I’ve been playing around with, and developing a magical item that popped up in one of my games with my stepson. It’s a staff that can summon rain and I want to introduce emotional complications as a potential side effect or feature since it kind of fits the theme of rain. I might share the whole thing later, but I thought I’d see what you think about this part of the idea. It might create a few “I don’t know what came over me” moments. (The emotional complications in Headspace by Mark Richardson inspired me.)
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When you follow the ritual you get the desired effect, but people around will also become more aware and willing to open up about their negative emotions like grief, jealousy, anger or fear.
If you rush or skip the ritual, the desired effects come quicker, but the negative emotions of people around are exaggerated and bubble up to the surface. Pick one:
» NPCs overreact or act out their negative emotions to your disadvantage.
» Give yourself or another player -1 ongoing until they overreact or act out their emotions to the detriment of themself or an ally, or they get time to rest and process their emotions. You can’t give this to a player a second time before they have removed the -1 ongoing.
Emotional complications rock. I like giving name to ‘negative emotions’ in order to evoke more, like as you said, grief, jealousy, so on.
Also, I completely re-wrote this while walking myself through the mechanic:
When it rains, it pours
When you summon rain after a careful ritual, it will rain soon. Also, choose one:
-strangers you meet will weep in anger or grief
-you (or an ally) take -1 ongoing until every personal grievance is revealed to a stranger
If your ritual is crap, then it’s raining now, and choose both.
Emotional complications rock. I like giving name to ‘negative emotions’ in order to evoke more, like as you said, grief, jealousy, so on.
Also, I completely re-wrote this while walking myself through the mechanic:
When it rains, it pours
When you summon rain after a careful ritual, it will rain soon. Also, choose one:
-strangers you meet will weep in anger or grief
-you (or an ally) take -1 ongoing until every personal grievance is revealed to a stranger
If your ritual is crap, then it’s raining now, and choose both.
Ouch! Yours is pretty radical Tim B.
Ouch! Yours is pretty radical Tim B.
You can tell I don’t play with kids, since my moves always have cuss words. 🙁
You can tell I don’t play with kids, since my moves always have cuss words. 🙁
Here’s a PbtA variant: When you need to summon rain, gather the people together and tell them a story of tragedy and sadness, then roll+stat. (game agnostic) On a 10+, you and the people are moved with compassion and empathy, fueling the heavens and it rains for as long as it needs to. On a 12+, the people are moved to action by your story and you lead them to accomplish one great thing. Tell the GM what it is. On a 7-9, the emotions of the people are mixed. Some are overcome with grief, some are angry and look for someone to blame, while others funnel their emotions through various things like work, sports, recreation, escapism, art, etc. It rains some, but not enough, and the GM introduces a complication from your story. On a miss, the hearts of the people are hard and their ears are desensitized to your story, and they mock you or ignore you or blame you for killing their buzz. There’s a period of famine that ensues. The GM will tell you how long.
Here’s a PbtA variant: When you need to summon rain, gather the people together and tell them a story of tragedy and sadness, then roll+stat. (game agnostic) On a 10+, you and the people are moved with compassion and empathy, fueling the heavens and it rains for as long as it needs to. On a 12+, the people are moved to action by your story and you lead them to accomplish one great thing. Tell the GM what it is. On a 7-9, the emotions of the people are mixed. Some are overcome with grief, some are angry and look for someone to blame, while others funnel their emotions through various things like work, sports, recreation, escapism, art, etc. It rains some, but not enough, and the GM introduces a complication from your story. On a miss, the hearts of the people are hard and their ears are desensitized to your story, and they mock you or ignore you or blame you for killing their buzz. There’s a period of famine that ensues. The GM will tell you how long.
Someone should modify one of these to be a location-based custom move for Dungeon World and submit it to the DR contest.
Someone should modify one of these to be a location-based custom move for Dungeon World and submit it to the DR contest.
Yeah, I’m a few weeks behind Jason Cordova. My game design muse is still pestering me with magic items.
Yeah, I’m a few weeks behind Jason Cordova. My game design muse is still pestering me with magic items.
Happy my work inspired you!
Happy my work inspired you!