I have so many questions about GMing the game, despite having been a player for a year and a half, and a GM for 7+ months.
Fronts
How am i supposed to write Grim Portents for a front if i’m supposed to Leave Blanks?
What are some good Stakes questions, how do you come up with them, and how do they come into play?
How can there be multiple Dangers for a single front, and how am i supposed to distinguish between them?
What are some good examples of how Impending Dooms are to be structured? I’ve heard it said that they can’t just be “the world ends” but i’m not sure how else to put it.
Actual Play
How should i prep for a game without getting a set idea for how i want the session to go (railroading)?
How can i avoid giving my players all of the power in creating their adventures and filling the world with things of their own design (which could lead to power-gaming amongst certain groups)?
Do you guys draw out the entire dungeon and fill it with monsters in each room? Or do you get a vague idea of what it will be like and a list of monsters native to the dungeon?
In previous games (namely the campaign i’m GMing currently) it has taken 5+ sessions to finish the first adventure. How can i get a faster-paced game without rushing the players or speeding through things?
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First, if you haven’t already, read this guide :
dl.dropboxusercontent.com – dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3269630/dwdotcom/eon-guide/Dungeon%20World%20Guide%20pdf%20version%201.2.pdf
Second, if you haven’t already, read this guide on running a one-shot with no prep. It will give you some ideas on how to let the players guide the game.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ypjtlHfcwqrU_-x4b7o0e8tZ_dN2TiNLUu48MLAw7Y/edit?hl=en&forcehl=1#heading=h.t8tfotiv4mt1
Point by point:
Fronts/Grim Portents – don’t think of them as stable. Adjust them between sessions, if the players have mucked about with things. Very few people will just abandon their plans – they adapt. To this end, I personally don’t ever have more than one step something is actively pursuing towards a goal – when it is completed or thwarted, I think up the next step.
Stakes are a weird one. These are questions you the GM want to play to find out. It might be as simple as “Does the child sacrifice survive?” when the session begins in a new village where a girl has gone missing. If you want to know the answer, you push toward it with NPCs – the mother rushes into the tavern, yelling at the locals that her daughter is missing, the local smithy is down for the day as the smith leads a search party; etc. Maybe the PCs ignore it, maybe they act. Whatever they do, it will answer the question. (I believe Trollbabe is the source of formulating stakes in this manner, and it does a much better job explaining it).
Multiple dangers for a front? The Big Bad probably has lieutenants and stuff, right? And it probably has enemies who are just as evil as they are. All those can be part of some “The Big Bad is resurrected” front.
Game prep – I prepare a handful of NPCs and some bullets of cool things I might want to see. Ninjas jump in from the skylights, a dragon roasts fleeing highwaymen, stuff like that. These might not get used exactly, but it helps inspire.
Your players should certainly have all the power in creating their own adventures. If they’re doing this, you have amazing, proactive players who you shouldn’t ignore. Be their fan! It’s your job to make what they want to do challenging and consequential – they want to kill local orcs, cool, but the orcs were holding back something worse that’s no ravaging the countryside.
I don’t run dungeon crawls, so I can’t really help you. Interiors are usually 2-3 scenes, and I skip all the mapping and shit.
Pacing is a hard thing to get a handle on. You’ll want to frame scenes rapidly and skip the interstitial travel times. Don’t let the players talk to each other about what is going to happen – that’s idle time trying to plan. Always press forward to a scene that has something interesting happening.
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Aaron Griffin brings up a good point, something that i’ve seen several times but only vaguely understood: What are Scenes?
Mark Weis a scene is like a movie or TV show. A discrete moment of time in a specific place with specific people.
You use scenes already. “Ok, you’re at the tavern and …” or “So at the gate of the keep, the guard says …”
Pacing is about keeping these scenes snappy and knowing when to move to the next scene. There’s a level of trust between players and GM that needs to exist to do this well, though. Plenty of time I’ve framed a scene like “ok so these witches are all in this room, runes on the floor and chanting. Grom, you’re there, and everyone else is outside” but Grom’s player halts it and says “why would I be there?” and then other players say “wait I wanted to forage in the forest” and another says “are we still in town?” and then it all goes to shit. It’s a hard thing to manage sometimes.
“How am i supposed to write Grim Portents for a front if i’m supposed to Leave Blanks?”
Because you aren’t writing what the player characters do. Grim Portents are the steps the Big Bad takes to reach its ultimate goal.
What are some good Stakes questions, how do you come up with them, and how do they come into play?
That’s hard to answer generally, as that all depends on what your Front, Dangers, and Cast are.
How can there be multiple Dangers for a single front, and how am i supposed to distinguish between them?
If you can’t differentiate between individual Dangers in a Front, they should probably be a single Danger. An example of multiple Dangers could be an evil wizard and her saurian minions, a band of brigands, and a detachment of Royal Cavalry, all of whom are trying to obtain the same magical pendants.
What are some good examples of how Impending Dooms are to be structured? I’ve heard it said that they can’t just be “the world ends” but i’m not sure how else to put it.
The Impending Doom should be whatever ultimate goal the Front is heading towards. “The world ends” could be that goal, but that should be reserved for really big events.
How should i prep for a game without getting a set idea for how i want the session to go (railroading)?
After the first session, you figure out what your NPCs are doing and what is going on in your world. You prep those things, and leave the player characters (almost) completely out of the planning. It’s not your job to figure out what the PCs will do next; it’s your job to figure out what the NPCs are doing.
How can i avoid giving my players all of the power in creating their adventures and filling the world with things of their own design (which could lead to power-gaming amongst certain groups)?
This is a collaborative game. That means everyone, including you, contribute to the story. You discuss things that are brought into the story/setting so that everyone feels things are acceptable. Allowing the players to provide input does not mean you have to include everything they come up with. It’s totally fine to say “no, that doesn’t fit the setting we’ve created.”
Another answer would be “don’t play this game with groups who will abuse their power.”
Do you guys draw out the entire dungeon and fill it with monsters in each room? Or do you get a vague idea of what it will be like and a list of monsters native to the dungeon?
Vague idea. Draw maps. Leave blanks.
In previous games (namely the campaign i’m GMing currently) it has taken 5+ sessions to finish the first adventure. How can i get a faster-paced game without rushing the players or speeding through things?
So what if the first adventure took 5+ sessions? Unless that was because people goofed off instead of actually playing, there is no set time adventures need to be completed in, right? Unless everyone feels things went too slowly, why do you want a faster paced game?
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I suggest watching these videos from the creator of Dungeon World. It’s about Apocalypse Workd but a lot of what he says is very applicable. Helped me a lot with your kind of questions
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTj75n3v9eTkB2XskNcoSTv63uFvVzash
To be clear “leave blanks” doesn’t mean leave things empty. It means don’t fill out every detail of your ideas. You can decide that the villain duke wants to assassinate the King. But you don’t need to work out every detail about it. In play, it might naturally come up that he intends to poison the King. Or that he’s jealous that the King married the woman he loves.
You can prepare ideas, just make sure there’s room for those ideas to develop, rather than writing a script you’re expecting players to act out.
I’m very new at running Dungeon World, but I think the right way to go when you’re worried about power gamers ruining the game with their input is to be more focused in your questions. You solicit the players’ input, just in a more constrained way so that their contributions fill in the blanks you want filled.
I don’t really get that point of people ruining the “game” could you elaborate on what you mean their because it sounds like a lot of people mean they will ruin the story I wanted to tell. But obviously you probably mean something else.
Mark Weis, regarding this question:
How can there be multiple Dangers for a single front, and how am i supposed to distinguish between them?
Don’t think of it as “different fronts,” just think of it as two “levels” of front:
A) The current adventure: the threats & dangers that are presently, locally active and interesting.
B) The campaign front: all the other threats & dangers that have been established (either as part of your prep or from establishing facts with the players or because you introduced something dangerous and they just let it be). This is the stuff that’s not immediately in the PC’s faces but is still out there, simmering. It’s your backburner.
james day has the right of it. If people contributing to the shared fiction is “ruining the game”, then you’re probably railroading them hard.
If you simply want people to contribute garbage, talk to them like people and say “hey I think we should keep this a little less wacky, cool?”
As far as actually writing fronts: here’s a copy/paste from an earlier reply to Bryan Alexander:
1) Look at the fiction already established, and identify the dynamic actors, the people or things that will move forward and adapt and pursue an agenda: the rival adventurers pillaging the dungeon; the abusive lord looking to increase his power; the goblins trying to defend their home. Each is a Danger.
2) Look for fragile, untenable, unstable circumstances. Like a crumbling dungeon holding a slumbering terror, a village simmering with resentment at its abusive lord, a disease or curse poised to sweep through the land. Each is a Danger, though maybe not yet active. Consider putting a “face” to each of these dangers, like the rabble-rousing matron who’s had enough or the spirit of the restless priest-king buried in the tomb.
3) For each Danger, ask yourself: what’s its trajectory? If it gets going and runs unchecked, what’s the irrevocable bad thing that will happen? That’s you impending doom. (If the list of dooms in the book help, great! If they feel confining, forget them!)
4) For each Danger, plot out 2-4 “steps” along the way to that impending doom, your grim portents.
Don’t go into a lot of detail, but these should be observable, concrete things. Things that the PCs can see, or get word of, of otherwise be affected by, and (this is crucial) react to and possibly prevent.
“Lord Douchebag doubles the taxes,” then “Lord Douchebag’s goons start ransacking homes for ‘hidden wealth'” and then “Lord Douchebag’s goons burn down a few houses and kill a few holdouts” and then “Lord Douchebag’s reign of terror: killing anyone who question him or try to flee.” All leading up to the doom of: “the villagers are brutally enslaved, famished, hopeless and forlorn.”
Tip: if you aren’t sure about 3 or 4, pick the danger type that best matches and look at the GM moves for those. That’ll give you ideas for how that type of danger can act, the types of things they can do! Use those to write your Grim Portents and Impending Dooms.
5) Optional: Add names and personalities to the dangers. Who is Lord Douchebag’s right hand? Which of the goons is having second thoughts? Which of the townsfolk is colluding with the Lord? Which ones will stand up to him and take the brunt of his fury? This is your Cast.
6) Optional: Ask yourself some questions, things you aren’t sure about but would like to find out in play? Will Balfur conscience get the better of him? Will any of the Stouthearts survive? Don’t answer them yet, leave them out there as open questions! These are your Stakes Questions. They aren’t critical to making the whole thing work, but I find that they add a lot of depth.
Tip: avoid making your stakes questions the equivalent of “will the impending doom come to pass?” You already answered that. The impending doom will come to pass if no one does anything about it. Stakes questions should (IMO) be smaller, more personal. How will this affect this individual? That sort of thing.
james day I’ve been in games where people have designed monsters in such a way that they are easily beaten or at least where the Big Bad doesn’t have the proper level of threat that a Big Bad should have. Essentially it’s just a fear that people will abuse the amount of freedoms that Dungeok World grants.
Mark Weis I think then those GMs weren’t doing there job right. Just because players say something doesn’t mean you have to go with the first thing they say.
So if you asked me what the rumours of the big bad was and I said that he was a big fairy that was weak to everything everyone should know what Im doing and the gm is right to say umm no he is big bad and feared by all now give me a serious answer.
Remember its a conversation not a one way street where the players always get there way. Or the GM for that matter.
Mark Weis the GM designs the monsters though
james day I’m not sure if you were asking me what I meant by player input ruining the game, or the OP. Assuming you were asking me, you are right that I am not referring to players jumping off a railroad. I think Mark Weis’s point about fear players will abuse the freedoms Dungeon World grants is more what I was getting at and that I think the OP was worried about.
Your response about a GM’s ability to reject input from a player is well-taken. My suggestion was to put restrictions on what the players contribute by asking narrow questions. For example, the GM can ask the player what rumors their PC has heard about the monster instead of asking the player to dictate the monster’s actual powers. Rumors leave room for the GM to switch things up since the rumors could be false. Giving the player the power to dictate the specifics of the monster does not leave that flexibility to the GM unless the GM says, “No” to the player and takes the narrative power back. Rumors aside, the GM can also keep control of the game while allowing player agency by asking more precise leading questions. For example, let’s say the GM wants a dragon to be the Big Bad. Instead of asking a player, “What is the Big Bad like?” the GM would ask, “What is the big bad dragon Argonax like?”. The first, open-ended question could lead to a game the GM is not interested in playing if the player decides the big bad is a rabid wombat (the GM is entitled to fun, too), while the second allows player agency within the GM’s vision for the game.
I think there is a sliding scale showing how narrative power is shared by the GM and players. On one end, the GM asks no questions and dictates everything (a more traditional RPG approach). At its worst railroad extreme, the players have no real control over the development of the adventure since the GM forces them from scene to scene to act out a predetermined plot. At the other extreme, the GM offers nothing and solicits everything from the players. I think some people might fear Dungeon World advocates this approach. A worst case scenario on this end of the spectrum might go like this:
GM: Does your PC have any resources not on his character sheet?
Player: Why, yes, he does. He is the emperor of the known multiverse. He has infinite wealth, access to any tech or magical items imaginable. He travels with a team of 1,000 hyper-competent ninja wizard guards at all times. His wand of infinite wishes sure does come in handy.
I don’t think anyone seriously expects a session of Dungeon World to operate like that extreme, either. The question is where on the sliding scale is the sweet spot and how can the GM ensure the game is played at that sweet spot. I suspect the precise sweet spot varies from person to person.
I agree with you Derek Jones but I do feel some people may not slide down the scale as it were because they fear that response that you said from the PC.
All I say is that you should not fear it, one because I find most players understand the tacit agreement and so don’t be ridiculous and sometimes even screw themselves over which is always amusing. And two you always have the power of a person in the game to say come now we all know what your doing there so please think of something a bit more realistic.
This is a great thread of ideas. Sub.
I recently made a campaign starter complete with map, backstoryfor the Temple (i.e. crypt), filled it with self-made monsters and made love letters depending on the four starting positions. (T.e. the thief sa in front of the gate, the Paladin stood Close by and the cleric held the door.
Now, it was in respons to some questions from my last demo-game, were I did my usual: “Starting position in medas res danger and questioning following up by knowing the characters.” It usually Works well, but I sometimes hit some snags and I usually get GM’s Fatigue pretty early.
The questions were: “Can’t you start with an Adventure Front?” ; “Why did someone just decide they were a thousand year old Arch Mage, are they powergaming?”, “Oh Yeah, for a one-shot, even though it was supposed to show how a campaign is started, this was really off in all directions: How can one remedy or alleviate such from the Group?”
I think Mark Weis has a good point about difficult players in the conversation. While I haven’t had players design cheap monsters, as I’d just as: “So, what terrifying creature loves to hunt and eat these giant spiders with the fatal allergi to nutmeg?” I’ve experienced People bringing stuff that’s not easily fascilitated by a lone MC, by no means being difficult by intent, but still overloading the GM who has to do the effort of making the conversation flow.
I’ll make another post about it.