GM Playbook for #Stonetop.
Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg
I’ve been playing with GM moves, “fronts,” and how to organize them, and it’s led me to here: the GM Playbook.
The intent is that this would be a booklet, 3 sheets of paper, with front & back cover and 5 internal spreads.
I’ve pretty much decided that I won’t be using Fronts for Stonetop. They just don’t work. The AW2e approach to Threats is much more appropriate. You’ve got threats, and threat types, and moves that come with them, and a countdown clock (grim portents) if they need them.
So, yeah, here’s my go at it. I’ve also made some tweaks to the core DW moves, ported over my Monster Creation Cheat Sheet, and added a few miscellaneous things I’m always looking up.
Questions or comments about the format, the approach to moves, or anything else? I’d love to hear them.
I like it. Especially like that you included a Threats page and the “Homefront”, “Nearby”, and “Distant” threat trackers.
Minor edits:
Typo p2: “If it now active”
Typo p6: “Its primary dangerous isn’t from wounds”
What is Stonetop? It looks like an interesting DW campaign…
Good handy summary! Imo, it lacks the Always say… section. I see this section as the ethics of GMing and see it as foremost. A view close to Vincent Baker’s one.
I’ve been trying to grok Fronts for a while now, it’s been a challenge. I didn’t realize there was an alternative out there. I’m gonna see if I can use this instead. It seems really awesome!
Also, I LOVE the end with the copper, silvers, and gold coins, the uncertain quantities being able to buy various things. Where are the Dirt, Poor, etc gear lists?
Felipe Real: Otro para traducir ;D
Jeremy Strandberg: Nice work , lokk like a dm Screen !
I like this a lot! Is there a single place we can go to see all of the Stonetop content? The best way to get it all right now seems to be running back through your history of posts to Google Plus, Jeremy Strandberg!
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Niall O’Donnell, here’s a folder with a lot of the drafted stuff. Chris Woods, the gear lists are in here somewhere.
drive.google.com – Stonetop for DW – Google Drive
Bastien Wauthoz Hmm. Maybe. The “Always Say” stuff isn’t actually in the DW rules at all, but you might be right… it might be worth including.
Chris Woods to be clear, when I said that Fronts “just don’t work,” I meant for Stonetop. The conceit of Stonetop is that the PCs are local heroes,and they’re striking out in defense or on behalf of their home village. That makes the location-based Threats of AW2e much more appropriate.
Fronts are still solid for the “roving episodic adventurer” style of play that DW assumes. But they aren’t as complicated as the books makes them seem. You’ve basically got 2 fronts to juggle at any given time:
* Current Adventure Front: the dangers that are on-screen, local, immediately an issue to the PCs
* Campaign Front: the dangers that are in the background, quietly simmering.
Bryan Alexander started a thread a while back, and there was a lot of good conversation there. Some of what we talked about in that thread led to me these changes. Lessee… here it is:
plus.google.com – Lets talk about Front and Dangers and Grim Portents and all things creating a…
What I’m doing in Stonetop is just:
1) Organizing them geographically rather than by “activity”
2) Telling you not to make grim portents/dooms unless the threats are active
3) Changing up the Threat types to align with my sensibilities.
Jeremy Strandberg Wow that really puts it into perspective. Thanks for boiling it down for me! 🙂
Wayne Carroll