[RPG] Soft vs hard moves in ambushes

dungeon-world

A recurring problem I have in Dungeon World is having an ambush or other hidden danger set up and not wanting my players to just blunder into it without giving them a chance. It seems that calling for a discern realities without them doing something to actively trigger it seems wrong and yet it seems equally wrong to assume that their characters would not be on guard. What I've been defaulting to is springing trap, ambush, ect, and saying "the danger is heading towards you, what do you do?" But this feel artificially fake and gets old after awhile. Players will never look for traps or ambushes if they are always given a chance to defy danger with no issue when the danger springs up. Yet just saying, take X damage feels unfair and worse, unfun.

–An example–

Player are inside a Kobold infested dungeon. I've Shown Signs of Approaching Danger by mentioning that the pictographs on the walls have all been marked with graffiti venerating dragons. I've drawn a map of the hall and left blanks to fill in as they move further down. The players entered through a large cave in and have alerted the inhabitants of their ingress. Thinking off screen and Giving Monsters Life the Kobolds would investigate and then plan an ambush. Beyond the limited foreshadowing already done, I don't know how to warn the players. This seems acceptable except that if I don't warn them and simply spring the ambush it is done via a soft move, most likely

  • Reveal an unwelcome truth
  • Show signs of an approaching threat
  • Put someone in a spot

prompting me to pick a target and ask them what they do, potentially opening up defy danger. This is instead of the via a harder move, probably one of

  • Use a monster, danger, or location move
  • Deal damage
  • Use up their resources

I know this isn't Appocalypse World, so doing what prep demands isn't part of it, but it feels like those are actually what would follow the fiction. However on a "fairness" or "fun" level that feels wrong.

How do I balance the moves here to make it feel appropriate to the danger the ambush presents without making my players feel like I've "cheated" them or made it unfair?

Best Answer

Mind Your Follow-Through

Note that Defy Danger starts out with:

When you act despite an imminent threat or suffer a calamity

Getting rushed by screaming kobold fanatics who've set themselves on lightning* is pretty calamitous, and if you hit on a 10+, that's great! But what it means is that the threat doesn't come to bear right now, not that it vanishes forever - "defy" doesn't mean "eliminate".

Yes, you are encouraged to start setting up the scene with softer moves, but all of these moves are things that are actually happening in the fiction. The players aren't trying to, like, counter and eliminate your moves or anything, they're also taking actions in the fiction and accomplishing their own things. They can manage to be both momentarily safe and still very much in danger.

So, you hit on a 10+. The screaming kobold fanatics haven't gone away. It's just that when the first one rushes into the innocuous-looking jar/carefully positioned Leyden mine and they both go up in a cloud of electroclasm and smoke, you're not right there with them.

Awful lot of jars in here, aren't there?

* no one ever said the path of the blue dragon fanatic would be easy

Mind Your Setup

Tell them the requirements or consequences and then ask is often underestimated, but it's an excellent way to extend the results of moves without having to write entirely new ones.

So if, for example, Stringfellow surveys the upcoming holosparkst, decides it's time for the better part of valor, and says he's diving out the nearest doorway, that does sound like Defy Danger too, doesn't it? But you can always say:

Sure, but things in here are ramping up rapidly. If you make it out, getting back in to help everyone else won't be nearly as easy.

Or:

Sure, but whatever that just kicked off is already cascading around the exits. You'll be taking 1d6 damage through armor just to try.

Or even:

Sure, but, gosh, there's all this smoke in here and your ears are still ringing from the blast. You can get out somewhere safely, but it's not entirely clear to you where that's going to be.

And then end with:

Is that alright?

And if it's not, then Stringfellow isn't going to dive out the door in the first place. His turn in the spotlight will be spent doing something else. And if it is, then even a 10+ on a Defy Danger will still leave Stringfellow in a bad position. It doesn't violate the spirit of the move to do this - accepting those known bad outcomes is just the cost of making the move in the first place.

Mind Your Prep

And, of course, if you knew all along that there'd be kobolds in these ruins and they laid traps like the dickens, you can sit down and craft custom moves to deal with this and take Defy Danger off the table as an initial reaction. Something like:

When Lightning's Claw springs their ambush on you, say who was the most cautious among you and have them roll +WIS. On a 10+, they pick 1. On a 7-9, the GM also picks 1. On a 6-, all 3:

  • You're right where they want you. Everyone takes -1 ongoing to all rolls to dodge or escape, until you're out.
  • You didn't see this coming. Pick someone else in the party to take the brunt of the first attack; the GM will make a move against them.
  • They timed this one perfectly. All their damage is best of 2 rolls, and when they gang up it adds +2 damage instead of +1.

But you don't need to haul something like that out all the time, just for when you want it to be a sufficiently big deal that a regular Defy Danger doesn't seem like it should be able to resolve things satisfyingly on its own.