NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8291085" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I'm going to do a quick (lol?) post that hopefully will demonstrate the constituent parts of Skilled Play of Dungeon World in action.A single decision-point that should express the various aspects of system:* We're in the BBEG Wizard's banquet/theatre hall which features a 3rd story landing with an ingress/egress into/out of the room and a pair of stairs leading to the ground floor on either side of the landing.  There is a huge light fixture set in the middle of the room.  There are a pair of 3rd floor mezzanines on either side (both with ingress/egress).  There is the stage.* Team PC's Fighter is on the landing and is about to be swarmed from all 3 sides by 4 HP mooks.* Team PC's Wizard is on one of the 3rd floor mezzanines with Team PC Man-At-Arms Cohort.  Wizard and Cohort are being besieged by a 30 ft Construct that threatens them both.* Team PC's Ranger Animal Companion are running interference on the ground level trying to Volley down the minions assaulting the Fighters position and trying to harass the BBEG up on the stage who is in the middle of casting a room-wide AoE Dominate Spell.* Fighter has a bond with Ranger/Animal Companion about repaying them for prior deliverance of Fighter from a great danger.* Fighter also has a bond with the Cohort about a vision from Fighter's weapon about a threat to Wizard that Cohort would intercede. This led to the decision to (a) ensure that Cohort sticks to the Wizard like glue (to protect Wizard) and also led to Fighter writing a bond about a noble sacrifice from Cohort.* Fighter is also sworn (Alignment) to Defend those weaker than them (both the Wizard and the Cohort are weaker).* Fighter also has 16/26 reduced HP and only 1 Adventuring Gear left.[HR][/HR]So there are a lot of various incentive structures at play here.1)  If that spell goes off, it has potentially devastating implications for Team PC; tide-turning, TPKing potential depending upon Defy Danger results.2)  Fighter abandoning the chokepoint brings about multiple tactical and thematic issues; (1) Fighter is built to hold-off choke points and deal huge AoE cleaves to multiple enemies with her polearm (Reach + 1d10+2 + 1d8 Bloodthirsty)...she could just annihilate mooks in droves, (2) leaving that chokepoint creates huge battlefield control problems generally and specifically for the ranged DPS Ranger, (3) Fighter has a bond about delivering Ranger from danger.If Fighter abandons Ranger, that says something about Fighter's lack of instinct to fulfill oaths or protect allies she owes a duty to...or perhaps their orientation toward each other specifically (possibly trust/lack of trust).3)  Fighter only has 1 precious Adventuring Gear left.  If Fighter would have spent this earlier (there was ample opportunity), she wouldn't be able to open up the move-space to the move she is considering; spend the final Adventuring Gear to pull a rope and grapnel from her pack to Indiana Jones across to the mezzanine after affixing the grapnel to the hanging light fixture.  Her decision to retain that Adventuring Gear for a higher stakes situation later is now showing up as a crucial decision.4)  Fighter has the bond about Cohort's sacrifice.  There are a few issues here:(i)  There is no guarantee that Cohort will be able to protect the Wizard so the Wizard can get Protective Counterspell off to potentially shield each ally from the Wizard's AoE Dominate.  At only a +1, the odds of getting a 6 aren't terrible, but they aren't formiddable.(ii)  Even if Cohort gets the 7-9 Defend result for 1 Hold, that colossal is going to obliterate them...its straight dirtnap...but fulfilling Fighter's prophecy and bond.(iii)  However, this Cohort is a huge investment emotionally for Team PC.  They've been with them forever and they're family.  Further, losing them so early in the fight could have huge downstream implications.(iv)  The Fighter will be almost surely be able to get over there (+3 Str, take +1 Adv Gear) with Defy Danger Str for the move here and due to Seeing Red (+1 DR in battle), they've got +1 Forward when acting on the answers about the Construct, so their Defend move will be +2 Con +1 forward for +3...hugely formiddable.  A great chance to at least get the 1 hold to redirect the attack but also a very good chance to get 3 Hold to reduce it to half and then deal (lets say this Fighter is 8th level) 8 damage back in return or give the Wizard +1 forward on their counterspell.(v)  Finally, it would say something thematic about the Fighter; the Fighter is a "Destiny Defier" as she is able to undo her weapon's visions of fate and put her own stamp on the future.(vi)  If somehow things go catastrophically wrong on the initial Defy Danger (its an extremely remote chance, but its possible), suddenly the Fighter has "abandoned her post" only to not put into her effect her plan (protecting the Wizard) and has made matters worse with a new complication she has to deal with!(vii)  Or perhaps the Fighter only gets a 7-9 on the Defend move and takes a ton of damage from the Construct because she can't half the attack.  Or perhaps she eats some sort of 7-9 complication on the Indiana Jones move over (either her Healing Potion falls out of its sheathe or her polearm is lost, clangs to the ground and hopefully the Ranger can recover it and fling it up to her, forcing her to rely upon her Xiphos/Gladius until she can retrieve the polearm).[HR][/HR]So that is a lot of cognitive overhead for the Fighter player to consider and manage within a singular decision-point (including the past consideration of saving that Adventuring Gear prior to open up the movespace for this Indiana Jonesesque Defy Danger move to get her in position to Defend the Wizard at all).  And that isn't even getting into the Wizard's spell loadout decisions in order to put into effect a Protective Counterspell (or even the decision to take Protective Counterspell) or the Wizard's prior decisions on Cast a Spell move (eg accepting Danger or -1 ongoing to cast vs "Lose the Spell" in order to ensure a robust loadout for just this sort of future situation where you're going to likely need to stake multiple spells for Protective Counterspell efforts. And what is the Ranger and Animal Companion going to do in the interim.Etc etc.</blockquote>

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