Author: Andrew Huffaker

Has anyone had any success with play by post?

Im having a hard time doing dialogue when my players get to the bbeg or even just combat with lessers. What do you that helps?

The black gate:

When I have my players come and meet Death, I often have a kind of Norse feel to it. Kind of like Valhalla or Sovngarde in Skyrim, I have it almost seem pleasant. Something like a large dining table with all of one’s kin feasting and beckoning the PC to come to their final resting place. In this way, when the player doesn’t end up dying for good it is almost like Death is actually being withholding to the PC; like being alive is the worse consequence.

Who wouldn’t want to leave a life of strife and constant toil to sit among the ancient brethren?

What if instead of making a deal with death to stay alive, Death denied the eternal bliss of the Black Gate until the player did something worthy of it? 

A HEART FELT STORY! ….with a tip to try

Hello community,

I have been blown away with how awesome TDWT has been since I joined and everyone has been really inspirational. I play DW with my son as much as I can and it has really helped me engage him during unstructured/down times. My son is 3, but he totally gets it when it comes to DW and other RPGs. Listening to his little voice in the back seat saying DM phrases like ‘THEN SUDDENLY!’ or ‘When our heroes last met…’ really warms my heart. He GM’s on the fly games with me that are mechanically DW, but really they have no dice because we are driving home from school or just out and about and it got me thinking…

I really enjoy playing like this and it adds a lot to when him and I actually down to play with dice. The fun stories of his characters: Captain Peow, Spikey Ball Lord, and Dragon Master-Blood Lawyer (and yes, he really came up with these characters himself) don’t have to only exist around a table. We get to let these PC’s live lives all the time and we can open the window to see what they are doing. Sometimes I will ask my son what he thinks DMBL is doing in a slice of life kind of scene. Nothing is funnier than an epic hero at a laundry mat.

In the same vein as Monte Cook’s Invisible Sun, we don’t have to stop playing philosophically or realistically and that got me thinking. What if you let the slower moments of game play, like travel, downtime between quests, or night watches happen away from the table and pick up en media res back in the action once everyone is together again. It could go something like this:

-Party finishes their 4 hour session by killing the BBEG

-DM tells PCs to get with someone through text or over coffee or during video games and just narratively go on a side quest or play out a Bolster move

-Before the next session, let the DM know what was done and make rolls if necessary

-Have the PCs tell of their exploits and the DM gives XP

Let me know what you think!

Great advice from Jeremy Strandberg​

First, work on your skills as a GM. Lead by example. You should be describing constantly, setting the scene, visualizing it, clarifying it. Relative location, what the PCs see, hear, feel. The momentum of PCs and NPCs and hazards.

You don’t get to say “the orcs approach” or the “the orc attacks you.” And you damn sure don’t get to say “the orc attacks, Defy Danger with DEX.” No, you gotta be like “the orcs advance, leering and weapons drawn, spreading out to flank you, what do you do?” Or “The orc on your left lunges suddenly, swinging it’s homemade meat cleaver down at you like HA! What do you do?”

If you don’t give them good, compelling fiction to interact with, then you can’t expect them to them to think beyond the moves on the sheet.

When you ask the players what they do, and their eyes drift down to the moves sheet, be like “forget that. Look at me. The orc is swinging it’s huge, pitted meat cleaver at your skull. What do you DO?”

If they reply with something basic like “um, I dodge?” then be positive but prompt for more detail. “Okay, cool! Are you just jumping clear and trying to get away from him? Dodging to the side so you can counterattack? What’s this look like?”

Then, whatever they do and whatever move triggers and whatever the result of their roll, fold that description into the results! If they dodge backwards and just try to get away, and Defy Danger with a 10+, then they get away. “Okay, so you hop back from the orc’s attack and put a few more feet between you and them. But they’re still blocking the way in front you and they’re gonna close any second now. You wanna turn and flee back down the hallway you can, no problem. Or you can re-engage. Or whatever. What do you?”

Now, if you ask “what do you do?” and they reply with the name of the move, that’s cool. There’s nothing wrong with that, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But your job then is to clarify the fiction. “You Hack and Slash? Cool, tell me what that looks like?” “You Discern Realities? Okay, how exactly are you doing that?” “You Volley? Okay, but that orc is right in your face and gonna gut you if you don’t try to get clear first.”

Respond to their actions positively and enthusiastically, but don’t let them off the hook with poorly visualized action. If you can’t picture it in your head, it’s not clear enough. Talk it through, ask for detail, clarify.

Don’t play “gotcha.” The book talks about making a hard move when they give you a golden opportunity, but you shouldn’t treat that as a surprise. If someone declares that they do something that you think is a golden opportunity, and you think it’s clear that they’re doing something stupid, then clarify it first. Tell them the consequences and ask. “You’re going to charge the hydra and try to stab it’s torso? Okay, but that’ll mean dodging past its seven snapping maws. You’ll be Defying Danger with DEX just to get close, and on a miss, it’s gonna be bad. Like, fish-in-a-blender bad. You do it?”

Reward creative solutions. If they tip a statue on the orcs pursuing them, offer them an opportunity to escape or to take one of them out without a fight or whatever. If the wizard grabs a tapestry off the wall and tosses it over the orcs, let them Defy Danger with INT for quick thinking instead of rolling STR for heaving the tapestry. Be a fan!

And always, always, bring it back to the fiction. After a move resolves, reframe the scene. Describe what’s happening now. Make your move. And ask “what do you do?”

What are the best ways to un-teach traditional RPG infrastructures so that they ‘get’ DW?

Also, what is the best way to get players to think more like ‘Do what you want and don’t care about what your sheet says’ vs when I asked the player what they want to do, they look scared at me for a second, down to their sheet, flip it over, and than they ask ‘well, what can I do?’

I have a difficult time changing their mind space from bottom up to top down designs.

What kind of technology or software are you guys using to write DW or other content? Outside of microsoft Word, I have no idea what to use and everyone’s content looks so great.

Has anyone ever tried to implement Resource Rolls (ala fate, etc.) in Dungeon World? Has it been done to meaningful success? Does it seemingly negate the loot grabbers? Dungeon World doesn’t seem to be predicated on amassing lots of loot as it is.

Has anyone ever seen a Pokemon-esque ptba or dw hack?