Oooh yeah you're absolutely right, I think I pulled my punches with that resolution mechanic (and this certainly isn't the concept for me to be doing that 😅). I had an early version of it that was wayyyy too harsh, but I must have overcorrected and made it more forgiving than I wanted. Live and learn, but now that the jam is over I have all the time in the world to fiddle with it!
And going PBTA/borrowing some ideas is soooo tempting. I absolutely love PBTA and how those systems inject narrative beats into the game. I think those design principles would work well here, especially for The Cauldron like you said. DM moves as a concept were probably floating around in my brain somewhere when I started The Cauldron, but ty for helping me make that connection! I really appreciate you taking the time to give your feedback on this, I'll definitely be using it when I salvage this for a more concrete version someday 💚