Category: Monster of the Week Roadhouse: General Discussion

A couple quick move questions

First, in the Divine playbook, both myself and my player (who is spellslinger, but ‘took a move from another playbook’ on this one) have read and re-read the ‘what I need, when I need it’ move, and can’t decide if it means a single item is held at a time, or if multiple items can be stored at a time, and the one needed can be retrieved at any time, individually. Each time I think I decide, and I then blink and suddenly realize it must mean the other. I was just going to go with it being multiple items as long as she doesn’t go too crazy with it, but curious what the actual intent was.

Second, with a spellslinger’s combat magic, I’m having to make a lot of quick calls on the fly as to how things work… it’s all pretty clear, actually, until you start using the ‘wall’ base. So first, she has wall as a base, and force as an effect… so I’m reading that as she can make a wall with either 1 harm and 1 armor (the base), 2 harm and 1 armor (base + effect on base), or 1 harm and 2 armor (base + effect on wall), but NOT 2 harm, 2 armor (that would be base + effect on base + effect on wall, and there is a very clear OR in the effect… so this I think I’m clear on, but just wanted verification).

The bigger question is: if she can cast a barrier during a KSA using weird rather than tough (which makes sense if she is maybe defending herself when a monster corners into using KSA), what happens if she tries to use the barrier to help someone else… if she’s trying to use it to defend someone else, should that be Protect Someone (rolling tough, which is the rules to the letter), using protect someone (but rolling weird by extending the idea of spellslinger combat magic to Protect Someone), or Use Magic (rolling weird, because this is the spellslinger casting a spell which just happens to be protecting someone). I’m thinking Use Magic should generally be used when casting (with a possible Act Under Pressure addition if under stress, like when in the midst of combat), with KSA only a situation where the player is actually trying to (or forced to) get physical with the monster (and for a spellslinger, this allows for casting their combat spell, but for other playbooks, magic would not be an option), and Protect Someone would only be for physically intervening… since the barrier only provides 1-2 armor rather than fully preventing damage like Protect Someone (ideally) does, I guess it does make more sense that it isn’t a Protect Someone roll.

As usual, that’s what I’ve worked out while typing, some of that differs from what I was thinking before starting this post. So then it really just comes down to the fact that the spellslinger can probably use Use Magic to cast that wall at any time, while it is in Combat Magic to help them personally when cornered and forced into a KSA rather then Use Magic to help mitigate their own exposure?

Oh man, now what about Help Out? :p. Could you roll a Use Magic to act as a help out on another player’s KSA roll? Well, off the top of my head, I guess I might double the rolls, rolling a Help Out to try to aid the other and a Use Magic to determine the actual effect (where if help out was used with a standard weapon, it might just provide the benefit to the player helped plus possible harm of the weapon, help out with a barrier may provide the benefit to the player plus the benefits of the barrier (+harm and +armor)? So many options!

I guess, in general, I’m occasionally having trouble with moves that take effect during KSA, but that occur in situations where the player can act beyond the monster’s range or awareness… since it isn’t technically KSA if the target can’t reciprocate. But then it gets hard to write off why the player would perform better when under far more pressure and danger than when they aren’t… I’m fairly good at making spot decisions, but it would be good to be able to lay out somewhat consistent rules for players to be aware of so that similar situations don’t keep playing out using different mechanics just because I’m trying to figure it out on the fly. 🙂

Thanks for any thoughts on my long rambling!

-JM