As you may know from listening to my podcast, I am a fan of several types of TTRPGs. I listen to actual plays of all different kinds and pick up the rules from there.
For many of us, especially as new players, DND can be rather intimidating as we are told; “You can literally do anything.”
Instead of being told hey you can do anything! And leaving that up to the players to figure out as they grow, I thought about trying to speed up the process. In MOTW, each character has a “basic move set”
In MOTW, you can use your skills as a bonus to rolling 2d6. Based on the resultant you are able to do what you want exactly or with some penalty, receive answers to a predetermined list of questions for investigation, or vague type of action events for combat.
This helps people who just started playing this game understand what options they might have in any given situation. I will copy and paste some of the basic moves here for you, then explain them:
Role Play:
There are a few skills in both of these games that can be rolled with dice to determine the outcome of a situation. What I am a fan of is depending on how you rank your RP rolling before or after what you say. If it’s your first time RPing, I’m going to take that into account and not penalize you for incongruous (odd/strange/awkward) role play. Therefore, if it’s your first time, or you’re still a bit new I will mainly let the dice drive the scenario.
If you have been playing for a while or happen to RP an encounter really well, by perhaps guessing the motivations of an NPC or doing research on what makes certain people tick or even having an innate knowledge of what to say to get out of a sticky situation, I will give what you roll a bonus. Rolling a natural one in a skill check doesn’t always mean failure and it’s a bit silly to have dice only determine the entire pacing of a game. In combat, that’s a different story. Someone could always dodge luckily.
Moving on to exactly what I mean… When I am talking about MOTW vs DND in terms of RP there are questions that automatically get answered after a rolling of the dice.
Note: much of the technical information has been removed.
Manipulate Someone: Once you have given them a reason, tell them what you want them to do and roll
Critically succeeding the DC:
Not only do they do what you want right now, they also become your ally for the rest of the mystery (or, if you do enough for them, permanently).
Beating the difficulty check (DC):
Then they’ll do it for the reason you gave them. If you asked too much, they’ll tell you the minimum it would take for them to do it (or if there’s no way they’d do it).
Meeting the DC:
They’ll do it, but only if you do something for them right now to show that you mean it. If you asked too much, they’ll tell you what, if anything, it would take for them to do it.
MOTW goes into how you can use this skill against other people around the table but I do not like taking agency away from players. You cannot mind control people into doing what you want them to do without their permission out of game. What you can do is be extra convincing after figuring out the drives, motivations, fears, and loves of your fellow adventurers.
Let’s break down what it would take to do this in DND to manipulate someone (persuasion, deception, intimidation)
First you would have to set the scene. You must give someone a reason for them to do what you want.
The reason must be a good reason and you should do this before you interact with anyone regardless of if it’s someone at the table or an NPC. How can we do this if we just met them?? Ask questions. Appeal to their nature after you discover what their nature is. Ask them why they’re doing what their doing. Take notes and use that in the future. Certainly sometimes, you can’t get to know someone if you’re running from an avalanche but if some assassins jump you in the middle of the night there are many questions that can be asked to the DM and in some cases the enemy.
If you ask the enemy who sent you, and they say nothing, they’re probably a trained assassin or mercenary doing a gig for money. If they sneer at you, perhaps they have some sort of vendetta or know you personally. After the battle they might have a note with a meeting location, or a book of matches from a bar where they picked up the contract. DMs all around the world are trying to make their setting as realistic as possible with as many real-world consequences as they can. If you go to a king who is running an entire country, he might not be so warm and understanding with plenty of time to get to know you and trust you. Choose your words and diplomat (or Face of the Party) wisely as whoever speaks up first will be required to make the check (unless multiple people are helping tell the story which would allow advantage on whoever spoke first/most).
As stated above sometimes there are things that people won’t do and there are situations that can be more pressing than them listening to your persuasion. Remember what happened with Matches and his horse. A Grand Theft Equis like that against an NPC with a pepperbox and +7/1d10+5 could have started a very sad and quick beginning to our campaign. If there had been less reign tugging and more communication, (Like asking where are you going oh Nightstone hey us too I think, yooo we’re all going to the same place why not tag along) it probably would have worked out better for everyone but here we are.
I decided to write this up as when we begin our 3rd session, there will be a fight you absolutely cannot win (each being at 1 hp and outnumbered). You will definitely have to communicate effectively and consider all your options.
Learning about your surroundings:
Investigate a Mystery (MOTW):
When you investigate a mystery, roll.
On a marginal success gain the answer to 1 question, on a higher success gain 2, on a critical success gain the answer to any question.
- What happened here?
- What sort of creature is it?
- What can it do?
- How many of them are there?
- What can hurt it?
- What are the monster’s weaknesses?
- Where did it go?
- Lets us know where to go next to track it
- What was it going to do?
- What is being concealed here?
Read A Bad Situation (MOTW):
When you look around and read a bad situation, roll
Marginal success grants the answer to 1, high success grants answer to 3, critical grants any 3 questions answered.
- What’s my best way in?
- What’s my best way out?
- Are there any dangers we haven’t noticed?
- What’s the biggest threat?
- What’s most vulnerable to me?
- What’s the best way to protect the victims?
I have underlined questions that I feel give the most information for the least price to pay (a successful die roll).
Keep in mind that none of these questions were asked to your GPS (Goblin Positioning System) and could have resulted in a different type of first encounter to the misty caves north of Nightstone. Now this goblin was not given a benefit for betraying his comrades other than getting some of the loot from the town. You could have sent him back empty handed while hiding behind a hill promising him the rest of the loot he couldn’t carry if he came back with information. Or you could have scouted the cavern entrance to the hill.
Combat:
There are other things to do besides attack and run away. I saw some awesome use of light to aid others who could not see, only a natural 20 from a goblin arrow took that benefit away from you. A choice I made when I saw Poy’s total hit points.
Continue to keep working together, aiding others, getting into advantageous (flanking) situations, playing to your strengths, protecting your allies, and one of the best things about MOTW combat is on a great success you can force the enemy where you want them. It takes enough effort in DND to get into combat without taking a ton of damage, much more to get into an advantageous position. If you can use your strengths (deception, intimidation, athletics, even performance) you can creatively get the enemies to another location. Use terrain, cover, trickery, stealth, all to your advantage.
Kiting is a MOBA skill that can be used to varying degrees of success in DND at low lever almost everything is bigger and stronger and faster than you are. But at hiring levels with more skills at your disposal you can effectively disengage, parry, counterattack, as you move away from attack of opportunities.
Had you all been able to see in the caves, there were many nooks and crannies that only the goblins could fit through (ogres with squeezing at a huge deficit to their “to hit” and mobility). Had you scouted and fled the enemies would be on high alert but your effective vision (based on a memory of a description) may have been increased. Another opportunity would have been to look for alternative less guarded entrances of which there was 1.