If you’re a new GM or looking for a more streamlined way to run an adventure, you should try this out.
In my past sessions, I really tried to make Fronts work, but couldn’t. Dungeon World claims that making fronts is all you really to do to make an adventure work, but for me, it didn’t turn out so well.
In contrast, Joe Banner’s Adventures have been fantastic. One of the best sessions I had was from using A Death in the Forest, a very short and simple adventure that doesn’t even have a map. Despite the amount of content, there’s just enough in there to complete an amazing 3-hour session. And interestingly, there wasn’t a Front in there. A collaboratively-created objective naturally emerged from the questions, and it was strong enough to drive the player forward.
Inspired, I sifted through several of Joe’s adventures and distilled a simplified template for making a basic adventure. It can be used instead of, or in addition to, DW’s Fronts, with or without a map. You can even use it to summarize one of Joe’s adventures. The crucial component that makes this minimalistic approach work is asking questions and using the answers.
Check it out, and have fun. 🙂
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcM2JEMEdaZlZ3VUU
You know, I was fully expecting to not like that, as I think Fronts are great. But, I really like how that is put together. It’s some very useful GM information and references laid out nicely, with some examples tossed in for good measure. Nicely done. 😀
Thanks, I was fully expecting no one to really care about the stuff I made either. 😀 After all, they’re mostly just tools to help me GM better. The reception has been incredible.
The DW community here is pretty dang great.
As for the tools you’re making, while not everyone needs GMing help in exactly the same areas, there’s often a fair bit of overlap.
This is helpful, thanks.
You could add space for non-monster encounters eg NPCs, traps, puzzles etc.? Or maybe that could be added to the location notes…
Beautiful! Have a stack of these partially filled out for spur of the moment inspiration, chain them together and create some story arcs and you can easily get something like the movies Princess Bride or Guardians of the Galaxy. Imagining Princess Bride now as an impromptu DW session with the boy and his grandfather…
Gah, and here I was working on my own GM playbook. I’ve been scooped!
Tom Walker I usually make these tools 2-sided, but I wasn’t sure what to put on the back. I guess I could add a section for a couple of NPCs.
A simplified treasure table could also be helpful, I think. Maybe magic items, too. Hmm.
Goooold!
Ville Halonen
Johnn Four’s 3 line NPC is a good start: Appearance, portrayal, hook (e.g. aims, secrets, value to PCs etc.)
Treasure table would be most useful kept really high level e.g Supplies / Equipment / Coins / Valuable item / magic item / clue or information etc
Oh I love you.
/sub + praise.
Killing it as usual +Dawit Thepchatree!
Can I add this to my Syllabus?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ORjM3sxhQrwNI_chlNzYFMD5OFHj7u-Rs_gY4kHkzO0
docs.google.com – Dungeon World Syllabus
Yochai Gal Sure. 🙂
Question. Are the questions meant for the players, the GM, or both? If it is for the players, I would suggest switching the stake question to the GM. Sometimes the stakes are known to the players but sometimes what is at stake is not something they would know right away.
This is very useful, thanks.
Victor Julio Hurtado The questions are meant for the players. It is designed for a simple adventure, where the stakes are clear. Maybe the stakes massively escalate later on, but it’s useful to have sonething under threat even at the start.