I've recently been coming to realize in my Dungeon World game that my barbarian player's AOE taunt mechanic ("What Are You Waiting For?") is somewhat of a disruptive, aggravating move. For people who aren't familiar with it offhand:
What Are You Waiting For?
When you cry out a challenge to your enemies, roll+Con. ✴On a 10+ they treat you as the most obvious threat to be dealt with and ignore your companions, take +2 damage ongoing against them. ✴On a 7–9 only a few (the weakest or most foolhardy among them) fall prey to your taunting.
- It feels like an MMO mechanic – it jerks away "threat," in a fairly
nonsense manner, just because the barbarian is yelling a challenge.
Not the guy who was just peppering you with arrows, not the rogue stabbing you in the ribs: his large friend
is now the larger concern because he shouted at you. - It's somewhat narratively limiting – unless I want it to just end immediately after someone else performs a threatening action, which feels
impotent, it means everyone in the fight is now just trying to kill
the barbarian. Which probably wouldn't be quite as much of an issue,
except… - It adds to the barbarian's already-ludicrous damage potential.
The barbarian in question used his 2nd level move to get Appetite
for Destruction and take Merciless from the fighter move set, so
with a two-handed sword, anytime he taunts then successfully gets
into melee and swings, he's doing 1d10+1d4+3 damage. Assuming it's
something he can actually fight, it's probably dead on the floor at
this point.
Essentially, either I need to learn better ways to deal with this move and still provide a challenge to my players, or – and the barbarian's player is open to this – I need to find a way to tweak, alter, or replace What Are You Waiting For with something that actually makes sense to me in the context of the game.
Best Answer
What are you waiting for? is fine, as-is
On a success all enemies focus attacks on the barbarian. If they are a group of similar enemies it's just 1 damage roll with a +1 per enemy beyond the first in that group. The barbarian's +2 damage vs them balances this out. It's a powerful move but it's balanced because if the combat doesn't end in a few turns the barbarian will likely be making a Last Breath move as a result.
It is like an MMO move, that's not a problem
Dungeon World is a high-fantasy game of adventure and exploits, not a gritty realistic simulation of a world. Characters can, and often will, do incredible deeds and their unique powers granted by their class define them. If anyone else other than the barbarian tried this they would have no effect, but the barbarian, this mass of rage and bravado, is capable of pulling all focus onto him. it's not so much that the enemies have had their honor/pride injured and must make an attack as a result, but that the barbarian has effectively managed to make them all believe he is the biggest and baddest threat to them through sheer force of will and physicality. The fact that you only get a few of the dumbest (and probably least threatening) enemies focused on you on a partial success is key to this not being an automatic taunt button like a tank would have in an MMO. It's not going to be a rinse and repeat strategy.
It's not unbalanced
The cleric can also grab some advanced moves to effectively up their damage to above lvl 1 fighter levels as well, it's just part of the game. In taking those damage centric moves, they are not taking moves that give them more abilities or utility throughout other areas of the game.