Okay, well, it's usually rolling under 7 I have trouble with.
I know perfectly well what to do when you completely fail a roll during combat-- thing you're fighting hurts you!
But when there's no threat around, I have trouble. You're walking through the halls of Castle Amber, talking to a cousin, when you realize-- wait, have I ever heard of this thing we're talking about before? Do I remember something useful about this?
Roll INT: 5.
Well, an ogre isn't gonna jump out and attack you, and you're not gonna trip and fall downstairs, so I guess I'll give you 1 xp and -1.
I'm getting a little tired of that. (For one thing, it seems like not nearly enough punishment to earn an xp.)
So I went to the original Dungeon World, my favorite 2-die-6-rolling rpg, to refresh myself on what can be done when it's time for a punishment (as Daria once said
https://y.yarn.co/1646a151-fa4...1089f_screenshot.jpg .)
1. Use a monster move (ogre shows up), or a location move (trap). Yeah, I grasp that stuff. I want more options. Moving on...
2. Danger move. Ah-
ha. In this game, a thing like that could be: You roll a 6, get 1 xp, take -1 forward... and The Gray Men make a little more progress toward whatever their goal is. So it's still true that nothing big happens to you
now, but it's coming... You might even get a hint about it, although not one that's useful in helping you fight against the threat.
Now that's interesting, the GM said to himself...
3. Use up the PC's resources: You roll a 6, and then the next time you try to buy something in the city, it turns out that Random's put you on a fixed allowance for a while... I don't
wanna do that very much... but I
could...
Out in the Shadows, of course, it could just be that something useful falls out of your pack and off a cliff, or that your pocket gets picked. Good to remind me. But we were discussing Safe-At-Home-In-A-Castle-type failures...
4. Turn their action back on them: "Think about the benefits a move might grant a character and turn them around in a negative way. Alternately, grant the same advantage to someone who has it out for the characters." If Ballad has learned of Duke Horst’s men approaching from the east, maybe a scout has spotted her, too. I sort of pulled this, a little, with the axe-throwing contest...
5. Give an opportunity that fits the PC's abilities/desires... In other words, suddenly, an extremely tempting chance to get in trouble appears! Yeah, I'll probably be using THAT...
6 (unofficial): and then there's the idea that I might just not grant xp in a Safe At Home situation. No, sorry, you failed your INT roll and you don't remember anything useful, although nothing very bad happens except that it's a bit embarrassing how it looked like you were about to say something brilliant and then nope, you got nothing. Take -1 forward.