In a shattered world of floating islands slowly being dragged into the open maw of an alien dimension, who will stand against the Empress of Carnage and the unknowable forces that guide her insane plans?
Rhodon, haunted vines wrapped around a skull Druid
Trejo, igneous rock asura Barbarian
She East of the Wood, the last free goblin Ranger / True Smith
Van Caine, bulldog-man Gladiator / Warrior Poet
Yggsieg, horned shaggy giant Cleric / Merry Maker
Sansa thing from beyond possessing a baroness Wizard
This is what happens when you say “you can be anything”.
They each ride a “scream-wing”, a sort of giant bat. They wear fantasy equivalents to biker leathers.
We’ve only played one session, most of it was world building and map drawing.
Still, somehow Yggsieg and Trejo managed to collapse a tower. Van Caine leapt from his scream-wing mid-flight and elbow dropped a “sky-dancer” (giant dragonfly used by the evil empire) into a lake. She East of the Wood (Shewie for short) shot an antagonist off a balcony with her “gonne” before he could even get a word in. Rhodon and Sansa showed alarming efficiency at wasting unfortunate plague mutants; Rhodon shifted into a scorpion and Sansa made sure he stayed invisible as often as possible.
As a GM, I’m very afraid. But this campaign is going to be legendary among us! I can feel it already!
Well that was a long post, one more thing, rather than drawing a big map, every island gets drawn on different little bits of paper, and they’re going to move around each session. Should make traveling interesting!
Sounds epic!
Cool stuff, re the maps. Our Grim World game has a big ‘state of the world’ map, then we zoom in and detail areas on a separate map as we travel through them. Its working for us so far.
I’ve seen been told Van Caine is based on this brilliant piece of art:
http://davidrapozaart.deviantart.com/art/Bulldog-419495354
Afraid? You should be.
> This is what happens when you say “you can be anything”.
I feel ya’– the last time I put “play anything” on the table, amongst my players were a goblin chef, were-snake, a gelatinous cube, an artillery turtle, a magic sword (who had a minion to carry him)… but it really hit the fan when the “succubus vampire hunter” sat down between the “suicidal demon-slaying wizard” and the “necromancer turned accidental vampire”.
They outstayed their welcome in the starting sea port, having invalidated all maps of the city with non-euclidean space warping magic.
Next Saturday I’m thinking plague doctors who turn out to be mutant crow-people hiding their true form under masks, accusing others to keep suspicion off themselves!
Ok, that sounds awesome.
Can you detail a bit more how you did the “you can be anything”? And are all your players experienced DW players?
I’ve had this con adventure in my mind that involves floating islands – totally stealing your map idea.
Chris Shorb
This is what we’re using at the moment.
1. Get rid of the race section of the class, stick a white sheet over it.
2. Write something that race/thing can do and give it a stat to run on (CON, CHA…). The only solid rule we have is nothing that a race can do innately should over-take the spot of another Move, so no dealing damage etc.
3. When you want to do that thing, roll+stat. On a 10+, you do it flawlessly.
On a 7-9, you can do it, at cost or with consequence.
On a 6-, you mess up in a appropriate manner, GM makes a move against you.
4. Change your Looks to whatever you like.
An unofficial supplement to Dungeon World called Dark Heart of a Dreamer has players choose three “heritage” moves, then roll to gain hold, and then they can use these moves any time, without chance of failure. And, well, I guess it must be better because I came up with our way of doing it in less than a minute, but we’d rather have instant access to one move that you have to roll for than more holds to look after.
Right, on to the second question. None of us are that experienced (between a year and three years), save one scarred veteran of Dungeons and Dragons.
Lastly, do so! It is neat! At some point depending how things go I’d like an island that has been turned into a dreadnaught, crewed by orcs or something, that fire harpoons into smaller islands, dragging them close, then strip them of ore and wealth!
Oh, might as well put the moves up!
Rhodon
– When I stay still to play dead, roll+INT
Trejo
– When I shrug off the effects of fire, roll+CON
Shewie
– When I placate a monster of old, roll+CHA
Van Caine
– When I follow the scent of a fleeing enemy, roll+WIS
Yggsieg
– When I blow on something to cover it in frost, roll+STR
Sansa
– When I peer out of this body to see beyond a physical obstacle, roll+WIS
Killer. I love it. Will use chargen in next campaign I think; as long as the world is compelling enough to bring out the creativity of the players.