So thinking about another thing that I find important about AW and its offspring that I haven’t seen discussed yet (if it has been, please point me the right way).
There are no “safe” rolls.
I was at DnD game recently where my wizard was out spells and I took quite a few shots with my crossbow despite the very thin likelihood that I was going to hit anything. Also whenever a search check was called for, everyone rolled even if their modifier was negative on the off chance they might succeed.
I call these safe because there isn’t a downside to attempting and failing them. No consequence and no importance.
If I tried the same thing in AW such as, for example, reading a situation no matter what I roll the situation changes the situation even a little. Maybe the MC is gentle or maybe not but the act of taking action or making a move always changes the game state (if I’m interpreting the rules properly).
In that same combat, my wizard (probably a brainer now) would be hiding and not taking crossbow potshots because he’d know if he stuck his head up he could get hit. He’d be desperately doing something else to help out or get away. Or he’d be taking those risks and hoping he hits someone in an eye or something.
And I wouldn’t have spent 30+ minutes rolling unimportant attack checks that I was never going to pass anyway.
This results in the dice becoming significant, I think. Every time we need dice, the roll matters. And that seems to be an important part of the underlying design behind the mechanics.
Thoughts? Am I off base? Neat applications?
Seems pretty solid to me. “To do it, do it” is kind of the opposite of needless rolling, and the status quo is not a thing that sticks around.
You nailed it, man ! This is exactly what I was thinking, but was not able to put on paper. Thanks for laying it out so clearly.
Yep! Compare a similar situation in Dungeon World — the wizard is out of spells, and there’s a dragon or something. What does the wizard do? I’ll tell you what doesn’t happen — you don’t pull out that crossbow. The hard moves aren’t worth it!
I see dice rolls in AW as being similar to the choices in those old “choose your own adventure” books. Every dice roll sends your character off in an interesting direction, plot-wise. It might be good-interesting, or it might be bad-interesting, but it will always be interesting. As you say, there are no pointless rolls in AW.
On the other hand, the rules say that if you are attacking and the enemy has no chance to respond, then you just do damage with no roll.
For example, if the werewolf is a hundred yards away and hasn’t yet smelled you as you take aim with your hunting rifle and silver bullets, then you just do damage. No danger, so no roll.
Luke Green And in that case it reinforces the awesomeness of the character doing the action. “He’s so tough he didn’t even have to roll” and then when the dice come out you know it’s intimidating.
Interesting corollary. Thanks for pointing it out.
It came up in MotW discussing Kick Some Ass. Because in Monster of the Week you only roll an attack when their is a chance of suffering harm yourself and it always results in you taking Harm unless you have the Advanced version of the move, roll 12+ and spend your extra benefit on Take No Harm at all.
We figured that you could have one person rolling Kick Some Ass and another person rolling Protect Other to simulate two people fighting the same monster and trying to keep the point guy safe.
Then everyone else would either be rolling Help Out or just doing damage without interference.
Yes… this is one of my favorite features of the AW Engine. My players now think twice when they reach for those dice.
yes, but I would also add that there is no “safe” move or positiona at all either. Even if you do not roll, even if you do nothing the MC is compelled to make a move or take a stance.