Isle of Dread Actual Play Report
With an extended example of play!
Stalwart GM Josh Curtis ported the Isle of Dread over to Dungeon World and ran the first session of it for me, Justin Evans, and Greg Bailey. Awesome game!
Who says bards can’t have fun stranded on a deserted island?
Wow! I wanted to do this for months! Please, Is there any possibility to see fronts and portents in the future?
My initial intention was to transform this module into a complex adventure starter, with monster and faction generators. Time and players have changed my mind.
Will you post further reports as your game goes on ?
Definitely Magi max. Every game I’m in (since 2007) gets and Actual Play post over at seannittner.com
Diego Minuti, I’m not sure how much work has been done on the adventure side of it. Josh Curtis, you have anything you can share?
I designed my front based in part on the character backgrounds the players provided ahead of the game. I only started with one and was planning on adding more once we played a little. I don’t want to post it as it is still in play but could send it. Just let me know where.
I think more useful is the custom move “explore the wild”. While we haven’t tested it yet, I think it or something similar is key to playing a sandbox style game like isle of dread. I can post that. Or Sean Nittner, you can feel free to put it on your AP. Whichever.
Hope this is useful Diego Minuti. Unplaytested Move and travel rules for Isle of Dread Dungeon World game:
Difference between Undertake a Perilous Journey and Explore the Wilds:
The Undertake a Perilous Journey move allows for characters to quickly (in game time) travel between two locations without worrying so much about what is in between. The goal of the move is to safely get the characters to the destination. The Explore the Wilds move is used to explore and search an unknown area for unknown locations or creatures. It is how characters find ancient ruins, lost temples, and bandit encampments hidden within the wilderness. The goal isn’t just to travel through an area to get to another one but instead to know what is in that area.
Explore the Wilds
When you trudge into the unknown wilderness and search for lost temples, ancient ruins, and hidden treasures, choose one member of the party to act as the Trailblazer, one as the Scout, and one as the Cartographer (the same character cannot have two jobs). If you don’t have enough party members or choose not to assign a job, treat that job as if it had rolled a 6. Usually, each day of exploration requires a new set of rolls. The jobs can be switched each day. Each character with a job to do as follows:
Trailblazer: The Trailblazer navigates you through the wilds, leads you to your destination, and provides a dry patch of ground to sleep on. Without a trailblazer, you are essentially aimlessly wandering around. Roll +Wis – On a 7-9, you reach the days destination in good time (the standard time for that habitat type). On a 10+, you reach the day’s destination in good time (the standard time for that habitat type) and also, choose one:
– You get a glimpse of a nearby area and know what type of terrain is there.
– You shoulder the brunt of the journey and make the trip as easy as possible for your companions. Your companions (but not you) take +1 Forward to react to any event or discovery during today’s exploration.
Scout: The scout watches your back and is sent out (or up, or under, or wherever she is needed) to gather information on your surroundings. She alerts you to approaching threats and spots those ancient ruins before you tumble into them. Roll +Wis – On a 10+ the Scout spots any dangers quick enough to get the drop on it or to approach a discovery with caution and in secret. On a 7-9, the Scout alerts the characters before being surprised or immediately before blundering into a mysterious location or hazard.
Cartographer: The cartographer records where you are, where you have been, and marks the path so you can find your way back. Roll +Int – On a 7-9 you successfully mark or record your path so far and can Undertake a Perilous Journey to return to a known location or to later return to this one. On a 10+ you take +1 Forward to the next Undertake a Perilous Journey roll involving this route. This may be given to any character’s roll and is cumulative with other successful Cartographer rolls. On a miss, you are Lost.
Lost
When the characters are lost, they are not sure which direction is which and, even with a compass, have a difficult time traveling in one consistent direction due to the vagaries of the wilderness. When lost, characters may use the Undertake a Perilous Journey or the Explore the Wilds moves but instead of naming a location, the characters just name a direction of travel per march. Also, a perilous journey is rolled for each day of travel instead of the whole journey and one ration is used up for that day of travel.
Also, when lost, characters may easily go astray from their chosen path. When they wish to go somewhere, have them choose one of the following directions (for a 6 sided hex grid): North-West, North-East, East, South-East, South-West, or West. Then the GM secretly rolls a d6. On a 3-4 the characters travel in the direction they wanted. On a 1-2 or a 5-6, the characters accidentally travel into the hex to the left or right (1-2 left; 5-6 right) of the hex they wanted to reach. Do this for each hex they travel too no matter how many hexes they can travel in a day. In exceptionally difficult terrain where it is hard to see far ahead, the GM should feel free to increase the hex shift by one more for a 1 or a 6 on the die. If characters have a compass or a reliable way of telling direction, don’t use this option.
The characters are no longer lost once they arrive at a location that they know or have a clear, visible path to a location they know well. Also, arriving at significant, unique locations might resolve being lost (coming to the summit of the only known volcano in the area, for example). Just returning to an area they have previously past through doesn’t count. One area of jungle looks much like another area of jungle, after all.
Travel on the Island:
For simplicity sake, travel on the island is described in units of marches. By foot, a character can travel 6 marches or explore 4 marches a day in easy terrain. Rugged Terrain (broken, hills, jungle, swamp) take up 2 marches each while Extremely Rugged Terrain (dense swamp or jungle, mountains) take up 3 marches. Characters may not enter a new hex if they do not have enough marches to enter it. It takes no marches to leave a hex (you do not count the beginning hex as part of the journey). You may not save up marches from previous days…. If you can’t use a march, it is simply wasted effort.
Rations and Travel:
On the island, every two days of marching during a Perilous Journey takes one ration. The Explore the Wilds move does not expend rations.
Random Encounters on the Island:
Only one random encounter roll is made per Undertake a Perilous Journey or Explore the Wilds move on the Island.