Hey, everyone!

Hey, everyone!

Hey, everyone! Just recently started up a DW campaign this past Friday and the first session went pretty well. I plan on tying  up the introductory adventure next session and as such I have been thinking of some neat and climatic battles to cap off the current dungeon. What my brain keeps settling on and visualizing is an Earth Elemental the size of a house coming up from the stone and rampaging throughout the area and the party. What Id love some help and suggestions on is how other DMs have ran massive monsters who aren’t too susceptible to the standard hack and slash of normal weapons while also imparting on the players that it isn’t an impossible fight.

For some background the party consists of a Fighter, Mage (Storm Focus), Priest (Travel/Sky domains), and a Battlemaster (Grim World). They have recently descended into a deep cave to stop an Elvish / Fae sorceror from enacting some vile ritual. They have already stopped the sorceror’s minions from kidnapping youthful sacrifices from a nearby farmhouse and now plan to stop him for good. Deep in this cave they will soon find a massive cavern housing an underground forest nurtured by many underwater springs and sunlight given off by colonies of strange beetles.

Depending on how they proceed they will likely fight through groups of satyrs and fae touched goblins or avoid the fights by sneaking through the forest, possibly encountering other wonders or threats. Eventually, however, they will reach the ruin of a temple where the ritual is to take place. Outside the temple will be a massive area of out of place stone and standing rocks. My idea is that a if blood of a divine or arcane nature is shed upon the rocks the spirit of the stones inside will be awakened, pulling itself, and any standing upon the beast, up into the air. As the Priest had to travel barefoot throughout this treacherous landscape (a price asked of his god for a 7-9 invocation roll so that he may bear the suffering of unfortunate travelers) blood on the stone seems likely.

So with that all said I want this encounter, if they do in fact encounter it, with the Earth Elemental to be the physical brute force “boss fight” counterpart to the mystical Elf preparing his ritual. I’m just afraid this idea might be a bit overboard and will scare my party away! Or worse, have them rush in like its just another run of the mill ogre without heeding my warnings of its size, strength, and ferocity. It will have a weakness, of course. Perhaps an area near its “head” will be vulnerable to attack, or that they must chip through to its fiery core, or lure it into water. I may find out that for myself as the battle unfolds.

After that wall of text I just want to hear anyone else’ input on the encounter. What experience do you have in your own games of fighting colossal, yet beatable beasts? How did you / your players react? Thanks for any advice and input you may have!   

crossposted from the dungeon world reddit

crossposted from the dungeon world reddit

crossposted from the dungeon world reddit

Hey, guys! My gaming group has decided to move past our short lived D&D Next campaign and I have stepped up and volunteered to DM dungeon world for our next game. While I am a dungeon world fan boy and eager lurker of the subreddit and DW tavern my only true experience, as well the only experience of my group, has been with a single live game that had transitioned into a extremely short lived play by post game on roleplay online. It appeared out group didn’t have the patience for play by post though my friends, apart from one, and I really enjoyed the system.

The one friend, however, really really dislikes Dungeon World and I want to remedy that if we do intend to go forth with this new campaign.

We have talked extensively on the topic and it appears that his major qualms with the system are as follows:

-Missing (or hitting on a 7-9) an attack shouldn’t get himself stabbed. He wants to miss and have a chance to defend himself on the opponents turn.

-He didn’t feel like his character was special or heroic and he felt like his character was a big screw up and messing up all the time.

-Felt like failure was too common with most the results being the worst, and the majority of rolls coming up “bad” (7-9). Granted he did roll -6 far more than was statistically probable. With just one live session and a short lived play by post career his character was nearly level 3.

Granted most of these I feel like could be remedied by good dming and proper move use. I am learning just as much as the rest of my group and I hope he will manage to enjoy it this time around.

So have any of you convinced any naysayers of the beauty of dungeon world? Any tips for a new DM hoping to wow his friends in general? Thanks for the help, everyone!

PS – Here is a link to our short lived play by post game. The player in question is Nook, if your interested in looking it over – http://www.rpol.net/display.cgi?gi=57127&ti=4&date=1380471353&msgpage=1