I learned about The Gauntlet through podcast “Discern Realities” and recently started GM’ing a Dungeon World campaign. My group has liked it a lot so far but one of my players, who normally plays a barbarian, missed the rage feature of 3.5e D&D.
After looking around, I didn’t find any DW mechanics readily available so I created the Berserker compendium class. I’ve run it passed the DW reddit and I would like to see that you think.
Did you mean to take 8 hold on a 7-9? What about a 6-?
Did you mean to take 8 hold on a 7-9? What about a 6-?
Noah Jay-Bonn 8 might be a bit much but it should be a worrying number. I left the 6- up to the GM and the fiction. Maybe the Rage doesnt take, there might be a condition inorder to end it, or someone might have to knock them out.
Noah Jay-Bonn 8 might be a bit much but it should be a worrying number. I left the 6- up to the GM and the fiction. Maybe the Rage doesnt take, there might be a condition inorder to end it, or someone might have to knock them out.
Impressive. There is allot of gold in here.
My Rage looks something like this:
Rage
Your rage empowers you to go beyond your normal limits, but at great sacrifice.
When you rage, discribe how far you are willing to go and pick a number between 1-4, hold that much Rage.
While you are raging, you gain the following benefits. Pick an amount equal to your Rage.
> Your damage is increased by 1d6.
> Your attacks gain a Tag. Pick one (Messy, Forceful, Terrifying)
> Through force alone, you gain +1 armor.
> When you H&S, you can pick an object nearby to damage/destroy.
While in a rage, when Rolling plus any STAT other than STR, subtract your Rage from the result.
Calm Yourself
It can be distracting when you attempt to calm yourself.
Reduce your Rage by 1, and take -1 forward.
Impressive. There is allot of gold in here.
My Rage looks something like this:
Rage
Your rage empowers you to go beyond your normal limits, but at great sacrifice.
When you rage, discribe how far you are willing to go and pick a number between 1-4, hold that much Rage.
While you are raging, you gain the following benefits. Pick an amount equal to your Rage.
> Your damage is increased by 1d6.
> Your attacks gain a Tag. Pick one (Messy, Forceful, Terrifying)
> Through force alone, you gain +1 armor.
> When you H&S, you can pick an object nearby to damage/destroy.
While in a rage, when Rolling plus any STAT other than STR, subtract your Rage from the result.
Calm Yourself
It can be distracting when you attempt to calm yourself.
Reduce your Rage by 1, and take -1 forward.
Adam Nordin – i like that you have the instinct to start creating for the game already, and a Compendium Class is a solid way to go.
Before critiquing what you’ve done, i’d point out that Barbarian already makes its attacks with the Forceful and Messy tags. I would ask the Player to narrate how the Barbarian goes about its acts in the fiction, influenced by being enraged, and use that to color the results of Forceful and Messy tags.
Also, note their Herculean Appetites – if they take Pure Destruction, they get to roll 1d6 + 1d8 when they make moves to satisfy that goal; this could easily be rage. And the Move already makes an interesting Rage bonus, giving them a better change at success, but also the chance things go sideways even on a success, when the d6 is a higher result than the d8.
GM “play to the rage”
When you make GM moves, consider that the Player wants Rage to be a thing – have them mark conditions instead of HP damage while they’re enraged, if appropriate to the fiction. When they roll a 6-, or in some cases a 7-9, show how their Forceful and Messy tags are dangerous to their environment and allies.
Compendium Class
Your Compendium Class could be used to give a rage mechanic to anyone, regardless of Playbook, and that’s an interesting choice, which i support.
You have written the moves to be very mechanical, though. Perhaps ditch the idea of plus 1 armor and an increased damage die while enraged. Instead, give them a mix of good and bad:
While enraged:
* All attacks gain Dangerous, Forceful, and Messy
* You cannot Aid an Ally, and must Interfere with or attack any that get in your way.
* You ignore extra damage from additional Monsters, and suffer base damage only (normally, all Monsters after the first add one point of damage each).
* On a 10+ Hack & Slash, you MUST choose to roll an extra 1d6 damage and suffer the counterattack, when appropriate to the fiction.
If you give a mix of effects like above to the enraged status, you could keep the Hold system you have, and perhaps replace the list of hold expenditures. Spend one hold to:
When you would take damage, mark 1 condition instead (only available while you have an unmarked condition)
Frighten or dismay your enemies and take plus 1 forward against them
Break a specific item held or protected by an NPC as part of a successful attack.
Adam Nordin – i like that you have the instinct to start creating for the game already, and a Compendium Class is a solid way to go.
Before critiquing what you’ve done, i’d point out that Barbarian already makes its attacks with the Forceful and Messy tags. I would ask the Player to narrate how the Barbarian goes about its acts in the fiction, influenced by being enraged, and use that to color the results of Forceful and Messy tags.
Also, note their Herculean Appetites – if they take Pure Destruction, they get to roll 1d6 + 1d8 when they make moves to satisfy that goal; this could easily be rage. And the Move already makes an interesting Rage bonus, giving them a better change at success, but also the chance things go sideways even on a success, when the d6 is a higher result than the d8.
GM “play to the rage”
When you make GM moves, consider that the Player wants Rage to be a thing – have them mark conditions instead of HP damage while they’re enraged, if appropriate to the fiction. When they roll a 6-, or in some cases a 7-9, show how their Forceful and Messy tags are dangerous to their environment and allies.
Compendium Class
Your Compendium Class could be used to give a rage mechanic to anyone, regardless of Playbook, and that’s an interesting choice, which i support.
You have written the moves to be very mechanical, though. Perhaps ditch the idea of plus 1 armor and an increased damage die while enraged. Instead, give them a mix of good and bad:
While enraged:
* All attacks gain Dangerous, Forceful, and Messy
* You cannot Aid an Ally, and must Interfere with or attack any that get in your way.
* You ignore extra damage from additional Monsters, and suffer base damage only (normally, all Monsters after the first add one point of damage each).
* On a 10+ Hack & Slash, you MUST choose to roll an extra 1d6 damage and suffer the counterattack, when appropriate to the fiction.
If you give a mix of effects like above to the enraged status, you could keep the Hold system you have, and perhaps replace the list of hold expenditures. Spend one hold to:
When you would take damage, mark 1 condition instead (only available while you have an unmarked condition)
Frighten or dismay your enemies and take plus 1 forward against them
Break a specific item held or protected by an NPC as part of a successful attack.
Welcome to the community, Adam Nordin! I will second Andrew Fish’s advice re: the Barbarian, which is on-point. I have had plenty of Barbarian players use Pure Destruction and Forceful & Messy as the pretext for “berzerker mode.” Of course, that doesn’t eliminate the need for your CC, since those can be acquired by any character. I think making CCs are one the most fun things you can do to personalize DW, and not enough people do it!
Welcome to the community, Adam Nordin! I will second Andrew Fish’s advice re: the Barbarian, which is on-point. I have had plenty of Barbarian players use Pure Destruction and Forceful & Messy as the pretext for “berzerker mode.” Of course, that doesn’t eliminate the need for your CC, since those can be acquired by any character. I think making CCs are one the most fun things you can do to personalize DW, and not enough people do it!
Robert Doe Thank you! I like your version as well as it would probably fit better into more styles/types of campaigns.
Robert Doe Thank you! I like your version as well as it would probably fit better into more styles/types of campaigns.
Andrew Fish Thank you for the comments and suggestions! I will be the first to admit I need a lot more experience playing and GM’ing story games in general as I didn’t see a lot of the ways to bring that out in the story. That said, I was looking for something a bit more than the Herculean Appetites would give.
The PC that I thought this up for is quite shaky on the storytelling and roleplaying aspect in general. I wanted a Move that would give guidelines to follow (always attack), bonuses/things to use the hold on (to encourage use), and the tension of knowing that they need to use all of their hold before the fight ends or else (even if that tension is artificial). My thought process for this class was this:
* When the PC rages, they have an amount of hold to spend before the rage can end.
* Every move they take beyond the initial RAGE move would make it harder to break out of the RAGE but give them more options during it or because of it.
* The stack of hold in front of the player would be a constant reminder of just how much they need to get through spurring them to use it faster and more.
I probably will change it to be more inline with your ideas as both my players and I become more comfortable with the system.
Andrew Fish Thank you for the comments and suggestions! I will be the first to admit I need a lot more experience playing and GM’ing story games in general as I didn’t see a lot of the ways to bring that out in the story. That said, I was looking for something a bit more than the Herculean Appetites would give.
The PC that I thought this up for is quite shaky on the storytelling and roleplaying aspect in general. I wanted a Move that would give guidelines to follow (always attack), bonuses/things to use the hold on (to encourage use), and the tension of knowing that they need to use all of their hold before the fight ends or else (even if that tension is artificial). My thought process for this class was this:
* When the PC rages, they have an amount of hold to spend before the rage can end.
* Every move they take beyond the initial RAGE move would make it harder to break out of the RAGE but give them more options during it or because of it.
* The stack of hold in front of the player would be a constant reminder of just how much they need to get through spurring them to use it faster and more.
I probably will change it to be more inline with your ideas as both my players and I become more comfortable with the system.
Jason Cordova Thank you! I have enjoyed listening to the podcasts. They have been giving me a bit to think about on how to GM better. I am new to story gaming in general as are my players so many of my thought processes are still based off of having the mechanics help the story along.
I was looking for something a bit more than Herculean Appetites provided. I harked back to the 2e ravenloft barbarian and while it is more mechanical and artificial, having the hold to spend creates the tension I’m looking for from the move.
Jason Cordova Thank you! I have enjoyed listening to the podcasts. They have been giving me a bit to think about on how to GM better. I am new to story gaming in general as are my players so many of my thought processes are still based off of having the mechanics help the story along.
I was looking for something a bit more than Herculean Appetites provided. I harked back to the 2e ravenloft barbarian and while it is more mechanical and artificial, having the hold to spend creates the tension I’m looking for from the move.