There will be an option for my players to overthrow the ethically questionable leader of a town. It is governed through a meritocracy, where at any point a challenger can overthrow the current mayor by winning in both a challenge of combat and intelligence.
Is there an interesting way to pit a player against the current NPC mayor in a battle of wits that isn't "Roll to see if your a smart boy"?
>>48182310
One way would be to challenge the player to a legit game you're good at--like chess or whatever. Alternatively, fuse the combat/wit elements together somehow (like those boxing/chess matches?), or use one end to support the other (like a Last Crusade-style lottery of weapons/armour with deceptive appearances, and you choose which to go into battle with).
Are you expecting foul play? Is cheating/fudging/favouritism/poisoning a possible outcome?
>>48182643
Considering that it would be a single player at a time vying for the position, I think that taking a player out of session to play chess would be a little disruptive, though I guess I could just say that we'd play after the session was done and take it from there.
I like the idea of fusing them together the most. If you can think of a way to introduce a test of intelligence or tactics into arena combat, I'm open to it.
If they bring up any form of deception or bluffing, I'd have them make a check for it. It's totally reasonable to think that anyone could try to game the meritocracy to win, and would be rewarded accordingly if they were good enough at it.
5e is such shit. Why are you playing it when Dungeon World is so much better and available for free? Oh that's right, there is no good reason, except "w-w-well it's popular"
Shit reason desu, give Dungeon World a try and you'll see how much DnD has been holding you back.
>>48182839
Also, keep the idea of "puzzle boss" in mind. Some PCs might not need to rely so much on their equipment, so have the game of wits affect all PCs in some way or another.
>>48182877
I'm sincerely interested, what pros and cons come with playing dungeon world over 5E (aside from being free)?
I've just really never heard rave reviews about DW
Personally I would have the 'challenge of intelligence' be something like 'solve a murder mystery'. Works especially well in small towns where the mayor is also the justice and is expected to do investigations.
This lets you have clues, and get away from just rolling checks (which I too dislike). Of course if you want to spice it up have the murder mystery game set up so that it uncovers a real murder by the ethically questionable leader guy.
>>48183626
Can you expand on this, I'm not sure I understand
>>48183705
Hmm I kinda like that. I'll see what I can develop, it's a pretty big town so there should be plenty to work with
>>48183704
Don't respond to bait, and don't bother.
DW misses the point of Apocalypse World entirely, and poorly tacks on a vestige of D&D.
>>48182310
Easiest way would be to just spice up the combat challenge. Each enter the arena without equipment, need to use the terrain, traps and weapons present to win. Make the guy you enough that they'll have to be creative to win.
>>48183820
This would fit pretty well with what I had in mind too; The mayor gets to choose the layout of the combat arena, so he'll make it in his favor. Not sure if I'm experienced enough to find the fine line between challenging and impossibly difficult though. I'd also want to avoid them finding some dumb workaround and finding no good reason to prohibit it.
>>48182839
>Two turns, white to move.
It's really not that hard.
>>48183909
Isn't "some dumb workaround" the point? They're outsmarting the whole challenge.
>>48183705
>>48183790
And then he tries to murder the PCs
>>48184392
Ideally it wouldn't be so easy to take control of an entire city through loopholes.
>>48184446
That's the best case scenario honestly, they've had stupid good rolls so far and it's made it a lot less fun imo
The best option here is, of course, a variant on Iocane Powder.
I, the PC, provide the mayor with two identical pills and a glass of water. I tell him that one of them is poison, the other is harmless, and he has to decide whether I'm the sort of person to put the poison in my own pill, or my enemy's.He can't win either way. Both pills are harmless. The poison's in the water. I dry swallow my pill.
>>48187662
Not OP, but I like that. You're still technically correct in that one of them is poison. They'd be hard-pressed to get that right I'd imagine, assuming they aren't in this thread right now.
