I’ll be starting my second GM of DW tomorrow, and this time it looks like it’s going to be a long-term game. We haven’t done character creation yet, but I got them to choose their class, at least, so I’d know what abilities to expect. I have six players! I hope that’s not too crowded yet.
* The one guy who took my option to preserve his character from our one-shot has a thief with 5xp. His deal with Death (he had to do a last breath last time) is the basis for my only adventure front so far.
* Another guy who was in the one-shot is going for the free barbarian found in the website. I find it odd that the bbn has less hp than a fighter, but that’s probably just my dnd sensibilities kicking in. Nevertheless I’m excited to see it on action.
* The other four characters are bard, druid, ranger and wizard. I haven’t seen the wizard yet, but it’s the class I’ve been meaning to use as a player so it’s exciting. 😀 Also, the bardic healing seems… Spammable. I’m eager to see if I can limit that through game fiction without having the player feeling gimped.
Wish me luck!
Sounds awesome, BJ! Good luck!
Good luck! I’m running my very first game tomorro… errr, later today 😉 I’m curious about the Front you have derived from his deal with death – mind sharing?
Thanks, Richard Robertson and Mike Weem!
For the Front, here it is in a nutshell. I’m calling it “that which is dead may never die.” (ASoIaF ripoff, I know.) It’s my first front, though, so I’d welcome any critiques!
Anyway, the one-shot had three characters dealing with a group of kobolds in a swamp that was worshipping a “dragon.” The dragon turned out to be an enormous crocodile, and it started to become too much for them to handle.
As they were trying to escape the rampaging croc, the thief got swiped pretty badly by its tail, bringing him to the verge of death. Death then told him that only life can pay for life, and she demanded the life of the croc in exchange.
That wasn’t the best Last Breath condition ever, admittedly. But when the player decided to keep his thief for the ongoing game, we decided to pull the Death bargain with him, with an animist #filipino twist:
As it turns out, it wasn’t Death he was dealing with per se: It was the diwata Magwayen. (She’s somewhat analogous to the ferryman of Greek myth. I suppose it’s a common trope to archipelagic cultures.) Anyway we established that the crocodile was actually Boaya, an ancestor spirit that was granted passage back to the mortal realm for some task. But then he didn’t want to return. And Magwayen wants to collect. If the thief doesn’t send the Boaya to her, she would deny the thief passage to the Underworld, condemning him to roam the realm as a ghost.
I’m still building up the front, but basic gist of it is that Boaya (a Lord of the Undead) desires to achieve permanency in the mortal realm. Doing so screws up the established order of things, however, which would lead to some impending doom I haven’t quite figured out yet.
On the other hand, Magwayen (a Construct of Law) is a proud demigoddess and she relishes the thought of entering the mortal realm herself to combat Boaya. But her very presence would be a wound to the mortal realm, bringing about destruction that will not recover for ten generations. This is acceptable to an immortal being like her, but first she’ll try the mortal patsy.
And then, in the middle of it all, kobolds (Humanoid vermin). They’re the obvious threat that will basically pester the rice fields and be a pestilence. But occasionally Boaya organizes them into something more dangerous. Of course, he plans to eat them all in the end to fuel his longevity.
It’s probably just an adventure front, though, because taking out Boaya is a pretty straightforward way of dealing with all three dangers. Perhaps even with all this cosmic hoolabaloo, the impending dooms will be localized to just one island. Besides, there will be five players left to take cues from. >.>
Very cool, I dig it 😉
The thing that I like about DW so far is that a simple Crocodilian statblock has enough to scare three characters if described correctly. I will likely keep using that for Boaya, though with this new story development I’ll probably take some lichlike characteristics, too.
Sounds awesome! I threw a croc at my players in the first game too – it was nasty and fun 🙂
Anyway one thing to remember about the bard and it’s healing is that unlike the cleric (who chooses what bad thing happens on a 7-9, from the list) is that the DM gets to choose what happens on a 7-9, and one of those things is that the magic can affect their enemies as well.
Have fun! Keep us up to date, the campaign sounds great!
Thanks, Michael Barrett! I’ll keep that in mind when play commences later on. Interestingly, the bard is the only healer in the group (right now, at least). So maybe I’ll be a little generous with it. That being said, a 7-9 is a 7-9! evil GM laugh
Hmm, I fleshed out my adventure front somewhat. I made a new post for it. 🙂