Okay, first session schedulled for this Friday night (I convinced my gaming group to try it, pausing the current Savage Worlds adventure). In fact, since the adventure ended with a cliffhanger, my idea is to start our Dungeon World game “saving” the characters on the other adventure — a kind of crossover.
Now, I’m reading the rules once more, and re-read the Guide. All playbooks were printed, basic moves ready… I think I have everything here… But a double check never hurts, right?
So, my questions (and sorry for the amount of questions lately — I don’t wan’t to spam this community) are: What’s your checklist for a Dungeon World game? What should I keep in mind always during this first session? How can I help my players to think Dungeon World?
Focus on the story, not the moves. Don’t roll (generally) unless there’s a danger/chance of failure. If you can’t see in your mind’s eye how a character is going to do the thing the player is saying, asking “how?” is your friend.
Finally, you are there to celebrate and challenge the characters. Embrace the awesome, but react appropriately to recklessness.
Sorry but i don’t think your idea plays well with Dungeon World. DW is a game where creativity is on the lead, where you paint the world (or worlds!) from the players, and the story goes where she want to go instead where the GM want to lead that. Can you do the saving thing with DW? Yes, but the game won’t shine trying to railroad the narrative.
Where DW give his best shots?
In a play ” dungeoncrawlesque “with big treasuers, big monsters, no estabilished world, where everybody try to share a personal view and touch on anything. First session brainstorming is so interesting in DW that playing in a premade world, cut half the fun. 😛
Don’t expect your players to know the moves – point then out often. Don’t be afraid of dice – in some systems not rolling lots of dice is a badge of honor – roll lots so you can get unexpected results.
Giuseppe Grimaudo, the idea is just to provide a starting scene. If they decide not to get involved with the other characters (or even if they let them die), it’s part of the game. I don’t want to railroad them, but just give them a dangerous situation and start in media res.
At least I don’t see this as anything different from any other combat scene. Am I missing something here?
Giuseppe Grimaudo having a single specific scene or hook in mind is absolutely not the same as railroading the players. His idea is perfectly fine, especially for session 1.
My bad, I didn’t understood was for the first scene, sorry 😛
Giuseppe Grimaudo even if it wasn’t – there’s this strange idea here that “play to find out what happens” means “never plan anything ever”. You can plan things – that’s what Fronts and Dangers are! Planning. Playing to find out what happens doesn’t mean the entire session needs to be improv. It means that you don’t expect or intend certain outcomes.
Not sure if it’s helpful example, but I just ran a session of Dungeon World with first time players. It went really well. Two things I took away from it. First, they really appreciated me asking them frequently “what does that look like?” or “what does it look like on screen?” especially on a 10+, but even on a 7-9 and 6- I would often still let them explain what they were trying to make it “look like”. I would just insert the GM soft or hard move into the scene where it made the most sense. They told me that this was the “ah ha” moment for them on how to play Dungeon World.
Second, I also asked my players for feedback at the end of the session. They pointed out one situation where I was rail-roading. I had a vision that they would go to a particular cave to find the entrance to a dungeon. I tried to explain ominous voices coming from a cave on a Ranger’s DS roll in order to entice them to investigate it further. Instead the Ranger interpreted it as some kind of siren that should be avoided. On a following DS by a different character after traveling a short distance, I pushed them towards the cave again. This was my mistake. I lost sight of “being a fan of the characters”. On the first roll I should have latched on to the Ranger’s idea that there are sirens in the cave (and perhaps had them come hunting for them on a future failed roll). I could have easily “moved” the dungeon to a different location. Can be easy to forget in the middle of play after you’ve planned out a loose framework, but just remember that it’s loose for a reason. Everyone will have more fun if you run with their ideas and not force your own.
Hope it goes well!
Get some sticky notes or post-its and write down the things you want to focus on for the next game. You’ll find that what that is changes each time.