In a long-term campaign I’m going to start soon, one of the players is only going to be able to make it to the first two sessions, then the very occasional session afterwards. A friend suggested that maybe I could use this as a chance to have this player play the party’s nemesis, who betrays them and leaves, but occasionally shows up again.
Which I think my players would enjoy, and particularly the betraying player… but would you guys think it would be overboard if I specifically built her a class that can fight all the other characters on an even footing?
I’m not even sure how PvP would work in Dungeon World! Interesting concept, I think! /sub
From having PvP in another *World game, it tends to involve a lot of “I Impede!”
Outsource the reason why she cannot be killed by the players to the players, it’s the Dungeon World way.
I’d give her minions!
I heard bad things of PvP in DW, beware.
There’s lots of discussion about PvP over on the DW forums. And a pretty involved thread here http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/17868/dungeon-world-how-do-you-handle-player-vs-player-situations/p1
In the spirit of Dungeon World, don’t write a bunch of pre-built story around it in advance (not having any idea where the game is really going to be in two sessions). When it is that players last session, ask her why she disappears at this point. That is the reason. Then, whenever she returns, ask her why she is back. Remember the Principle “Ask questions and use the answers”. If she says she is leaving to go plot and scheme against the other player, then that is what she is doing. Let HER decide.
You know, the idea is always tempting… It seems like such a great idea… like one of those great twists in a movie: The best friend turns on them at that crux moment. But in RPGs, I have never actually seen it done in a way that people end up enjoying it.
Plus, “Be a fan of the characters” usually doesn’t include pitting them against each other… at least not in my mind.
So they best answer so far is “remind everyone Friendly Fire is off” or arbitrate the worlds worst game of Cowboys and Indians?