Author: Sean Dunstan

Tonight, I’ll be running DW for my Encounters table since the D&DNext playtest resulted in them plowing through the whole module in about 3 sessions (which will be a post for another time).

It’s going to be interesting to see how some of these folks will handle Dungeon World after coming exclusively from a 4e/5e background.

We will, of course, be Codexing Planarchs.

Something occurred to me the other day; is there a way to get more of the Scoutbook supplements? Like, could I order a 5-pack of the Planarch Codex so I can hand them out to my players?

As I work on my setting kickoff/module/thing, I’m looking at the core assumption I made that the “core classes” are effectively the gods of the setting (referred to as the Iconics), and pick people to be The Fighter or The Cleric and so on. Basically picking this generations heroes.

Then I thought…if those are the “good” gods (or at least the protagonist gods), who would be the “evil” ones? The antagonist gods? The negative archetypes? Would there/should there be one for each Iconic? “The Beast” who fights and destroys for its own sake as the reflection of The Fighter, who battles with cunning to protect?

This warrants further though.

A little preview from the module/campaign starter I’ve been working on, just to see if it generates interest:

“IF THE CHARACTERS FAIL TO STOP SHAE BEFORE SHE COMPLETES THE RITUAL: Pick one of the playbooks that hasn’t been taken by a player yet. Hold it up in front of everyone, and tear the playbook in half. That class no longer exists in the world; no player can ever take it, and nobody can ever multiclass into it.”

Next DW demo map found.

Originally shared by Joshua Burnett

It’s Monday Map time! Today we have a rocketship crashed into a goblin lair. Wow!

http://bernietheflumph.blogspot.com/2013/02/holy-spaceship-mini-map-monday.html

A thread on RPGNet inspired me to draft a new Fighter starting move, since I know there are people who were disappointed that the fighter didn’t get as many options as other characters:

Know Thy Enemy

When you face an opponent of a type you’ve fought before, roll +WIS. On a 10+ hold two, on 1 7-9 hold 1. Spend your hold 1-for-1 for the following effects against that monster type:

– Ignore 1 point of their armor

– Counteract a move they make

– Do 1d4 more damage

– Reduce damage you take from an attack by your WIS

Did a little more work on the Madness stuff inspired Jonathan Walton. Still a few gaps, and a few things that need to be tightened up.

Madness

Madness is a new stat that measures your slow descent into insanity. Madness starts at 0.

When you are confronted with a scene of true horror, be it monster or event, roll +Wis. On a 10+, you manage to stay in control. On a 7-9, you take -1 ongoing until the source of terror is gone or dealt with. On a 6 or less, you gain a point of Madness and must flee, panic, beg, or fight.

THE EFFECTS OF MADNESS

For every point of Madness you have, you take -1 forward when Defying Danger with WIS, or when you are are confronted with a scene of true horror.

When your Madness pool equals your INT or WIS (whichever’s higher), your character has descended irrevocably into insanity and is now an NPC.

CURING MADNESS

You can reduce your Madness pool by performing one of the following tasks:

• A Cleric with the “Destruction of Otherworldly Foes” or “Healing and Restoration” domains can use the following new level 3 spell: Restore The Mind – Remove 1 point of Madness from the target.

• A Paladin can use Lay On Hands to transfer a point of Madness from the target to himself instead of healing damage

• Take a Debility to any stat to remove one point of Madness

• Take a Madness Bond or Fear Alignment to remove one point of Madness

MADNESS MOVES

The following options for basic class moves are added to the base playbooks and do not require Madness to take:

NEW BARDIC LORE

• Tales of Terror and Madness

NEW CLERIC DIETY DOMAINS

• The Destruction of Otherworldly Foes

• The Will of the Old Ones

NEW CLERIC PRECEPT

• Your religion spreads like a disease: add Petition: Dive Mad With The Truth

• Your religion fights against the darkness: add Petition: Fearlessness

NEW DRUID DOMAINS

• The Void Between The Stars

• The Forgotten Deeps

NEW PALADIN QUEST BOON

• Immunity to Madness

NEW RANGER COMPANION STRENGTH

• Horrifying

When you have at least one point of Madness, you can take the following moves when you level up:

BARD: Voices In Their Heads – You do not need leverage to Parley with someone, but they know you’re doing something weird to their mind.

CLERIC: Speaker for the Old Ones – You can use Turn Undead on creatures of otherworldly origin. It works as per the normal move, but on a 10+ the creatures come under your unwilling control.

DRUID: Shape of Madness – When you Shapeshift, your damage die increases one step, but you gain the Horrifying tag, no matter what you shift into.

FIGHTER: Fanatic’s Fervor – When you deal damage, it’s always considered “messy” and you deal +Madness damage. However, as long as there are valid targets around (friend or foe) you must Defy Danger with WIS to stop fighting.

PALADIN: But Now I See – You have the following additional option on “I Am The Law”: Drive the target mad for a short time. Your list of available vows when Questing is completely replaced by the following list:

• Violence (forbidden: Allowing enemies to live)

• Hedonism (forbidden: Showing restraint)

• Pestilence (forbidden: not sure)

• Chaos (forbidden: Maintaining a status quo)

RANGER: Symbiote – Your animal companion becomes a literal part of you. It can hide inside your body, and gets +1 Ferocity and the Horrifying tag. Even when hidden, there is an obvious Tell that you’ve got something living inside you, such as a sickly wound that never heals, or something crawling under your skin.

THIEF: At One With The Dark – still no idea

WIZARD: Power In Madness – When you roll a 6 or less when Casting a Spell or Spouting Lore, you may take 1 Madness to change it to a 7-9 result.

BOOM

https://plus.google.com/109563461718222144273/posts/WnmggnwseTQ

Has this been mentioned here? A Kickstarter for “creature cards” that have monster art on one side and the stats on the other. They do have a set for Dungeon World, and that seems like something that’d be really useful.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inkwellideas/creature-and-encounter-rpg-card-decks

A SINGLE STEP: An introductory/campaign starter for Dungeon World.

“_Are there other wizards?_ Not really. There are other workers of arcane magic, and the common folk may call them wizards, but they’re not like you. They don’t have the same abilities, though they may be similar. Later on there may be another player character with the same class but no GM character will ever really be a wizard (or any other class).” – Dungeon World, page 178

Have you ever wondered why that is?

—-

Long ago, there were great heroes. A warrior who was as strong as an army, master of all weapons. A wizard who could shake the earth with his magic. A priest capable of bring his god’s will to the world. A thief who wielded shadow as a tool and a weapon. The bard, whose songs could inspire nations. The druid, embodiment of the power of nature. The ranger who mastered beasts and became one with the forests. The paladin, who protected all with sword, shield, and faith.

They were the world’s first heroes.

They fought evil, as individuals and later as a group, stopping unknowable monstrosities and terrible foes. They defeated every foe they faced and saved the world dozens of times over.

But time is one foe that can fell even the mightiest of opponents. The heroes knew they could not live forever, and even after their passing the world would face danger once again. How, then, could they continue to protect the world? Training proteges would take too long, and even if they did find a way to live forever, there was the chance that they would be unable to change with the times and adapt to the new threats that would inevitably arise.

Then the wizard and the bard had an idea.

There was one place the heroes could go to both escape the ravages of time and be ready to reappear at a moment’s notice: the shared imagination of the world.

Oh, the bard and the wizard used lots of complex terms to describe it; “collective unconscious , “zeitgeist”, “heroic archetypes” and the like. But what mattered was the result: the heroes would cease to exist as people, and would become ideas. And when needed, they could empower individuals with their power and abilities  allowing for heroes that had ties to the world they lived in.

So the heroes left the world we know. They did remain, however, in the backs of the mind of the people of the world. In legends and fables. Some sought the power of the heroes, but those who sought rarely found; a hero is chosen by the need to protect and forged in deeds. It’s not something you try to become for fame or fortune.

Still, there are those who sought the power of the heroes in other ways, such as through worship. Around the world, one can find altars and statues of the heroes that were used in futile attempts to beseech them for their power. Over the generations, these makeshift temples faded from memory.

But on a small ignored island, one such temple is about to be discovered by the survivors of a shipwreck. Others are there already, seeking what they believe is forgotten magic for their own ends. The stakes begin as survival, but may end up being the world itself.

It is a a world, a time, a moment in need of heroes.

What do you do?