Leaving for a camping trip with my family in about 6 hours, straight after work.

Leaving for a camping trip with my family in about 6 hours, straight after work.

Leaving for a camping trip with my family in about 6 hours, straight after work. Was supposed to have everything packed by now. Weather is looking not too great. Rain on and off through the weekend. Thinking about GM-ing my first DW game with first time players (siblings and friends), and playing while we’re stuck inside during the rain.

Pretty much zero prep. No ideas for places, events, encounters, or anything. I’d also have to go home and grab the book and some dice. None of my players have even touched the before, but I’ve been mentioning about wanting to play a tabletop RPG with my siblings for maybe a year. I have never played DW as a player either. However, I’ve been doing a lot of research and listening to the Discern Realities podcast.

Am I crazy? Is this ill-advised?

Alls I got is a half-baked idea and probably two-hours too-little sleep. Whoo!

20 thoughts on “Leaving for a camping trip with my family in about 6 hours, straight after work.”

  1. How’s your improv? I have run DW at numerous cons without any prep. Just take your time with character creation and ask lots of questions. Make the players add features to a central map (“where did you learn to fight? Draw it”). Then throw them into an action situation and ask them how they ended up there (“why are you defending a crumbling stone tower from goblins, anyway?”) and improvise away! Encourage a lot of Discern Realities rolls and use them to spiral out some setting material when you can think of it. Use failure-snowballs to change the environment and add danger.

  2. Do it. But don’t get the book. Just grab 2d6, a notebook, and a pencil.

    When you get everyone together, start asking questions:

    – do you wanna play a game?

    – do you wanna be a wizard, a warrior, or a thief?

    – what kind of [wizard] are you?

    – ok, you’re on a roof top in a city, when you hear screaming from the streets below, and you see a dragon on the horizon flying toward you. What do you do?

    Keep it freeform. Roll some dice when things get chancy and use the 10+ good / 7-9 mixed / 6- not good rubric. Give them a +1 on their roll when they’re doing something especially in-character.

    This is what I’ve personally had the best success with for folks that are familiar with the genre tropes but have never played D&D before.

  3. Do it. It won’t be perfect, but is anything ever? =)

    Short piece of advice: follow the game, it’s pretty good at supporting improv. Start with an action scene, and don’t be afraid to borrow stuff from books or TV. First time gamers don’t expect a groundbreaking idea at every turn.

    Do let us know how it goes!

  5. You really don’t need much prep for the first session, though it helps to have a creative mindset, even if nothing is yet created.  If you want to try it out and you have time in the car, maybe talk about the kind of world you’d like to play in and the kinds of characters they’d like to play.  Not in terms of playbooks, but in terms of the kind of people they would be in the world.

    One issue if you’re stuck in a tent is that you’ll need at least a little flat surface to use for updating character sheets and rolling dice.  You don’t need a ton of space, though.

    Of course, camping is a great opportunity to just play with traditional storytelling too, without any dice or other props required.  Horror stories can be especially great if it’s dark and stormy out and you’re trapped in a small tent, with nothing but a single light holding the darkness at bay.

  8. I think you’re in the perfect mindset.  A half-baked idea is perfect for DW as you want your players to be an integral member of the story, so let them add all the sour cream and bacon bits.  Remember the GM principles.  Be a fan of the PC’s, always put them in danger, and ask questions.  Also don’t sweat the details, start with a broad idea and ask questions of the Players to narrow down the details.  The more involved they feel the more fun they’ll have and hopefully they’ll bug you to do it again.  Be brave, don’t let them see you sweat and finally go forth and kick-ass!  It’s supposed to be fun so have fun!!

  11. Follow the principles, ask lots of questions, use the answers. Have a fun conversation and don’t work too hard. Let it flow and play it like an improv drama skit. Picture how it looks like in a movie or a book. Moves are only there to change to course of the story you’ll know when and how hard or soft to use a move. Try to have the playsheets and the copy of the moves for everyone that’s almost as important for first time players as dice

  13. Just ask them a bunch of questions like, “How does the dungeon’s entrance look like?” “What kinds of enemies are you expecting to face here?” “Why are you going there?”, and based on their awnsers you build the world around them as they keep exploring it. It’s way more fun than just coming with everything prepared IMO.

  16. I’d say take advantage of the environment. make the “dungeon” a flooded village in a rainstorm.. Ask what they need here. Ask if they know what’s causing the unnatural rain. Use the rising water as a encroaching front (now it’s up to your waist, what do you do?). Populate it with threats and opportunities hidden by the water – swampy type monsters, sinkholes, rickety stairs. Emphasize the rain when it gets heavy around you, and any thunder and lighting if you have them

  19. We didn’t actually end up playing. :/ There was too much other stuff going on, so we never got a chance to actually sit down and hangout. Well, there’s always next time!

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