Three 14-year-olds asked me to run Dungeon World with the Grim World playbooks last night. Two of them were new to the system. I chose the Indigo Galleon starter because it was familiar and I had no prep time. Spoilers follow.
The party was Lucifer, a Dhampir who is a Slayer, Flesh, a Faceless Necromancer, and a Dwarven Skirmisher. The initial demands from the imperials were rejected, as the Dhampir spat in everyone’s face, but after the town was 50% polymorphed poultry, and the remaining fishermen started taking matters into their own hands, the party had five minutes of amoral shenanigans before following the quest hook with a fisherman’s corpse in a canopic jar.
Once at the shipwreck, the Slayer went straight into the hold to look for clues, while his allies climbed up to the top deck to wrestle with the Sea Ghouls. The Necromancer animated “Old Fishy” to great effect and the Skirmisher darted around the deck. There was some great improv as the Dwarf cobbled a sail-scrap-and-seawater bandage and the Slayer announced he had a solar-powered-glowstone which he must handle with protective gloves, or burn.
They triggered the acid ward on the vault, but picked the lock and promptly ransacked the entire ship while the tide came in and sun sank lower. Great Discern Realities checks were rewarded with a scroll of invisibility, the captains-senator’s journal about Hobart’s personality (+1 ongoing to parley with the remaining pirates) and a clue: Hobart’s necklace in the water by the tentacle tracks in the sand.
With the light low and waters high, the party followed the other tracks to the mountains and two of them hastily levelled up for tonight’s session.