Hey, some dude wrote another blog post about Dungeon World and needs your advice.

8 thoughts on “Hey, some dude wrote another blog post about Dungeon World and needs your advice.”

1. Howdy. Would you prefer comments/suggestions here, or on the blogsite?

2. Ya know, I think it’s linked. Either is fine for my purposes.

3. I’ve run almost entirely one-shots or con games of DW, nearly all of which have been cannibalized from existing modules (especially DCC, those are great).

   I read the whole module (or skim it if it’s really long), writing down what I feel are the important points. Then I either convert those into monsters or Fronts; monsters if they’re NPCs, Fronts if they’re events. One or two Fronts is enough for a one-shot game, as you don’t want to get too complicated.

   I also come up with a number of leading questions to start the adventure. Questions that establish things I feel are necessary, but still leave room for the players to contribute to the fiction. That’s the hardest part for me, as I try to make the questions general enough that anyone could answer them, but still somewhat specific to make the player’s class matter.

   One thing I always do is start the group off already en route to the adventure site with a clear motivation (which is usually one or two of the leading questions I ask). Then I ask for an Undertake a Perilous Journey move, and off we go!

4. Oddly enough I’m thinking of running The Jeweler that Dealt in Stardust by Harley Stroh. I think it’s compact enough for a one-shot. It also starts the party off waiting outside the target location.

   I don’t want to go completely freeform as suggested in the rules since everyone will be new to the game, and it’s not setting up a campaign. I will have to think of some good questions, though.

   Thanks for the input. Do you normally have characters ready, too? I was thinking of assigning stats/races to the classes to save some time and then going through Bonds questions and Move choices onsite.

5. Starting the PCs at the adventure site is fine, but part of the reason I have the group make an Undertake a Perilous Journey move is to show them how moves work right at the beginning of the game. It presents the mechanics right away and says “things are dangerous” right from the beginning.

   I’ve never gone completely freeform either. Meaning that I’ve always used a map, either the one from the module I’ve adapted, or another one that I grabbed from somewhere. However, don’t let yourself be constrained by the map. One early game I ran went poorly (I felt) because I stuck to map too slavishly. I found myself saying things like “Well, the bad guys are over here and so wouldn’t hear anything…” or “There really is nothing else in this room…” which made presenting consequences and cost difficult. Halfway through that game I tossed the map out and just started freewheeling it. Things went much better after that. So what I’m saying is, you can totally use a preexisting map. Just don’t feel you have to use it as is; add to it, subtract from it, or change things around mid game if it’ll make things more interesting.

   I’ve never handed out pre-gen characters. Not even partially filled out. Character creation takes at most 30 minutes, and I find players have fun picking all their options from the lists. The Bonds are a great source of fun too. If you foresee people getting restless after 15 to 30 minutes of PC creation pre-gens are a way to go, but that’s never been my experience.

6. Everything Christopher Stone-Bush said, except I start one shots (or any game) in the middle of a fight. The go-to line is (to the Fighter or biggest hitter) “what color is the blood of whatever creature you just stabbed/smashed/hacked open?”

7. I like that Donald Sheldon. I like that.

8. That is a good one Donald Sheldon. Stolen. 😉

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