How should this murder committed by a PC be resolved?

Question

I have a female fighter (level 3) just starting a personal quest to find her 'missing' twin sister.

For the whole game to evolve it has to start with her openly committing murder in a crowded Tavern.

She will do this by guile and subterfuge, playing on her beauty and apparent innocence, to obscure her real motive when approaching the un-armoured male victim - who is with a number of his associates - she declares that she wants to use her good looks and Charisma to fool the victim into thinking he has made a 'score'. She will get close up and almost personal inviting an embrace from him at which time she guts him from crotch to sternum (with all the gory steaming details) with a concealed blade.

So how do I run this? She is not into a 'hack and slash' move, so should I use 'deal damage' with a + modifier, or simply take the murder as done and simply describe the ensuing scene and ask, 'what happens next/what do you do next'?

I'm asking as a player and as a GM. I play solo most of the time, but sometimes also with a small group as either a player or a GM.

Answer 1

Since you say the game "has to start" this way, and you've clearly already planned out exactly how it will/should happen (as opposed to "play to find out"), I would, as a GM, treat this as scene-setting and narrate it as a fait accompli rather than attempting to run it using the game rules. The actual game starts when the murder is done and it's time to play to find out what happens next.

Answer 2

It's up to the GM, both options are correct

The Hack and Slash move description has this exact case mentioned:

If the enemy isn’t prepared for your attack—if they don’t know you’re there or they’re restrained and helpless—then that’s not hack and slash. You just deal your damage or murder them outright, depending on the situation. Nasty stuff.

So the PC either deals damage, or murders them outright, depending on the situation. What situation it has to be? The rules don't specify, the decision is up to the DM. If you think this poor guy had a chance, roll for damage. Otherwise, just let her kill him.

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use 'deal damage' with a + modifier

A minor nitpick — normally you don't add modifier to damage roll in Dungeon World, unless a specific move description says so. The Fighter deals d10 damage, this will probably be enough to kill the guy anyways.

Answer 3

If I were the GM on this, I'd question every preliminary assumption you made as a player to pull this off, but once you have gone past those, the murder part is just straight out murder.

• What do you mean by guile and subterfuge? How do you approach him? What are the ways this can go awry?
• How have you ensured that you come across as innocent? Is there someone who can see through your intent and act on it?
• Have you made sure that he's unarmored? Why would he be?
• How do you conceal and carry a weapon capable of gutting a person in one move? How do you draw and use it in a probably very inconvenient embrace?
• Who are his associates? How would they react to these events unfolding?
• How do you position yourself as the target of a "score"? How do you ensure he's after a score?

At least some of these are expected to trigger the moves snowball, and if you can manage to keep the helm straight all the way, then murder.

But it doesn't end there either. There's also the aftermath. I'd make sure you "have an adventure" as the result of having committed something big and important.

• How do you get out after that gory display?
• How will the associates react?
• What will the rest of the crowd do?
• There are scores of witnesses. How would the law intervene? What are the legal consequences?
• Who are his next of kin? They are almost sure to hear of this sooner or later. How would they retaliate?
• Is there any way that he would somehow survive this (resurrection magic included) and seek revenge much later?

You have a whole adventure laid out in front of you. Make the best of it :)