I am running a campaign that involves traveling through a very large forest and I have a question for anyone who has run a similar style of game.
The characters are not using the undertake a perilous journey but actually traveling through the forest. My question is how can I spice things up in ways other than just throwing mobs at the party?
That ought to keep you busy for a while. LOL.
Just to clarify, you’re not using the Undertake a Perilous Journey move why? That move can trigger any time the characters travel through unknown and dangerous areas, regardless of how long they do it for.
The problem for me with travel stuff is that it is really linear. You just go from location to location. Now you might argue that this is not different from a dungeon but it feels like that to me .
Christopher Stone-Bush I think they are just traveling through to see where they get. You only use PJ if you go from A to B. Since there is no B to get to there is no PJ. It talks about that in the move description in the book.
Sure. But all travel is going from point A to point B, even if B is simply “over that rise”. I’m not saying you have to use UPJ, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use it either.
Maybe they don’t have e ought rations?
Full text:
“This move only applies when you know where you’re going. Setting off to explore is not a perilous journey. It’s wandering around looking for cool things to discover. Use up rations as you camp and the GM will give you details about the world as you discover them.”
Excerpt From: “DungeonWorld.” iBooks.
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Sure, Tim Franzke. But knowing where you’re going could be as general as “that weird tower we saw poking up through the trees”. If you’re just wandering around, just wander around marking off rations as you Make Camp. But as soon as you head towards a predetermined destination, UPJ could trigger.
+[Chris Kutalik] says this on the matter, which I find extremely helpful in then ascertaining dangers out of the fiction generated at the table:
Pay Attention to the Whole Package. How does the whole area fit together in your mind’s eye? If you think it’s “just woods” you are likely to describe the trees and maybe the underbrush. But if it’s a “high alpine basin choked with conifers and warmed by geysers” the details started clicking together an evocative unit.
Mood is Important. It’s not just a swamp or some willows on an island: it’s a twisting, moody, almost-sentient labyrinth of shifting channels with great beauty and the hint of something unknowable.
Short Laundry Lists Help. Trotting out a single line of small details can help color it all immensely with a veneer of how sweeping the diversity of the area is. Take this from Abbey’s Down the River (and this is not his best): “We listen for the breathing of the Minotaur but find only cottonwoods glowing green and gold against the red rock, rabbitbrush with its mustard-yellow bloom, mule-ear sunflowers facing the sunlight…and curled horns of a desert bighorn ram, half-buried in the auburn sand.”
Brevity. This is the trickiest part take all of that above and try and distill it down to descriptions less than a minute—closer to half that really if possible. Take all those mental descriptors you are now mulling in your brain to sex up your wilderness area–and then cut that by half. When you are done cut it again, dropping all but the most essential of adjectives .
Nathan Roberts, you are just full of great advice!
Give them some possible sub destinations in the forest, or choices of routes.
“Do you take the main path, or try to save time by following the the hunting trail?”
“There are signs of orcs having passed recently. Do you intend to continue this way, or skirt the area by heading toward the fairy mound, or the other way towards the swampy bit? What do you do?”
Dungeons are nice because they present players with a series of choices: right or left? Up the stairs or through the doors? Just do the same thing with your forest.
David Guyll Sorry for being so vague but I had a reason for it. To be more specific the characters do know where they are going. The problem is that there is really no set path to get there, so I didn’t feel UPJ was appropriate.
They are travelling to the Dark Wood. This is a part of the forest that is full of mystery and has a lot of myth surrounding it. It is rumored it is full of beasts not seen anywhere else in the forest, most of which are bad.
I really appreciate all the advice everyone
That would trigger UPJ though.
Ok, the first thing to keep in mind (for everyone) is that UPJ isn’t a must use, it is simply a tool in a DM’s arsenal, a trick to help you fast forward to the action. If there is action in the forest they are going through, there’s no need to press the fast forward button.
Secondly, why don’t you ask the players about the forest? Where did the forest come from, when did it grow, what used to inhabit it, what inhabits it now? A forest raised over night by druids in an effort to destroy a particular civilization / city / castle / what have you, will have a different feel than a forest that just naturally grew up or one that the gods decreed was sacred or an elven forest. Etc.
Joshua, that’s great advice about provocative questioning, but I think its important to make the distinction that player moves are not tools in the GM’s arsenal. They are ways the players can engage the mechanics through their fictional choices or descriptions.
Everyone at the table should listen for when moves apply. If it’s ever unclear if a move has been triggered, everyone should work together to clarify what’s happening. Ask questions of everyone involved until everyone sees the situation the same way and then roll the dice, or don’t, as the situation requires.
Nathan, I disagree that UPJ is not meant as a tool for the DMs to use.
If a specific story line is the travel from one place to another it is perfectly acceptable to not use the UPJ move. Likewise it is perfectly acceptable, if the PCs are in a forest where there is all kinds of things for them to uncover, to ignore the move. This is in keeping with filling the character’s lives with adventure and with portraying the fantastic. The PCs may not know this when they attempt to use the move, however, and that is why I say it is in the DM’s tool box.
UPJ is meant to be used to increase the adventure in player’s lives and not using it is no different than telling the players you don’t need to roll for taking watch, nothing will bother you tonight (such as might happen when the pcs camp right before calling it a night IRL).
well if there is nothing comming then you don’t roll for watch. Rolling for watch REQUIRES there to be a danger. If you roll it there is something.
This makes me think of Apocalypse World’s moves for landscapes:
• Reveal something to someone.
• Display something for all to see.
• Hide something.
• Bar the way.
• Open the way.
• Provide another way.
• Shift, move, rearrange.
• Offer a guide.
• Present a guardian.
• Disgorge something.
• Take something away: lost, used up, destroyed.
perfect catch
Hey Josh, no Player Move is a tool for the GM.
Listen to Pete Figtree’s move discussion with the luminaries of the *world system. They explain it far more succinctly than I.
GM’s Moves are their tools and Its important to separate them in form and implementation from player moves. There are plenty of great options within to make if the player’s look to you expectantly or they hand you a golden opportunity.
The players moves are there as an interaction point for the players with the fiction and the mechanics. To do it do it. You just can’t conveniently ‘ignore’ moves – Everyone needs to be on the lookout during the conversation for when they kick in. The GM doesn’t have sole responsibility over when a move triggers, the group does.
Everyone at the table should listen for when moves apply. If it’s ever unclear if a move has been triggered, everyone should work together to clarify what’s happening. Ask questions of everyone involved until everyone sees the situation the same way and then roll the dice, or don’t, as the situation requires.
Nathan, I’ve already explained that I disagree and why, and I did it by using the actual agenda of the GM. Don’t think that repeating the exact same paragraph I disagreed with before will change anything, quite frankly, it is insulting.
David, you definitely can, if you’re wanting a darker toned game leading questions like those will probably be more useful in setting the tone, I guess it just depends on the type of game you’re running.
I’m sorry Josh, truly.
I had never the intention of insulting you or derailing this excellent thread.
You can play the game however you and your group likes, have fun!
it might be more work for you but I would have something split up the party. that’s always fun. instead of silently following the ranger, the wizard has to come up with someway to find his way or friends, possibly a fireball flair gun or summoned guide. the fighter can defend himself but might run low on rations or plow through a patch of nettles. …
just abduct the first person to fail their watch and see what the others do. or have them get lost due to some sort of magical trap from the forest itself
Daniel Fowler It is funny that you say that because I actually did have to split them up because of a commitment one of my players had. We play seperate from the group on Wednesdays for a couple weeks. But he will need to get back to the group somehow.