First DW session last night!

First DW session last night!

First DW session last night!

Only had 2 players available, but we forged ahead.  I gave them a quick overview of the move mechanic, and let them pick character sheets.  Ended up with an elven Mage (from the alternate playbook) and a human Dashing Hero (using the preview version, now to be purchased).

We played for about 4 hours, and had a great time.  Character gen and 3 combat encounters definitely showed how fast DW can go compared to our usual D&D 3.5e sessions.  When we ended the Mage hit second level, and the Dashing Hero was 1 XP shy.

Things I’ll make sure to do next time when running a session to introduce the rest of my players to DW (hopefully this helps other soon-to-be-running-GMs):

– Go over tags (especially the weapon and range tags) more specifically

– Have a second copy of the character sheets so I can reference the the moves the players are using would save them from reading me the moves

-Have a few monsters ready (not picked before the session, but I wish I thought to put some sticky notes on the orc pages as they into the forest seeking the orc’s camp), as I had to stall things for a minute as the first combat got rolling.

The was a lot to love about DW, most of it has been said before.  I loved not preparing the setting and encounters ahead of the session.  I think that once the players figured out the weren’t constrained by the D&D-type tactical battle system and could be creative in their actions, they really started to see how DW shines.

I think the biggest “complaint” from the players was a lack of a canned stealth move, which is probably more from me not emphasizing that roll+stat works just fine in place of a more specific move.

My only irks so far are the alignment and class-race constraints seems more limiting than useful.  I like the magic casting flavour of the Mage and Priest over the Vancian Wizard/Clerics, so I expect to stick to the alternate classes unless a player has a really strong preference.  The bond system seems great, but is really weak with just two players.

7 thoughts on “First DW session last night!”

  1. I really want to play with the Mage, but it seems so powerful and it seems like it could steal the spotlight from other characters.  In a game of just two players though I think having that flexibility is helpful.  I’ll be curious to see how the Mage works for you, so keep us updated.

    How did you end up using the range tags on weapons?  I’m still toying with how I’ll use them – for example the Fighter in my party has a Hammer (Close) and is about to engage a Orc Bloodwarrior (Dagger, hand) – I wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with the range tags.  I think I’ll make it so a 7-9 or a 6- could result in the orc getting into hand range, and require a Defy Danger on the part of the Fighter to get back into Close.

  2. I’m running a game for 2 players, and so each took 2 Bonds with the other person instead of just 1.  You might try that to give added complexity to the interactions when it’s just 2 players.

  3. Michael Barrett

    The Mage was pretty powerful, but he is also very squishy.  Keeping the him threatened an choosing between stuff immediately threatening himself and the other character worked well.  As far as stealing the spotlight, in our session it was more him saving the other character’s bacon.  Often when the Dashing Hero flubbed a roll in combat, I popped back to the Mage to give him a chance to mitigate the hurt about manifest on the Hero.  In this two-payer situation what came out was the appearance of really good teamwork despite failures they both had.

  4. Tom Miskey

    Yeah, I gave them two bonds each with each other but the awesome potential I see in the bond system (the more complex bonds when A has a bond with B, B has a bond with C, etc., and some of these bonds might be at odds with each other) and how they would fuel interactions as the players have a vested interest in role-playing these aspects of their relationships.  Sadly, the chance for competing aspects and what would fall out of them is a reach with just two characters.

  6. Is the “alternate playbook” available publicly, or is that an Adventurer’s Guild thing? (I signed up for that but no word yet). Thanks for sharing by the way Alex Wilson  😉

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