Can I just say Joe Banner, that your new(ish) Adventures LOCATION Format is GOLD.
I have collected all the one page summaries of ‘iconic’ locations (Such as the Dwarvish Mine or Giant’s Stronghold) and have them in a flick-thru folder that I used as needed in my one-shot last night to ‘drop in’ locations as per John Aegard’s advice in his excellent Guide to One Shots.
Of course I only used two locations out of a dozen or so, but they were such a great behind the scenes support structure to the sometimes exhausting nature of ‘facilitating’ premises in a one-shot and playing to see what happens in a more condensed format.
Combined with Plumbing the Depths guidelines in the Perilous Wilds, I had such a great time improvising with this minimal ‘prep’.
Thanks guys!
Hmm…? Sub!
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Also, can I just say that the 5th ed DMG is invaluable for extra detail in the random tables. and every magical item has a pretty picture to illustrate it. Fabulous adjunct to the process.
You mean the region pages?
Nathan Roberts You mean pages 10 and 11 of Beard and Ear, for example? (http://joebanner.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/By-Beard-and-Ear-and-Azulgunds-Bane.pdf)
Exactly Joe! and p.18 🙂
You could have dozens of these covering all the various fantasy tropes.
It’s the lists of the dungeon starter impressions married to the perilous wilds’ exploration rolls and I love it…
Yeah, I love what you’ve done there too, Joe.
Nathan, how are you pulling all of those together at the table? Hard copy or digital or combo? What else do you have on hand, if I may ask?
Sure Jason Lutes!
I have printed off hard copies in a clear sheet folder. Some of Joe’s older location briefs and Marshal’s too I’ve amalgamated into the same format – since it marries so well to Your Perilous Wild process – and use one location per page. This leaves me more room to add extra themes and areas as I go.
For mapping, I’ve been sometimes rolling dungeon dice, but usually I just write down on an index card the Area and the Theme as the players explore and encourage them to do the mapping! That way we can shuffle the cards around as needed on the table – establish ‘connections’ as you would do with the overland map (I use coloured post-its) – and label each element with a short ‘tweet’ in a FATE – style aspect.
So for example the ‘Dark summoning Chamber with the bloodcrusted sacrificial alter’ (unique themed index card) is connected to the ‘Glowing Fungal Caverns’ (common, un-themed index card) by the ‘Volcanic steam vents’ (orange post-it connector)
This folder also acts as a bit of an inspirational scrapbook for images on places / NPCs / cool magic stuff too. I’m totally oldskool that way.
That sounds like an amazing setup. I’m gonna steal the clear sheet folder idea
As we explore, the Perilous Deep takes on the appearance of a ‘formatted’ dungeon – like the ones in the Perilous Deeps supplement. Its Lovely to have just enough prep to do so. Jason and Joe’s formatting goes a long way (for me) to structure the play-to-see-what-you-find nature of the Perilous Wilds in a smooth, flowing way.
I’m really liking this style of play! I’m not so tired as when I facilitate TOTAL improvisational play at the table, and the tropes are so coarse that as a group we can twist them to our own vision very easily.
I mean, we had a game with three dwarves! So we had to have an ‘Ancient Overrun Dwarvish Stronghold’. 😉
I can easily see a publication of ‘Dungeon World Perilous Locations’. One to a page, covering an existing fantastical trope using Joe’s / Jason’s Formatting.
Display books at officeworks, always buy the second cheapest, those ones don’t fall apart as quickly…
I’m Just Brainstorming, but what about a deck of cards that has a dungeon area on each, some unique, some common that you could organise under ‘theme’, listing minimal info similar to the way areas have been presented in the Perilous Deeps.
Thus the GM could ‘construct’ the dungeon deck of common and unique elements based on rolls made in play or prep beforehand.
When the player’s make a see what they find move, they draw from the deck. These can be either placed spatially on the table to make the map, or re-shuffled for further discoveries until the Depth is plumbed.
Nathan Roberts Sounds a bit like what I failed to do when running Cinder Queen for you.
(using numbers on the back of Billiam Babble ‘s dungeon tiles)
So many great ideas! I need a homonculus.
Jason Lutes Early in the twentieth century, magician Aleister Crowley wrote a novel that deals with the production of a kind of homunculus he terms a Moonchild.
During the 1940s, Jack Parsons (a JPL Founder), head of the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) a Crawley cult in Pasadena, California, carried out this sexual ritual with Marjorie Cameron and a third person (rumored to be L. Ron Hubbard) who acted as a seer for the process.
The Sunday Times published an article about Hubbard’s involvement with the O.T.O. and Parsons’ occult activities in December 1969. In response, the Church of Scientology released an unsubstantiated press statement which said that Hubbard had been sent as an undercover agent by the U.S. Navy to intercept and destroy Parsons’ “black magic cult”. The Church also claimed that Robert A. Heinlein was the clandestine Navy operative who “sent in” Hubbard to undertake this operation.
Still want a homonculus? And will it look like Tom Cruise? And people think tabletop RPGs are strange?
Okaaay… no homonculus.
Jason Lutes At least not a Tom Cruise one. Sorry about the rant. I’ve been reading about L. Ron and his homonculus and the weirdness of it all is beyond measure.
Nathan Roberts I would pay good money for that. Get to work!
Nathan Roberts So if I was to say the new Shadows of Umberto PDF has two of these (in the Cinder Queen style) and I’m working through adding these to my old PDFs for an Umberto collection, you’d be… pleased? 😉
mh, /sub!
📌
You know it Joe!