If there’s one huge lesson I’ve learned from reading (and translating) Dungeon World, it’s this: Think dangerous.
It’s an immensely useful thought to keep in your head when you run action-oriented, adventure-filled fantasy romps. Nothing is protected; everything is permitted; whenever you create something, immediately start thinking about how it can be put in danger.
This doesn’t mean Nadav seeks to push Margaret deliberately into danger. If she behaves in a stupid way, the players will care less for her, and might even decide not to rescue her. It only means he should be open to putting her in danger if it seems like the right thing to do, both story-wise and characterization-wise.
When the party first descended into the catacombs, Nadav asked himself: What is Margaret going to do? He wasn’t sure; that is, until she made her Fear check. That means, he figured, she’s obviously not afraid. Which means she’ll go with her instinct – protecting her love’s memory. Bogovians have Strength as their main Attribute… they tend to be very forward, in your face kind of people. So…
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Margaret’s turn is very simple – she runs up, grabs something, then runs down. She doesn’t even manage to get close enough to the beast to hit it, which is fine, it doesn’t matter – Nadav just wants her to make a mess of the situation.
Muna’s action could have been a Grapple (page 73), but Nadav doesn’t really mind just foregoing searching for the specific rule, instead having a simple Strength contest. Rotem should have insisted on Grapple, however, since it’s done with Fighting, and while Muna’s Fighting is just like her Strength (d6), Margaret doesn’t have Fighting, and therefore she would have rolled a d4-2 instead of her d6 Strength.
Muna’s inner monologue is inspired by her Heroic Hindrance, but I would claim it would have deserved a Benny anyway, since it was cool and properly dramatic.
Related RPG article: Stratified NPC Complexity
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