I’d like to run a one-shot of DW with my friends, but since we will play just one time I was looking for some advice when you play a one-shot.
It’s also our first time playing Dw (with some of them I use/used to play Aw).
What kind of prep do I have to set?
Do I have to prepare fronts in advance?
Maybe an adventure fronts?
Compelling situation + thematically related details + print out playbooks/move sheets = good to go.
Situation should be immediate; not “orcs are invading your homeland, what are you going to do about it?” but “from your hiding place you can see the masked cult leader raising the sacrificial dagger over her, what do you do right now?”. Loaded questions are a good way of introducing facts you’ve prepared for but letting the players flesh out details, for example “what gave away the fact that Lord Topriff was the cult’s leader?” Having a couple thematically related details ready will be handy – if you know there will be a count and a cult then you can make up a cultist monster, a count’s signet ring, list a couple likely locations like the count’s chambers or the disguised cult house, and maybe some likely names to pull from in play. You’re not planning a plot, just brainstorming some setting elements that you might use. I’d just roll with the moves the payers initiate during the first season – fronts are really for expanding on things the players have already engaged in.
I’d also start in media res. “As you stumble from the ogre’s barely-parried blow, you are suddenly struck by how you were convinced that this dungeon held riches beyond your wildest dreams. How did that happen, again?”
Thank you Aaron Pavao and Marshall Miller !
Jason Morningstar’s http://www.dungeon-world.com/pit-of-drazhu/ is a pretty awesome one shot game. 🙂
Joel Watkins yeah, I know that! It’s very cool.