Author: Brian Haag

A question and request for assistance with DW combat.

I love fiat initiative. Just go.

And I love that the moves carry fictional consequences. It lets me “evoke” player agency really easily. You jump out of the tree onto the ogre’s back and get an 8? Cool. You (maybe) don’t roll a damage die, but the ogre is now distracted and pissed because you’re hanging on it. And I can do that favor for every PC. (This is how I snowball combat, too.)

But I feel like I’m throwing outfield practice. During combat I (GM) get a LOT of spotlight. More than I want. The players are good; they describe actions and are invested. And the environment’s reaction to those things has to be brought to bear. But the PCs are throwing the ball back to me so I can throw it to the next person.

How do I avoid this? The answer seems to be “training” the players to not need me looking at someone and saying, “What do you do?” Maybe that can be built over time?

This question isn’t specific to DW, but it came out of thinking about my current DW campaign, and it’s where it would be implemented, so wondering what people think of something.

We have a campaign in its infancy that was somewhat expressly put together around a Keep that adventurers would head toward for various reasons. This is to let us put various parties and players together and do a little “West Marches” if we want. So the infrastructure is in place to maybe do the following.

What if each player must have two characters active in the game? No character can be played more than three consecutive player-sessions. A character can be retired at any time, and a new one created at level 1, starting at the Keep. PC death means create a new character (with possible bloodline, hireling, etc. relationships as appropriate).

I feel like this immediately makes party composition more interesting (and maybe Bonds get more flavorful), and gets players to think at a more abstract level about the overall story; the only immediate cost is having another character sheet.

Really, I can think of all kinds of ways this would be a positive, but there’s one unacceptable possible negative: I don’t want to create any hurdles/burdens for the players in terms of scheduling sessions. Gotta be a clear win.

Eager to hear thoughts.

Anyone have notes/fronts/etc. for a Keep on the Borderlands conversion? I’ve found lots of mentions of such on the interwebz but no actual information. I’m working on it now, just wondering what people have done.

About to start my first face-to-face game, and I’m wondering if/how GMs are using visual aids? Certainly pure theater of the mind (and I use audio too) is attractive–the middle of the table can hold the snacks now, yes?–but so much of DW is fictional positioning and making use of the environment. Makes me think there’s opportunity to do something cool.

Anyone?

Anyone have experience converting 1e modules to DW?

I’m thinking Dungeon World’s speedy play would make for a great whirlwind tour of Greyhawk.