Gm’d my first Dungeon World game today. It went really, really well and I am very pleased with the system.

Gm’d my first Dungeon World game today. It went really, really well and I am very pleased with the system.

I have GM’d for decades on and off but only ever with Rolemaster. I decided to try it with a familiar gaming group, with behaviours I could predict.

It was a four hour, afternoon session with four PCs. I had done a beta test with a single friend a few months ago but only to understand DW’s ‘moves’ concept.

Although the suggested GM tactic is to free-form the first session, taking extensive, plot-hook notes, I had a clear situation mapped out. 

Even so, the players quickly exhausted my prepped stuff and I started to push them to be creative.

Attacked by pirates, then allied with them and attacked by lots of guards they explored the cave shaft under the house. Only to shoot out halfway up the cliff above the ocean and a pirate ship – Goonies-style!

I barely opened the rule-book, though I spent a lot of timing fighting the urge to describe the players’ 10+ success rolls 🙂 Everyone seemed to have fun and stay focused, which has always been a challenge for my group – the lack of official ‘turns’ helped but the speed of resolution meant that focus could quickly move around, getting to everyone every few minutes.

As a GM with a full real-life workload, I find it difficult to invest the time in prep but DW shares it more evenly across the group.

I’m looking forward to more!