I have a few very detailed dungeons (including furniture, light sources, exact loot, traps, secret rooms etc.). How much will I have trouble with “Draw maps, leave blanks”? And how to deal with them?
(sry about my english; not my native language)
I have a few very detailed dungeons (including furniture, light sources, exact loot, traps, secret rooms etc.).
I have a few very detailed dungeons (including furniture, light sources, exact loot, traps, secret rooms etc.).
It depends on how much agency you give your players. If you won’t allow them to go off the path as you’ve written it, then you’ll have no problem.
Dungeon World, however, is geared toward a fair amount of player input, so you may have trouble implementing the entirety of a detailed Dungeon. It may be a better idea to keep them on hand to work pieces of in later, when you’re having trouble manifesting something on the fly.
Also, your English was just fine. 🙂
I think the blanks can be “what’s in here” and “what dangers will we find?” You could use a fully detailed Dyson map, for example, but the players fill in everything in the dungeon that isn’t architecture.
Railroading is difficult and very disappointing in DW. Take your highly detailed maps and use them as a loose guide. If the players start to run with something else, let go of the detail in the map.
You can have a fully fleshed out map but fill in the blanks in other ways. Some good questions to ask would be:
What made the claw marks at the entrance?
What treasure is rumored to be within?
What restless spirits still walk these halls?
What happened to the last party to enter?
How long before the missing children will be lost forever?
Why do the locals avoid this place?
Who has lost family members to this dungeon?
What left these droppings?
How far in is the lost vault?
What arcane secrets are still in the library?
Who’s remains are impaled along the road to the dungeon?
What made these stains?
Things like that go a long way to understanding what your players expectations are and being able to accommodate them and have fun yourself.
I wouldn’t call it railroading. They are just oldschool dungeons. They can be completed in many ways and I’m always surprised how they turn out. They are just filled with nearly no blanks left.
Rest of the prep isn’t this detailed at all.
We just have this hard switch between outdoors/cities=storygame and dungeons=oldschool challenge/tactics
And I’m just wondering if it will be compatible with DW.
There’s an appendix in the DW book about converting traditional modules for DW campaigns. Basically, you strip out the major monster forces and turn them into fronts for the adventure.
Matt Smith Having a mapped out dungeon is absolutely not the same as railroading. But I agree to allow wiggle room for your players’ thoughts and actions (and for your own as well, on a fail you might want a pit trap there after all, even though it wasn’t drawn in or on your notes).
Vlastimil Valluch You can absolutely use Dungeon World for mapped out adventures. The creators of Dungeon World have said many times here and on several forums that you can give as much or as little control of the setting to the players as you like. So your blanks might be as big as “What is the name of this continent? What is the city you came from? Who is the King? Who is the major villain threatening this place?” to as small as “This temple was said to once be a place where werewolves were created and dark priests prayed. What makes these particular werewolves so dangerous?”
The short answer is, do what is most comfortable and fun for you and your group. If you are having fun, you are doing it right.
Mike Wice Great to hear. I was kinda worried that with such a strict prep I’ll have trouble quickly making up moves for player failures, but more I think about it, easier it seams.
Stephanie Bryant I’ll definitely do it this way when I’ll be doing prep exclusively for DW
I like to have detailed setpieces with furniture, specific traps/monsters/treasures, etc in my dungeons!
I place each setpiece on the map and decide what’s “behind” it, but then everything between the setpieces is spur-of-the-moment.
When the players enter the room, show them the pretty, detailed artefact you spent ages creating and after they are done admiring your lovely cartography (and getting excited to encounter what lies beneath), get them to spout lore or discern reality about it. The ‘blanks’ are simply your player’s contributions to these moves, or reactions to your hard moves that you make on a miss! Explore your dungeons together 🙂