One of the dangers in our current game is a death knight that the party accidentally released from its tomb-prison. Needless to say, there is a definite #undead presence in the game.
Now the wizard character has been using Spout Lore a lot to determine specific undead-related stuff. For awhile I neglected to ask how his character knew about such things. Then after he rolled a 12 once and after I detailed some very specific information, I suddenly asked, “how does Lilliastre know about these things?”
Interestingly, the other players responded with, 1) “yeah, the elf does know an unusual amount of stuff about undead.” 2) coughcough #necromancer coughcough 3) ‘maybe s/he’s not as pristine as s/he looks.” To which the elf replied, “hey, we all have our hobbies.”
Eventually the game went on, but after the end of session move, the wizard player then asked me if there was a way for his character to start delving into “undead matters.” I told him that I’ll look around for options online.
Now here’s the thing – my Google-fu is weak right now and I can’t seem to find any. Can anyone help me loom into necromancy options in Dungeon World? Anything from new wizard spells to relevant compendium classes to actual necromancer classes to just straight-up advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Somewhat related to your search: the “Numbers Appearing” supplement has a few race options as well as compendium classes that at least give a flavor of handling the undead. Most related to your quest for necromancy would be the Lord of Filthy Gluttony (a sort of zombie lord) or the Vampire Lord, both of which have an appropriately themed move called The Embrace.
Now, this isn’t exactly what you’re after, but it may at least give some ideas or examples of how undead might be handled in DW.
He could start to flavour his spells differently.
I feel like you’ve probably seen it, but the Cleric has a level 3 spell, “Reanimate Dead” (or something similarly named), and a few other necromancy-flavored spells, that you could draw on.