I have a Doomed in one of my games that asked to have time pass differently in her Sanctuary as one of the downsides. The location is a pocket dimension dream world where she can retreat, so time passes as it does when you dream, sometimes very little time passing, sometimes a great deal more. I decided to make a custom move to figure it out as I love when moves create that little bit of chaos during play that requires me to “take a powerful blow” as GM to figure out how to weave it all together.
Here is the current rough draft:
Time Elapse
When you spend time in Changeling’s Sanctuary, she will roll+Current Doom Track, on a miss no time has passed at all, you arrive where you were in the same moment that you left. On a 7-9, it has been 2d6xCurrent Doom Track minutes since you entered. On a 10+, it has been 2d6xCurrent Doom Track hours since you entered.
I decided to have it replicate the Take a Powerful Blow move so it is inverted (high roll = worse outcome) with the current doom track determining what to add to the roll. I wasn’t comfortable assigning arbitrary values to the amount of time that passed though, so I went with random rolls for the time, probably rolled by the person affected, whereas the roll to see where you fall in the time elapse is always rolled by Changeling. As written the smallest amount of elapsed time, if time has elapsed, is 2 minutes, the greatest possible amount of time elapsed is 2 days(!!!).
The themes that have come up in the game thus far (just played the first full play session yesterday) have fallen along the lines of ancestry/lineage, the way the public interacts/reacts to young heroes, especially when they screw up in very public ways, and time manipulation (via an artifact that has formed the basis of the first arc thus far).
What do folks think? Can anyone think of any improvements?
Also, I love this game. Seriously. So freaking fun!
I would never make this roll. Instead, I would have time pass in such a way as to cause the most drama for the character. Stumble back there to recover after a super-fight? Whoops, looks like you missed your first period in school the next day. Run back to hide from a bad guy looking for you? They didn’t even notice you were gone.
I do think that you’ve made a rod for your back here. As an MC, leaving the flow of time to a dice roll takes away one of the key tools for controlling the flow of drama.
Yeah, I’d agree with Jason here; while it would be onerous to hit her with a soft move every time she retreated to her sanctuary, it’s a smooth and elegant way to handle things. Maybe when timing is important, you make that soft move of “This might not let you come back exactly when you want”.
I have a Doomed in my game with something of a similar situation, as his sanctuary regularly moves around with or without him. I’ll occasionally make him roll just a flat 2d6. 10+ it settles somewhere beneficial for him. 7-9 somewhere so-so, and on a miss somewhere with negative effects. So far he’s rolled a full hit and had it be nicely nestled in the city park, hidden with convenient city access followed by a miss with it taking up residence under the exit pipe of a sewage treatment facility.
First; Damned cool idea from the Player! That’s a love letter to the MC!
Second, I’m a fan of making the Player’s choose their own desserts, so I’d make a move like @Chesh but probably give some ugly or hard choices, or even a list to choose what is true or not true.
After discussing the move with my player she really loved it tying into her doom track in some way and wanted to keep some version of the move, so I changed it to remove the specific time jump and made the effects up to me with 7-9 a soft move and 10+ a soft or hard move as I want. Thanks everyone for your input and ideas!