Come, give us a hand!

Come, give us a hand!

Come, give us a hand!

(edit to add: put comments here or on the original post, as you choose)

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

If you’re familiar with both Dungeon World and Apocalypse World, you might have noticed a difference in their “GM/MC” chapters: in Dungeon World, the GM moves are described but given no examples. In Apocalypse World, the GM moves are named, not really described, but instead they are demonstrated almost entirely with examples.

I think newer DW GMs sometimes struggle with visualizing how those GM moves might manifest at the table. So let’s collaborate on a list of 2-4 examples for each basic and dungeon GM move.

As a reminder, here are the GM’s moves in DW:

“*BASIC*” GM MOVES

● Use a monster, danger, or location move

● Reveal an unwelcome truth

● Show signs of an approaching threat

● Deal damage Hurt them (https://goo.gl/PS7wVN)

● Use up their resources

● Turn their move back on them

● Separate them

● Give an opportunity that fits a class’ abilities

● Show a downside to their class, race, or equipment

● Offer an opportunity, with or without cost

● Put someone in a spot

● Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask

DUNGEON MOVES

● Change the environment

● Point to a looming threat

● Introduce a new faction or type of creature

● Use a threat from an existing faction or type of creature

● Make them backtrack

● Present riches at a price

● Present a challenge to one of the characters

Put your examples in the comments, with both the name of the GM move and the example. Make the examples short and sweet, ideally 50 words or less, definitely no more than 100.

Let’s try to get a range of soft, medium, and hard moves for each. If we can get enough good ones, I’ll curate this into a nice formal doc.

18 thoughts on “Come, give us a hand!”

  5. Separate them:

    Finneous Fingers and Esmerlda Strongarm have just entered an unexplored room of the dungeon.

    GM: Okay the room before you is fairly spartan, except for a bookshelf containing a number of scrolls and other items that all seem very banal. You see no other way into or out of the room other than the way you came. What do you do?

    FINNEOUS: There has to be another way out of this room! I look carefully for tell-tale signs of secret passages.

    ESMERELDA: I check out the books on the shelf – maybe they have some fighting manuals or something interesting.

    GM: Okay, Finneous, make a Discern Realities roll.

    FINNEOUS: Crap! That’s a 5…

    GM: Okay, Esmerelda… as you’re looking amongs the books, you pull one off the shelf, and immediately hear a loud grinding as the bookshelf begins to move. It rotates, and before you know it, you’re pitched forward into whatever situation lies beyond. Finneous, you looked up in time to see the wall close up behind Esmerelda. Where she and the bookshelf once stood, you see just plain stone masonry much like the rest of the dungeon. What do you do?

  6. Separate them:

    Finneous Fingers and Esmerlda Strongarm have just entered an unexplored room of the dungeon.

    GM: Okay the room before you is fairly spartan, except for a bookshelf containing a number of scrolls and other items that all seem very banal. You see no other way into or out of the room other than the way you came. What do you do?

    FINNEOUS: There has to be another way out of this room! I look carefully for tell-tale signs of secret passages.

    ESMERELDA: I check out the books on the shelf – maybe they have some fighting manuals or something interesting.

    GM: Okay, Finneous, make a Discern Realities roll.

    FINNEOUS: Crap! That’s a 5…

    GM: Okay, Esmerelda… as you’re looking amongs the books, you pull one off the shelf, and immediately hear a loud grinding as the bookshelf begins to move. It rotates, and before you know it, you’re pitched forward into whatever situation lies beyond. Finneous, you looked up in time to see the wall close up behind Esmerelda. Where she and the bookshelf once stood, you see just plain stone masonry much like the rest of the dungeon. What do you do?

  7. Turn their move back on them:

    (After a successful Trap Expert roll from Rook the Thief)

    GM: You notice one of the floor tiles is discolored compared to the others. Most likely a pressure plate that triggers poison darts from the walls..

    ROOK: I want examine the tile to see if I can disarm this trap so that we may safely pass

    GM: Go ahead a roll Tricks of the Trade.

    ROOK: Yep. Just rolled snake eyes

    GM: Oof! Well whoever set the traps here was cunning indeed. As you fiddle with the mechanism and move a small lever to get to the inner workings, you hear some loud clicks as the poison projectiles are now loaded into their firing chambers within the walls. If you move at all, they will fire. What do you do?

  8. Turn their move back on them:

    (After a successful Trap Expert roll from Rook the Thief)

    GM: You notice one of the floor tiles is discolored compared to the others. Most likely a pressure plate that triggers poison darts from the walls..

    ROOK: I want examine the tile to see if I can disarm this trap so that we may safely pass

    GM: Go ahead a roll Tricks of the Trade.

    ROOK: Yep. Just rolled snake eyes

    GM: Oof! Well whoever set the traps here was cunning indeed. As you fiddle with the mechanism and move a small lever to get to the inner workings, you hear some loud clicks as the poison projectiles are now loaded into their firing chambers within the walls. If you move at all, they will fire. What do you do?

  9. Pat Perkins, Michael Moch these are great, thanks!

    Just to be clear to future contributors, though, I’m just looking for the GM move itself. If it helps to write out the larger situation (like Pat and Michael did above), awesome, go for it!

    But don’t feel like you have to write out the whole thing.

    Example:

    Present a challenge to one of the characters

    Diana, from your vantage point, you see that one goblin, the one who got away from Lux, slipping away from the fray and towards the entrance to the cave. It’s on the other side of the melee from you, and he’ll be gone in just a moment, what do you do?

  10. Pat Perkins, Michael Moch these are great, thanks!

    Just to be clear to future contributors, though, I’m just looking for the GM move itself. If it helps to write out the larger situation (like Pat and Michael did above), awesome, go for it!

    But don’t feel like you have to write out the whole thing.

    Example:

    Present a challenge to one of the characters

    Diana, from your vantage point, you see that one goblin, the one who got away from Lux, slipping away from the fray and towards the entrance to the cave. It’s on the other side of the melee from you, and he’ll be gone in just a moment, what do you do?

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