Can anyone recommend a DW adventure that is suitable for a group (and GM – me – who has never GMed before) who have never played DW before? We’ve played a few other systems, mainly Deadlands, and tend to prefer things that are a little more interesting than generic Hack n Slash.
Something relatively simple that can be wrapped up in a few sessions max (or extended into a campaign, but I’ll know more about that when/if necessary) and newbie-GM-friendly would be great.
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Given the nature of the game you could just set up an initial thing like
“You’ve been hired by the bastard daughter of Lord Lionheart, Anna Dirk, to run her fathers so called “knights” from Bishop’s Pass, where they hold up travellers and merchants alike to line their lord’s pockets. Tell me why you’ve accepted the job and what deed granted you the reputation to be considered for such a task?”
wait for the answers
“The land before you settles into wild brush and scattered boulders, how did they come to be there? Smoke rises lazily in the distance, why do you think that is? Soon you will reach the dried valley of Bishop’s Pass, what will you do?”
Then you just let them have at it, ask things about the world, the knights, the lord, his other children, Anna herself, about them and their place in the world, all while they’re kicking ass.
You don’t need one really.
Start them off in an interesting scenario, ask them who, where, why?
Take their answers, use that as the basis for this story. Build from there.
For example: “The door creaks behind you, something is trying to get in, but the bar is holding. Before you is the thing you seek, what is it? What kind of place is this?”
The players then fill in the thing or things trying to get in, the object they came for, and what kind of place this is. You can then ask them the Why did you do this, and the game is off and running.
I like the idea of that style of game, but having never actually played DW or GMed I’m a bit lacking in confidence of my ability to run such a game from the get go – hence why I was hoping for something a little more structured…
That said, I don’t want to script things and go against how DW is intended.
Eh, you know what though, people are different, I jumped right in and GM’d before I knew a thing, not everyone is so bull-headed.
A quick google brought this up: http://www.finemessgames.com/DWsupplements/dungeonstarters
Also, I hate bringing up crap I’ve made because it’s always unfinished and made pretty with only me in mind, but I’ve got a junkyard of a document that might help you. An adventure I once made and played.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16zALV3tLNkHSlfFAdF6j02Y4rEqtNrt-jg3BZ9uMUrc/edit#
I’d tell you about adventures other people have made but truth be told I’ve never felt the need to buy one.
Edit: Oh, and I’m going to remake the hirelings provided because they’re straight up non-sense at the minute.
Just throw in stuff that sound fun. It’s hard to go wrong with just pulling things out of movies and changing it’s appearance.
As you get more comfortable you can start to build on it.
Aside form the Dungeon Starters, consider The Indigo Galleon.
http://www.dungeon-world.com/#downloads
Also, for a list of DW-related material, check out the ‘linked items’ on DW’s RPGG page:
http://rpggeek.com/rpg/11105/dungeon-world
I enjoy running pre-published adventures for other systems using DW, and have done it on many occasions. It’s super-easy to convert on the fly, but if you want something where the job has already been done, I converted Tower of the Black Pearl:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B254Gcq3LvXQZ251aHExcVZfU28/edit?usp=sharing
You would need to original adventure for the maps, $6.99 on DriveThruRPG.
I’ve also had great success with using one-page dungeons as structured starting points:
http://www.onepagedungeon.info/
I’ve used these a lot, most recently Island of the Lizard God (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3qeWI0FVNRrdkJzRTFKQVlJYThHMXRGNHNJU3JmcDRjYlY4/edit) and Citadel of Evil (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByZPO7dbW0goZG9uRjZFczRGQVE/edit).
If you ask a bunch of questions beforehand, and fold the answers into the adventure, you’ll start to get a feel for DW’s improvisational aspect while working within the “safety” of a familiar structure. For instance, when I ran Citadel of Evil, I asked the Barbarian, “What thing of legend do your people believe the Citadel contains?” and she replied, “The Great Corpse-Orange Tree,” so one of the rooms became an underground conservatory that held the Tree. And we played to find out exactly what a corpse-orange does.
Also, don’t start them outside looking at the place, start them in the middle of the action. If you go with a published adventure, choose a place where they can fight some enemies and start them off in the middle of that fight. When I did that using the Citadel of Evil, I started them in a cave in the middle of a battle with giant spiders, with the Wizard trapped in webs, the Thief hiding in the shadows, and the Barbarian and Paladin back-to-back facing spiders.
Good luck!
I’ve used indigo galleon as first adventure and it has been really funny. Remember to ask questions…
I attempted to adapt Goblin Gully for newbies and have a version just posted. Haven’t got much feedback yet and it still needs polish, but take a look. My group had fun.
Marshall Miller ‘s Starters are ACE.
http://dragonsinmyhouse.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/dungeon-world-adventure-starters.html
Joe Banner ‘s adventures are little more structured and very very enjoyable.
http://joebanner.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The-Castles-the-Key.pdf
Michael Prescott ‘s One page dungeons are system neutral, but perfect for a few evening’s entertainment.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/282131/One%20Page%20Dungeons/Stellarium%20of%20the%20Vinteralf.pdf
Best thing to do as a new GM? Follow the advice to start ‘in media res’ and with a charged conflict scene that has lots of unanswered questions surrounding it.
Many thanks for all of the suggestions – I had downloaded a bunch of starters a while ago before DW had really started to sink in and couldn’t make much sense of them, but they’re starting to make more sense now.
I’ll look into the other suggestions and come up with something! Gotta start somewhere!