A quick question about hirelings. It sounds to me like you really only get to choose from the hireling skills as far as what kind of people you can employ. Is there no chance of hiring a warrior with the Blacksmith move or a Druid to change the weather? If so, hirelings seem pretty weak and hollow, both in capability and game fiction wise.
Do you handle them differently in your game?
I’ve meaning to experiment with James Hawthorne ‘s new Hireling rules for Pirate World. They can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lbyD-qx8Oyzmg3v_qc0VQjFbzt6hwhEkcArP_-O_tFk/edit?hl=en&forcehl=1
You can do what you like. But be careful. Haveing powerful npcs for hire makes the characters less special. I’m personally big on the You Are The Druid, so you wouldn’t find one in my game; though there might be a shaman who could make it rain (and have no other druidish abilities).
The other thing about hirelings is that they come on adventures. A blacksmith probably wouldn’t want to do that, but you probably could hire one to do a job in town.
The way I see it, hirelings are extensions of your characters and meat shields. They are designed to boost your PC’s abilities and take the brunt of the damage. They are not super awesome Heroes like the PCs, but can be upgraded if a space becomes available.
Can a NPC have a character ability? Sure, but they should only have one and be expense to hire. My example is having a NPC who could enchant things like a wizard, but that was it. He couldn’t be hired and had a high fee for his work like any master crafter.
Moves are for PC’s. Hireling skills do things that aid or enhance PC moves. If it seems like a hireling should be able to do something else follow the fiction.
In our campaign the wizard has a bodyguard warrior. When asked if he could sharpen weapons, help set-up camp, or repair items, I said absolutely. Those all seem like things he’d be able to do.
Guy Sodin thank you for the link! I like the way hirelings are structured. I think this approach is better than the books. I don’t imagine she would use hirelings at all in their current state.
I could see allowing these services to be purchased from NPCs except we were going to try the coinless approach to play. Maybe an in game economy would be a better approach after all. Though that still doesn’t confront my issue of her having zero support on missions. We’re playing one-on-one.
Dungeon World works fine as is one-on-one. There is no optimal party size or composition. My feeling is that the rules for Hirelings in the DW book works just fine as is. Hirelings are narrative constructs (as opposed to mechanical ones) and simply do whatever the fiction dictates they are capable of doing.
Why are you concerned about having “zero support” on this mission, Marques Jordan ?
This may be another remnant of my romp with B/X D&D (the only system I’ve ever GM’ed, hadn’t played in years prior). We tackled B5: Horror on the Hill (the essence of a combat grindfest). She played 10 PC’s. In the end we both handled personalities of the characters to facilitate conversation and fun. We got about 80 hours in before we took a break. Months passed, we talked it over, decided it wasn’t working, and DW looked similar in tone but a completely different approach to how we played.
I realize that in DW she can take on a horde of monsters and come out alive, but I feel too many of these situations and the game will begin to feel padded for her. No real danger, no fear of jumping into the fray. I guess with a larger group it is easier to justify a combat heavy situation and her going combat bonkers, tearing it up. If she picks a fighter, which I think she very well might, the moves she has picked out as cool and awesome all have to do with increased damage. She very much wants the Conan style experience of melee. I’m just not sure how to transition from her being a well rounded carnage party to one PC going into a multi-level dungeon (who does that?!).
At least with hirelings she could have the support she needs and get that teamwork vibe while still concentrating on her lone PC for the more personal experience that can provide in the narrative (something she never had in B/X). I guess I just don’t want to lose the grand melee aspect of the OSR experience and I don’t want to lose the utility that a team can provide. Sending her into a crazy deathtrap dungeon if she is a Fighter just isn’t going to work. Problem is she doesn’t want to play a Thief but she wants the trap crazy experience.
In the end the problem is I feel she has certain expectations of what the OSR experience contains and I don’t know if I am capable of delivering on them when the group aspect of play is removed.
I think this might warrant a different thread, but DW is not B/X OSR. My feeling is that you and your player need to set aside any expectations or hang ups you had about other systems if you’re going to have a chance of enjoying DW. Disliking something from System X and so changing that thing in DW before you’ve played is bad form in my opinion.
I see a lot of assumptions in your response, none of which have been true in my experiences with DW. While a single hero can take on a horde of monsters in DW, safety is by no means guaranteed.
EDIT: I realized I may have come off as a dick in the above post. It’s really not my intention, and I’m not trying to shout you down or drive you away, Marques Jordan.
I’m going to agree with Christopher, don’t try to mod anything until after the first session at least. If you want to give her a hireling to help her out, cool! But maybe wait to introduce it part way into the session, to see where she is falling behind.
Echoing others, hordes of monsters are only harmless if the GM makes them so. The free Dungeon World guide explains that aspect of the game quite well.
“Two goblins come at you, swinging their sabres wildly” is a far easier fight than “He’s dancing back and forth, keeping his shield raised and his spear pointed at you to keep you at a distance. He’s patiently waiting for an opening. What do yo do?”
Damn. That’s a good one, Fabian Isert.
I understand your point of view Christopher Stone-Bush, no worries. My problem is that my wife has already spoken about her disgust for the hirelings lack of capability. I don’t think I can do much to replace the fact she would prefer to be running two or three PCs all by herself.
She wants a capable party and to play around with different classes. My original plan, before I understood the limitations of DW hirelings, was to allow her to seek out hirelings that had the capabilities she desires at that point in time.
At this point she has zero interest in hirelings. But everyone keeps telling me that a DW solo game should not involve a player with multiple characters. That it will ruin the games potential, even if she only has control of the extra PCs during combat. But I cant just drop hirelings she doesn’t want in her lap. So I am unsure of how to handle the situation.
I could have her play a few sessions just by herself but I have no doubt that she will be hung up on this. I don’t want to start our new system off on a bad note.
What do I say when she wants death trap dungeons but doesn’t want to play a thief? She wants a fighter or ranger but doesn’t want her dungeons to be just about combat. I can deal with this being a different take on fantasy gaming but I cant force my only player to enjoy a style and approach that goes against her idea of fun.
B/X D&D failed to deliver an immersive enough experience for her. Unfortunately there was a lot there she really grew attached to. This has set her expectations and defined many of her gamer desires. If she plays with the default system and it isn’t working for her, what then?
If DW doesn’t work out for you, then play something else. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But play DW first. As it is written. Play it the way it advises, with no set-up. Put her in a charged situation, make your dungeons events in motion. Drop your expectations; in particular, drop your expectations of what she might want. Listen to what your player wants as she plays, but not before; it may well surprise you both.
Your fretting is quite understandable, but you’re trying to fix a problem that may well not happen. Spend your mental energy on making a compelling situation, not the rules.
If the two of you play a game as it is written and don’t enjoy it, no harm no foul, find another game.
On the other hand, if you play monopoly but change the rules to resemble shoots and ladders then you can’t say you’ve really played either game.
That said, playing DW with one player has worked for me once, in a pinch, but I don’t think it is made to have an extended solo campaign.
Wife wants to get the full experience of playing DW characters? Two ideas. Find at least one other player and do a couple do one shots. Or, let her make one character for each of the basic play books then let her switch focus each game depending on how she feels.
Thoughts at 4:16am while traveling. Take em with a grain of salt. 🙂
Marques Jordan, I think it’ really important to remember that just because your wife doesn’t play a thief, doesn’t mean she can’t disarm traps. She just doesn’t have a move for it. You can easily create some custom moves for the traps or do it with defy danger.
Very true Fabian Isert I think their was a conversation before similar to that. The moves each class represent their experience in that area, not a monopoly. If a fighter got ahold of a spell book, the could still cast a spell. However they do not get the control over the results like a wizard does.
Taking traps as the focus, anybody can spot one by rolling ‘discern realities’ and asking the right question. Then they can try to disable it with a defy danger roll. Again, if your player was a thief, they would know a lot more and have more control over the results of their rolls when messing with traps.
That’s all really really good advice. I’d add to it, but it’s really late (though not 4:16am) here.
I dont think i have ever encountered this situation in the world of tabletop gaming before, Adrian Brooks and Matt Smith. If I dont like the rules as written, then I should find another system? That makes no sense to me. House Rules go with tabletop gaming like condiments with food. Leaving the entirety of DW over an issue with less than 1% of the rules as written is just bonkers. I’d rather hack a hack ^_-
Matt Smith are you saying an option is to give her multiple PCs and she plays whichever one she feels like each session?Or she rotates narrative control between them during the same session, based on who she feels like using at any given moment?
Charles Persall you make a good point. I fear a deathrap dungeon would kill any non-thief within ten minutes of play. It is only a matter of time before she rolls a few 6-‘s X_X
I don’t think people are telling you to drop a system if you only dislike 1% of it. But I am full agreement with the idea that there is a threshold of tolerance. That threshold is different for each person, but there comes a point where I feel it is simply easier to move over to a new system rather than to house-rule the bejesus out of the old system. B/X D&D obviously crossed that threshold for you, Marques Jordan as you are no longer playing it.
Remember though, when the GM makes a move( as a result of a player getting a -6) that doesn’t always mean you deal damage. It is true that you can make a deathtrap dungeon incredibly lethal by making all GM Moves when dealing with traps “deal damage”. But you don’t have to do that. Not all traps should simply deal damage.There are all kinds of things you go do to make things interesting other than injure the character.
I would like to note I had serious issues with B/X until I wrote up two pages of house rules for it (augmented currency system, made far less lethal, switched to stone weight, slightly padded chargen, introduced several new rules from other gms). We left because my wife was having trouble as a new gamer.
Insecure about making decisions, trouble thinking on her feet (metaphor), self confidence issues expressing her thoughts and desires, trouble figuring out what to do next, and a few other things. I set out to find a system that would help her in these areas without putting to much pressure on her (I think “what do you do” is our saving grace). DW is my answer to these problems.
The next thing I am focusing on is to further stack the deck in her favor by filing down some of the sharp edges and rough spots. I want this to work and am giving it my best shot. If it doesn’t work I can live with that, but only if I know I did my best.
Matt Smith we tried 40 hours of B/X with her sister and brother in law. It made no difference compared to our 40 hours with just us. I believe she feels more comfortable with just the two of us. At this early stage in her gamer development her comfort and personal investment is my primary goal. Great suggestion though. They were a fun couple of players =]
Christopher Stone-Bush house ruling the bejesus is not only acceptable, but awesome and fun =D
If you enjoy making house rules, then that’s cool. Do what you like. I’m of the opinion though that after a certain point, if you’ve changed so much of the system, why are you still using it as a base? Move onto something else.
“Stacking the deck” to make things easier for a newish player is fine, Marques Jordan. But in Dungeon World, you do that through fiction and narration. Not through twiddling the mechanics.
I don’t believe there is another game out there that is similar enough to Dungeon World to justify using it as my base instead Christopher Stone-Bush. At this point in time there really aren’t any mechanics in place that support one on one play, nor are there mechanics that favor group play. I am merely adding support for a situation the rulebook does not specifically cover.
If we had one or two more players I wouldn’t need hirelings to be any more fleshed out. The fact that I don’t and the rulebook doesn’t give advice specific to one on one play leads me down my current path. I think it would be easier to expand on hireling mechanics than to emulate these individuals through narration alone. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Whoops. Just to clarify, I was talking about any system, not just Dungeon World. If there are things I don’t like about a system after playing it few times, I have to make a call between house ruling that system or finding a new one. It all depends on how extensive the changes need to be. If the changes need to be massive, it’s often less work/time for me to simply find and learn a new system. That’s all I’m saying.
You should play however you feel is best for you, naturally. Personally I feel you’re worrying about (and attempting to fix) things that don’t need to be worried about. It’s your call though, and I wish you good luck. Let us know how things go. 🙂
Thank you very much Christopher Stone-Bush ^_-. I have one last question on this topic for you fine folks =).
I know dungeon world rules are very specific and altering them is discouraged because it can mess with the intended experience the game is designed to facilitate. Do you think allowing hirelings, in a single Player/PC game, to give two or three handpicked advanced moves relevant to their class (observing PC/hireling level restriction rules) will ruin this intended experience? If so, can you explain how and why you believe this?
Thank you all for your feedback. I very much appreciate it! ^_^
Not to keep repying before other people get a chance to, but you are starting to make this sound like a player issue rather than a game issue. You are presenting your player as being rather resistant to trying Dungeon World as is. Have you tried saying something like “lets just see how this game plays ‘as is’ a few times”? If so, what has she said? I get the impression your player is going into this with a number of expectations and assumptions based on experiences with other games. Try to get her to drop those and just play the game.
Also, I wouldn’t say that modifying rules is discouraged. I merely think modifying rules is unneccessary, as so much can be done simply by changing the fiction and your narrations.
Whoops! I forgot to state this earlier Christopher Stone-Bush.
Note: I will start her with one PC and use hirelings as prescribed. I just want to have a backup plan in place should she continue to protest a few sessions in. I would like to avoid having her control multiple PCs, which is what she is trying to convince me to start out with. I am hoping lightly modified hireling rules might provide something we can both agree on. With any luck this modification wont even be necessary (fingers crossed)
Christopher Stone-Bush this is currently a player based problem but one I consider valid. Hirelings are different in anything either of us has seen in another system (picking a system after B/X involved a lot of game reviews). DW’s approach is lackluster for our one on one situation. Better support or a different take would have been more ideal for us.
I am willing try and see how it goes, she really doesn’t want to. I am not the player nor can I call for a vote among players to settle this matter. So I am doing my best to serve the desires of my audience. It isn’t so much a question of whether DW’s approach will work, but rather if it is the best choice for her flavor of fun.
So this seems to be a case of either modifying the game or not playing at all. Bummer. :^(
You may have explaned this before, but what exactly is her issue with Hirelings as written? Why does she feel they are lackluster?
Christopher Stone-Bush she desires epic style play. Not all the time but probably one out of every four sessions is her bare minimum. Big battles, lots going on, lots of butt to kick. She hated the constant small skirmishes in B/X. She hated dying before she had a chance to develop her PC’s personality in game.
We ended up nerfing the lethality but now the combats were boring, enemies felt like paper tigers. I upped the enemies and combat dragged on, often with her dying anyway (despite her being methodical and employing tactics). So she rolled up 10 PCs, I handled everything but combat regarding them, and we increased the difficulty of fights and the number of enemies. Now the game was fun and balanced just right.
Of course I should have continued to tweak everything to get the PC count down to two to four while keeping the battles epic, but after a break I had time to think. Like you’ve pointed out, once you modify enough you realize this system may not be the best foundation to start with. But combat was only one part of it. The non-combat was a train wreck and house rules to encourage a more narrative approach (for a tabletop newbie) were far more difficult to implement.
DW is the answer to my non-combat problems but I face the same dilemma with combat here. Narrative control can only go so far (she hates paper tigers only combat). Epic combats, specifically with lots of enemies, and a single PC is going to be an issue. The easiest thing would be to give her multiple PCs. Barring that, a supporting cast is still necessary for her survival.
Plus it isn’t so bad. Some traveling companions would provide some nice opportunities narratively for conversations, adventure hooks, and for creating meaningful relationships she values. Relationships with majority off-screen roles can only achieve so much. A love interest she adventures with opens a whole new realm of possibilities, especially for high tension and drama ^_^.
Here’s a neat trick that might help: make a monster, call it “gang of [monster]”, maybe add a few hp and just like that, you’ve got a whole lot more enemies without overwhelming the PC mechanically.
Hmm. I’m thinking that one-on-one DW isn’t going to meet her expectations. Few games will meet her expectations without there being other players present.
Big epic battles with lots of danger and lots of baddies to fight, yet having things be “safe” enough to have lots of time to develop a character seem to be at odds with each other in my opinion. Honestly, I don’t see how you can have both at the same time without making enemies paper tigers (or glass cannons). 10 PCs run by a single player sounds like a nightmare.
I’m not trying to be negative, and I’m only getting a very compressed story here, but it sounds like NO system will meet your wife’s expectations. I’m really at a loss here. :^(
Haha glass cannons, I havent heard that one before Christopher Stone-Bush =D. Yeah it is tough. I think Exalted is as close to making paper tiger combat seem cool. It is just too complex and time consuming to learn right now. I’ve been struggling to learn DW in the time I have available.
I think the primary goal is for combat to be difficult and to require tactics, without resulting to using wargame-like mechanics. Running 10 PCs was a nitemare for us both and the game felt like a board game. I think I could have found a sweet spot with B/X in time. Finding that with a narrativist game like DW may not be possible though (shrugs).
Here’s the thing. Narraive combat can be just as tactical as grid-based combat, but it requires the players to provide much of that themselves. Case in point.
Example A: Player says “I swing my sword at the goblin in front of me.”
Example B: Player says “I jump up onto the ruined pillar, putting me at goblin-head height and making it more difficult for them to reach me. I swing my sword down at the first goblin to get within striking range.”
In Dungeon World, both of those narrations trigger the same move; Hack & Slash. One is employing tactics while the other is an exercise is dice rolling. The system provides only as much excitement and tactics as the players (including the GM) put into it. My first time running DW, one of the newer players simply said “I do [move name].” whenever I asked him what his PC did. I kept trying to get him to narrate his actions, but he never really did. If your wife does not inject tactics into her narrations, she will not get a tactical experience. It’s as simple as that.
In terms of danger, you as GM need to do the same thing. You’ve read that 16 HP dragon thread, right?
OMG I love the dragon example!!! It was the example of DW play that showed me the true power of DW narrative. You bring up a very important point about tactical descriptions . This is definitely an area where I will need to develop my skill and lead by example in gameplay with my wife. Thank you for showcasing this for me Christopher Stone-Bush.
I was reading a discussion about the birth of hirelings in DW (bit.ly/1lZKKv3). In the first couple of pages there is more of an AW slant for hirelings. The approach in Pirate World isn’t too far off (bit.ly/1a9dm2V). In fact I rather like it. Maybe instead of advanced moves for hirelings, I could give them one or two custom moves that are less powerful. The more helpful the move, the higher the cost and instability of that hirelings moves; on 7-9 (choose X results of Y possibilities). The Pirate World example for Gunpowder Goblins is a good example of this (bit.ly/1hGAPgL).
I was reading a short post (bit.ly/1cVVyF4) by tony dowler which was for a solo Player/PC setup that used hirelings in his Apocalypse D&D game. I think this approach perfectly shows what I hope to gain, narrative possibility wise, by having hireling travel companions as a cornerstone of her campaign.
This is good. I feel like I am finally making some progress! Or maybe its that the progress doesn’t feel so dirty?
Those Pirate World Hireling rules are pretty cool. 🙂
I consider Dungeon World to be extremely scalable in terms of what the narrative does. Especially for the GM. You certainly can make custom moves for things (and making custom moves can be a lot of fun), but you don’t have to. It all depends on how comfortable you are narrating things as a GM, and how much you want to leave things in the hands of the players and/or the dice.
Take that Amphib Poisoner in the Pirate World Hireling rules for example. There’s a custom move about him making poison, and the stat used is loyalty. So the better he’s treated, the better the die results will be, and the more/better quality poison he makes. It’s a neat little custom move.
But you can do that just as easily in the fiction without making a custom move for it. That simply means the GM will be making a judgement call based on the fiction of the game. Instead of saying “You’ve been treating that Amphib really well, so his Loyalty is 3.” and having the player roll the dice to see what happens, the GM just says something like “You’ve been treating that Amphib really well, so he’s able to makes 2 uses of some pretty nasty poison for you.”
This is why the GM can’t play against the players, and is not their adversary. The GM has to be completely honest, not play gotcha, and not try to cheat the players out of things that the fiction dictates they should get. That Amphib NPC exudes poison from his skin. Therefore if he is an ally, the PCs have the capability of making poisoned weapons without any additional mechanics needed simply because of the fiction. If a player has their character say “Hey Amphib, come here!” and then narrates them wiping their sword on the NPCs poisonous skin, hey presto, they have a poisoned weapon.
Some GMs don’t feel comfortable simply deciding things though, especially when they negatively affect the PCs. That’s part of how custom moves are used. Making a custom move says “I am leaving the effect of this action up to the dice because (for whatever reason) I don’t want to make the decision myself.
In one game I ran, there was an evil Ice Witch NPC who had a command spell. She could cast a spell that would force a PC to follow her commands. However I didn’t trust myself to use it fairly and didn’t want to leave the decision of whether or not the PC was dominated in my hands. So I made it into a custom move. Now I allowed the dice to decide a PC’s fate, which I was more comfortable with.
Which brings me full circle back to Hirelings. When other people in the DW tavern say that PC allies don’t need to have mechanics or moves, what we’re saying is we’re comfortable narrating what effect they have on the story. That Hireling is a thief-type kind of guy, so yeah, he can open that locked door no problem. If you don’t want to make that decision, then it’s totally cool to make a custom move about them picking locks.
All that being said, it is hard to make good, balanced custom moves.
Phew that was long. 😉
Christopher Stone-Bush… I think we may finally be on the same page. You’ve really put things into context for me. The power of the narrative is truly flexible, though so much control is intimidating. I think I also better understand how and when to use custom moves now. Running hirelings like DW prescribes doesn’t seem so bad now.
The only thing I feel that we may be losing (if I ignore the Pirate World approach and go back to a hireling with up to three advanced moves) is the ability for some of cool factor of other classes to shine in our campaign. Things like changing weather, the Bard’s amazing social capabilities, and a bunch of other stuff I won’t go into, all seem so cool. But there are ways to add some of this in through items or quests or hiring a rare NPC for aid (not to adventure with, just for a service) if I really want them. No need to create a character just to gain access to them.
One thing I liked about the Pirate World approach to hirelings is that it defined them a bit more, specifically HP and damage. When handling HP wit the narrative, since DW doesn’t define this, do you just decide when they die or get hurt or are injured? Likewise, do you use the narrative to describe fights and their outcome involving the hireling rather than track its actual HP?
I’d say both, depending on the fiction. If someone stabs the hireling from behind, he’s probably just dead (same as with monsters). If the hireling takes part in a fight, I’d track HP.
Harming hirelings the players feels attached to can be quite an effective GM tactic too, be it to show things are getting serious or to scare the players a bit. 🙂
I just noticed your reply from last night Fabian. My apologies for not addressing you sooner.
Fabian Isert said: Here’s a neat trick that might help: make a monster, call it “gang of [monster]”, maybe add a few hp and just like that, you’ve got a whole lot more enemies without overwhelming the PC mechanically.
Could you give me an example of how I would use this in play? I understand the easy to track part, just not how to handle a gang of monsters that all share the same hp.
No problem at all Marques Jordan. I’m just pitching in trying to be helpful, take what you want and leave the rest. 🙂 (also this post got longer than intended, apologies)
I should probably explain briefly where I got the idea from. I first saw it in Dogs in the Vineyard, where individual group members become traits of the group (more traits = stronger opposition). DW moves come closest to that, but they’re still not the same.
I’ve not tried a group with normal moves plus a move per person in DW for that reason, though it should work. Inattentive Goblins Guards: “Restore order with the lash” for the captain, “Pick nose” for one of the grunts, “sing horrible songs” for another. Stuff like that.
Generally, you’ll only be able to use this, if the monsters are one narrative unit. Say your PC is sure the three stablehands saw what happened to his vanished horse and starts a brawl in the stables to get them to tell him. The stablehands are really one obstacle/plot-point instead of three. Same goes for the inattentive Goblin guards blocking the gate to the Goblin caves.
You’ll likely need to interpret the meaning of HP a bit liberally. Maybe the PC does well and quickly kicks one of the stablehands in the groin, for all the HP the stablehands had left. That probably means he collapses wih a whince and the other two are like “Woah, woah, slow down. We don’t want none of that. Look, here’s what happened.” Whatever it is, the fight is over. In that case you’ve decided that the stablehands would spill once HP ran out with non-lethal damage.
You can also play with the HP amount: the five Goblin guards could have 15HP (3×5), or they could have 6 because you’ve determined that once two are dead, the rest is definitely going to bolt. If the PC does that kind of damage in one blow, you can always describe him grusomely gutting one of the Goblins and the rest throwing in the towel. The player doesn’t really know it’s “early.” If that’s not an option in the situation you’re in (maybe it’s a rat swarm that just can’t be killed in one blow), you simply narrate a kill for every x Rat HP of damage and let the surplus go to waste (like with individual enemies, but you don’t have to track 5 seperate guards) and adapt your narration to how many HP are left.
You’ll always need to pay attention to what the PC is aiming for though (I found it’s a good idea to ask if I’m not sure), so you can gear the fight towards that and give it to them when the monster’s HP run out, in one way or another – group completely dead, partially dead, routed or just “convinced”.
That’s all a tiny bit “out there”, so not everybody will be comfortable running it that way. You’ll occasionally need to be a little bit inventive if the dice go freaky. But it’s not a huge difference in the end, you’re just approaching the encounter with a slightly different mindset.
Fabian Isert I consider this to be solid gold! Thank you so much for taking the time to type all of this up. I will definitely be using this approach in my games to streamline situations that just don’t require, or would otherwise benefit from, every opponent to be handled through the normal combat process. This is awesome!
Christopher Stone-Bush I really appreciate you taking so much time to help me. I feel I better understand hirelings in DW and the possibilities they present. For the time being I will not be using the Pirate World approach. If the time comes I need something more advanced I will try it out then. You are awesome and I thank you ^_-
Glad you find it useful. 🙂
One more thing I forgot: I believe the moves for individual group members would work best if they mirror their role in the group (like in Dogs). I.e. the bully captain is going to restore order with a lash etc. That way the group immediately gains a lot of profile, because every member is narratively unique (probably more unique than 5 individual goblin guards that all kind of behave the same way).
Now I’ll have to try this individual move thing myself, I’m really curious how it works out. XD
Just to clarify, I am not against home-brews. Especially those that “fix” the 1% problem you have with a system.
I was under the impression that you and your wife are new to Dungeon World. With that in mind, my suggestion was to play the game “as-is” a couple of times to ensure that you get the experience as it was intended by the designers (who have spent far more time and energy on this than any of us tavernites, except maybe Joe Banner). Then after you see what the game was trying to do, you can know best how to adjust it to your needs.
Hack it up bro!
Flattery will get you everywhere, Matt Smith! (Seriously though, others have spent way more time than me.)
That being said, if you’re still looking for a solution to your hireling problem Marques Jordan then check out my latest PDF on http://joebanner.co.uk/failspeake-gorge/ – I used the trio of gnomes specifically when playing with one player like you and your wife are, and it worked really well.
Fabian Isert if you do try out the individual move thing, would you let me know how it turns out. I’d love to have another persons experience to compare my own future results to.
Matt Smith no worries. You are correct that we are just starting out (about 3 sessions/approx 10 hours in chargen so far but my wife takes it to a new level, more on this to come in a future post). I decided to give it a go with vanilla hireling support to start out with as many of you folks suggested here. I think I have some very reliable options for handling hirelings (vanilla, Fabian Isert method, Guy Sodin PW method, Joe Banner method, my method of 1 to 3 AM, and the wife’s method of using full blown PC’s as hirelings. I plan to play with them all in time.
Joe Banner I really like this adventure! Even more I love the hireling approach of the three Gnomes. I think it is inventive and has a lot of versatility and potential for fun. Thank you very much for referring me to this and even more for devising it. You sir, are awesome =D
Will do Marques Jordan. I’ll get an opportunity soon-ish. I’d also be interested in how it works out for you.
I will definitely report back as my experiences unfold =D