Use Moves To Beat Brain Freeze & Deepen Play

How to simplify things at the table and drop dynamic game pieces onto it.

In response to a description tutorial I sent out, Wizard of Adventure GM Will asks:

I want to know more about the “Moves” section

Thanks Will. I first discovered Moves in the Dungeon World RPG. At first, I didn’t understand the idea. It felt like someone trying to teach me how to breathe and over-complicating something I already did by instinct.

But during a summer camping trip, it clicked.

GMing requires constant decision-making. When players finish their actions and look at you, it’s your turn to act. Moves are simply a pre-selected menu of choices. Instead of freezing up, you look at your options and take one.

The Standard GM Menu

Experienced GMs do these naturally, but having them thought out in advance and written down ensures we don’t default to the monster attacks every turn.

Move examples from Dungeon World:

  • Reveal an unwelcome truth: The door is locked from the other side.
  • Show signs of an approaching threat: Dust falls from the ceiling as something heavy moves above.
  • Use up their resources: The last torch flickers out.
  • Separate them: A portcullis drops between Templeton the Cleric and Roghan the Fighter.

Why Prep Moves?

I use Moves to bring my campaign to life. Most RPGs give you system stat blocks, but few provide narrative and setting actions. And none that I know of offer cool Moves for all game piece types: People, Places, Things, Events.

Giving key pieces their own actions ahead of time greatly reduces my cognitive load. It’s much easier coming up with twists, clever actions, and smart strategies away from spotlight’s heat.

And prepping Monster, Location, Faction Moves, etc., give our worlds a living feel without extra stress.

Example: The Goblin Grind

Goblins in a 10×10 stone room is boring. Let’s add three simple Moves to make this encounter deeper.

  1. Focus Fire: The leader shrieks and points. Goblins swarm that PC and get flanking bonuses.
  2. Get Help: Goblins yell and make a ruckus. The leader sends a runner (probably himself, heh) to get reinforcements.
  3. Make It Dark: Some gobbos try to put out party light sources.

Such tactics shake the game up and challenge players with a constant variety of interesting situations. Instead of just grinding down hit points, the goblins are now doing things. The Make It Dark move forces players to react. It’s Show, Don’t Tell in action.

It’s Your Turn

I include Moves in my templates and stat blocks now as a reminder to give the game piece a bit of life and some deeper gameplay.

I don’t give everything Moves. Just the pieces that’ll likely come up soon.

Note that Moves can trigger new Rulings. Not all game systems map to specific actions. The list gets exhaustive. So I avoid adding new mechanics and focus instead on descriptive and narrative type moves. And when possible, I’ll start with a mechanical boon, like +1 Flanking bonus from the combat chapter, and then skin it with a Move.

Once you do this for a while, you build a mental library of past Moves you can draw upon again, especially ones that worked well. It gets faster as you fill your library up.

Using recurring NPCs, Locations, and Items helps a lot too. Every time you GM a game piece, you become more experienced with it. Adding Moves gives you description and storytelling tools for use as roleplay, conflict, and tactical moments as you see fit.

In Campaign Logger, I Tag all Moves with the tilde tag.

For example, ~Flanking is a Page I have for my Obsidian Invictus campaign. I also give it a Move Label.

In Shadowdark, there are no specific flanking rules. Some monsters have it, though. So I link to those creatures from the ~Flank page for instant reference and re-use.

I’m also noodling on allowing Advantage to PCs who have two allies Near. This preserves some value for monsters that only need one ally for a boon. It encourages teamwork. And even animals employ this tactic as a survival instinct or learning.

I don’t have to remember the rules all the time. I have them all tagged. And in a shared campaign so players can reference them too. My secrets are locked away in the private part of the page, so everything’s together in one place. This keeps my head in the game and out of the rulebooks a lot more.

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
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