Tonight my group decided to postpone our weekly DW game because we were missing a player. I was good to go, especially since the player in question wasn’t key to my plot.
I realized then that while having one character acting as the plot driver for the campaign (Paladin with a Quest) I should give the other players some time in the spotlight.
So, here’s my idea: Try to have a Danger which is tied into a character, or is well suited to a character.
So far we have a quest for the paladin and a bunch of dangers that stand in the way of the quest. Great but it makes the paladin irreplaceable and the rest of the party, by extension, replaceable.
To rectify this situation I am going to add a couple of dangers that aren’t strictly related to the mcguffin at the centre of the paladin’s quest. For the Cleric I think an undead menace for him to tackle is an obvious answer, especially considering I was already working on one from when I thought the Paladin was going to miss a session.
Now I just have to come up with something for the thief. It could be something that leverages the thief’s abilities or threatens the thief directly. Anything that will make the player feel like their character is important.
Go on their bonds/ backstory! Making up the world from their characters is one of the best bits of DW. Ask them questions and you’ll find a whole load of dangers.
On a basic level, a thief has probably nicked something from someone important (who? What did they steal? Why? What happened to the item?) or pissed off criminals somehow (interrupted a job? Refused a contract? Taken a contract and ran away with the spoils?).
If you want a specific situation that ties in to the cleric too:
The thief stole something magically potent for a necromancer, and either botched the job or, more interestingly, realised the item was great and terrible and hid it/ kept it/ sold it to someone else. Now the necromancer is sending undead agents after the thief to find out where the item is!
For a necromancer’s item, the “detached eye” magic item posted yesterday (?) would be awesome, but I’d ask the players instead; they’ll come up with something equally cool and integrated into the game.
This is the eye I mean:
https://plus.google.com/102405164977052627173/posts/4F8vG6pqkGj
I am leaning towards the past misdeeds coming back to haunt the thief. However new stuff can be introduced as well. Perhaps a danger that can be resolved by stealing something. Or lets the thief make use of one of her starting moves.
I was in a Pathfinder game recently as a Ranger and my favoured enemy pick almost never paid off. Even if I could have picked a different favoured enemy it’s unlikely it wouldn’t have come into use in more than one encounter. I felt pretty dissapointed about that.