I’d love to hear if anyone played any games of Dungeon World at Gen Con.

11 thoughts on “I’d love to hear if anyone played any games of Dungeon World at Gen Con.”

1. I played twice. Both off the books. I’m going to write about it once I get off this blasted plane.

2. A 2-hour GoD game run by Bill White. It was fast, exciting and tense fun.

3. Ray Otus looking forward to it.

4. Tim Jensen was it completely ad-libbed or based of a dungeon starter or something else entirely?

5. Played once with Bill White, ran a couple games off con. Mr White has his own dungeon starter he ran, I believe. I used my own dungeon starter for a game, which want okay, and then superior content from Ray Otus​ ‘s Plundergrounds. (Hoard issue, Salucidiar section) That last game went best. Being fresher and caffeinated helped a lot, too. Haha.

6. Miles Sterrett cool! You have to tell us/me about that game when you get time.

7. It appeared to be a dungeon starter of sorts.

8. Miles Sterrett I agree with Ray Otus​. I’d love to hear the details of your Plundergrounds inspired game sometime.

9. Jim Jones and Ray Otus , here is your requested novella. Heh.

   I have been wanting to run a game from the Hoard issue since I read it. I chose to start with the first dragon, Salucidiar. I used several of Bill White’s one-shot methods: roleplay character introductions (“What are you doing as you travel to the hidden valley dump?”), roleplay bonds as a conversation between the characters (Bill also folds in answering questions to the bonds roleplay, which I did differently, interjecting questions but not forcing it into the roleplay). Bill is very high energy, and pushes things to move fast, which I liked. On top of that, he gives experience 1d6 points at a time, and allows mid-game leveling. That ups the excitement level, as well. (Can you tell I played a game with him right beforehand?)

   I picked questions from Plundergrounds that I thought appropriate to a one-shot. So, less stuff that would lead to complications down the road, and more that would lead to complications or world-building in the immediate term. The list of questions in Plundergrounds seemed much better than questions in my dungeon starter for Thursday night’s game. They allowed more world-building and complicating whilst keeping the concepts of Opulis and Salucidiar. Found out that a cleansing of the disgusting dragon would make it vulnerable. Found out the Lord Mayor explicitly told the paladin not to go after the dragon, as he had people on it. (Mags made an appearance. The party found her short answers and general non-interest in them uninteresting, and thus moved on without engaging much at all. It was hilarious.) The dragon safeguards rumors question lead directly to “trash golems”, instead of treasure golems. One of the questions lead to the existence of dragonlings, which lead to an unhatched egg being retrieved by two characters that often run cons and other deals together.

   After dealing with dragon crabs (they called them crab dragoon and corrected me every time) and trash golems, and ignoring Mags, they found Salucidiar. The party ritually cleansed the paladin to help him discover and embark upon his quest (while in the dragon’s tunnels). This lead to deciding a ritual cleansing, via smoke bath, of the dragon was the right form of cleansing. Why not? Salucidiar turned a putrid yellow, appearing suddenly soft while maintaining the stench of trash. The paladin, with assistance from the bard and cleric magics, slashed the now unarmored Salucidiar to death. It was hilarious and epic at the same time.

   Then, I remembered to have each player give their character’s epilogue. I always really enjoy this part, but I think I forgot to do it Thursday in my haste to avoid anyone falling asleep at the table, including myself. It was late, and I hadn’t slept much the night before.

   Everyone seemed to really enjoy this Saturday night game. Two experienced DW players, two experienced roleplayers / DnD players, but they had not played DW. Everyone participated equally, and left smiling.

   Hope that wall of text is helpful. And that’s the slightly edited version! Haha.

10. It is helpful! Thanks for the write-up. It’s so great to hear how the zine gets transformed at the table into something unique for each group. I love the idea of making Salucidiar vulnerable by cleansing him. It seems obvious to me now. You have removed his protective layer of slime.

11. I know it isn’t DW but I ran an off books game of Monster of the Week at the RPG Academy Meet and greet at GenCon for table of 8. I didn’t intend to have more than four but people kept showing up looking for a game. It went over pretty well. If anyone on this form played in the game, please let me know.

    I also played in another session of Monster of the Week (the first time as a player in any PBtA setting.) Had a great time.

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