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My players enjoyed this Danger, so I thought I’d share:

Name: Corruption Coin

Defense: Defy Danger using WIS, CON, or INT

Result: Increased Load

The PC spots a coin on the ground, and has the opportunity to pick it up with no one watching. If she does, she is immediately seized with the desire to collect more for herself, without telling anyone.

The threat is spiritual/mental, not physical. I narrate the camera zooming in and passing through the character’s eye, where we see an “internal world” in the character’s mind.

To resist, make a Defy Danger using WIS, CON, or INT (the player must describe how they are resisting in the fiction):

10+ The PC resists with no harm

7-9 The PC mostly resists, but takes -1 forward to stat used

6- As 7-9, and the player is corrupted

A corrupted character will begin seeing loose coins whenever she is not being watched by her companions, and will begin looking for opportunities to be out of sight for a moment– nothing serious, just lagging a step here or there, or offering to check out something that genuinely needs to be done a distance away, and so on. She will quickly and secretly throw such coins into her pack.

In reality, the “coins” are just rocks and other debris. The PC immediately increases her load by 1 when corrupted. On any subsequent 6- by the player, the GM may increase the load by 1d3 weight to represent the cumulative effect of gathered coins. Note that it is not recommended to describe or roleplay individual coins being collected, it’s just happening every so often.

The PC can cure her corruption by being magically healed, or spending most of a day struggling against it (the player describes how).

Until cured, the PC will continue adding “coins” despite load penalties, and will resist all efforts from other players to reason with her.

OPTION: To make the danger more serious, replace the -1 forward with the debility associated with the stat used.

End of Session questions

End of Session questions

Change the question

“Did we learn something new and important about the world?”

“Did we cross a threshold into new and unknown danger?”

It still deals with discovery. But, suddenly the players get points not for their philosophical musings, but for penetrating deeper, more dangerous areas and exploring the unknown.

What questions have you changed, whether for a session or for a campaign? How did it affect play for better or worse?

How do you handle your campaign without a Rogue in the party and you want to incorporate traps?

For instance, if a switch is found behind a picture on the wall and it’s supposed to trigger a trap, how is that handled?

Can a non-Rogue character “understand” it’s a trap by investigating further? Can Discern Realities help with this?

Does the non-Rogue have a chance to “disable” the trap? I suppose a character could throw something at the switch from a distance away…

Maybe I’m answering my own question and the narrative helps dictate…

“The Witch and Her Consort” – Planets Collide, Session 28

“The Witch and Her Consort” – Planets Collide, Session 28

4 weeks ago, we picked up our ongoing Dungeon World campaign again after a few months on hiatus. Since one of the players moved out of the region, the game has moved online, using Roll20 for sheets and handouts, and Discord for video chat.

2 weeks ago was Session 28, and we’re gearing up for a riotous and/or catastrophic Session 29 on Saturday. The TLDR version is this:

– The home team had a talk with a dragon that was involved in the failed ritual to keep 2 planets from colliding—the kind of talk that ended in one of those “Enough talk—HAVE AT YOU!” moments.

– The away team caught up with a witch that they bargained with before, and subsequently quested to destroy. It was the most terrifying encounter of the campaign so far. The Ranger was gobbled up by the witch, who escaped before the Paladin could get at her. The Paladin’s new Quest is to rescue his comrade.

Let me know if you have questions about how the moves and other game mechanics interacted to produce any particular outcome.

This is how I view the highest-level structure of DW:

Dungeon World (like AW) is a game of rules that modify a conversation. That conversation refers to a simulated world, which is modified by the conversation and in turn shapes the space of what is reasonable for the conversation to say at any point. The world does not have any more reality than that — it doesn’t “do” anything itself, unless the (rule-governed) conversation causes an update.

For example, if the Red Knights haven’t been mentioned for six weeks of game time, they exist in a space of possibilities – they could be here, they could be there, they could be anywhere within six weeks travel of wherever they were last. The conversation can bring them into the current scene (or show their very obvious effects e.g. having burnt down a town and left their flags all over it) as long as that is consistent with the time, the distance, and whether of all of the chaos shrines in all the mountains of the world there is some plausible reason for them to show up in this one.

What the Red Knights don’t do is move around in the background, in some factual sense, even in the GM’s head. The GM may have ideas about this, but they’re merely ideas until the live conversation makes them fact. The GM’s prep is raw material, prompts, aids, but not reality.

I.e. the possibility and plausibility space is “real” beyond the conversation (and each player plus GM will be independently monitoring it to some degree) but the precise facts there are not.

Questions:

1. Is the above consistent with how you play?

2. Is the above consistent with the current RAW?

3. Do you think the above what is Latorra and Koebel intended?

The Bard and the Wizard and the Fighter are making a break for it, trying to escape the dungeon as a horde of draugr…

The Bard and the Wizard and the Fighter are making a break for it, trying to escape the dungeon as a horde of draugr (7 HP each, 2 armor) try to stop them! The Wizard was closest to the door and gets away, but as the Bard goes for it one of the draugr moves to intercept.

The Bard tries to dodge past and Defies Danger with DEX, gets a miss, and the draugr’s hand flashes out and grabs the Bard by the throat and starts squeezing (the Bard takes d6+1 damage).

The Fighter comes running up behind the Bard and is like “I swing my messy, forceful hammer at the druagr, like an uppercut, sending this thing flying.” Hack and Slash, yo!

The Fighter rolls a 10+, chooses to evade the enemy’s attack, and (cue sad trombone music) rolls a 2 for damage. Soaked by the draugr’s armor. No damage done.

You’re the GM: what do you do?

Option A: “So you smash into it and goes flying back, but it’s almost immediately back on it’s feet and and about to charge. Bard, you’re gasping for air, Fighter there are more coming from behind you, what do you two do?”

Option B: “You smash into it and it just staggers back half a step, doesn’t even loosen its grip on the Bard. But it turns and looks at you with those dead eyes, Fighter, and raises its ax overhead, what do you do?”

Dungeon BINGO

Dungeon BINGO

This is a fun idea for lightning-fast prep that I picked up from Risus Monkey’s Tim Ballew.

It’s not a GM Master Tip, just something I did not know until I saw it in action. The post includes examples and resources from the Risus Monkey archives.

I liked the idea behind Colin’s Insidious Hunger move in the last Dungeon World Newsletter, but I didn’t like the…

I liked the idea behind Colin’s Insidious Hunger move in the last Dungeon World Newsletter, but I didn’t like the amount of rolling the players had to do while fighting the horde that attacked with this move, especially on a play by text platform like rolegate.com where battles take long enough as it is. So I changed it a bit but it’s still terribly costly and dangerous after a horde of fog creatures attacked the capital:

*Insidious Hunger*

This enemy exudes an aura of gluttony and everhunger. Once it drains your HP to half or below, roll+CON: on a 10+, gain 1 craving. On 7-9, gain 2 cravings. On 6-, gain 3 cravings and a sick debility. Whenever a move would have you consume a ration, such as Make Camp or Undertake a Perilous Journey, consume an additional ration and reduce your craving by 1. You must consume at least 1 ration to reduce your craving. If you ever go a day without eating while you have any craving, lose all craving and gain an appetite for sentient flesh.

I played it like this with my group, and I’ll let you know how this appetite for sentient flesh translates in a slum on the borders of a city waiting to be attacked by a supernatural threat.

https://mailchi.mp/e179289f86d1/dwn-3407573?e=62d60aa3dd

Dungeon World Classic Conversion Notes for Tannoch: Rest of Kings

“Tannoch: Rest of Kings” is another one of Michael Prescott’s excellent adventure sites I like to pull out of my bag for Dungeon World. Most of my conversions are based on posts on the Dungeon World Tavern by Mark Chance. He ran this adventure site for his son as a single person Dungeon World Adventure a few years back, I was careful to collect his posts and add them to my notes.

Here is a the link to Prescott’s free module: http://www.trilemma.com/blog/adventures/06%20Tannoch.pdf

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tuIDbqskDFP8GfuzzYmaXp_A_Y2_ZIsP

Wanted to share a food item I made for my Dungeon Rations Zine:

Kaltcha Claw

A strip of oily black flesh poking from the hollow of a gleaming white claw. The sickly-sweet smell makes you feel like you’re looking at the back of your own head. It has a surprisingly nutty and satisfying flavor. The flesh itself is oily and smooth, but your teeth crunch on small flecks of a reflective red metal.

When you eat the flesh of the claw, roll 1d6. The table below describes how your body is affected by the meat until it passes from your body.

1. You vanish to the Black Gate. You are not dead, and you are invisible to death themself. Don’t push your luck.

2. Your body falls asleep, with your mind waking up in the body of the nearest Kaltcha.

3. You develop a patch of red and white fur on the bridge of your nose, and a sharp pain in your jaw.

4. Your skin takes on the oily black and red flecked appearance of the meat. You feel stretchy and lithe.

5. You really want another kaltcha claw. You’d do anything for another. Maybe you can find a way to eat the same piece again?

6. You find the meat bizarre but pleasing. You feel more distant from your friends.