Guts wrote:Emerald wrote:Perhaps instead of rolling on a big table of arbitrary effects and having to figure out how to resolve it, you roll up a random move to take immediately but flavor it with Wild Magic effects instead of the standard flavor?
For instance, if your result is the Xaositech's Ratcatcher move, you could flavor it as evoking a shower of coins (which you then pick up and use to pay for your lifestyle), Like a Slaad might turn you rainbow colors, Chaos Theory might teleport you randomly, and so forth.
Whoaa you got something here. I really like that. But I don't know how to turn that into a move. See, the moves are not like effects/special abilities that you choose to activate at will (well, at least most of them are not). They're more like prompts in the fiction for things you would already do naturally. Ie: "Like a Slaad" and "Ratcatcher" are passives, and "Augury" only work upon entering a charged situation. So "when you do wild magic, pick another move at random" wouldn't work, I think.
But I'll give it more thought. It's a great idea.
I know the character doesn't normally choose to activate a move, but when activating a move as part of the wild magic roll you'd obviously ignore the normal triggering conditions, even if it doesn't make sense with the default flavor.
Especially if it doesn't make sense with the default flavor. Because Wild Magic.
More generally, the point of using a table of random moves instead of a table of random novel effects is that figuring out how to resolve arbitrary flavor effects mechanically is hard, whereas giving ad hoc wild magic flavor to existing mechanics is easy and allows for player creativity. You're not actually using a move in the sense of invoking the fictional circumstances it would normally involve, just borrowing its mechanics because you've already decided that particular mechanical effect is reasonable for a player to produce.
Guts wrote:1) Five main stats: 3 basic ones: Body, Mind and Soul (or analogue labels in the Cant, if possible)
In cant, Body would be
soul-bag (according to fiends) or a
soul-case (according to celestials), but Mind and Soul don't have a cant equivalent.
Here's a good compilation of cant from the Planescape books; anything marked as "New" is a fan submission, but the rest is canon.
At chargen I'm considering giving the following values for players to distribute as they wish: +2, +1, 0, 0, -1.
You might want to tweak it slightly so that either you give out a total of three modifiers (e.g. 1/1/0/0/-1) or they add up to three (e.g 2/1/1/0/-1), since the Rule of Threes is one of the major three (see?) principles of the Wheel.
2) (Some) Basic moves based on Order and Chaos. Maybe shifting "Reading a Situation" to roll with Order (it's an analytical ability after all), and another one for Chaos (didn't decide yet). Maybe creating "Give the Blinds" ? Morte on Torment tells it everytime "You give the Blinds on the Dusties, chief?" meaning "Escape notice or a threat" which I find kinda fitting. "When you wanna Give the Blinds on someone or a threat, roll with Chaos. On a hit you escape their notice or the area entirely as you wish. On 10+ pick both, on 7-9 pick 1: - you don't leave traces of your destination behind; -you don't leave some item behind".
Other good cant-based names for moves would be Do the Bolt for fleeing/evading danger, Nick a Berk for a straightforward attack, Deliver the Mail for an assassination or underhanded attack, Skin a Razor to drive a hard bargain with someone, Catch a Skag for something perception-related, and Hear the Chant for gathering information.
3) Basic moves based on Planar hopping, that also use Order and Chaos (say, "When you enter Limbo, roll with Chaos. on a 10+ you're Ok. On 7-9 pick 1: -The chaotic soup makes you dizzy, take the "Shaken" condition; -You attract the attention of some hostile being. On a miss, both: you're "Shaken" and attract unwanted attention").
I'd suggest coming up with three moves for each plane, one like your example that triggers when entering the plane, a player move involving using the environment to your benefit somehow, and a GM move involving planar hazards.
For instance, for Limbo the player move could involve trying to stabilize the local space, turning it into a stone island or a barrier of water or the like, while the GM move could involve a sudden flux in local gravity/magic/elements that dramatically changes the environment. On Mechanus, the entry move could involve either appearing right on the edge of a gear and being flung to the next gear over and/or running into some
moignos and gaining the [insert confusion-related condition here] condition, the player move could involve trying to take advantage of nearby gear movement to crush an opponent or get yanked out of reach just in time or something, and the GM move would involve the players having broken some obscure and situational law and having some modrons or inevitables sent to bring them in.
4) Basic moves that inflict/clean up Conditions (like in Masks and Monsterhearts). When you "Influence or Manipulate" someone roll stat. On a hit, you may Inflict a Condition on them", etc. For now I just thought of two conditions: "Inspired", that raises your main alignment stat (Chaos/Order) by 1 for the time. And "Shaken", that does the opposite. As faction moves are mostly based on these, you risk getting shutdown if your alignment stat drops too low.
You'll probably also want some standard conditions for the effects of specific Outer Planes. Some sort of condition for Elysium and Hades to represent getting very calm/depressed and not wanting to leave, a Confused/Insane one for Pandemonium, an Aggressive/Enraged/Inflamed/etc. one for Ysgard and Acheron spurring you to violence, and so forth.