So, fronts. I’m having some trouble with making one.
I get dangers. I have no problem coming up with those. A cast can come naturally through designing a danger, so no issue there, either.It’s the Impending Doom, Grim Portents, and Stakes that I have difficulty with. I’m having trouble tying it all together.
I can do scenarios. I’ve run enough D&D games to have a good handle at that. I mean, I know the general direction the party is going, I have a couple ideas of various events I want to happen, and I can use the GM moves in case the direction changes, but… I dunno, I just don’t grok organizing all of that into a front.
I’m not even sure what I’m trying to ask for, here. I guess just a little help understanding all this better?
Give me an example scenario and I will try to write it out as a front.
Try thinking of what your danger will do if it goes unchecked. What chain of events will likely happen if nothing is done to halt the danger’s progress?
Foes ideally shouldn’t wait around for someone to come along to defeat them. They should have their own agenda.
Okay. Here’s hoping my players aren’t checking this out in my stream…
The party is about to head just out of town to deliver a coded message to someone. They don’t know yet that it’s coded. Along the way to the person’s shack, a character they met last session will give them a vague warning regarding the task. When the party gets within eyeshot of the shack, they’ll witness some armed men argue with the person the message is for, then the men will leave. The message terrifies the guy, and he gives his response, and gives the party… I dunno, some sort of adventure seed. Some information, or an object of some sort. Whatever it is, he’ll insist that it should be kept secret.
Returning to town, when the party delivers the response, they’ll be framed for the murder of the man they delivered the message to. Guards come in, arrest them, all that jazz.
I haven’t thought beyond that. It’s not really structured in a way that’s works well with playing to find out what happens. It’s more like playing to find out how the players respond to what happens.
I have a danger for the session: the guards. I even know that I want a cult, as of yet introduced, as a more long term campaign danger. I just don’t have anything else.
Peter J the problem I have with that, regarding the short term danger, is that the agenda for the danger is the party of adventurers itself. Right now, the foes actually are just waiting for them to arrive.
Nathan V that sounds like an awfully scripted scenario. That’s sort of against Play To Find Out.
Let’s come at this from the other way:
* Who’s message are they delivering? Why?
* What does the guy who gets the message actually want?
You already scripted what choices they make and what happens to the NPCs regardless of their actions. That’s not cool. What if they try to find out why the guy is so scared and decide to protect him?
Exactly what Aaron Griffinsaid; you’ve scripted things out, including the PCs actions. That’s a big no no.
Instead of doing that, write things out as if the PCs don’t get involved. So the person waiting for the message gets into an argument. Why? What’s the argument about? Why are the armed men threatening this person? What are the NPCs responses? And so on and so forth.
You’ve written things around the PCs. While they are the central characters of the story, you should write things as if they don’t get involved. That helps produce a setting that seems alive and real, as things happen without the PCs involvement.
Just an addition to Chris Stone-Bush’s point about writing this as if the PCs don’t get involved – you can also write things that directly involve the PCs if they matter in someone’s schemes.
In my current campaign, the PCs bailed with a family signet ring they were supposed to retrieve, after finding out some dastardly land grabs the new owner was going to make. Agents of this guy are constantly after the party, so I usually write their search direction before a session, and if the PCs happen to head in the same direction, there’s a collision.
I’ll admit, it sounds like much more of a railroad when it’s written down than it does in my head. You’re right; that probably means that it is a railroad.
The party leaving to deliver the message is a decision they already made, at the end of the last session: https://plus.google.com/103360819573614339342/posts/3JjAWbXbgx9
As far as them witnessing the men at the shack, I imagined the scenario as events triggered (though, not Triggered. I guess.) by that decision. It’s something they merely encounter. Everything else is based on what seems, right now,to be the most likely course of action.
Beyond that… yeah, I have no way of knowing what they’ll do. I don’t know if they’ll watch the argument cautiously, or jump into the fray, or even just run away and seek adventure elsewhere. As of right now, I’m just hoping I can rely on the GM moves to carry me through that uncertainty. (They’ve helped somewhat so far.)
Aaron Griffin That’s sort of against Play To Find Out.
Yeah, agreed. That’s what I’m worried about.
Chris Stone-Bush You’ve written things around the PCs.
Yeah, that’s the only way I know how to prepare this sort of thing. Like you said, the story is centered around them. I don’t know how to think about it any other way.
Who’s message are they delivering?
That was answered last session, when they accepted the task of delivering it. Unless you mean in a broader, philosophical sense of who he really is, who he’s working for, what his goals are, etc.
What does the guy who gets the message actually want?
So the person waiting for the message gets into an argument. Why? What is the argument about? Why are the armed men threatening this person? What are the NPCs responses?
These are all questions I was hoping to Play To Find Out. Are these not the sort of questions that should be answered in play? This is all new to me.
You should have major NPCs who are agents in the story and have hard motives and Goals. You can Play To Find Out how they go about achieving them, but not what their goals actually are. You may not know how Dark Lord Thorgrin goes about getting the Dragonstone, but you know he wants it and will kill to get it.
So let me take some liberties with your story:
The PCs are delivering a coded letter. On the surface it looks like a message from a merchant to one of his partners. However, the message is actually part of a rebel network acting to take down the King. The merchant is just a messenger – the man they are delivering it to is an important member of the rebels.
And when the PCs arrive, he’s seen arguing with two women wearing the uniform of the Kingdom Spymasters! What could Spymasters want with a simple man like this!
What if he ends up dead? Could it have been the Spymasters? Did the King have this man assassinated? Why?
“These are all questions I was hoping to Play To Find Out. Are these not the sort of questions that should be answered in play? This is all new to me.”
You certainly could let the players answer those questions. But if you do, then there’s nothing for you to prep really. Which is not a bad thing at all, mind. It just means you’re playing a very improv heavy game, and there will be very little to prep for each session.
“Play to find out” doesn’t mean you have to let the players answer every single question. I interpret it to mean that the GM should set up situations, but not solutions.
I think it’s fine to write “triggered” events and follow the most likely course of action when prepping a session. Just don’t make any of the triggers about the PCs, and write the most likely course of action for the NPCs based on their aims, drives, and resources. Leave the PCs out of it completely.
Aaron Griffin
The PCs are delivering a coded letter. On the surface it looks like a message from a merchant to one of his partners.
That much is actually spot-on. The NPC that’s having them deliver the message is an exotic fruit merchant with local influence. The message, as told to the PCs, is, “the supplies are ready; arrive by noon.” So, yeah, that fits perfectly.
However, the message is actually part of a rebel network acting to take down the king.
I was thinking this would be a good way to bring in the cult, though I haven’t worked out their ultimate goal. I suppose usurping the king works just fine.
… and okay, there’s one Grim Portent, for a little later down the line. I still need to work on one or two with a little more urgency, but it’s still something.
The merchant is just a messenger – the man they are delivering it to is an important member of the rebels.
Yeah, they would both be connected to the cult. The merchant seems too influential to be nothing more than a mere messenger; he likely has some executive authority. I haven’t considered the importance of the man receiving the message yet. He was mostly intended as a red shirt, with an opportunity to return later on.
And when the PCs arrive, he’s seen arguing with two women wearing the uniform of the Kingdom Spymasters! What could Spymasters want with a simple man like this!
… City Watch, but yeah. That’s what I was thinking. Should the scenario go as I mentioned, I was going to mention that one of the PCs recognized one of the arresting guards from that encounter.
What if he ends up dead?
Again, this much is certain, behind the screen, though it might not be permanent. His most immediate role is a murder to be pinned on the PCs.
Could it have been the Spymasters? Did the King have this man assassinated? Why?
Intrigue! Suspense! Uh, still working on those details, but that’s the direction I’m trying to aim for.
Ok so it sounds like you have two dangers: The Cult and The City Watch. They’d both be Ambitious Organizations and would have ultimate goals.
You can figure out the Grim Portents to reflect on their end goal.
I’m also not a huge fan of having certain death for an NPC that the players interact with. He can be dead when they get there, but once you declare that he MUST DIE, you’ve created a quantum ogre – no matter what path through the woods the players take, they always encounter the ogre.
Instead, the death of this contact should be a Grim Portent of The Cult or something. It doesn’t need to go off without a hitch, but if it does happen, it furthers their plan. If it doesn’t, they react and adjust their plan.
Ok so it sounds like you have two dangers: the cult and the city watch. They’d both be Ambitious Organizations and would have ultimate goals.
Yep! Like I said, I have no problem with dangers. It’s more the rest of the Front that I have trouble with. It’s an unusual organization method.
You can figure out the Grim Portents to reflect on their end goal.
Still working on what, precisely, that end goal might be. I mean, I can come up with something vague and abstract, like, “corrupt from within”, but what does that really mean? Corrupt from within what? And how?
[…] you’ve created a quantum ogre – no matter what path through the woods the players take, they always encounter the ogre.
That’s how I’m used to designing adventures. With my experience with D&D, the illusion of choice is usually almost precisely as effective as actual choice, and it’s easier to manage. Dungeon World is a bit… different.
Instead, the death of this contact should be a Grim Portent of The Cult or something.
That… makes sense. That also accounts for if the party decides to stick around to protect him. At least in this case, it’s not so much what would happen if the PCs weren’t around at all, but rather, if they aren’t around in that place, at that time.
… this is going to take some adjusting to.
So, as a Front, I’ve got:
{Some title for the front}
Danger: Cultists
Impending Doom: ????
Grim Portents:
1.) Message recipient is murdered (Maybe this would fit better with the City Watch?)
2.) ????
3.) Usurping the King? Maybe?
4.) ????
Danger: City Watch
Impending Doom: Framed for murder!
Grim Portents:
1.) ???? (Maybe the murder?)
2.) Arrest!
===
… That seems odd to me. I don’t think I did that quite right.
You have too many maybes.
Why is the cult involved at all? Because you wanted “a cult” or something more. What do they do? Where do they worship? What do they believe in?
It’s important to know what motivates your dangers. Framed for murder doesn’t seem like enough motivation for me, and could be another grim portent for your players to escape. Look at the examples for impending doom in the book. They are all really big events. Usurpation, enslavement, apocolypse type stuff.
If no one interferes with the city watch, what are they going to do? What motivates them? Why are they attesting the heroes?
Aaron Griffin yeah, pretty much just because I wanted cultists. Cultists are good squishy targets.
What do they do? Where do they worship? What do they believe in?
Er… super secret cult stuff? I dunno.
Well there’s where you should spend your prep time.
NPCs in a game like DW are best if you try to play them more like you would a PC – give them desires and make them act to achieve those desires. Don’t make them set pieces that only exist for the PCs to interact with.
You made cultists because they’d be a squishy target for the PCs. That’s probably not the best motive, but we can run with it. Why didn’t you choose goblins? Because you wanted them to be human? Because you wanted religion involved? What kind of religion? What kind of humans – evil, misguided, or brainwashed?
Yeah, I agree with Aaron Griffin here. Focus on those “maybes” and fill them in.
It feels like to me your bad guys exist to just give something to the PCs to kill. Which is a very AD&D approach. DW wants your NPCs to be far more alive than that, far more dangerous and devious, and far more full of adventure. Which is why it wants you to build Fronts, etc.
So, the game is scheduled for 1:00 tomorrow. Approximately how screwed am I?
Not at all. You could easily treat this session as an extension of the first one. Ask lots of questions. Fill in all those “maybes” with the players’ answers. Use this session to get a better grip on what’s happening.
Oh ya, you’re not screwed. The unknowns are what make dungeon world fun. Put it back on the players to come up with something. This is their adventure too! Find out what’s exciting for them. “Ask questions, use what they give you, leave blanks.” These are all prime directives of the GM in Dungeon World. The level to which you use these directives is in your hands. If you’re comfortable with lots of blanks, go that route. If you need to plan every detail (kind of how I am) then plan more, but when a blank arrives, don’t shy away from it. Drive straight through that sucker and come up with some awesome!
Well, guess I’m not screwed, after all. Nobody showed up.
Gregory Fellis that’s kinda how I was planning it.
Well that sucks… i hope you have another session soon. At least you have some more prep time.