I ran a session of my Curse of Strahd DW conversion tonight. It involved the players defending a wizard-druid ritual in one of the megalith circles of the dark zodiak. I wrote a custom move for the ritual that went something like this:
Danger: A powerful enemy arrives at the scene of the Ritual.
Grim Portents:
1. A green glow lights the clouds on the horizon
2. Storm clouds gather above the ritual site
3. One of the Megaliths shatters
4. The enemy arrives by lightening strike
Wizard rolls + INT for the Ritual
6 minus : Grim Portent or GM move.
7-9 : Choose 1
10-11: Choose 2
12 plus : Choose 3, +1 extra Accumulation
-Enemies don’t appear
-+1 accumulation
-A Megalith doesn’t crumble (2 crumble = shattered)
-You don’t surcome to your fear (fears were declared at the beginning of the session)
-Spend accumulation to unleash the spell
When you unleash the spell, roll 2d6+accumulation
6 minus, it backfires
7-9 partial success
10-12 success
Ritual components:
The Archmage ally: Fragile, Immesurably Powerful, Subdued Madness, Infirm.
Focii: Each ritual participant must sacrifice and item of significance
12 Megaliths: Each shattered Megalith incurs -1 forward to the ritual roll.
I’d be very interested in hearing your feedback on mechanics of this custom move, and your impressions on how it might run.
It was intended to take up about 2-3 hours of the session. So if it seems a little bit elaborate… that was part of my intent.
I asked a number of setup questions before the ritual took place to establish the PC’s fear, and what they were sacrificing, as well as some bond questions.
What fictional events trigger the Wizard to roll the move?
What fictional events trigger the Wizard to roll the move?
Beware: Spoilers
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The Wizard had been researching his master’s spell book for a spell that could teleport a dragon’s skull from the basement of Strahd’s fortress ravenloft to the beacon tower of Argynvostholt, the bastion of the fallen undead knights of the Order of the Silver Dragon, in order to reignite the beacon of hope and restore sunlight to the land of Barovia (which is shrouded in perpetual twilight) in preparation for a final assault on the castle itself in order to stop Strahd from marrying the reincarnated soul of his fiance (who killed herself several centuries before to avoid marrying the vampire monster he had become) and ultimately break the curse and escape the land…
The ritual was the means by which the portal Megaliths could be combined with the archmage’s power and the Wizards spell to move the dragon skull to the beacon and the party to the castle.
My apologies for the run on sentence, but this was the penultimate session for a game I have been running for about 30+ sessions.
Beware: Spoilers
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
The Wizard had been researching his master’s spell book for a spell that could teleport a dragon’s skull from the basement of Strahd’s fortress ravenloft to the beacon tower of Argynvostholt, the bastion of the fallen undead knights of the Order of the Silver Dragon, in order to reignite the beacon of hope and restore sunlight to the land of Barovia (which is shrouded in perpetual twilight) in preparation for a final assault on the castle itself in order to stop Strahd from marrying the reincarnated soul of his fiance (who killed herself several centuries before to avoid marrying the vampire monster he had become) and ultimately break the curse and escape the land…
The ritual was the means by which the portal Megaliths could be combined with the archmage’s power and the Wizards spell to move the dragon skull to the beacon and the party to the castle.
My apologies for the run on sentence, but this was the penultimate session for a game I have been running for about 30+ sessions.