Running my first session of DW as an open table invitation at my local game shop tomorrow. I’m going to run the “Indigo Galleon” adventure but a good point was brought up when I posted about it on Reddit: If the players pilfer the treasure from the galleon what stops them from just leaving with the loot? Well that sounds like an invitation for new Fronts to pop up. What would you throw at players trying to leave the scene (or this scene specifically) where your adventure is supposed to take place? What kind of micro front would you use to keep the game from ending too quickly?
Running my first session of DW as an open table invitation at my local game shop tomorrow.
Running my first session of DW as an open table invitation at my local game shop tomorrow.
First of all, you’re not supposed to punish players for playing their characters. They turn back – cool, what do they do next? Fill their lives with adventures anyway.
Indigo Galleon is overall good, but it doesn’t follow one of the most important DW’s principle: ask questions. Compare with Shallow Sea or Slave Pit of Drazhu, for example.
So I’d throw in a bunch of questions first, like:
* What was the name of a woman that Hobart stole from you?
* How did you know Indigo Galleon was supposed to crush right there?
* Why you won’t show your face or reveal your voice to the octopus folk?
etc. That way players are already invested in fiction.
Oh I’m not looking to punish them, just offer more adventure like you suggest.
I honestly think that if you start with cool enough questions you won’t have any problems at all. But if not, three of four fronts presented in the starter are good enough already: how can they leave with the treasure in the middle of three-sided war over Codcliffe? Well, they can, but it will be fun.
Being loaded up with treasure can be a problem too. There’s bandits and other adventurers, where you might have to go to fence it, etc. Especially if it’s the famous Indigo Galleon treasure, a lot of people are going to be interested.
What about the treasure makes you uneasy?
It doesn’t make me uneasy, it’s just enough treasure that a party that has it all could easily skip town regardless of the consequences. It doesn’t stop me from telling a story though.
No, no, ask them that question and play off their answer.
INDIGO GALLEON SPOILERS: Check out the moves under “Cursed Treasure.” If they are dirty freebooters who jet with the loot, that’s your cue to open up an Imperial Bounty Hunters front. They’ll likely also have to deal with a disgraced Balbus and Vitula coming after them.
Indigo does have some of the questions that Vasiliy Shapovalov suggests. The Beginning Play section asks the characters to create some Codcliffe NPCs. But the questions he suggests are even better than the ones in the adventure and I think I might steal them for v1.1 of the document…
Thanks for running the adventure and good luck with it!
Cool! Dungeon starters are often used by DMs inexperienced in DW ways. And thus we have to show them way by including a few questions to get players involved.