I ran a poor session last week as the GM. Maybe I was tired that night, but I ended up improvising really poorly, and pretty much stuck to Show Signs of An Approaching Threat and Deal Damage for most of the adventure. It got repetitive real fast.
To fix that, I’m taking a new approach inspired by Perilous Wilds and World of Dungeons. The GM can roll to see what happens, sometimes. I made another 2-page PDF that has tables to help decide which GM Move to use.
I used 2d6, because the probability bell-curve fits with how Show Signs of An Approaching Threat, Deal Damage and Put Someone in a Spot should be used more often than, for instance, Use a Danger Move. I also shortened the names of most GM Moves to make them easier “at a glance.”
On the back is a condensed list of class opportunities based on the Opportunity sheet I made several days ago. Unlike GM Moves, this one needs to use 1d12 instead for even distribution.
Finally, I threw in Critical Success that’s based on World of Dungeons, because why not.
I tested this out in an one-on-one adventure that lasted about 3 hours. It worked out way better! So much so that I want to write a session report about it. It was an amazing adventure.
Have fun, and hope it enhances your Dungeon World experience as it did mine. 🙂
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcTkx6Y2VoNXdvVUE
This is neat, but I wonder if it could become a crutch.
Aaron Griffin I was thinking the very same thing. It might be best used as something to look at instead of getting in the habit of actually rolling. Eventually, you’ll have these options in your head and won’t need it, but it’s there just in case. Either way, good luck and thanks for sharing this.
It’s a short step from tables like this to GM-less play.
I usually make a check on the GM moves that I use during a session, as reminder for not choosing always the same two or three.
PS: I’d title that “The GM’s Dice of Fate” 😀
Like a lot of dice tables, seems like something I would look at and try to get inspired from during a game, but pretty much never actually roll the dice. It would make a neat web client, especially if you could add extra variations to each of the results.
Great for dm less games!
Jef Wilson yes!!!!
Robert Doe That got me thinking! A GM-less Dungeon World, where you roll dice to determine your own fate and your friend describes what happens to you. It actually sounds fun.
Fighter: I swing my axe at the ogre! rolls Four… a miss!
Cleric: The fighter misses and gets smacked in the face. Fighter rolls 8 I cast my healing spell as he falls over. rolls Eight! I’ll put myself in danger. I grab his shoulders to stop his fall and touch his broken nose. rolls 7 It begins to reconstitute itself.
Ranger: The ogre swings down at the Cleric! I shoot his arm! rolls 2 Damn!
Cleric: The Ranger’s arrow buries into the Fighter. Roll 1d8. Fighter rolls 4 I dodge the ogre’s club! rolls 10
Fighter: I yell in pain as the Cleric rolls out of the way. I grit my teeth and thrust my sword at the Ogre’s heart! rolls
The beautiful thing about DW is the GM has moves and rules to follow. Those rules are a must happen at predetermined times. The actions are all listed for us in the rule book and we just roll on the table to determine which move the “DM” takes. The fiction is the only part that has to be added, and there already exist 100’s of thousands’s of tables for that
Definitely going to use this, hopefully the fiction inspires the moves, but I know exactly what you mean when you say you feel repetitive. Dungeon World really requires the GM to be on and it is exhausting.
Greg Jones Don’t you mean the other way around? I roll dice so that the moves inspire the fiction.
Its kinda a loop actually. We start with fiction at the beginning of the game. When the fiction calls for a move, then we roll. That roll then inspires more fiction (guides it?) and we continue the cycle.
So yes you’re both right. Although it is kinda a chicken and the egg. Personally i think the chicken came first. ;p