Two sessions in and our Dungeon World game feels frontless. Our world creation exercises have revealed lots of external forces and jobs and etc that could develop as fronts, but every emerging storyline involves the players trying to deal with some harm they’ve inflicted upon themselves while trying to be good mayhem contractors. It’s more like Earthsea and less like Game of Thrones.
Our paladin has crippling angina from Laying Hands on an elderly minotaur. Our bard and wizard have switched bodies. The wizard’s body is suffering an emaciating/hunger disease as a result of some improvised necromancy. I think I need to lay off on the hard moves maybe.
I could use “heart disease” as a front, I guess. Or “body switching” with the Impending Doom being “permanence.”
Are you bragging or complaining? 🙂
Seems like I heard that the lizard folk had retaken the western territories, including the monastery. Wasn’t the priest there known for his healing?
Oh yeah, they have some questing ahead of them to get themselves fixed up and I’m sure those lizard folk will be an issue.
“I think I need to lay off on the hard moves maybe.”
No way. You are doing it right.
By lay off you man replace them with a group of cheaper adventurers, right? I bet they’d be unhappy about that. Unhappy enough to kill?
It’s conflicting with the “be fans of the PCs” agenda I think. I don’t just want to rain endless sorrow down on them and kick them around.
Ask them whether or not they’re enjoying the harsh tone. If everyone’s having fun getting their faces beat in, keep it up. If they’re feeling beaten down, give them some slack.
I guess I’d ask two questions: Are your players enjoying it? And are you as a group earning this drama and paying it on to the next part of the story? Because if so, you’re golden.
yeah, the players have told me they’re having fun. The game is high-energy, people are laughing an getting into it.
I’m asking this question because a) I like to self-monitor against abusive GM behavior, especially in *W games where I’ve got insane dictatorial powers and b) I ask myself if I’m having fun? Am I getting the game I envisioned, or something even better?
This is awesome.
And I want to read more thoughts about self-monitoring and *W games and their “insane dicatorial powers”!
Okay, it’s time for a hard move. You, as the DM, can do anything you want. I know you’re constrained by moves, but that’s not much of a constraint. Fiction is a much stronger constraint than moves. That’s your dictatorial power.
When I’m playing story games, it’s not in a thoughtful way. It’s instinctive. Thoughtful is paralyzing to me, because I self-edit like crazy. So when the focus turns on me, I usually do the very first thing that occurs to me. Trouble is, a lot of the skills that keep me socially viable live in the “thoughtful” tier of the brain, and so when I don’t engage them there is a danger of inappropriateness. Thus, self-monitoring.
By “lay off” you mean making the hard move of replacing them with a group of cheaper adventurers, right? I bet they’d be unhappy about that. Who are these other adventurers anyway? I bet they’re up to something… Or maybe it’s not them, maybe your characters learned something they shouldn’t have….
They’re totally horked in the wallets right now Marshall Miller . I need to give them something to lose before I take it away.
In our Dis, the race to the bottom has already happened. They are the cheap adventurers.
lightbulb
Okay, that’s interesting. Can’t wait for an explanation of “lightbulb”, John Zo…
Who did they replace?
Going back to the original question, it seems to me that strong Fronts are tied to strong NPCs, Fronts basically being a formalization of “what does that guy want?”. Do you need to pay more attention to your NPCs?
Rumor has it that the God of Death is amassing an army, and would be more than willing to cure a foolish wizard’s curse/disease in exchange for fealty.
Especially if the deal is made by the bard, who’ll be back in their own body by the time the debt comes due…
Colin Roald good point! We haven’t met many NPCs yet. The players have commanded all the spotlight time.
I think I need to lay off on the hard moves maybe.
O,o. Dont. Stop.
…
…
Believing.
No seriously, you’ll find that this creates the drama, the tension, the energy, the players making up their goals and pushing limits, risk to go with reward. If your players are not telling you to cool it a bit – keep it up!
It seems to me there’s plenty happening without bringing in outside structured Fronts. That doesn’t mean that Fronts can’t come in at some point and be awesome, but it doesn’t look like a crisis to me. For one thing, focusing on the PCs and their personal travails gives the players time to get comfortable and with the game and develop their characters’ personalities and backgrounds. If the excitement of dealing with those travails and “random” jobs starts to wane, bring in some sort of external threat.
I’d recommend a read through of The Lazy Dungeon Master. I’d say it’s worth the $6 or whatever. It is even lighter on planning than DW recommends, and works very well with the system if your players don’t need handholding to build a story.
http://slyflourish.com/lazydm/
Yeah Christopher Smith Adair , I’m not super worried about not having traditional Fronts in the game yet, it’s plenty entertaining without them.
I just expected I’d be rocking some Frontal lonely fun at this point and was remarking on the lack. :)
Your hard moves are great! I think moves that mess wit the fiction to make things happen is always more interesting than plain old “deal damage, sucka!”
Thanks! I think they’ve taken 6 hit points total damage in two sessions.
You could also build some fronts that will operate behind the scenes regardless of player involvement. You’re playing in Dis, right? There’s gotta be someone out there trying to bring at least one of the Impending Dooms to pass.
Just because the players haven’t gotten involved doesn’t mean that Prince Vlad wouldn’t like to expand his holdings, maybe own a parish of his very own.