You can grab it with my other print/PDF bundles, or there’s a discount available if you’ve bought some of my other DW stuff (check your inbox) or you follow me on Patreon.
There’s 80-odd pages of goodness in this issue – collecting, remixing and updating previous releases through Patreon and all-new content. The main bulk is a setting guide and 3 linked adventures, but there’s also plenty of inspiring fiction and even a new class to try out.
Give it a try, let me know what you think – enjoy!
A curious thing happens to the bodies of the slain in the Northlands.
A curious thing happens to the bodies of the slain in the Northlands. Putrefaction of corpses begins unusually fast, even in the cleanest of places. The flesh quickly turns black with necrosis; tissues becoming rigid in the joints and skin, yet fluid elsewhere in the body. Within a matter of just a few days, the diseased corpse becomes mobile. Within a week, it is a living skeleton sleeved in rot, the remaining organs reduced to septic sludge.
Such creatures in this condition lack the shambling slowness of zombies. They prefer instead to leap or scuttle, unnaturally strong limbs seizing living prey to spread their plague. If it cannot find suitable prey, it will instead hide in whatever dark or moist place it can find and wait. They have no means of communication, but sometimes work together along with those it died alongside with.
Because of this plague, prompt cremation of the dead is of the utmost importance in the Northlands. If a body cannot be burned, a liter of saline solution poured into the lungs via the mouth will /usually/ halt the transformation. Prayer seems to have little effect, as does consecrated burial; the dead just dig their way free.
Oh, and don’t try to raise the dead while you’re in the Northlands. It ends badly for all involved.
Anyone in here based in NYC and looking to play? I’ve got an RPG Meetup running Saturday mornings at 11:00 AM and this month we’re playing Dungeon World! We meet at Hex and Company to play, on the Upper West Side. Love to see some of you there!
How would you handle the consequences of the following situation…
How would you handle the consequences of the following situation…
There are four zombies attacking my group’s fighter. Three of the zombies are attempting to push him backward into a pit. I’m using a tug-of-war progress clock for that one. The remaining zombie is just trying to deal its damage and eat his brains.
Should I deal with the zombies as if they are two separate groups attacking the fighter? Or, one group and choose which to use for consequences on anything other than a 10+? If the advice is to treat them as two groups, is it as if I keep the spotlight on him for twice as long when it gets around to him? First make a move to avoid the pushers, and then if the fictional positioning still calls for it, separately ask him to do something to avoid the lone attacking zombie?
I previously talked about Tinkering with Hack and Slash in order to make it a move that explicitly dealt with initiative and, in the process, address some of my beefs with the move as-written. That led me to put some polls up on G+, and the responses (and ensuing discussions) led me to discard the initiative idea and and think more deeply about the move.
GMs, a player triggers Discern Realities and rolls a 7+ when examining a location (say) which in your mind was…
GMs, a player triggers Discern Realities and rolls a 7+ when examining a location (say) which in your mind was unimportant or incidental. How do you tend to answer their questions? Turn the location into an interesting or significant one through your answers, or give answers like “nothing much is about to happen”?
The latter puts less pressure on you but risks devaluing the risk the player took of making the move in the first place (they may have missed the roll and allowed you to make a hard move). So I often feel pressure to do the former.
I’ve run DW twice this week, first time I’ve done it in a while.
I’ve run DW twice this week, first time I’ve done it in a while. And I was pretty strict at hewing to the DW conversation model as I see it:
(1) The GM describes the world state, and what’s just happened
(2) The GM asks the players, or one player in particular, “What do you do?”
(3) One player (GM’s choice) gets to be the one that acts
If they described plausible action corresponding to move trigger, execute the move
If the move fails (roll of 6-) and no special handling of that is given in the move text, the GM makes a hard move
If they describe a golden opportunity for the world or an NPC to fuck them up, the GM makes a hard move
If neither of the above, the GM makes a soft move
(4) Loop back to (1)
This meant that I was making a lot of moves, and doing very little else. This kept things interesting, but felt too intense at times. I’ve heard one of the players talk about another GM’s DW game as being “like being on a rollercoaster”, with threat after threat and no peace.
Questions:
1) Do you think my model of above is right? I think I’ve captured the RAW, but they express this procedure vaguely, across several locations in the text.
2) Do you, in practice, use extra moves a bit like these:
a) Let Them Succeed – just let them do what they’re trying to, without opposition
b) Rest – describe the situation, narrate events, without (knowingly) saying anything dramatically significant
I suspect that in the past, when I’ve been less obsessive about mapping my every response to a move, I’ve implicitly used those a lot.
The hagr (12 feet tall, long-limbed, rolls of fat and muscle, one eye bulging with hate and fury) just took out the…
The hagr (12 feet tall, long-limbed, rolls of fat and muscle, one eye bulging with hate and fury) just took out the Ranger with that tree it was using as a club. It turns that hate-filled eye on the Heavy and the Blessed (who’s dispelling the unholy fog that kept them from coming to the Ranger’s aid).
The hagr flings the tree at them. The Heavy dives and drags the Blessed to the ground, nailing the Defy Danger with DEX and the tree goes smashing overhead. But they hear the hagr bellow and come stomping towards them.
Still on the ground, the Blessed reaches into his sacred pouch and calls on nature’s fury. The forest erupts, ensnaring the hagr with vines and roots and earth, just a few feet away from them. It’s held for the moment, but it’s already tearing free.
The Heavy rolls to his feet, loads his crossbow, and fires. He’s close, and the thing’s restrained, but it’s ripping free and terrifying and this is anything but a sure thing. He rolls Volley. Gets a miss. Oh dear.
The hagr breaks free, swats the crossbow from the Heavy’s hands, and snatches the Heavy by the wrist, hoisting him up and clearly about to use him as a club to smash the Blessed.
I ask them both what they do. The Blessed says he’s rolling to the side and trying to get away. The Heavy is like “I draw my long knife with free hand and stab it in the wrist, the one that’s holding me, so that it drops me.”
Okay, cool! Seems like the Heavy’s move should resolve before the Blessed’s, but how do we resolve it?
(If it matters: the hagr has like 19 HP, 2 armor, and reach; the Heavy deals d10 damage, hand range, no relevant damage-boosting moves.)
Option A The Heavy is attacking the hagr, and the hagr can fight back, so this is Hack & Slash. On a 7+, the hagr drops the Heavy no matter how much damage is dealt; if the Heavy is exposed to attack, it’s something like the hagr booting him with a forceful kick.
Option B Hack and Slash, but on a 7+, the Heavy’s damage roll determines whether the hagr drops the Heavy, and that in turn determines what the hagr’s attack looks like. If the Heavy deals decent damage, the Hagr drops him and then maybe kicks him away. If the Heavy deals only a little damage, the hagr holds tight and maybe uses the Heavy as a club, the Blessed Defying Danger to get out of the way.
Option C The Heavy is trying to get free more than anything, so this is Defy Danger (STR or DEX or even INT). On a 10+, yeah, the Heavy stabs the hagr and cuts himself free, dealing damage cuz the hagr got knifed in the wrist. On a 7-9, we’ve got any number of worse outcomes, hard bargains, or ugly choices to choose from.
Option D As option C, but the 10+ just means the Heavy gets free without dealing damage, but maybe seizing the initiative or giving the Blessed a chance to act.
