Hi, I can’t sleep, so I’m cranky, so I figured: why shouldn’t I be bring forth some polemic thoughts on the tavern?
I just read about something I already read before more than once and I really don’t understand: all the trouble people goes through when prepping for a first session. What I mean is: in the first session, you ask loads of questions that, in my experience, if properly managed, will build a dungeon all by themselves and unleash significant hints for the setting. Heck, more often than not I ask questions just for fun, I have everything I need on the character’s sheet. Last time, the paladin said that he was on a quest to discover the truth about the cult of the black hand; he was also immune to fire. The thief said he was of noble blood, escaped and fallen into a life of crime because his parents were involved in some sort of dark, if not evil, plot; he choose the goldenroot poison. Instant dungeon for me: a cathedral full of cultists and demons, the summoning ritual of a fire beast close to being completed, classic traps and a dining hall to apply the poison. I had also a plot twist at the end: the thief’s father was one of the most prominent cultists.
However, doing the opposite, I would have found myself in trouble. I mean, writing a dungeon before hand, without knowing what the characters cared about. I can easily write a good looking dungeon full of adventurous marvels, but it wouldn’t be the same because it wouldn’t be linked to the characters.
And it’s not like you can say “I build a dungeon, then I refine it during play linking it to the characters”. Because the very foundations of a dungeon like the one I described were rooted in the characters’ goals and backgrounds, and the game was better thanks to this.
So, back where I started: why going through all of this for a first session? I’m all for a good prep during sessions (because you know the characters and everything), but what do you get by a prepped first session that you can’t achieve by just following the rules?
Mind you, I’m not telling you how you should play your game. It’s just, I can’t realize what’s going on with all the buzz about first session prep and this bugs me.
Its because its what you do in other games. You do a lot of prep for your first adventure and you share it online to get feedback. But its totally not how this game is designed to work and you just gave a great example of how it is meant to work. Thanks for that.
GMs are players too, prepping can free them up to focus on the players while still allowing them to interject setting details that they are interested in. The key is to prep in a way that doesn’t conflict with the first session procedure of asking provocative questions and building off of the players’ answers. (see Dungeon Starters for a style of prep that isn’t meant to interfere)
I think a problem with prepping is the excitement you might feel about some idea you’ve come up with and then the disappointment that follows when that idea is not usable because of the shape the game takes. Worse case scenario you end up forcing your idea to happen. That is called railroading.
D&D should be run like this as well. Maybe all trad games.
Dungeon World is extremely flexible. It really can handle either end of this spectrum. Maybe the other end of that spectrum isn’t Dungeon World as you see it but the rules are mushy enough to spread a pretty big tent.
For example, we’re playing in the old module The Temple of Elemental Evil. I asked almost no questions in the first session and just sort of followed the guidance in the book for converting adventures. Of course, maybe there was some built in assumptions that we just all understood when we said “Wanna run ToEE in Dungeon World? Yes!” Not sure. But I can assure you we’ve had a blast and I feel pretty confident that its still Dungeon World.
+Chris McNeilly It’s not about being DW and not DW, it’s more about fighting the rules or letting them work for you. Especially Discern Realities, Spout Lore, and Tell Them the Requirements or Consequences And Ask.
That’s interesting. I’ve not felt like I was fighting the rules at all. What’s the problem with Discern Realities and Spout Lore? I see a lot of folks using them to ask the players lots of questions and letting the PCs create lots of cool stuff. Which is awesome. I’ll do the same sometime. But they’re still very traditional as written. Both are about asking the GM for information. Its on the GM whether to spew forth something of his own (which is the RAW per move) or turn it back on the player as a question (as per the principle). Both of those moves can be run very traditionally and be strictly by the rules of DW. Which, again, are pretty soft and welcoming. Right?
Could not agree with you more Alessandro Gianni
IMO, prep for session 1 is not only completely unnecessary but can often lead to stories that aren’t built around the players.
I haven’t prepped for any game I’ve run in months and my players all say that my games are better than ever.
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Guys, you’re a wonderful community. I understand my post was provocative at the very least, but no one reacted flaming. It’s touching, I mean it. I may seem sarcastic, but for once in my life, I’m not!
Back on topic: I just can’t see it. The aforementioned dungeon took 10 minutes, including character creation, to be designed. I needed a bunch of seconds to focus on what they gave me after each bond was filled, but really, everything was already there at the right spot, my job was just to give it the spark of life.
What came out was a sort of dull and not even a bit brilliant dungeon. BUT! It was the perfect dungeon for those characters. It contained everything they cared about, nothing more, nothing less. It could be an application of “do less to do more”. I didn’t need to prepare anything, I just followed what they told me. I gave them what matters the most. It was a 2 hours session full of situations that only those characters could have found involving and interesting, and there hasn’t been a single moment of idling around or arguing about what to do next. I really didn’t expect the characters to do what they did, but to them, it was crystal clear, and indeed every decision they made felt like the natural choice in that context.
So why prepare in the first place? Comparing the preparation of a well designed dungeon, full of epic obstacles, with a captivating atmosphere but still enough room for improvisation to adapt it to the characters, that may take even hours to write and draw, not counting that extra work during the game itself to put what the characters care the most in it… It’s just wasting energy.
I agree with every single word you posted, guys. Sometimes it’s because it’s something you do in other games. Sometimes it’s because the gm feels the urge to create and can’t just control it — like a player writing a pages-long background for his character during sessions. Sometimes it’s because everyone at the table agreed on a strong premise: let’s explore this D&D module with dungeon world. But I still see it like, a better preparation, for me, would rather be watching a bunch of adventure time episodes in the same time frame I would otherwise spend prepping a first session.
Prep is also a confidence builder. You know you have material to fall back on. A crib sheet of details for when you draw a blank.
Prep can also create a shared meta-experience. For example, the setup in Lady Blackbird, a Fiasco playset, an In A Wicked Age oracle, or a Dungeon Starter are types of prep that you make once and use multiple times. Each time you interpret it differently but there is enjoyment in seeing how things play out differently and there are touchstones that each group can compare and contrast between their games.