.04 Basic Moves

Overview

• This chapter holds the moves available to all characters, in two categories:
  basic (fights, negotiations, dangerous areas) and special (rarer, more specific
  situations — leveling, journeys, returning to town).
• All PCs have all basic and special moves, plus moves from their class.
• Each move is presented with its name, then its rules; some include discussion and
  play examples.

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Basic Moves

Hack and Slash

• When you attack an enemy in melee, roll+Str.
  • 10+: Deal your damage and avoid their attack. At your option, do +1d6 damage
    but expose yourself to the enemy's attack.
  • 7–9: Deal your damage and the enemy makes an attack against you.
• For attacking a prepared enemy. If the enemy isn't prepared (unaware, restrained,
  helpless), it's not hack and slash — you just deal your damage or murder them outright.
• The counterattack can be any GM move made directly with that creature.
• An "attack" is any action with a chance of causing physical harm. Attacking a dragon's
  inch-thick magical scales with a typical sword isn't an attack — no harm possible —
  unless circumstances make it one (e.g., the soft underbelly).
• If the trigger could reasonably hurt multiple targets, roll once and apply damage to
  each (each gets their armor).
• Attacks may have additional effects per the trigger, circumstances, or weapons —
  knocking down, restraining, splatter.

Volley

• When you take aim and shoot at an enemy at range, roll+Dex.
  • 10+: Clear shot — deal your damage.
  • 7–9: Choose one (dealing your damage either way):
    • Move to get the shot, placing you in danger as described by the GM
    • Take what you can get: -1d6 damage
    • Take several shots: reduce your ammo by one
• Covers drawing, aiming, firing/throwing. Ranged advantage: less likely to be attacked
  back; cost: ammunition and clear shots.
• On a 7–9, read "danger" broadly — bad footing, ending in a sword's path, losing your
  sniper nest. It's impending and prompts "What do you do?" — often forcing defy danger.
• Thrown weapons without ammo: can't choose the ammo option; pick from the other two.

Defy Danger

• When you act despite an imminent threat or suffer a calamity, say how you deal with
  it and roll:
  • Powering through: +Str
  • Getting out of the way / acting fast: +Dex
  • Enduring: +Con
  • Quick thinking: +Int
  • Mental fortitude: +Wis
  • Charm and social grace: +Cha
  • 10+: You do what you set out to; the threat doesn't come to bear.
  • 7–9: You stumble, hesitate, or flinch — the GM offers a worse outcome, hard
    bargain, or ugly choice.
• The catch-all move: for when you clearly should roll but no other move applies. Also
  applies when making another move despite danger not covered by that move (hack and
  slash assumes trading blows; wall spikes are a different danger).
• Danger = anything requiring resilience, concentration, or poise. Usually called for by
  the GM, who tells you what the danger is.
• The stat depends on your action, and the action must actually trigger the move —
  you can't charm an icy floor. A leap over the ice is Str; careful footing is Dex.

Defend

• When you stand in defense of a person, item, or location under attack, roll+Con.
  • 10+: hold 3. 7–9: hold 1.
• As long as you stand in defense, when you or the thing you defend is attacked, spend
  hold 1-for-1 to choose:
  • Redirect the attack from the thing you defend to yourself
  • Halve the attack's effect or damage
  • Open up the attacker to an ally: that ally gets +1 forward against the attacker
  • Deal damage to the attacker equal to your level
• Defending = standing nearby and focusing on preventing attacks. Leave or stop paying
  attention → you lose any hold.
• Hold is only spent when someone attacks you or the defended thing. Options depend on
  the attacker and attack type — you can't deal damage to an attacker you can't reach.
• An attack is any interferable action with harmful effects: swords, arrows, spells,
  grabs, charges.
• Non-damage attacks: "halving" means the attacker gets some of what they want, not all —
  work it out with the GM; if you can't agree, you can't choose that option.
• Defending yourself is an option — it amounts to giving up attacking to stay safe.

Spout Lore

• When you consult your accumulated knowledge about something, roll+Int.
  • 10+: the GM tells you something interesting and useful about the subject,
    relevant to your situation.
  • 7–9: the GM tells you something interesting — making it useful is on you.
  • The GM may ask "How do you know this?" — tell the truth, now.
• Any time you search your memory for knowledge or facts. Like consulting a bestiary,
  travel guide, or library — you get facts; 10+ shows how they're immediately useful.
• On a miss, the GM's move often involves the time spent thinking (missing the goblin
  behind you, the tripwire) or reveals an unwelcome truth.
• The answers are always true, even if the GM made them up on the spot.

Discern Realities

• When you closely study a situation or person, roll+Wis.
  • 10+: ask the GM 3 questions. 7–9: ask 1.
  • Either way, take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
• Questions (ask from the list):
  • What happened here recently?
  • What is about to happen?
  • What should I be on the lookout for?
  • What here is useful or valuable to me?
  • Who's really in control here?
  • What here is not what it appears to be?
• Requires closely observing the target — interacting with it or watching someone
  else do so. Not a head-stick-in-the-door scan: look under and around things, tap walls,
  check for weird dust.
• It's about the bigger picture, not one detail — e.g., why the kobold mage stays at
  the far end of the hall (he's pulling energy from the room behind him).
• Answers are always honest — even if the GM figures them out on the spot — and once
  given, set in stone. Use it to find the truth behind illusions.
• Only list questions unless a move says otherwise; a non-list question gets a retry or
  an equivalent list question. "Nothing, sorry" is a valid answer.

Parley

• When you have leverage on a GM character and manipulate them, roll+Cha. Leverage is
  something they need or want.
  • 10+: they do what you ask if you first promise what they ask of you.
  • 7–9: they'll do it, but need some concrete assurance of your promise, right now.
• Covers intimidation, diplomacy, anything holding a promise or threat over someone.
  Tone doesn't matter; leverage can be nasty or nice.
• Merely asking politely isn't parley — that's just talking. You need leverage: something
  that could lure them (a sack of gold, or a punch in the face).
• What counts depends on the people and the request — death threats work on a lone goblin;
  a goblin with his gang may prefer to fight.
• On a 7+, they ask for something related to your leverage (release, a favor, etc.).
  10+ = a clear, unambiguous promise suffices; 7–9 = they need assurance now (the
  fresh wolf pelt, before they act).
• You don't actually have to keep your promise — but oath-breakers don't get dealt with
  kindly in the future.
• You may offer a promise ("flee and I'll let you live"); the target decides whether
  that's the promise they want or names another.

Aid or Interfere

• When you help or hinder someone, roll+bond with them.
  • 10+: they take +1 or -2 to their roll, your choice.
  • 7–9: they still get the modifier, but you also expose yourself to danger,
    retribution, or cost.
• When two players should roll against each other, the defender interferes with the
  attacker — sabotage, arguing against a parley, being shifty and hard to discern. It's
  getting in the way of another player's success.
• Always ask how they're aiding/interfering — if they can answer, the move triggers.
  The GM may need to point out interference players don't notice.
• Aid: if the player can explain how they help and it makes sense, let them roll.
• Multiple aiders/interferers: the target gets +1 or -2 only once, no matter how many
  people pile on.

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Special Moves

Last Breath

• When you're dying you catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the Black Gates of Death's
  Kingdom (the GM describes it). Then roll — just roll, +nothing (Death doesn't care
  how tough or cool you are).
  • 10+: You've cheated death — a bad spot, but alive.
  • 7–9: Death offers a bargain. Take it and stabilize, or refuse and pass
    beyond the Black Gates.
  • 6-: Your fate is sealed — marked as Death's own; the GM tells you when.
• A brush with death, succeed or fail, is a significant moment that should always lead
  to change.
• GM notes: on 7–9, offer a real choice with significant consequence, tailored to what
  Death knows of the character. On a miss, death is inevitable — instant, or slow
  ("a week to live"); the player may accept death and make a new character as normal.

Encumbrance

• When you make a move while carrying weight you may be encumbered. If your weight
  carried is:
  • ≤ Load: no penalty
  • ≤ Load+2: -1 ongoing until you lighten your burden
  • > Load+2: drop at least 1 weight and roll at -1, or automatically fail
• A PC's Load is set by class and Str.
• Only applies to what a person could walk around with and still act — a boulder on your
  back isn't encumbrance, it just affects what moves you can make in the fiction.

Make Camp

• When you settle in to rest, consume a ration. Somewhere dangerous, decide the
  watch order too.
• With enough XP, you may level up.
• After at least a few uninterrupted hours of sleep, heal damage equal to half your max HP.
• You usually camp to do other things: prepare spells, commune, sleep. Stopping to catch
  your breath for more than an hour or so is probably making camp.
• A night in an inn or house counts too — regain HP as usual, but only mark a ration if
  eating your own food, not paid meals or hospitality.

Take Watch

• When you're on watch and something approaches the camp, roll+Wis.
  • 10+: You wake the camp and prepare a response — everyone in camp takes +1 forward.
  • 7–9: You react a moment too late — companions are awake, with weapons and armor,
    but little else and no time to prepare.
  • Miss: whatever lurks outside the campfire's light has the drop on you.

Undertake a Perilous Journey

• When you travel through hostile territory, choose one party member as
  trailblazer, one to scout ahead, and one to quartermaster. Each character
  with a job rolls+Wis.
  • 10+:
    • Quartermaster reduces rations required by one
    • Trailblazer reduces travel time (GM says by how much)
    • Scout spots trouble quickly enough to get the drop on it
  • 7–9: each role performs as expected — normal rations, normal duration, no one
    gets the drop on anyone.
• No character takes more than one job. Not enough members (or a job unassigned)? Treat
  that job as assigned with a rolled 6.
• Distance is measured in rations — one ration = supplies for a day. Journeys cost
  more rations when long or slow.
• One roll covers the entire trip — not per day.
• Only applies when you know where you're going. Setting off to explore isn't a
  perilous journey — that's wandering: use up rations as you camp, and the GM reveals
  the world as you discover it.

Level Up

• When you have downtime (hours or days) and XP equal to (or greater than) your current
  level+7:
  • Subtract your current level+7 from your XP.
  • Increase your level by 1.
  • Choose a new advanced move from your class.
  • If the wizard: also add a new spell to your spellbook.
  • Choose one stat and increase it by 1 (may change the modifier). Raising
    Constitution raises max and current HP. Ability scores cap at 18.

End of Session

• When you reach the end of a session:
  • Choose one bond that feels resolved (completely explored, no longer relevant, or
    otherwise). Ask the bonded player if they agree — if so, mark XP and write a new
    bond with whomever you wish.
  • Look at your alignment: if you fulfilled it at least once this session, mark XP.
  • Answer these three questions as a group — for each "yes," everyone marks XP:
    • Did we learn something new and important about the world?
    • Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?
    • Did we loot a memorable treasure?

Carouse

• When you return triumphant and throw a big party, spend 100 Wealth and roll
  +1 for every extra 100 Wealth spent.
  • 10+: choose 3. 7–9: choose 1. Miss: you still choose one, but
    things get really out of hand (the GM says how).
  • You befriend a useful NPC.
  • You hear rumors of an opportunity.
  • You gain useful information.
  • You are not entangled, ensorcelled, or tricked.
• You can only carouse when you return triumphant — that's what draws the revelers.
  No proclaimed success or failure, no party.

Supply

• When you go to buy something with gold on hand: readily available in the settlement?
  Buy at market price. Something special, beyond the local usual, or non-mundane?
  Roll+Cha.
  • 10+: you find it at a fair price.
  • 7–9: pay more, or settle for something close but not exact — the GM gives the options.

Recover

• When you do nothing but rest in comfort and safety after a day of rest you recover
  all your HP.
• After three days of rest, remove one debility of your choice.
• Under a healer's care (magical or otherwise): heal a debility for every two days of
  rest instead.

Recruit

• When you put out word that you're looking to hire help, roll:
  • +1 if you make it known your pay is generous
  • +1 if you make it known what you're setting out to do
  • +1 if you make it known they'll get a share of whatever you find
  • +1 if you have a useful reputation around these parts
  • 10+: your pick of skilled applicants; hire whomever, no penalty for passing.
  • 7–9: settle for someone close to what you want, or turn them away.
  • Miss: someone influential and ill-suited (foolhardy youth, loose-cannon, veiled
    enemy) wants to come — bring them and take the consequences or turn them away.
• Turning away applicants: take -1 forward to recruit.

Outstanding Warrants

• When you return to a civilized place in which you've caused trouble before,
  roll+Cha.
  • 10+: word has spread of your deeds — everyone recognizes you.
  • 7–9: as above, and the GM chooses a complication:
    • The local constabulary has a warrant out for your arrest.
    • Someone has put a price on your head.
    • Someone important to you has been put in a bad spot as a result of your actions.
• Only for places where you've caused trouble — not every patch of civilization.
  Being publicly caught up in someone else's trouble still triggers this move.
• "Civilization" = villages, towns, cities of humans, elves, dwarves, halflings — but
  also any relatively lawful establishment of monstrous species (orcs, goblins). If the
  PCs stayed there as part of the community, it counts.

Bolster

• When you spend your leisure time in study, meditation, or hard practice, you gain
  preparation:
  • A week or two of preparation: 1 preparation.
  • A month or longer: 3 preparation.
• When your preparation pays off, spend 1 preparation for +1 to any roll — one
  preparation per roll.