I’m about to try out this custom move and am wondering what people think. If you need context, basically Illyana Rasputin has gone Darkchilde, and the heroes want to talk her down.
Speaking with a demoness is not without its consequences.
When you try to reason with the Darkchilde, describe how Darkchilde make it terrifying, worrying, enraging, or what have you, and then roll +Savior
On a hit, you talk her into transforming into her human self, postponing her battle with Belasco, or something else within reason. Explain how the conversation ultimately went your way.
On a 7-9 remove one from the list of consequences.
On a 10+ remove two
All consequence that have not been removed apply
CONSEQUENCES
– Mark a condition
– Shift your labels (Mundane up, Savior down)
– Make a promise to the Darkchilde that she can extract from you later.
On a miss, suffer the consequences above except for the promise. And choose one of:
– Be unceremoniously expelled from Limbo
– Battle the Darkchilde
Note that anyone who aided in the roll via spending of Team Pool must also face any consequences.
Mark a condition and shift a label have teeth but the third feels way more interesting to me. Anything else Darkchilde could do? Take something off value? Destroy something they hold dear?
Nicholas Hopkins yeah the first two are actually in there to try to nudge them toward something else, since they all hate when I mess with their conditions and labels. Oh I like how you think. gets out pencil
🙂 Post your thoughts! I’m kinda new at the custom move thing!
Yeah, I’d definitely say play with the other two more, since those can happen elsewhere. Custom moves are a fun time to add different questions (I often like inverting pierce the mask, where you must answer a question from your antagonist honestly).
I was thinking like Darkchilde takes something of value from you (what?) &
Darkchilde learns a secret, weakness, or fear (what?) I don’t want to be put on the spot to ask specific questions. Hmm turning Provoke et al around seems like fun.
They didn’t get to the scene where they’d use this move, so I have 2 weeks to refine it!
Those new ones sound fun!
I try to use custom moves like this one to delve into the player’s vision for their character.
I’ve had a player try to weasel out of making a confession of any true meaning before, but I kept prodding until we got to something good and meaningful. Be prepared for that if you ask about revealing secrets or giving up information. Sometimes the player hasn’t really thought all that deeply about their character. In those moments it can be okay to poke at them a bit. I mean, this is the Darkchilde, giving up the secret that you once read your sister’s diary or let your brother get blamed for breaking a lamp probably isn’t going to cut it.
This feels like it’s stepping on the toes of “comfort and support” and “provoke”, and while the mechanics of the move are clear, the fiction is not.
I can see what you’re going for and why you want to roll +Savior for this move, since it’s really about PCs making themselves vulnerable to bring forth the human that exists within the demon.
If this tracks closely to the New Mutants arc, then Illyana is a member of the team–if that’s the case, then I think this situation is an opportunity to make use of the existing playbook moves.
Consider the following: “When you reveal your own weakness while comforting or provoking the Darkchilde, roll with Savior and take Influence over her.”
That rewards players for their vulnerability, making it easier for them to reach illyana b/c of influence and perhaps rolling a better label, but gives the Darkchilde a chance to mess with them by exploiting their vulnerability through their team move–giving her a chance to dish out conditions and shift labels by being cruel to her former teammates.