Submitted for your perusal: a preview pdf of Perilous Journeys. 3 of the planned 9 sections are included, still very much in draft form despite appearances. All art is placeholder.
Suggestions and criticisms welcome!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B254Gcq3LvXQWXY2Z01reDZRckk/view?usp=sharing
I realy like the chained tables to generate elements for the Surroundings. Have you seen “Into the Odd” yet? It also adds a lot of tables in its final form, but were sometimes a bit overly specific to the setting itself to be used in a broader way. With your tables I think they realy do well, in quickly creating a base for narratives.
I didn’t read it in detail, however I like what I see. Nice expanded exploration moves, inspiring tables… This could be something I would buy. I’ll keep an eye on it.
I dont know if its not included in Scout ahead somehow, but I liked the Idea of a Weatherprediction move/ similar to those old “Survival (Enviroment xyz)” Skills.
On a +10 the PC are well prepared for the weather-hazard ahead and dont suffer mali.
7-9 They realised the Hazard intime to avoid the worst
6- They are hit fully unprepared and suffer the consequences. MArk XP and GM makes a move
Absolutely love that, and will be incorporating it into the new campaign of DW I’ll be starting soon.
Just one suggestion: I don’t know how “Trust your gut” reads in an American idiom, but on this side of the pond it had a slightly weird vibe, more akin to medical advice than a GM principle!
Maybe something like “Trust your gut instinct” instead?
Josephe Vandel, I do own Into the Odd. I love the tables in there and they do suit the world of that game, but for some reason I had been hoping for some adventure/dungeon generators.
I have notes for a weather section, but nothing concrete yet. Would love to hear everyone’s ideas.
Looks lovely – but then I’d expect nothing less 🙂
First impressions:
The improved journeying moves look exactly that – improved from the standard ones. These look pretty similar to a previous preview you posted and, without reading in detail at least, no complaints here.
I’m not so sure about Ask the Fates – rolling on one table, then another feels very stilted. (I appreciate this is the opposite advice to Josephe Vandel but) I’d prefer some kind of single table with an X and Y axis you roll on to determine the results more quickly. (I’m thinking of Into the Odd’s character creation, which is seriously worth checking out if you haven’t already.)
All that said, there’s loads of tables to roll in Funnel World character creation, and I really enjoyed that. So maybe I need to shut up and try it in play! (“Trust your gut”, right? 😉 )
Just seen your response to Josephe, so fair enough about Into the Odd!
Weather should be just another hazard/danger, IMO. If you want to make custom moves for super-crazy weather (rains of frogs, excessive lightning, snow in July etc.) that might be a good custom move for a particular adventure?
I feel the same about the adventure/Dungeon generators but I am sure Chris is on his way for supplementary material in this direction.
While working on my own weathertables I found it more consistent, when I do tables for each enviroment type (which could clash with your idea of keeping it sleek?) that would take at least 2 Pages if I also include chained condition/alterations/attributes like you did with dangers and discoveries. But I guess thats also a matter of taste.
For example take the Journey of the Dwarves and Bilbo into the Dark Forest:
– The Path is obscured [Cant see sun for oriantation] [Path is old and withered] [Group gets lost]
– Poison Miasma [Hazard – Flora- Airborne – Poison – Mind] coused disorientation and dizzyness
– Danger [Monster – Horde – Giantsize] Giant Spiders atack
– Danger [Humanoid – Elves] Getting captured
Thats plenty of perrils for “just” passing an old cursed forest 😉
While the latter 2 are defined by danger, and the first by the enviroment. I would count the Poison fog as a natural/weather anomaly added to teh forest. The same would goes for heavy rain, mudded ground, frozen icy paths etc. I think the Almanach of each location that you mentioned can have a slot for weather conditions, noted down how the PC experience an enviroment, if they have heard of this dangerous rain-season, or the unsteady ground of a canyon crumbling in the hot summer and so on.
But maybe that will be part of the Enviromental Moves=?
Joe Banner Indeed I actually like chained tables. You have them also in the Oddpendium section for creating creatures. Narrative pushing tables can be great as a toolbox for the GM, but I try to reach a point where narration can fluidly incorporate them like in Fiasco, which always amazed me who entire sessions can be rolled from those few pages of Playsets. What I expect here from Jason is no less than another sleek and finetuned work, that adds to my DW experience. And giving chained tables can turn the travels fastly into a swiftly detailed peril that fills up the session.
Joe Banner, I love the X-Y tables in into the Odd (esp that character gen table)and in Grim Portents and elsewhere. The problem I ran into when I dabbled with that approach was how relatively limiting they proved to be when trying to cover a broad spectrum of experience.
I hear you on the “stilted” thing. I’ve ended up with more rolling than I intended, but keeping them all d12 rolls and within an 8-page section does help things move faster, especially once you get used to how the tables are situated. It works fine in the limited testing I’ve done — the example Discovery generation, for instance, took about a minute in actual play — but I would love to hear how it plays out in practice for anyone else.
Re: Weather, I’m not planning any weather generation tables, since the times I’ve used such things in play have always felt a little tedious. I’ve been seeing weather as confined to narrative color and GM moves. My Weather section would mostly be advice about folding weather into play meaningfully.
And yeah, the almanacs will be able to accommodate particular weather moves easily. They will be quite open in format, similar to the Areas in Servants of the Cinder Queen, a bare-bones template intended to support structured customization.
Your thoughts on weather sound perfect to me Jason. On further thought you’re probably right with the rolls essentially as written, especially if it only took you a minute in playtesting. I might get a chance to playtest it later this week – I’ll keep you posted!
$$$ my money take it . great work can’t wait for the finished product.
Love it. Love. it.
Sounds like I could put those tables on a GM screen
Looks great. Amazing layout for sure!
Wonderful resource, this. Gave the Discovery table a try as I was writing notes on the demon-slaying Academy my players’ characters will be attending. Stuck to the results, mostly (though I did add in a few rolls on the Details table for good measure).
Here’s what I ended up with:
The Gate (Enigmatic Monolith)
Ancient, Huge, Obvious, Planar, Terrifying
Sheer and endless. No ones knows what lies behind. One of PCs was volunteered to enter in order to waive his tuition.
Almathea’s Aviary, The Pheonix Skeleton (Remains: Bone)
Immunity: Death, Activity: Eating/Resting, Disposition: Curious/Helpful
What happens when a mad ornithologist (and golem grafter) has a craving for new limbs.
The Cellars Beneath (Unnatural Feature: Arcane Source/Repository)
Neutral, Magic: Evocation, Ability: Drain Life/Magic
The premier wine cellar (and blood bank on campus). Run by the Dean Emeritus in Perpetuity.
The Auspicate (Structure: Burial/Religious)
Great Temple, Aspect: Love/Admiration, Condition: Worn, Immunity: Fire, Oddity: System
The finest atelier (outside the Cellar) guised as a distillery, herbarium, and apothecary. Where the Occipitals (think: Skull and Bones) go to meet.
Love the layout to the book so far. Am sorely tempted to roll the Academy up with your Dungeon tables 😉
Great work, mate.
How great to see the results put to concrete use, Jarod Cerf! And a fine demonstration of how imagination and a good vocabulary can transform raw material into entertaining results.
Danke, mate. We’ll be fleshing the Academy proper out in our next session using a mix of your rules and a deck of qualifier cards that one of the players made. The Followers section should also come in handy for rolling up their fellow classmates.
Will definitely give this a look. Sounds cool so far.