PbtA games did not invent "Death Moves," but they are the ones I know. Take Grim World, which gives each class a default Death Move, and offers both class-specific and universal alternatives. There are a total of 48 in the book.The Thief's default (introductory flavor removed for brevity):>When you die, you steal something straight from the realm of the dead. It can be literally anything, except your own life. If you steal a soul, they come back to life, inhabiting your body. If you steal a magical artifact, it is found clutched in the hands of your corpse. If you steal invaluable knowledge, it can be found written in your blood on the walls around you.The Barbarian's:>When you die, you enter a deathless fury. For about a minute (to you), nothing else can move or take any actions at all, and you can do anything you want unopposed. When your time is up, only a moment has passed for everyone else, and the results of your actions all take effect at once. After one last line or a bellowing laugh or both, you die.The Ranger's:>When you die, you reveal that you were the bait for the ultimate trap. Reveal the nature of this trap now, be it an ambush, a misdirection, or an unexpected reveal. This trap should give your allies a major boon or advantage, or set up your enemies for destruction, or set major world events in motion. You may have had to become prey in the end, but you were always the hunter.Retirement, universal:>When death comes your way, you do everything you can to avoid it, but at a cost - you suffer a major, permanent injury, that forces you to retire from adventuring. You settle down somewhere to live out your retirement. Determine where you are settling down, and within a week, you’ll have a safe place set up for the other players to retreat to. The settlement you have settled down in will regard anyone you have a bond with fondly. In addition, choose one benefit: [perks based on type of settlement leadership](Continued.)
The Wizard's:>When you die, you cast your final, ultimate spell: Wish. Shout out your wish, but make it quick - you are dying, you know. The last thing you see before your body disintegrates into dust is reality twisting and thrashing to make your wish come true.The Cleric's:>When you die, your god will show up, in person, to escort your soul to the realm of the dead. Any witnessing your god will be stunned with awe, terror, or bliss, whichever is most appropriate. Your god will grant you a final request. If you request vengeance, the ground your god walks will forever be cursed and every attack it makes will scar the land. If you request anything else, whatever your god touches while completing the task will be eternally consecrated. In either case, your grave becomes a holy place, and any petitioner who visits your grave with an appropriate offering can speak to your god directly.The Shaman's:>When you die, all of your existing totems shatter and release the spirits held within. A chrysalis of spiritual energy begins forming near your body. Random objects from the environment and pieces of broken totem fly into the cocoon. Finally, the spiritual maelstrom dissipates. There on the ground is your totemic legacy: an artifact of great power.>Work with the GM to create a powerful magic item. It could be an amulet, or spear, or any type of object. Its magical effects should be related to what you desired or stood for in life. Let this be your heirloom, Shaman, your spirit’s endowment to future generations.What do you think of Death Moves such as these? On one hand, they can be a cool way to incentivize PCs to be bold and take risks; if they die, they go out in a blaze of glory. On the other hand, they can create awkward scenarios like "Well, the Barbarian died (probably because they were deliberately trying to get themselves killed). Now, nothing else in the battle matters, because the Barbarian gets to wipe out all the enemies unopposed."
>>96964665Why does Ranger always gets the lamest abilities? Is it because the class is easily replaceable by fighter with few ranks in forestry?
>>96964689>What do you think of Death Moves such as these?I remember Gubat Banwa had ultimate abilities function like this - ultimate power at the cost of permakilling your character. In practice, nobody used them so they got redone completely to be weaker but not lethal.Players don't like having their characters die, especially in more-or-less random way trpgs tend to kill characters. Death moves do remarkably little to sweeten the pill of "oh my character got randomly critted to death" and if you DO plan on heroic or impactful death in a story-focused game, you tend to work with GM on that, so "death move" does remarkably little in this case too.All in all, I find these rather pointless.
>>96964786Yes, in these examples, the Wizard, the Cleric, and the Shaman have much broader and less defined Death Moves, simply because they have "Magic can do just about anything, right, right?" privilege.For example, the Fae gets this as their default Death Move:>Perfect Wish>In your final moments, all the goodwill and friendship you have enjoyed in your life manifest in one final perfect wish for one person you name. When you die, name one person that you grant a perfect wish to. Their wish, no matter what it is, will come true and at its core effects will turn out as the wisher intends, though there may be longer reaching consequences out of their control.In theory, the Ranger could "set major world events in motion" with their sheer trapmaking skills. That is fairly broad. Failing that, the player could just choose one of the universal Death Moves instead.
>>96964905>In theory, the Ranger could "set major world events in motion" with their sheer trapmaking skills.Which is doubly weird considering how usually rangers are autistic forest dudes who talk with animals and shit, and then one just becomes a criminal fucking mastermind as he lays dying.
>>96964905Or how about the Namer's?>The Unnameable>In your final moments, you speak aloud the name of something that should not be named: Life, Death, a God, or a concept, like Time or Gravity. In speaking this true name, you alter some of your target’s nature. When you die, tell us what you’re naming, and what you’re changing about it - this change takes place immediately and suddenly, and is a permanent change.Meanwhile, the Skirmisher's is a little lame:>Final Throw>When you die, you see one last opportunity for a strike before the life drains from you completely. Throw your spear at any enemy you can see. A creature of lesser or average power is killed instantly. More powerful creatures are dealt a significant blow or their weakness is revealed to your allies. If your Fulcrum still lives, they can deal their maximum damage to the same target.>>96964963Yes, it is indeed a little weird. To give the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it is simply an extension of the idea that Rangers can set cunning traps. In this case, it is the kind of trap that can start or end world wars.
>>96964665>>96964689>>96964905>>96965041>Grim world>When you die you can cast super-cool spell, have the Big G show up to ascend you to heaven in person, etc.I'm not entirely sure they understand what "Grim" means.>Final ThrowThis is more in line with what bI'd expect but in comparison to the others it's laughable.2hu, why are you reading bad systems again?
>>96964665>>96964689I would prefer there be a little more structure to them, but I do like the concept overall, and I think the examples here are pretty neat! Something of a consolation prize for your character dying, or an incentive to be less cautious near the end of the story. Assuming these are from PbtA games (hence "Moves"), I imagine you get some sense of how close you are to the campaign's climax.I'd be curious how this interacts with the idea of making a new character, though. You wouldn't want a circumstance where each session someone dies, solves a bunch of problems with their death, and then rolls up a new character for next time.
>>96965805I think that Grim World's Death Moves fail to take into account one crucial factor: resurrection is possible. A handful of Death Moves can do it. For example, the Thief's has already been described, but we also have this one Death Move for the Shaman:>The Parting of the Veil>Your flesh has succumbed, and so it is time for your soul to leave this world for the spirit world. Before you fade away completely, there is a single moment in which your consciousness merges with the veil between the two worlds. When you die, you can allow a single soul passage between the two worlds. Choose one:> Name one character other than yourself whose soul was in Death’s possession: that character is returned to life, in their prime, free of any injuries (physical or mental) and with their memories intact.> Name one character who has previously evaded Death’s cold grasp. Their time is up, and their soul follows yours to the other sideThis is a fair bit better than the Thief's, in many respects, since the resurrected person does not inhabit an already-injured body sprawled out on the floor.Suppose the Barbarian, Cleric, Wizard, Fae, etc. bites it. They do their time stop massacre, godly miracle, super-powerful wish, or whatnot. Some time later, the Shaman also dies, and just... brings back the other character for another round? With a Death Move ready to go? While the player has probably brought in a new PC, also with their own Death Move ready to go?I do not know. It seems awkward.
>>96964665While these are fun, I think they make the classic mistake of painting the player characters as far bigger, crazier badasses than they can ever actually be in the game. A thief who can snatch a random item from the realm of the dead even though he had only slightly above average odds to pickpocket people beforehand. The wizard who could only sling a few cantrips bends all of reality to his will with his dying breath.And it's all the more retarded when some of the other effects are shit like the warrior taking one last attack or revealing their master plan that they put a rope snare down before the fight or some piddling, minor bullshit. Either the characters are supernatural forces of god-like influence, or they're bog standard, mudcore nobodies, who die with a pathetic last attempt to do anything at all. Make up your fucking mind.
>>96968989>revealing their master plan that they put a rope snare down before the fight>This trap should give your allies a major boon or advantage, or set up your enemies for destruction, or set major world events in motion. You may have had to become prey in the end, but you were always the hunter.>SET MAJOR WORLD EVENTS IN MOTION
>>96964665Extremely gay.
>>96969012You just have to go really hard on the butterfly effect.>>96964839I agree, and think the pretense that characters can just die in a regular combat needs to go altogether. The "death move" should instead be an "okay we're doing this for real now" option upon losing, ratcheting up the stakes at the potential cost of their character. That still gives agency to the player (so they can mechanically express that their character really cares about this outcome) without immediately having to retire them.
>>96965041>One guy can cast wish>One guy can stop time (relative to everyone else)>One guy can change major world events or set off a chain of events that destroys their enemy>One summons a literal god>This final guy can... throw their spear and deal a decent amount of damageWho the fuck wrote that last one
>>96970567One Grim World Death Move I find particularly funny is the default of the Cultist. This class/playbook is genuinely, earnestly devoted to some elder god, so what happens when the Cultist dies?>That Is Not Dead>Your life is but a small part of the grand machinations of your cult. When you die and actually stay dead, your body burns a mark into the ground where you lie. This mark is not in the shape of your mortal form, but rather, it is in the shape of your great and terrible god. The eldritch being you have worshiped all this time uses this shape as a gateway into this world, and steps through into our reality. This elder god now walks the world, and its wrath will be terrible and incomprehensible. Describe this god, and tell us the first thing it is going to do now that it is in our world.Permanently summoning an elder god, obviously.
>>96971680>You die>and we all roll characters for our new campaign!
