12 thoughts on “I have my first game tomorrow and I have no idea how to start the game.”

  2. I haven’t run a game yet, scheduled my first for Thursday but I thought I’d chip in my thoughts as a fellow Dungeon World N00B.

    A few things I’ve read suggest starting “in media res” so a few ideas I had rattling around my brain was starting the group off in the most cliche fashion (gathered in a tavern) either celebrating a recent successful adventure or waiting on a potential contact. Instead of staying cliche however, the tavern suddenly catches fire in an intense blaze! What do you do? Patrons running and screaming for safety could lead to a paladin trying to help, unattended cash box could be a target for a thief, somebody immediately wounded could be a concern for a cleric. More importantly of course is who started the fire and why. The player moves suggest a few options to figure it out and you can largely base it on the information they come up with during character creation.

    Another notion I had was the group en route to a location (steading, dungeon, whatever else is appropriate for your game) and they encounter a group on the road that is trying to bar or prevent their passage. Could be bandits, could be guards, could be cultists looking to protect a sacred place.

    I think, if I am understanding the concept right, is to not plan much of anything. Start with a seed or two (similar to above) but be ready to change and scrap it in a moments notice. Character creation and world building are part and parcel and you won’t know much about your world until everyone gathers at the table to play. That’s the best and most fear inducing notion that has me excited about this game. I’m terrible at “winging” it in my weekly pathfinder game, but the rules in DW seem so much easier to work on the fly.

  4. I’m fairly new myself.  In my group we have a long running legend that spans fantasy rpg’s that we have played over the past 25 years- it is that of Clan Kneecleaver.  Rarely do we ever have a PC playing a Kneecleaver (though I did run a short 3.5 Kneecleaver campaign once), but they exist and are oft mentioned in passing- regardless of setting.

    I decided to do the Kneecleaver origin story.  My player’s all began as Dwarves sliding through stone as if it were water and falling hundreds of feet.  Their memories gone, they had no Identity, no sense of society or kin.  That’s how we started off.

    If I were to enter into one with no set idea of what I wanted to craft, I’d start with some vague ideas- scenes that might be cool, a general idea of theme or mood and maybe a fight or two I might think would be cool.  I’d then let the players character generation and the conversation around that pull one thing out of the ideas I came into it with.  Start there and it’s all a common creative effort from there on out.  You don’t know where you will end up, that’s part of the fun.

  6. Tim Deschene Gives a really good suggestion. Just throw the characters into a situation that forces them to do something then ask them how they got there. Most players love that.

  8. Honestly I’d have them fighting strange oozes on the ship and then ask them how they got there. In media res works great for the … World line of games.

  10. “In retrospect, you probably should have made camp earlier. Now it’s full dusk, and it’s raining, and you’ve come to a rope bridge across a river gorge. There’s a group of Sunlanders on the other side–what are they doing this far west?–in full military uniform.”

  12. Have them already in the thick of action. A chase scene, a fight, a fire. Tell them the basics of the danger, then ask questions.

    “Who are you fighting? Why”

    “How did the fire start”

    “Who are you chasing through the streets?”

    “What is chasing you through the graveyard?”

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