What an epic session today! I remember an interview with Vince Gilligan where he talked about the writing process for Breaking Bad and he said that they would purposely paint themselves into corners and then have to figure out how to get out of them. And as I’m reflecting on GMing this campaign of Freebooters, it feels similar to that a lot of times. This session contained a number of big twists and I’m going to have to figure out how they all make sense and set things up for whatever might come next. But they had a huge impact on the players and I can only speak for myself but I’m so excited to play to find out what happens next!
Also, “never split the party” is a rule that’s very fun to break.
Iirc, splitting the party is a classic GM move in DW.
Chris Shorb yup!
“Separate the characters from each other”
Nice to see the Folio of Followers in use!
As I’m thinking about this last session (you know it’s a good one when you’re daydreaming about it three days later), I realize I actually feel really good about how I ran combat this time. Usually it’s what I feel most uncomfortable with, but this time it was very cinematic and I made good use of the environment to make it feel more three dimensional. It was also really rough on the PCs–one very nearly died (same player whose previous character died)–but that added to the tension. Further, I started splitting damage between HP and ability points, which helped the PCs not die but actually felt more punishing as they’re essentially starting to take on debilities. I had been unsure how to best make use of ability damage in the past, but this felt pretty natural and seemed to work well. I honestly think the players “felt” it more than just straight HP damage. We did decide, before the session began, to switch over to stock DW rules for healing over night (heal half your maximum HP) because one of the players was starting to not have fun, always being low on HP; we’ll see how this changes the tone of the game. We did it with the understanding that if it feels OP or makes things feel too less dangerous, we’d switch back. It might actually be a bit before they get a chance to rest though, as we left off on some major cliffhangers and the next session should begin right in the action.
Jason Lutes they’re great, and especially useful in a pinch–even if I’m just borrowing the stats and not using the character per se.