Author: John at Deep Six Delver

DRAFT Compendium Class move for Druid

DRAFT Compendium Class move for Druid

DRAFT Compendium Class move for Druid

In her previous session, our Druid used an artifact of Death to bring back someone who died wrongfully. I’m working on a compendium class based on that, but I’d love some feedback.

The artifact move was created by Asbjørn H Flø. After someone commented that the effect was similar to the Fighter’s move Through Death’s Eyes, I thought it would be interesting to riff on the same theme.

—

When you use Death’s Abacus to balance the symmetry of life and death, you can choose this move instead of a move from your class the next time you gain a level.

☐ Threads of Fate

When you pause in a situation of deadly peril, name a person nearby whose death you foresee, and roll+WIS. ✴On a 10+, you gain 3 hold. ✴On a 7–9, you gain 1 hold. You may spend hold 1 for 1:

– To redirect any harm toward the person you named, by fate or misfortune; or

– To redirect any harm away from the person you named towards yourself.

If the person dies, gain 1 balance. If the person lives, mark XP.

—

The reference to “balance” is an allusion to the Druid’s class move Balance, which allows the Druid to gain hold to spend on healing. I thought I might make some other moves in the compendium class that use “balance” as well.

Through Death’s Eyes tells the player that “the GM will make your vision come true, if it’s even remotely possible”. This version gives the character XP instead, so that there is a consolation if they got it wrong.

I’m not sure if the move is quite ready yet. Let me know what you think!

Awesome Action vs. Tangible Obstacles

Awesome Action vs. Tangible Obstacles

Originally shared by Michael Prescott

Awesome Action vs. Tangible Obstacles

I’m noodling on how resolution mechanics contribute to play style in a particular way. This is a revision of my 2015 opinion, which was focused mostly on quantitative difficulty levels (or the lack of them, as in Dungeon World).

Dungeon World Endgame

Dungeon World Endgame

Dungeon World Endgame

There are no guidelines in the rules on an ideal upper limit on the number of sessions for a Dungeon World campaign. Unless you count the rules for advancement past 10th level, which create a significant change even though they don’t say “stop playing”.

I wonder what others have found to be an ideal limit, if there even is one.

We had Session 18 this week, and every single session continues to bring the campaign into sharper focus, with vivid conflict and no shortage of electricity. Around Session 12 or so, it really felt like we were fast approaching the campaign’s ultimate climax. But 6 sessions later, the tension keeps escalating with no end in sight.

I’m perfectly happy if it goes on like this. I have no fear that it would peter out—the GM moves alone simply prevent that. But I’m wondering whether it might grow too sprawling. Has that happened to you?

Or does Dungeon World naturally reach an endgame that concludes the campaign, in your experience?

Do you set a boundary at the outset or determine one as it grows? That seems to go against playing to find out what happens, a little, but it can’t hurt to have everyone on the same page in terms of expectations.

Was it a bad idea to give the player a Dungeon World equivalent to nukes?

Was it a bad idea to give the player a Dungeon World equivalent to nukes?

Was it a bad idea to give the player a Dungeon World equivalent to nukes?

Still reeling from tonight’s session. I think it made everyone’s heads spin.

Ruthless Calculation

by Asbjørn H Flø, revised

When you move a bead on Death’s Abacus, you exchange a life for a life. Choose one soul who is claimed by Death. They live again. The GM will choose someone alive. They are dead, and have been since Death claimed the soul you restored. This might change the world forever.

About that leading question, it was rhetorical. Why would that be bad?

When I get a chance to write, I need to give y’all an epic elegy to Sugar the Bard.

Until then, peace out.

Something Actually Useful: Instant Monsters for Dungeon World

Something Actually Useful: Instant Monsters for Dungeon World

Something Actually Useful: Instant Monsters for Dungeon World

Do you ever miss the days of Tunnels & Trolls, when you could just spin up a monster on the fly with a creative description and a single stat?

Okay, probably not. Making monsters in Dungeon World is not exactly rocket science. Still, it does have more steps than T&T, and it’s complicated enough that Jeremy Strandberg created a one-sheet variant to make it easier.

But Dungeon World and T&T otherwise have a lot in common when it comes to monsters: What makes monsters interesting in both games, their entire presence in the game and how the players engage them, is their fictional positioning, rather than their ratings. DW formalizes this by giving monsters moves and tags and stuff, but T&T has been implying it since 1975.

So, if you’d like to try out a system for busting out monsters raw like sushi, check it out here:

https://d6.beardedbaby.net/monsters-rated-pop-up-enemies-with-a-death-spiral-for-dungeon-world

https://d6.beardedbaby.net/monsters-rated-pop-up-enemies-with-a-death-spiral-for-dungeon-world

Vanilla Dungeon World Going To Planarch-Inspired City?

Vanilla Dungeon World Going To Planarch-Inspired City?

Vanilla Dungeon World Going To Planarch-Inspired City?

In my last session, a witch killed Alberich the Unmerciful, king of the Underworld, while the Bard watched. When it was over, the Bard got ahold of the Alberich’s crown and abacus, claiming the title of Death. At the end of the session, the Bard and the Ranger both passed alive through the Black Gate.

We’ve established a few facts about the Underworld already:

– Long ago, the dwarfs dug so deep that they broke into the realm of the dead.

– The dwarf king became the lord of the dead, enslaving many non-dwarf inhabitants to mine the underworld for magicite.

– There is a giant bore hole that goes down the roots of the world, like the image, with tunnel complexes radiating out from it in all directions. The central bore has minecarts flying up and down the rails while dwarf taskmasters oversee the damned.

– Death’s fortress is on an outcropping of rock that overlooks the bore (you might recognize the image from popular culture).

– The Wizard noticed that the magicite ore can distort reality, creating illusionary landscapes out of the dreams and memories of anyone nearby.

– Dwarfs are known to sing while they work: https://youtu.be/ytWz0qVvBZ0

Today I realized this could be a perfect place to use Dis as a model: A “city” that spans different “realities”. Furthermore, the Ranger cracked the lock on the Black Gate last session, so the Underworld could literally start devouring other planes through the Gate, just like Dis.

I don’t imagine we’re the first group to end up in this kind of situation. I’m curious what ideas you might have to supplement Dark Heart of the Dreamer’s city moves and other tools. The default moves in the book could easily come into play:

– absorb a place utterly and completely;

– absorb a place but preserve its essence;

– alter its own geography

– open a path to a dangerous new plane.

I haven’t yet run a Planarch Codex game, and I welcome any suggestions or thoughts you may have.

Perilous Wilds: Hirelings, Hit Points, and the Group tag

Perilous Wilds: Hirelings, Hit Points, and the Group tag

Perilous Wilds: Hirelings, Hit Points, and the Group tag

Jeremy Strandberg, or anyone who has used the PW follower rules:

Do you assign Hit Points to a follower differently when they have the Group tag?

Like, I can imagine adapting the Grunt Squad rules from Risus, so that Hit Points represent something more like morale until the group scatters (or something). But I wanted to make sure I wasn’t overlooking an obvious or not-so-obvious function of scale and HP for follower groups.

Have you ever used the Group tag to represent an army?

Champion of the Grey Host [work in progress]

Champion of the Grey Host [work in progress]

Champion of the Grey Host [work in progress]

When you crack the lock on the Black Gates with the holiest relic of the Crucianite faith, the next time you gain a level you can choose this move instead of a move from your class:

Acclaim of the Departed

Echoes of the Black Gate’s breaking shook the worlds, and you are marked by the event. Describe the scar, brand, or sigil and choose where it is on your body. Take +1 ongoing to Parley with any shade who can see this sigil.

When you display your mark in a place where specters congregate you can make the Recruit move to call upon the dead as hirelings. They may require one or more of the following as their cost, instead of a standard hireling cost:

– Living blood or flesh.

– Spreading rampant fear.

– Fulfil their steading’s oath.