Ran my second DW session this past weekend. Three players (Fighter, Cleric, Thief). Players are having trouble with the Discern Realities questions (and so am I), but we’re working on it.
In any case, I did not intend for this to be a one off with these players, however, the narrative went the other way with a TPK. No one made their Last Breath roll. The Cleric’s god of Bloody Battle was particularly annoyed with their devotee quipping, “How can you bring me glory when you are dead? Running from certain death is preferable to such stupidity!” He did not end up in a happy place.
Anyhow, a TPK would normally have had players crying and whining and blaming the GM for running such a crappy game. DW, however, shines at helping the GM to leave the players wanting more. This coming weekend we start a new campaign that will hopefully last a bit longer ;-}
I will endeavor to post about the coming campaign as it develops.
Good job! Sounds like you all had fun, which is a sign of a game well-played.
For Discern Realities, i think the issue is that people are inclined to want to change the questions to fit their intentions. Don’t let em! Instead, the GM should have a clear understanding of how and why they’re trying to discern realities. Once they roll and know how many questions they’re asking, have them stick to the questions presented in the rules, but the GM can get creative in answering. It’s a challenge to you to answer honestly and usefully, which becomes a big part of the fun of GMing this great game.
Were there any fronts established? Was there a looming badness that the group was eventually going to confront? Consider putting the new characters in the same world, AFTER the badness happens. Let the players see the cost of the first party’s failure, and incentivize them to set things right!
I was using a written adventure (Purple Worm Graveyard) as a general stepping stone. While I had the players answer several questions (a few involving the world at large), my intent was to wait until they left the dungeon before really getting into the collaborative world building and the starting of fronts. I think the new campaign will start with more world building questions first. I may well keep the god of decay and ruination as a ‘Worm’ for call back purposes.
I’m a big fan of minimal world building until the fiction calls for it. Let’s you really shape the world around the players/characters and leaves their legacy on the world you’ve created when they die.
Not familiar with Purple Worm Graveyard. Sounds like the sort of place that greedy developers would build a small village over, if heroes in a previous generation failed to go in and consecrate it….
Don’t be afraid of making up things that weren’t there but now that your player asked for it might be interesting. For example I have made up enemies or traps just because the player asked a few questions(I feel if the player asked the question they deep down kind of want their to be those things)
chiming in to second james day .
If a player suspects trouble, that’s a good sign that trouble could be exciting to the players.
Remember, when the players look to you for answers, that’s a golden opportunity. Reveal an ‘unwelcome’ truth!
Oh, I’ve always been a fan of that. My favorite thing to do as a ‘Storyteller’ back in the day was to listen to the player’s conversations after a session. This would not only allow me to cherry pick new ideas or directions I had not thought of but also they may think of far better reasons for ‘X’ having happened or NPC37 doing what they did.
Eld Nathr exactly!
this past Friday, i threw a meaningless NPC into the story, a lone peddler wandering down a dangerous road. Vaguely wanted to see what the players would do.
By the end of the session, after initial suspicions from the Fighter encouraged me to ratchet up the suspicion-stoking behavior, we’re pretty sure this is some great powerful ?? hiding his true nature, with either benevolent or nefarious purpose.
He went from background noise to IMPORTANT because a player reacted to his presence in a big way. Now we play to find out who he is and what he wants!
Yeah that always seems to happen to me as well. The players would be like…this npc is to nice/to suspicious we need to find out whats that about. Me inwordly I only created him two seconds ago and he is just a merchant…