Author: Alexander Stanton

My Fourth of July Impromptu Dungeon World Experience

I was out camping for Fourth of July Weekend with a bunch of friends, and it was raining all day on Saturday, we built a tight rain fort using tarps and uprighted picnic tables (unfortunately I have no pictures) and due to the rain, we were pretty much constrained to our rain fort, it was decided that we wanted to Play a DnD game around the camp fire.  So me without my Dice and and only a deck of cards, limited pens and some scrap paper.  I had everyone write down their str, dex, con, wis, int, cha, and max hp on what little paper we had.  I told everyone that they were playing themselves in real life as characters, so I had everyone decide what their best and worst attributes were based on how they know themselves.  They add a +1 to three attributes, +2 to one and +1 to another, or a +3 to one attribute.  Then told them to write a -1 to what they thought was their worst attribute.  I had them Draw cards to find out their Max HP and write it all down on their scrap paper.  We were now ready to play “Fugitive”.

Fugitive is a super stripped down version of Dungeon World I made up months ago to pass the time with a coworker on a very long drive to a job site. It takes place “tomorrow morning” where all the characters are Dungeon World version of their real life selves, and wake up tomorrow morning to find out that they are wanted for the Murder of The President of the United States of America, with a Bounty for $100 Billion on all of their heads, dead or alive.  “What do you do?”

So this is where it gets interesting. Without dice I only had a deck of playing cards and I learned that I could apply the same rules for rolling two D6s as I can for drawing cards. Ace to 6  and Joker was utter failure, 7 to 9 was success at a cost, and 10 to King was wild Success with grace and style. I even added a caveat that if you drew a King, you receive as magic item or power related to the action you rolled as means to level up.  This worked out great, because just like rolling dice, the suspense and excitement built every time someone went to draw a card, and cheering and/or awe ensued after every card drawn.  Everyone had fun, got creative, laughed and cheered, and worked together solving their in-game problems.

The point I am trying to make here is that Dungeon World Rules provide just enough structure that even with limited resources, if you have enough imagination and creative problem solving, you can have a fun impromptu game sessions that everyone enjoys without a great deal of prep work.  I’m even considering replacing rolling 2 D6s for moves to drawing playing cards for moves in future DW sessions.

So for those interested, here’s just about how the story unfolded:

Brad, Jordan, Amy, Steph, Adam, & Lauren wake up find out that they are all wanted for murdering the president.  Lauren remembers that she just made $5000 the night before dealing drugs. So they book a limo to the Canadian Border for $3000.  So the pack up their camping gear, get picked up and befriend a little pony named Scott and abscond into the limo towards the border, Scott the Pony in tow. While on the road, they realized that they need fake passports. As it turned out, Adam remembers that he has a shady friend named Traniel who does fake passports except its going to cost them $3000, they only have $2000 left after the limo.  So Adam remembers that he has a T-Shirt signed by Steve Urkel himself that he can pawn off for a $1000.  So after a quick detour and a close call with an ornery Pawn Dealer, they get the money and get back on the road, with the cops, closing in.  As the Po-nine were closing in on them Brad draws a 10 on a wisdom roll and discerns that the limo driver is in fact a pirate and can find them a Captain to commission a boat to Ireland for a price.  So everyone sells the pirate limo driver what they can and end up with $1800, which with after drawing another 10 is exactly how much a boat to Ireland costs amongst pirates.  So they elude the cops, and Meet their Captain, who to everyones surprise is, Traniel!  They get on the boat and embark to Ireland against their better judgement, with no food. Problem solving as a team, everyone scrounges to make nets, and catch massive amounts of fish, Brad finds a way to cure the fish so it lasts them the whole trip. They befriend the Lock Ness monster whom ended up having a psychic connection to Scott the Pony and Adam.  They barely Make it to Ireland with enough food. Jordan, just so happens to know where an abandoned Castle is where they could all squat that is within walking distance from port.  They arrive in no time, to find the castle boarded up with only a tower window open. Brad attempts to break in, fails and breaking his leg trying to get in, losing HPs.  Amy tries again and succeeds and using her strength she breaks the door to the Castle Down from the inside to let everyone in.  They get in, start a garden, lay in defenses, and burn off their fingerprints successfully hiding their Identities permanently from the US government and for all intents and purposes, WINNING the game of Fugitive.

~~The End~~

I would like to open up the Comments section here for people to share THEIR impromptu DW experiences.