Ran the second session of my DW game using the Innistrad MtG setting last night. Our first session last week was some basic intro to RPGs (we have a first time player), character creation and a short fight. To prep for this week, I found an evocative image, mentally composed a paragraph long backstory, and wrote down a list of about 25 Dungeon Starter style impressions. 3 hours later, they’d explored the ruins of a haunted cathedral, found the grisly remains of a werewolf feast, been blasted by the fiery breath of a vengeful ghost, dragged the Bard down an underground tunnel as he desperately tore his pants off while a strange black mold burned its way into his skin, and recovered a holy artifact to the accompaniment of a bodiless choir of angelic children’s voices.
The game went great, and I’m finding this style of improv-heavy GMing really liberating. The fact that we’re all playing to find out what happens means I’m just a surprised as the players about how the story goes. We tried out some of the Madness rules that Sean Dunstan and +Jonathon Walton are working on. I’ll post about how those worked later.
Now, on to Fronts and creating a steading.
This might be a peculiar statement… but the thing I notice — that was the most striking to me after running… was that I didn’t feel tired. I didn’t feel like I had spent 5 hours in the ringer trying to remember all the rules and keep the game moving. I agree, totally liberating.