Burglary

I was in Blake’s Monster of the Week game last night and it was a lot of fun. I played the Crooked and took the Burglar move, because I anticipated getting in and out of places might be something that came up, which it did. Here’s the move from MotW:


Burglar. When you break into a secure location, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ pick three, on a 7-9 pick two:

  • You get in undetected
  • You get out undetected
  • You don’t leave a mess
  • You find what you were after

It’s a really nice move and I’m glad I took it, but it got me thinking. I have a fairly generic “Get out of Dodge” move for the Rascal playbook in Wyld that was somewhat uninspired, so I thought I’d try and come up with a Burglary move based on the experience from last night. NOTE: Wyld uses 2D10 so the strong/weak hit ranges are different.


In and Out: When you break or slip into somewhere you’re not supposed to be, roll+Grace. On a 16+ hold 3, on an 11-15 hold 2. During the intrusion you may spend your hold 1-for-1 to do the following without having to make another move:

  • Get in clean.
  • Avoid or disable a trap.
  • Avoid detection until danger passes.
  • Have exactly the right tools or equipment.
  • Clear up evidence of the intrusion.
  • Get out and clear.

I think the problem with Burglary is, as written you decide what happens in the course of the intrusion up front. The implication is this one move resolves the whole situation, but in reality during the game we wanted to play it out, and I think that’s more likely to be the common case. So I picked options up front which didn’t really fit the situation we found ourselves in. By converting it into giving you hold, you can carry on playing the scene but still get the benefits of the move. That’s the intention anyway.

Here’s a link to the part of the session where we played it out using the MotW move. See what you think.

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Oh, so nothing about the Baklans… the title is somehow misleading.
I think Hold vs Resolve is a nice variation on Zoom in vs Zoom out, because grafting it in the Resolution mechanic itself makes it unavoidable. So I want to steal it.

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Oops, fixed the title thanks.

The title currently reads “Buglary” rather than “Burglary,” FYI.

I think your adaptation is nice. I’m especially amused to imagine a player hoarding their last hold to “Get out and clear” and then having to decide whether to use it instead to “Clear up evidence of the intrusion” after a fictional situation causes a mess.

Ugh, I’m all thumbs today.

Happy to try out your version if intrusion comes up in the story again.

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