I’m writing up the scenario I’ve been batting around about the players getting stuck in a dragon that can eat towns whole, existing civilians intrigue to offer up sacrifices to the dragon, and the dragon’s own immune system takes the form of variously themed golems. There may even be a skeletal dragon boss fight (we’ll call that optional due to the risk associated with even finding it)
Anywho I decided that one of the ways the players can get places without being digested, or drown in blood is that the bones and blood vessels are hollow (with the blood vessels being ruby, and the bone being… well… bone).
I will have several points where players who roll a miss will shatter a nearby section of bone, or possibly ruby they can enter (although because Ruby is a corundum type gem, I want that one to require a special treasure found in the stomach). The first will be some trachea on the ground outside a village where the esophagus and larynx openings are closest to one another.
Once they figure out they can do this of course, it’ll be available the rest of the game.
So I’m trying to think of (an) evocative name(s) for the first accidental, and/or subsequent deliberate shortcut taking, as well as an evocative trigger other than Hack and Slash Fail/Pass.
That sounds really cool. The Dungeon IS the dragon’s gullet. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Really that’s just the start of the dungeon. The adventure is called Into the Heart of the Dragon.
If you haven’t seen the game Belly of the Beast, about fighting inside giant monsters, it might be great inspiration.
I was actually inspired by an article in a magazine for a game I don’t play any more. I have a pretty clear direction where I want to go with this, I’m just trying to cover all the bases. I’m using it as either an Adventure Front or a Campaign front (depends on the players), but I’m adding in details with Perilous Wilds. The Town of Gullet is the first instance of that.
I made this post because Dungeon World encourages making Danger and Location moves. I’ve pretty much got what the move does, just not a name, and my placeholder trigger that is rather lackluster.
I’ll also be preparing for the eventuality that the players have a battle in the actual stomach (fun fact: before I started thinking this one over, I thought the gullet was another word for stomach. It’s actually esophagus) I hope to set up a scene where players have to hop between undigested bits to get at the opposition. I may end up making a separate post for moves related to that.
The accident move could be some word-play on “Collateral Damage”… say “Collateral Passage”?
After that, deliberately bashing holes through the innards of the dragon to access other areas might be called “Exploratory Surgery”?
Haha, I may want to just name them both Exploratory Surgery 😀