No One Is an Island, Part 2: Sway

Earlier this week, Helena revealed Read Someone, our first social move about figuring out someone's motives.

Today I want to discuss the other big social move, used to talk to someone else and convince them to do what you want.

For our initial reference, here is Parley from Dungeon World.

Parley
When you have leverage on a GM Character and manipulate them, roll+Cha. Leverage is something they need or want. ✴On a 10+, they do what you ask if you first promise what they ask of you. ✴On a 7–9, they will do what you ask, but need some concrete assurance of your promise, right now.

This is a good move, but we've encountered a few snags in play sometimes. 

Firstly, and least importantly, is the sudden improvisation that may be needed, a bit more than other moves tend to demand. On a hit the GM needs to create a promise that this NPC would feasibly ask, and that the PC(s) may accept. After all, if the PCs don't accept (or, on a 10+ at least pretend to accept), then the roll is largely wasted. An NPC's Instinct can inform a promise, but it doesn't always. If the GM can't quickly think of a good promise or concrete assurance, then the move's result might feel deflating in the narrative.

Secondly, you need leverage to use this move. If you're negotiating with a captive enemy or neutral party then this is fine, but what if you're asking for aid from a ruler who has everything, or convincing a friend to help you out? You can't Parley with appeals to emotions or ideals. If you don't have leverage, then the move doesn't trigger, and the GM relies on their agenda, principles, and moves to decide what happens next (as elaborated upon in this post).

GM moves are a solid general tool to fall back to, but the “social power fantasy” of charm, diplomacy, and/or connections is common enough that we want Dungeon World 2 (DW2) to include a way to “ask nicely”.

Dungeon World's full text elaborates on what appropriate leverage and promises can be, but the language used in both the move and the examples are fairly mercantile or even coercive, rather than helpful or heroic. Changing this is what I mainly focused on when designing Compel for Chasing Adventure (CA).

Compel
When you use favor, payment, promises, or threats to get someone to do something, say what you want them to do (or not to do) and roll+CHA. If they Favor you, you may use up their Favor to gain Advantage on the roll.

If they are an NPC, on a 10+ they’ll do what you want. On a 7-9 they’ll only do it if you do something for them in return or Favor them afterwards, the GM will say which.

If they are a PC, on a 10+ both below occur, on a 7-9 choose one below, and on a 6- they instead can immediately ask you two questions as if they Scrutinized you.
• If they do it, you will Favor them.
• If they don’t do it, they have Disadvantage Forward and you no longer Favor them.

(Favor is a subsystem in CA that incentivizes keeping your word. The more socially-focused your game is, the more you tend to engage with it.)

This move addresses the two issues above by having a much more flexible trigger and bypassing the need for a promise. However, by doing so it also runs head-first into another problem—one that many RPGs have grappled with over the decades—it can often treat persuasion too much like mind control.

Because RPGs sit between tactical board games and conversational improv, persuading someone in-character is often a funny thing. Sometimes we debate and argue for over an hour to get our point across. Other times, even maybe in the same game, we resolve it in a single roll with a character skill bonus. Different games, players, and even moods all have their own preferences, and the conversation about these preferences has been going on since Charisma was first introduced as a stat. What can and can't I get someone to do? Are they allowed to change their mind later? Can I roll to persuade another PC? Do I need to come up with a feasible reason or can I just use my character's immense Charisma?

The role of persuasion is something we heavily considered when designing Dungeon World 2. We wanted to allow more friendly and heroic approaches as mentioned above, plus intimidation like the Parley examples mention, plus lies and trickery (since you can't Defy Danger with Charisma in DW2 as it currently stands). We also wanted to make it powerful without feeling like mind control, which is something that DW's Paladin managed to do with its I Am The Law starting move. 

With all of those factors and considerations in mind, we came up Sway:

Sway
When you get someone to do what you want, choose one of the following approaches and roll+Compelling.

• Persuade them openly and honestly. They might 1) demand a promise, 2) payment, or 3) only partly follow through.

• Intimidate them by threatening their safety or interests. They might 1) go back on their word later, 2) escalate the conflict now, or 3) flee.

• Deceive them with false words or sleight of hand. They might 1) add a twist to your request, 2) discover the truth later, or 3) learn something about you.

*On a 7+, they will do what you want and the GM also will say what else happens, as informed by your approach. *On a 10+, discard one of the three options; the GM will choose from the remaining two.

If you Sway another PC, their player says what else happens instead of the GM. If they have a Bond with you, add 1 Kinship to the pool if they do what you want.

This is a pretty experimental take on persuasion compared to the previous two moves. It kind of splits into three with the different approaches providing different ways for the GM to respond. We hope this makes the effect powerful while still giving the swayed character some freedom on how to act. It's gone well in pre-Alpha testing but, like everything else, we'll see how it goes during the Alpha playtest (more on this in a future post). 

As you can see in the last sentence, we decided to keep Bonds in Dungeon World 2, making them much more meaningful and integrated into several other moves and mechanics. You'll see more of that in the Alpha as well.

For now, check in again on Tuesday when I will talk about what fighting in Dungeon World 2 currently looks like.

Thanks for reading!

Spencer