Hey folks. Running a 2 hour one shot on Tuesday and I want to know if you gms pick the enemies in advance or ask the players to supply the opposition?
Like: “fighter, what do you expect to fight here”? Or, “cleric, what defiles this place that you are charged with cleansing from this once holy place?”
It’s always more fun when you ask the players IMO.
Eric Nieudan I agree. But this is my first time running it so I’m afraid I won’t be able to find the monster in the book. But I think I’ll just go with it anyway because it will be more fun.
Eric Nieudan Normally that’s what’s best to do. But with a 2 hour game, you don’t exactly have time for stuff like that. Better to just have people come in with their characters, then come up with a story reason for them to be working together on this mission/adventure and just go from there.
For OP, it would probably be a better idea to extend it out to 4 hours or possibly more. In my experience 2 hours never feels like you actually did anything, but 4 does.
Eh go ahead and pick. I think a lot of DW GMs in this community want the game to be 100% Improv but it works both ways
I find it useful to do some preparation. Open for player input but prepared like: Plan on a pack of monsters (players + 1 maybe?) with unique weapons and low HP. They’ll probably have D6 damage or something. You can ask your players for details like what are they, how do they behave, and what dangerous weapons they wield. If you haven’t read the dungeon world one shots document, read that. It’s great! (Can someone else link it? Thanks. I’m on mobile. Otherwise I’ll link it when I get to my pc.) If you have a big bad boss monster in mind, you can tie in the characters stories with it during character creation. Be prepared to compromise and adapt with your planning to make the adventure great!
Thanks everyone. Patrick Schenk – can’t extend it but what I’m hoping for is that this goes well. If so I can hopefully do it weekly. If so that means that it can be multipart adventures. I have done plenty 2.5 hour one shots and we got a lot done. My plan is to pick the Big Boss but riff off of what the players do
I really like the Create-Your-Own-Monster part of the monster manual section of Dungeon World.
http://book.dwgazetteer.com/monsters.html
And yes, I ask just like you mentioned the Fighter what the Big Bad Thing he is going to kill. Every class has something to tell you about the main badness or something that can flavor the session. Ask the Ranger what other creatures roam in the realm or ask the Bard about the content of his famous song.
Buuut for a 2h OneShot I would pick a few (2-3) things beforehand and ask leading questions to flavor your choice, elsewise it would take a lot out of your tight time schedule.
Skim through a few sections and be ready to alter you choice to adjust to the playbooks. Have a Cleric but did’nt pick an Undead? Take your pick (e.g. an orc) and ask him what he heard of this undead orc, etc.pp.
Have fun!
Chalice In Chains The book is pretty well organised, so I wouldn’t be too worried about not finding a monster. If you have internet access when you’re running, the Codex has all the official monsters, plus a lot of fan made ones: http://codex.dungeon-world.com/
Making generic weak monsters like Dune Aught suggests is also a good idea.
The one-shot doc by John Aegard is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ypjtlHfcwqrU_-x4b7o0e8tZ_dN2TiNLUu48MLAw7Y/mobilebasic?pli=1
P 158 -Exploit your prep
That kind of assumes you have done some, ya know, prep work.
I’d advise have an idea of what’s in store, just don’t be married to it.
Thanks for the link, Eric Nieudan
Alright. I have the map and I have the idea for a big bad. But the rest is up to them.
2-hour one shot? With players who haven’t played DW (or other PbtA games) before?
I’d expect to get through character creation, premise setup, and one or maybe two conflicts. You don’t need to have much prepped.
I’d worry more about prepping some grabby questions, questions that’ll drop them right into the action, establish motives and goals. Try to shape the questions so that whatever they answer, the situation can be resolved quickly. (Like, instead of “what are you hear to steal?” ask “what did you just steal from the temple? why is it so important to you that get out of here with it?”)
I’d come ready with some monsters you like or feel comfortable with, but be ready to chuck it all based on the answers they give you.
Flag the index entry for “Monsters” (it lists every monster alphabetically, with page numbers). But be ready to make something up on the spot. This cheat sheet might be helpful: https://goo.gl/aHH7jE
They have all played DW before and I’m hoping they will have characters done ahead of time. We’re just going to do the best we can and see where we get.
To be honest if i don’t have the monster stuff at hand or can’t be bothered to flip i just go with standard dice and hit points. So if its a group of monsters they have d8 damage and 6hp i believe. You can pretty much get away with that i feel.