A 16-page preview pdf of Perilous Journeys, my overland adventure supplement for Dungeon World, is up for review and comment on the Lampblack & Brimstone Community I just set up.
This preview consists of 3 of the 9 sections that will comprise the final book, covering basic moves for overland travel, encounter generation, and a few new Principles. It looks all fancy and laid out, but that’s just how I work — despite appearances it’s still very much a draft document. All art is placeholder, with original art still to be commissioned.
Suggestions and criticisms welcome, here or over there!
I won’t be able to read all in one go, so I expect to comment in pieces.
Points of interest/color: one or two examples would be nice. Or even an entire table/set of tables.
I’d be all over this if I weren’t trying to do the same darn thing.
I really like the discoveries and the way the nested d12 tables fit. Really an excellently laid out page.
Ooooooo.
I second that “Ooooooo”.
You’re quickly becoming one of my favorite content creators, Jason Lutes! I’ve been looking for something exactly like this, and you knocked it out of the park.
This is great. I’ve had ideas about a DW hexcrawl in the back of my mind for a while now, but this looks to be even better. I’m curious about where you think the new discoveries and dangers should come from; the GM, the player, or random chance? IMO, there’s definitely some benefit to taking the burden of generating new terrain off of the GM. Random tables certainly help to give the GM some jumping off points, but I’m a bit fan of player authorship.
With regards to Blaze the Trail, how are the first two choices different? If you wind up in the wrong place, what stops you from just recalculating and getting back on track, just taking more time?
Peter Johansen, duh! Thanks. Rereading them now I see that those choices are not as distinct as I intended. I will reexamine them, and am open to suggestions.
I was thinking that a different geographic position would have different implications than simply taking longer to go by the most direct route, but your observation points up the problem with that thinking in this instance.
As far as where Discoveries and Dangers come from, I envision (and will advise in the rules) a combination of all of the above. When they enter a new region, the GM can ask what the characters know about it, write those things down in the region’s “almanac,” and use the answers to fill in Discoveries and Dangers as they occur.
When stuck for an idea, you can go to the tables and use them to whatever extent you feel comfortable — whole cloth, to flesh out suggestions made by players, or to get ideas for questions to ask.
The hope is to establish a terminology and set of tools with a flexibility that can apply across playstyles ranging from GMs who enjoy a degree of prep to GMs who develop everything based on questions and answers during play.
The main inspiration for the tables are the encounter tables from the old Judges’ Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign setting, and the thing I loved about them was how they captured the feeling of the mysterious unknown — how anything could be out there waiting for you to find it.
The pleasure of player Q-and-A for me is the way the world emerges out of the conversation, and together you build a thing that is greater than the sum of it parts. But the pleasure of encounter tables like those old Wilderlands tables is that NO ONE KNOWS what’s going to happen when you roll, and that brings with it a great sense of mystery, anticipation, and discovery. It’s very different from collaborative worldbuilding, but just as exciting in its own way.
I’m not arguing for one approach over the other, because I love the results of both. I just want to have my cake and eat it too.
Do want. Will buy.
Of course, James Sauers — it’s posted for public use and in hopes of feedback from anyone who gets a chance to try it out.
I’ve just been going through the tables (because reasons) and noticed that there’s nothing for the 11/12 results on the Weird Monster table, and on the ruination table there’s an overlap for the “plague/famine/drought” result with the “overrun by monsters” result (5-6 and 6-7) – unless maybe that’s meant to mean that on a 6 the place has been ruined by plague/famine/drought caused by overrunning monsters 😛
Thank you, Em0srawk! I will address those errors.
I also spotted some overlap with rivers and sea/ocean on the water features table, some weird stuff on the end of the remains/debris table (although it does work), and the Enigmatic structure is lacking 11/12 results.
Finally, I spotted that I’d forgotten to mention how much I’m looking forward to the final release and that I’ll definitely be backing the kickstater ;P
WTF is up with that remains/debris. I don’t remember smoking anything.
The final problems entry for Towns and Keeps mention “-law” rather than “lawless” (I’ve read all the tables now, this is the last one – I swear! :P)