Dangers

Hazards Monsters Running combat

Dangers are likely to hurt the PCs or the things they care about. There are two basic types of danger:

Hazards are environmental dangers, like traps, treacherous terrain, or weather.

Monsters are active dangers, usually things with intent; adversaries that the PCs can fight (or fight off ).

PCs usually encounter dangers when they're on an expedition, or when things get bad and a danger shows up in town. Ultimately, they're just elements of the fiction: you frame a scene that includes a danger (or introduce one into a scene), you describe the situation, you make a move using the danger, and you ask "what do you do?" Go from there.

Like any element of the fiction, dangers can be improvised. Much of this chapter, though, focuses on preparing dangers in advance. The last chunk of the chapter deals with running fights.

In this section

Dangers vs. threats
Hazards
Improvising a hazard
Damage from hazards
Preparing hazards
As a detailed description
As GM moves
As an impending doom
As player moves
As a combination
When you enter the Hall of Humility, choose 1:
Monster format
Monsters
Monster types
1 Concept
Tags
7 Special qualities Consider writing a special quality
10 Description Write as much or as little of a
11 Optional elements If the monster has nuanced mo-
THE ALMTAKERS, guardian Fae (group, large, Fae, magical, organized)
Instinct to protect its master
Running combat
Portray your characters with integrity.
But also, portray monsters as monsters.
Introducing monsters
The flow of battle
Foes they can't hurt
Fighting spirits
Multiple combatants
Abstracting groups
Keeping fights interesting
Make soft GM moves all the damn time.
Consider the momentum of the action
Maps, tokens, and minis