the narrative outcome, not D&D-style hits and damage. If you want to make it an experience, you need to do that through your narration with your players, rather than relying on repeated chance to provide it.
In theory I think you are right, but the fact is that a duel with a menace can last only a dices launch.
With all possible narrative remain only a launch.
Sincerely i don’t found it attractive.
I’m the first to salute the elimination of minions by simple fiction (i hate take care of a list of enemies).
The main villain, i continue to think, deserve a mechanic for his own, that allow him to be interesting and competitive.
If not, i repeat, it’s just a launch of dices hoping for luck.
Filo Becherucci you are of course entitled to your opinion, but I’m with everyone else on this one: make the fight about the lead up to the main blow. You can narrate the villain waving away all kinds of attacks through Face Adversity rolls until finally the character gets one potentially killing shot.
From a players’ perspective there is really no difference. They are facing multiple challenges before they eliminate the threat. You are proposing that the “challenges” be a loss of HP. We are proposing that the challenges be narrative hurdles that have to be cleared. The players in both cases are rolling dice each time and hoping for good luck. The difference is one of style.
If you are really keen to have enemies with hit points though, you may want to go check out the work that a Redditor is doing to port Dungeon World into space (in a way that’s unique to both UW and Dungeon Planet): https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonWorld/comments/3yl13l/offworld_another_flavor_of_dungeon_world_in_space/