I just bought planar codex.

I just bought planar codex.

I just bought planar codex. Great read, although I am confused by the move on page 9 about countdown. Can someone elaborate a bit on what this means, how it has been used in actual play or an example. Think it’s adds to the game, but don’t understand it. Also what playbooks for starting pc’s do you use? The ones that come with dungeon world? If so assume the heritage move replaces your racial move, am I understanding the rules correctly? Do you use the same bonds on the playbooks or do you write new ones for Dis? I saw the posse post, assume that is in addition to bonds?

One last stupid question, when the book says faction, it is used in the general sense, not a specific rule set like a Job or patron?

Anyone have a list of factions in Dis? Or a good random table?

Thanks in advance

http://corvidsun.com/2012/06/05/dungeon-world-dark-heart-of-the-dreamer/

13 thoughts on “I just bought planar codex.”

  1. There is an example of countdown right in the book, last page. Also i used countdown when water dragon broke free and started rampage, where all 6 boxes filled would mean mission failed and Sultana intervention.

    We use DW playbooks for Planarch Codex, but there are variants. Heritage move replaces racial move, right.

    I’ve done a list of planar bonds to use alnog with default ones.

    Faction means faction in general.

  2. Countdowns come from countdown clocks in Apocalypse World. It is really just that: a thing that counts down and when it gets to zero (ie when you fill in all the boxes) a bad thing happens.

    Countdowns are present in Dungeon World, just not explicitly. Hit points are a countdown each character has, and grim portents are also countdowns leading up to an impending doom. You can use them just like grim portents except that when they advance you don’t have something specific that happens.

  4. I’m not sure Planescape factions are immediately apllicable to Planarch Codex. Planescape focus is on philosophy while Planarch Codex is first of all about cultural diversity. Different takes on “interplanar urban leviathan”.

  5. Thanks all – what is though for the countdown – I get now they are like from portents, what is the show them a way out bit? I am just having trouble seeing how I would use in a game. Thanks for the example, others are welcomed.

  6. Say the PCs contract the Red Plague in the Vermillion Spires district. Now they have a countdown, tell them how many boxes it is. If they ask for a way out, tell them that bathing in hot dragon’s blood will cure it. A way out of the countdown is what it means. If they don’t take it, stuff causes the countdown boxes to be filled in, and when they’re all filled in, the victim’s skin sloughs off and they die.

    Or maybe you anger the Duke of Devilpit parish. His rage is slow to mount, so you only fill in a box on the countdown when you enter Devilpit or encounter the duke’s minions, but when you fill them all in, the duke strikes with all his power and does not give up. Etc.

    For making dungeons on the fly, you don’t HAVE to make something happen at the end, you can just use a countdown as a gauge  for how many times that danger shows up. I kinda feel like the dungeon creation rules are a bit much for on the fly though (personal taste) and have had better luck with using them right before a session to make a quick dungeon.

  8. In my head “contract the Red Plague in the Vermillion Spires district” meant the players were drawing up some sort of contract with a sentient plague.

  9. Countdowns can also be for positive or value-dubious things. Like: if you’re trying to gradually seduce or corrupt the captain of the guard, start a countdown! And then check boxes whenever you make progress towards it (with or without rolling).

  10. Thanks some of the examples help – still having a hard time with this concept not sure why – I get most of the rest of the game and have played plenty of narrative games before. Johnstone Metzger thanks your example made the most sense. Let me try a different way of thinking – the countdown is like a tracker of hard or soft moves before they get handed a really hard move, but as the GM you can give them a way to avoid the really hard move if they take it. Have I got right?

    Thanks!

    Ps I like how helpful and active this community is.

  11. Yeah, it’s like a tracker. Usually advanced by PC actions more than by GM decisions about what the bad guys do (which is what makes it different from grim portents).

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