Need feedback on a move for crawling through a ruined city. It’s too big to map entirely, so movement between locations will be abstracted similar to perilous journey
DELVE INTO THE RUINS
When you move through the monster inhabited ruins of the city, choose one member for each of the roles below:
The Pathfinder clears rubble and helps the others crawl past hazards. Roll +STR; ✴On a 10+, you uncover a hidden item, or location.
The Orienteer tracks landmarks and keeps the group from getting lost. Roll +Int; ✴On a 10+, you reduce the amount of Daylight burned to get to your destination.
The Lookout watches for traps and ambushes from the surroundings. Roll +Wis; ✴On a 10+, you can choose to either avoid or surprise a potential hostile encounter.
✴On a 7–9, each role performs their job as expected: none of the group is injured by a hazard, the journey takes about as long as expected, and no one gets the drop on you but you don’t get the drop on them either.
You can’t assign more than one job to a character. If you don’t have enough party members, or choose not to assign a job, treat that job as if it had been assigned and the responsible player had rolled a 6.
Distances in the ruined city are measured in Daylight. If you exit through the city gate as soon as it opens, hold 10 Daylight. At 0 Daylight, the city gates close, and you cannot enter the city that way.
I like it
Nice. Reminds me of Mordheim or Darkest Dungeon in it’s merit. I might steal the idea (though what I need is drastically different, so It’ll be modified, posted here for your reference when ready).
I don’t know if you want to handle Lookout’s 7-9 a whole lot. Remember 7-9 is the most probable outcome in the game, so you don’t want it to be ‘neither side has the upperhand/neither side gets the drop on the other’ because in real life, or at least in my gaming experience, it’s the most improbable, the most difficult to set up (as a story) and (primarily) the most dull outcome. In life, when you meet people usually there’s always one side seeing the other side first and it makes for interesting storytelling. So I’d treat 10+ You get a drop on them, take +1 forward to actions against them and 7-9 You get a drop on them in the fiction (as the extension of the rule that 7-9 should still feel like a success) with no bonuses whatsoever.
7-9 is a success if neither party gets the drop on the other, though; since a failure is that someone ambushes you. Plus it’s consistent with Perilous Journey.
Sure. It’s just that usually I try to make 7-9 a success with complications. Thus I’d avoid a result that dounds like perfect balance. Look, I’m not really sure which way to change it. The move is pretty great, I’d just avoid 7-9 that essentially says ‘nothing happens’.
The 7-9 move doesn’t say nothing happens it says something happens but no one is at a great advantage.
Think of it this way 10+ means you are on the top of a ridge/building looking at orces doing something. A fail means its the other way aroind. A 7-9 means you both meet in the clearing.
I think this move is pretty solid as is. I’m surprised something like this wasn’t included in the original release.
My understanding is that DW was intended to be an old school rpg with modern rules.
For some reason, I always equate old school with dungeon crawls. Dungeon crawls can be epic, except when things actually slow to a crawl. Nothing is more anti climactic than grinding through passage after passage where nothing substantial happens other than deciding which hall to turn down next.
A move like this allows players and GMs to zoom out and make otherwise boring parts a quick transition, while still incorporating a mechanic that can affect the outcome of that transition.
Wow, that got long winded. Sorry. Short answer: I like it and would probably use it.
Cheers.
Dylan Knight, are you familiar with the idea of “zonal dungeons?” Where you define points of interest and intersections between them, but don’t actually map things out? This seems like the perfect candidate for it.
Can you talk more about what’s going in this ruined city? Why is it ruined? Are the ruins above ground or below? What was the city like “before?”
Do things get way worse at night? Is it safe to assume you can’t get out by the gates at night, either?
During the day, are there monsters about? Are there other threats?
I love the idea of tracking distances in terms of Daylight. It’s actually sparking a whole bunch of possible ideas in my mind, but it’d help to know more about what you’re trying to convey before I go spouting them off…
^^ http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2014/11/pointcrawl-series-index.html
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the specific term zonal dungeons, but I’m familiar with the idea of dungeons as flow charts, which is basically what I’m doing here.
The campaign is based on the old gold box Pool of Radiance – there’s a big fantasy metropolis conquered by monsters, and adventurers are basically dungeon crawling through the streets and alleys. The focus of the game is specific runs – head to a specific area, clear the monsters/get the treasure, get back by dusk. As you clear more of the city, you establish beachheads and can delve deeper.
Monsters do roam about during the day, but are easier to spot and avoid, as are the various hazards and pitfalls of a crumbling ruin, thus the emphasis on daylight. Being stuck outside at night is not an automatic death sentence, but it would be a situation where the danger is heightened. I wouldn’t want an abstract move at that point, I’d want a very zoomed in, almost claustrophobic focus emphasizing unseen threats just beyond torchlight
I put the emphasis on the gates because there may be other ways in and out of the settlement – just not ones the guards are going to approve of.
Oh man, I loved Pool of Radiance. Thoughts are stewing…
Brian Haag Thanks for the link – Some interesting stuff I need to dig into there
So, I think using UPJ from Dungeon World as your base is going to do this a disservice. Did you back Perilous Journeys? If so, the beta copy becomes available tomorrow and there’s a lot of potentially useful stuff in there.
How I’d do this:
1) Have a map of the ruins, mostly empty, sketching their outline. Let everyone see it. Add in a couple points of interest that are visible from the gates (or otherwise known to “everyone”).
2) Break the map down into districts representing what used to be there (slums, nobles quarters, stockyards, docks, etc.).
3) For each district, do so prep including some or all of the following:
– Descriptors/impressions/tags
– Threats that have moved in
– Hazards that lie in wait
– Possible discoveries (riches, clues, etc.)
If you want this to be more free-form, consider just a list of impressions, tags, or themes for the district and then using the Danger/Discovery tables from Perilous Journeys to make stuff as its needed.
4) If you’re doing full prep in advance, come up with one or more Fronts (with dangers, dooms, grim portents, and stakes) to keep the whole place alive and dynamic (probably the biggest thing Pool of Radiance godlbox did not do).
5) Have a few moves for moving through the ruins depending on their intent, whether it’s been explored or not, and so forth. Make Daylight an upfront part of each move. For example:
Strike Out
When you take a known path through an untamed district, tell the GM where you’re headed and they’ll tell you how much Daylight it takes (usually 1 per district). Then choose someone to Take Point.
Explore
When you spend 2 Daylight exploring an untamed district, tell the GM what you’re looking for (a way through, a particular location, signs of __, something worth looting, etc.). Choose someone to Navigate and someone else to Take Point.
Whoever navigates rolls +INT. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a 10+, choose 3.
– You find what you’re looking for, or evidence that it doesn’t exist (GM’s call).
– You discover something else of interest; ask the GM to describe it
– You avoid any (other) dangers lurking in the district
– You can easily retrace your steps
Take Point
When you take point while the party traverses the untamed districts,, roll +WIS. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 10+, choose 2.
– You make good time; spend -1 Daylight.
– You learn something interesting and useful on the way
– You get the drop on whatever you (next) encounter
– Everyone mark XP, and you encounter a Danger.
Oh wow these are definitely making me have ideas for a mega dungeon in DW, have been working on for awhile but haven’t got to far with detail