This is my first post here. As I gradually became more and more interested about Dungeon World I somehow ended up here and it’s been a great place for plenty of neat materials and discussions!
Anyways, I will occasionally stream my Dungeon World campaign, in french though (since I live in Switzerland and my buddies’ english isn’t top notch). I will stream a session tomorrow at 8:30 pm (GMT +1) I’ll be the GM and this is my twitch channel for the people interested:
Favorite moment from this weekend’s game: the fighter was disarmed and pinned beneath a horrid two-faced-four-armed…
Favorite moment from this weekend’s game: the fighter was disarmed and pinned beneath a horrid two-faced-four-armed goblin mutant (see pic) that was then clobbering the crap out of him.
“I reach into it’s lower maw and grab its uvula.” Rolls Hack & Slash, 12+.
He has the barbarian Smash move: When you hack and slash, on a 12+ deal your damage and choose something physical your target has (a weapon, their position, a limb): they lose it.
Had good success improvising two-hour Dungeon World games this weekend at ECCC Games on Demand. Three players appears to be the magic number for that.
The first game was bananas. The Paladin was tasked with retrieving a forbidden book from the Tower of Sorcery. He brought a Thief and an elf Wizard along as subject matter experts. Total Conan type stuff. They each hated the Tower for their own reasons — most notably, the elf had a lot of wizard nerd rage going on, he thought the Tower sorcerers were just stupid humans, phony enchanters who did magic crudely and without properly appreciating it.
So the first thing the party did was improvise a massive tower-destroying bomb out of all the eldritch oily rags and gas cans and such that they found in the basement. And of course they triggered it with about four minutes left to go when they were cornered by some evil dream warriors.
I asked them how they survived the explosion. The elf had the best answer:
“I reincarnate,” he said.
And I was like “oh man I am so gonna make you come back as a dirty human, you pointy-eared bigot.” But the player boxcarred his defy danger! He opened his eyes centuries later, safe in the arms of an elven midwife.
So the ritual worked, the Bard lost his body and became the shadow dragon. They battle stone demons and win.
So the ritual worked, the Bard lost his body and became the shadow dragon. They battle stone demons and win.
Unfortunately the Bard failed to inform the Druid of his transformation. So the Druid, in the form of a Demonic Stone Catfish, summons elemental fire in its maw and blasts the shadow dragon like a furnace, killing it.
That compendium class didn’t last long. Once again the Druid is the most dangerous thing the players have ever met.
And the Bard is still not dead. Now he is a living shadow.
Whew. Having a Necromancer and a Dhampir Shaman in the party is never a dull time.
Whew. Having a Necromancer and a Dhampir Shaman in the party is never a dull time.
Curses, Blood, and Spirits fly as they make deals to resurrect his son and her Vampire mistress in turn, and plan to betray each other.
Al the while the rest of the party stands by, needing their aid in the ongoing adventure but dreading what they actually whisper about huddled together around the campfire or in the corner of the tavern each night.
(No actual whispering takes place, all the players can clearly hear what is happening, it helps them emote “creeped out” in-character).
Map from last week’s +1 ongoing homebrew. The Paladin of Puress, Cleric of Dracori and Wizard/Necromancer arrive at, and just entered the lair Wizard’s former master, who is a lich in the process of reconstituting his body after recent attempted murder by the Wizard and another apprentice (who the wizard has since tricked the party into killing). The Druid was off on her own (Sometimes Separate Them is just handed to you, HA!) so I needed to switch focus to her, but wanted to make use of the down time, too. I handed the Wizard’s player a map and a marker and said:
“He’s your former Master, you know the lay out of the lair better than anyone else. You draw the map.”. Then I switched focus on the Druid and her storyline.
When I was done with her, the Wizard’s player explained the room’s layout and then we ended the adventure there. Next week will be the thrilling conclusion of their encounter.
I liked this because it both saved me time and insured that the player’s would be fighting in an arena they WANTED to fight in. Also it sorted of embodied the “Leave Blanks” spirit. None more blank, one might say.
If I were to give any piece of advice to new GM’s is this: In DW it’s OK to hand off stuff to the players and have them do it for you. Not sure of what’s in town. Ask the player’s what they want or need from a town. Drawing a blank for an NPC, ask the player “She’s/He’s clearly not a local, from his accent where are they originally from? Why did they move here?”, etc..
