You start the session with just 6hp, you keep going into danger and it doesn’t matter if you have just 2hp.
You start the session with just 6hp, you keep going into danger and it doesn’t matter if you have just 2hp. You keep fighting new battles and take major risks.
Beholder, Illithid and masked assasins leave a bloody mark on your sword and arrows. You fought a demon sorcerer, stole him his eye (that is also an artifact).
Then, you find yourself in front of the death’s gates. It’s all frozen, in a dark valley below restless spirits wonder around trapped in their decomposed body. Those who have found piece are just spirits exploring beautiful snowy mountain.
Your are just a mountain brigand (ranger) turned hero, but you have things to do, unfinished business and promises to keep.
Hey I had a game last night and was wondering a question.
Hey I had a game last night and was wondering a question. I had some Fire Demons attacking and one of my players asked whether there was water I obviously made up that there were 4 water buckets and it kind of just turned into him just rolling Dex all the time to try and get them. Any suggestions on how I could make sure its a little bit more varied for when next time it could happen?
Final room of the dungeon today and the fighter defeats the boss and claims his magical weapon for his own.
Final room of the dungeon today and the fighter defeats the boss and claims his magical weapon for his own. The ranger wants to steal it. This could get interesting…
Sharing from my current campaign. The players arrived at the ancestral homeland of the Lizardmen, i.e. the Fighters birthplace.
Upon questioning the player about Lizardmen, the following came up:
– Lizardmen are not mammals…
– … and as such they lay eggs, one egg at a time.
– The parents however do not incubate the eggs themselves!
– The eggs are incubated in huge nests located in a pyramid-like structure!
– The eggs are kept warm by keeping the pyramid warm.
– The pyramid structure is the single-most well-defended structure in a city
– A group of elite warriors are tasked with guarding all entrances, day and night.
– And what about the parents? Well, lizardmen can smell how closely related they are to other lizardmen, preventing inbreeding. They can also recognize their parents (and vice versa).
Just thought I would share. This is probably the coolest fantasy race I’ve had the pleasure of including in a game.
In-progress map from a Dawn of Worlds setting-building session this evening.
In-progress map from a Dawn of Worlds setting-building session this evening. We’ll be finishing up with this and hopefully starting in on Dungeon World proper (for a given definition of “proper,” as you shall see) next week.
We haven’t gotten into the real meat of civ and city relations, but we do have a pretty solid roster of races and other fun setting features, including…
The blood elementals, natives of the sanguine forest and oldest of the sapient races. Masters of alchemy and devotees of Kael, god of despair.
The northern dwarves, pure-hearted and hard-working folk who are expanding across the northern tundra in the name of their god Crom.
The yetis, chosen of the Living Aurora and masters of sorcery, in a tense alliance with the much more numerous dwarves who dwell to the east.
The Kalroom, towering scaled followers of Setesh, the First Dragon, who dreamed in rain long before any other mind dared to awaken. From their rain-drenched and insular homeland, they raise their fleet of skyships, watching the world below with unknown purpose.
The winged elves, first of the elven races, who were born and make their home atop a flying mountain, in the cloistered city of Ahlmelle, as their land-bound cousins watch from below with twisted and jealous hearts. The watchful guarding gaze of Anosael, the southern dragon, protects them for now…
The Narelves, students of Ithilwen, the great dragon of the inland sea, who control most trade on the continent from their riverside city of Tratturis Keep.
The Giratibilu, tauric scorpion nomads who roam the southwest desert. Little is known of them, save that they are more honorable than insectile prejudice might suggest.
The humans who people the southeast corner of the continent, still shaking off a long history of exploitation and split between a culture of city-dwellers and hill-dwelling nomads.
And finally, terrorizing the coastline from their capital of Kalesh in the southeastern archipelago, the fearsome gorillas, masters of the sea and cunning inventors.
Thus far, it is just the right blend of crazy awesome and fantastic that I was hoping for. It is largely up to me to make sure it stays that way, but from what I’ve seen so far my mindset and that of the players seem to mesh pretty darned well in that front. 🙂
Also, “Lizardfolk Seattle with zeppelins” is possibly the best description of a fantasy city I’ve run across!
…With “Teslapunk slaver gorillas” being possibly the best description of a fantasy civilization I’ve come across.
To say that I am looking forward to the campaign would be something of an understatement. 😀
After months of reading posts & articles, it feels so good to be a part of a session, and great to DM a fun one.
After months of reading posts & articles, it feels so good to be a part of a session, and great to DM a fun one. Thanks for all of your help, everyone!
We started with a dirt-simple pitch – it was graduation day for the PCs (Fighter, Wizard, & Ranger) and that they needed to retrieve a McGuffin as part of the process to prove themselves worthy. Bonds and a few questions sorted out what their organization was all about — in a surprise turn of events they chose to be government-sponsored — as well as some of the major threats to the guild.
As soon as that was done, I called for a 15 minute break to slap together the actual adventure. I had some rough ideas already, but it’s incredibly liberating for the rules to fully support winging it. I still only got as far as “ruined keep in the woods,” but that’s on me. 😀
We opened with a take on 13th Age’s redcaps, just as the Fighter had caught his foot in a snare trap and was sent rocketing into the air. For the redcap’s Bad Word, I chose “there,” figuring that I could cheat on any “they’re”s and “their”s as well. I didn’t get the trifecta I hoped for, but rampant teleporting enemies that fall apart in one clean blow set a fantastic tone for the session. And not using a battlemats made room for a ton of trap shenanigans. One of the redcaps was chucked into a “Catapult trap,” which is apparently just getting Wile E. Coyote’d into the side of a tree. A 7-9 on another Defy Danger meant successfully throwing one but knocking an ally into a pit trap in the process. Basically it was the best kind of insanity.
The PCs swing by the keep’s chapel, which I decide is dedicated to the god of art & engineering. They do a solid for a ghostly guardian who can’t come with (I’m not running a DMPC in our first session) but he mentions the keep has a state of the art heating system. Thus rather than busting down the front door, they enact Operation: Santa Claus, sneaking down the chimney to get to the ritual chambers underground. They bypass most of the keep, getting in a small scrap with some skeletons and a larger one with an iron golem along the way, and make their way into the caves below.
There, they find a group of evil telepaths using the McGuffin to help them imprison an illithid, surely for some nefarious purpose. As the fight breaks out and the telepaths start to drop, the illithid’s bonds are broken, and he’s indiscriminate as he lashes out. The PCs grab what they came for and book it for an alternate exit, barely making it out as the illithid finishes his jailors & gives chase. They escape to a nearby town and call it a night, with the Ranger leveling up and the others within 1 or 2 XP of it. And now I have an illithid on the loose for next time, when they report their (strictly speaking) success back to base to earn their stripes!
The Wizard wasn’t thrilled with his class, mostly because he prepared Magic Missile and Detect Magic – not a great level 1 combo. And I could’ve pushed more hard choices and non-damage outcomes, pulled fewer punches, and overall just managed the pace better. But this was an absolutely great session, which makes it a phenomenal starter, and almost as much fun as I’ve ever had on the DM side of things.
This week, on a very special Failing Forward: racism, animate gods, drug abuse and a special message about the power…
This week, on a very special Failing Forward: racism, animate gods, drug abuse and a special message about the power of love. But without one of those things.
I started a new Dungeon World campaign last weekend. It’s online with a bunch of people I only know through Google+, but they seem like good folks. We rotate GMing, so one person will GM for 3 sessions, then the baton is passed. Whatever fronts you…
