Someone let me know if i’m in the wrong place, i’m new here.

7 thoughts on “Someone let me know if i’m in the wrong place, i’m new here.”

1. A haunted chateau is a perfectly good application for DW. 

   If you’re willing to do a little work. It sounds like you have a lot of ideas lined up for what’s going on, the best way to work with them in DW is as environmental moves. “When you pause to reflect in the solarium…” “When you take a risk in the scarlet ballroom…” “When you talk back to a domineering spirit…” “When you wander off from the group in a horror movie…” Just attach the mechanics that give the effect you want to a manageable set of environmental moves and you have a setting just dripping with atmosphere. Define the various spirits and ectoplasmic horrors in the same format as DW monsters and you’re ready to play to find out what happens. I give it even odds that the players open a rift to whatever passes for a hell in your game… and triumphs, or flee in terror 2 hours in.

   Since you’re new to DW, I’ll also link the (free) DM’s Guide. Much of this PDF will help with your 3.5 game as well.

2. http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=4996.0

3. That’s very reassuring. I tend to “overplan” a lot of my 3.5 prep work. Which made me worried about coming into the more narrative Dungeon World. Initially, I wanted to build the hotel entirely. But I feel that if I build only select rooms I can still follow the “leave blanks” idea. I find the concept of “fronts” daunting though. I don’t understand why I have that issue. Perhaps when I think it’s ready i’ll test it out with some of the folks on here.

   Thank you very much for your input and guidance 

4. DW is a very good toolkit for turning under-preparing into a science. Fronts can be hard to get a grip on, but just keep in mind that they flow from the first session. With your scenario, somewhere around the 3 hour mark, how things are going to go horribly wrong should be becoming clear. The Dangers and Grim Portents from that go into a Front that feeds you inspiration for GM Moves.

5. I am taking a read of the pdf that you linked. A cursory glance tells me it will help greatly. I will finish the read in the next day for certain. I would like to place a “puzzle” within the “dungeon”. I am looking into something to deal with statues in a courtyard which are missing items. When they are completed it would unlock something. I typically run my games to say “yes” to the PC as much as possible. I don’t know how well DW deals with the idea of puzzles, if anyone has a reference or thought on the matter.

6. Dungeon World doesn’t have Skill Checks. So if you’re building a puzzle mechanic around the idea that the players will need X successes before Y failures, you might run into trouble. If you’re building your puzzle like if-then statements (such as “if the arm of the statue is raised, then the hidden door opens”) then you don’t need mechanics at all. I’d say that puzzles in Dungeon World work better as the latter.

7. Yeah, sketch a map and have a things to do List when youre in haunted house handy (nothing complicated, just jot down general ideas what may happen where) You can think about some of the denziens also and pre built some of them , maybe add one notable npc, give it a motivation and colorfull description

   For a oneshot its also a good idea to start with a scene where the players need to react imediateley (maybe they are trapped in the cellars and dont know how they got there, maybe they visit an old friend when something happens just on the strangeley overgrown path to the manor….)…and foreshadow doom-to-come as hell;-)

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