So, I am runnning DW for the first time at a con (second time ever in the DM chair) tomorrow for a few friends.

So, I am runnning DW for the first time at a con (second time ever in the DM chair) tomorrow for a few friends.

So, I am runnning DW for the first time at a con (second time ever in the DM chair) tomorrow for a few friends. I’ve got 4-5 people, and about 4 hours to kill. I’m confident going in since the rules are clear and the book is thorough, but I thought it might be wise to check in with some experienced folks.

What are some of the easy mistakes to make as a newbie?

21 thoughts on “So, I am runnning DW for the first time at a con (second time ever in the DM chair) tomorrow for a few friends.”

  1. Off the top of my head would be, spend more time setting up than you think you should 😉

    The more time you spend asking the players questions about their characters the more stuff you’ll have to work with. Ask them questions about everything. If their “look” is “scarred” ask them how they got the scars. “Oh, you got the, in the gladiatorial arena? Well, I guess we have one of those now.” And so on.

    Also, you might want them to collaborate just a bit before they pick their play books as to what they think they want to be doing and how they want to interact with the world. It will help them develop bonds that you can leverage for story.

    I found that I tended to rush through the setup in my early DW games because I was anxious to start. But if you engage the players during the setup it can be one of the most enjoyable parts.

    You have 4 hours, so if you spend he whole first hour setting up you’ll still have 3 hours for a nice long arc.

  4. I second the creativity time at the beginning. Especially with 4 hours, a solid hour of that would be nice for story and character development. Make sure the players really feel a bond to be together as well as a defined purpose in the world. I went back and read all of what Ben Badger said and I basically just repeated it, hah! I guess that shows how much I agree.

  6. I like the characters to introduce themselves and their background before I do bonds or story information because I usually end up seeing players pick their bonds as they hear more about the other characters. Gives them a way to naturally connect and slip into the Bond-choosing stage. This also gives me a few ideas and questions to ask players as soon as they finish Bonds. I can write as they talk and then dig into those bonds/backgrounds afterwards to make their character fit directly into the story.

  15. My new players have a tendency to default to choosing a move name for their response to “What do you do”.  They’ll grab the dice and say “I’m going to hack and slash”, and I have to gently remind them that what they need to say is what their character is actually doing and I’ll tell them if they need to bother to roll or not, and what they should roll.

  18. To emphasize the point to new players I will occasionally mention to them, “If this were D&D you’d have to roll on that, but we’ve established that you’re a certified badass when it comes to underwater basketweaving so no roll is necessary.”

  19. I’ve heard that some people have had success running DW without letting the players see the move sheets–basically putting all the move triggering in the DMs hands.

  20. Thanks for all of the comments here. It really helped. I still made a lot of mistakes, but it wasn’t anything here at least! I failed at pacing because of 6 people in the game, tension, because I let them fragment too much, and was scared to really hurt the characters because I had 3 totally new players to tabletop games. Next time Gadget, next time!

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