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My players are being pursued by an enemy that’s something of a mix of John Carpenter’s Thing, Stephen King’s It, and…

My players are being pursued by an enemy that’s something of a mix of John Carpenter’s Thing, Stephen King’s It, and an H.P. Lovecraft elder god. Here’s the dungeon front I tried out on them last night which ends with a custom location-based move. The idea is a kind of twisted flashback episode where the player’s answer questions about their PC’s past and their answers are used to fuel dark visions.

This is really my first time using a formal Front, as I usually just jam off what’s in my head with what the players do, would appreciate feedback.

Campfire Tales (Outdoor Dungeon Front)

The Darkness invades the minds of the party while they are making camp and tries to sow fear and dissent in the group.

Cast: The Darkness in many varied guises

Stakes: What will we learn about each PC’s past and motivations? Will any of them succumb to the Darkness’ influence?

Danger: “A Touch of Evil” (Chosen One / Force of Chaos)

Impulse: To terrify and confuse with visions and quietly invade minds for later subjugation

Portents:

– The sky darkens and the fire flickers with an eerie blue light.

– A thick fog fills the night air, a thin mist coating the camp ground, as a feeling of oppressive evil falls upon the camp

– PCs on watch see ghastly shapes in the mist that disappear quickly. Eerie and unearthly shrieks and howls fill the night air.

– Sleeping PCs suffer terrible nightmares of terror, pain, and powerlessness that are difficult to wake from.

Impending Doom:

When you finally see the rising sun after a fitful night of dark visions, roll+WIS. On a 10+, you shake off the dread and steel yourself in the certainty that you can face any danger and overcome. On a 7-9, choose one:

– You are shaken by what you have experienced, choose a new fear for your character and describe how they express it.

– You see the others in a new light, describe the difference and how it will affect how you interact with them.

– Your sense of your own purpose has shifted, describe the change and how it will affect what you do from now on.

In the end, all but one rolled 6- (the last rolled a 10+) but I decided to have them choose instead of making a hard move off my own.

Hello all

Hello all,

My friend and I are hacking DW to suit our particular needs by drawing elements from AW and adapting existing ones from DW. This is the beginning of a homebrew version that I’ve started thinking of as Advanced DungeonWorld (as an homage to D&D not to suggest it’s much more complicated). I hoped to tap into the collective experience of the Tavern Hive Mind to get feedback.

The place we’re starting is in PC conflict. I’ve been reading through threads and discussion groups on how to handle PvP and I’ve seen two major themes arise:

1. The PC who acts first get’s an advantage.

2. Resolving two, sometimes identical, PC moves can be messy.

To address these, he and I have come up with two additional basic moves; Awareness and PC Conflict.

Awareness:

When your spine tingles and the hairs raise on the back of your neck roll+0. On a 10+, you avoid the potential threat and place yourself in an advantageous position to respond, on a 7-9 you avoid it but gain no advantage.

This is our way of resurrecting the “Perception roll”, something we felt was required for PC Conflict. Because of the player-triggered design of DW (and AW), we needed something in place that mitigated the player knowledge/character knowledge divide in a narrativistic way. This move would be triggered if the player asks if their character notices what’s going on. We intentionally put 0 as the modifier so that the move didn’t favour any one stat. This allows PCs to sneak up or connive against each other, and the MC to throw unknown things at the characters, while still keeping everything open and described at the table.

PC Conflict:

When you’re responding to an unwanted action by a PC, describe how you’re doing it. If you’re…

– overpowering them with physical might, roll+STR+Hx

– relying on speed or agility to avoid the outcome, roll+DEX+Hx

– trusting your mettle to see you through, roll+CON+Hx

– devising a cunning solution, roll+INT+Hx

– letting your strength of will shield you, roll+WIS+Hx

– using social manipulation to dissuade them, roll+CHA+Hx

On a 7-9, you avoid their action. On a 10+, also describe your response.

PC Conflict is clearly an adaption of the Defy Danger move but takes into account the PCs’ relationships (through Hx). We designed it to avoid having to roll Aid/Interfere each time and the cycles that can come from resolving/cancelling when two moves clash. The idea is that the PC who is starting a conflict doesn’t get a move, they simply describe what they’re doing. They target of the narrative action can be unaware of it (thus, the Awareness move) and it just happens, can say they are doing nothing and it just happens, or can describe what they do in response and trigger the PC Conflict move. This will be the start of a series of PC Conflict moves until someone gets the upper hand (the other PC misses) or someone calls quits to the conflict. We imagine this as a contest of one-upping the other PC(s) until someone comes out on top, similar to the duel between Merlin and Mad Madam Mim (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LwnAMu4QyM). The 7-9 range simply lets the responding player avoid the result, but then the other PC gets to act again. 10+ lets you turn the tables and change the flow of the conflict. 6- is a miss and the action goes through.

Thoughts?

Originally posted by Scott McCafferty in https://plus.google.com/103304478024811313124/posts/WXyXsHDeiAp:

I’ve been building a campaign world for rather a while. Basic settings, gods, backstory, big world changing thing that’s just recently occurred and will explain all manner of strange occurrences.

Here’s my trouble. DW has a really low level cap, and if things go well, these guys might be playing this campaign for a WHILE. How do(would) you folks deal with this? Retire PC’s in exchange for new meat? Inflate the levels so it takes longer to level up? Stop giving xp for things like fulfilled bonds? What?

Hello all!

I’ve run DW a couple of times with a pre-made starter but now I’m getting ready to run it for my usual group this Friday. I’m trying to set up a one-shot set in the familiar campaign setting to see if they like DW and want to switch to it. This seemed like a good time to try out the Fronts, so I’ve created an adventure front for the session. I’d really appreciate any input you can give me on it.

Thank you!