I’m definitely setting my next Dungeon World game in the planar city of Dis, jewel of the great Sultana. If you were in my game, what would your character be? What strange culture would they come from?
I’m definitely setting my next Dungeon World game in the planar city of Dis, jewel of the great Sultana.
I’m definitely setting my next Dungeon World game in the planar city of Dis, jewel of the great Sultana.
Kobold urban explorer, obsessed with maps, dreaming of seeing the Farthest Places. His clan has always lived in the great cities, a living reminder of ancient pacts and terrible miscalculations that many would rather forget.
I’d play Joseph Force Crater, crooked Tammany judge, barrator and womanizer, on the run after crossing the wrong sort of literal underworld figures.
Escaped harem eunuch guard-slave, skilled with a talwar and possessing a stolen, magical songbird carved from a blue sapphire.
Dante the Bard, because Dis.
I’d play a halfbreed Araknae with one remaining eye. Six of them were traded for charms, favours and the ability to feel. The last one was stolen and she can still see through it.
I can’t handle Dis right now.
Tyrus the Righteous, Paladin of Justice, Chosen of Selor the God of Martyrs, and Keeper of the Key to Eternity.
Because titles are awesome.
I would be a Sol Guard (Paladin, mechanically) from the land of Sarren, a Port City on the Southern Coast with a vast desert full of sand dunes to the North.
Sarren thrives as a trade city full of merchants coming and going through the many ships entering and leaving its large port. While fishing is their only industry their geographic placement make it an ideal spot for ships to embark on their journeys or re-supply. The region is also home to a unique species of shellfish that stores solar energy on its shell and glows at night; it is also delicious and a popular export.
The city is behind enormous walls built in a large circle around the bay and desert. Large gates are the only two entry points, The North Gate keeps away desert creatures and it’s only opened when groups of people enter and exit the city in their pilgrimage.
The South Gate is always open as ships are constantly entering and leaving the city. They only close it at times of war of peril; its doors are made of stone and iron; a golden sun sits on top of the gate, two copper spears crossed in front of it representing the Sun God Van-Ra.
Sol Guards worship Van-Ra in a temple the city is built around; they are fierce, devoted warriors who carry large round shields, two crossed spears placed on top of a mid-day sun adorns them. They normally favor spears in combat, but through the years they have incorporated large scimitars into their training.
My character would be Sharad Al-Vander; he’s a 5’10”, medium-build, dark-skinned man wearing a long, dark green hijab, gilded scale armor, a typical Sol-Guard shield and a large, also gilded scimitar to his side.
He’s very devoted to Van-Ra but unlike most Sol-Guards he is friendly and has a good sense of humor. He’s also very trusting and while well trained, inexperienced in combat since he has spent his whole life behind the Sol Temple’s walls.
His motivation is to prove himself to The Temple Elders as the final trial of his training. Sol Guards do this by embarking on a quest with the objective of helping others without any self-gain other than the fulfillment of this task.
I’d be an Elf Paladin who lost is elvish heritage and forced into human form by the twin demons and my quest would be to regain my true form. It would give me a voice that transcends language.
I don’t know who I would be, because I was born without a name. I was not born into this world as many of you were. I was summoned. Summoned back from the purgatory where I awaited trial by the Gods for my life’s events.
Told that a deal had been brokered for my return, I was given a second life. No recollection of who I was. No memory of where I may have been or what I may have done. Though, these abilities… what I am able to do.. it frightens me.
I would be Mornn, a Human Druid who was bartered to a mad sect of Druids when he was a child in exchange for the safety of his village. This sect of Druids, The Unburned, are native to the Plains of Red Iron in Hell. Mornn is Born of the Soil, but it’s the black, infernal soil of Hades. He can take the form of the bizarre creatures and minor devils of the Plains. The Unburned do not tolerate deserters or defectors from their ranks. How did Mornn escape them in Hell to arrive at Dis?
I would be an equipment-heavy bounty hunter who knows of shortcuts and hidden areas that most do not.
I would be Macgyver. Plain and simple
I’d go with a character concept I thought up a while ago, a crossbreed with the body of a minotaur and the head of a sphinx. Quite cross with anyone who mistakes him for a human despite looking exactly like one. A thing for labyrinths and riddles. Native of Dis.
A junk and debree (and explosions) obssessed gnome(at least that is what people think he is) Artificer that build machines that look like they will fall apart at any moments and trades in the things he finds on adventures for more interesting junk and explosives.
Yeah. Java Artificer.
The last gnome, seeking the truth about what happened to the rest of his people.
Leprosy
One of the other PCs, but from an alternate future.
J. Walton An entire party of the same character but from alternate dimensions could be a mind blowing party.
J. Walton I played in a game of Anima Prime at GPNW two or three years ago and played the younger version of another PC and it was so rad.
That sounds sweet. It’s such a common trope in, like, Terminator and X-Men, that it’d be fun to key off of.
Yeah, like I’d do something and he’d be like “hmmmm, so that’s why…” and stuff. You really need to both buy in but it’s so fun.
Falruushel, ex-inquisitor from the Timewatch Order. Disgraced by actions he did not intend, he seeks vengeance on the high sept who he feels wronged him, and took his right hand.
Playing as the younger or alternate version of another PC would feel like an extended series of Confessionals from Inspectres. This is not a bad thing.
Family members are also good. They’re all over fiction but often in games we’re all unrelated Wolverines with no family. Not just siblings but also cousins, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, etc.
oh yes. 100x yes!
PLAYER 1: “I’m Tsarina Spxxxzz, the half-black pudding, half-spiderfolk princess of the night, driven from my throne by a jealous rival, forced into the dirty business of freelancing”
PLAYER 2: “Cool. I’m your mom.”
“Also, you are grounded!”
“Also, am I a black pudding or spiderfolk?”
Black pudding because more tasty.
Also, how did i get involve with a spiderfolk?
Korwhellon Kaine, Imperial Knight. So proud and blind was our empreror, he sought to summon Dis to our plane so he could control it. Some of us survived. Fighter. Moody drunk.
“The spider-king’s mandibles kissed so sweetly, how could a pudding resist? Of course, then his first wife ate him and gave birth to a thousand children, so my attempt to put you on the throne might have been doomed from the beginning.”
Still better then Twillight
Nix the Fairy, granting wishes to its friends and cursing jerks. Nix looks like a tiny humanoid bee, with for arms, a thorax, and a narrow face. Its face resembles a person’s, but with an intricate insectoid helmet over most of it.
Vant the Moon Elf whose people inhabit a 325th layer of the abyss. They live in symbiosis with the dream spiders and each elf is bonded for life with a spider during their 13th year. My spiders name is Malio.
Okay, change of plans, I want to play the 1156th in line for the Spider Throne, now. Shades of Planescape’s Animal Lords?
Valeron Dartanon, a Vorgish Dashing Hero… the Vorg have the upper body of a praying mantis, including the head, but the lower body and arms of a man… though green and bronze hued. He speaks English perfectly despite the mandibles that can chop through scale mail. Recently new to Dis searching for his love that was sold into slavery a year ago. Chased by a clan of wizards that covet his mandibles for the magical powder that can be made from them.
A wandering mercenary with more knowledge of magic than he should have and a priceless weapon artifact that can instantly change form to become the weapon he needs (eg “a dagger that lengthens into a spear which morphs into a whip which becomes an axe, etc.” Signature weapon with starting tags of Hand, Close, Reach) and probably multiclass Wizard.
I think I wrote a zine about this once.
Half elf/half moth. From the culture of… stoner university students. Interplanar stoner university students.
If this is an audition process, I humbly submit Kalæl, the sorcerous centipede. Each leg is fitted with a magic ring, allowing me to cast spells through intricate tapdancing.