This would have been a postcard from Death Mountain, but the messenger was eaten to death
This would have been a postcard from Death Mountain, but the messenger was eaten to death
This weekend we played Death Frost Doom by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Who says you need Old School Rules to crank up the creepy intensity and make the players grip their dice with white knuckles, whispering solemn prayers before every single roll? Dungeon World does just fine!
I will try to post a rundown later this week. Thank you, everyone here who responded to my queries last week!
Playing the homebrew Gladiator class as an Ogre, dropped d10+d6+d4+2 damage for 18 total damage in one shot with a…
Playing the homebrew Gladiator class as an Ogre, dropped d10+d6+d4+2 damage for 18 total damage in one shot with a punch dagger. RAWR.
My group tried Dungeon World for the first time last weekend. We had a blast with it, and plan to keep on playing.
My group tried Dungeon World for the first time last weekend. We had a blast with it, and plan to keep on playing.
For the first time, we recorded one of our sessions. Mic quality isn’t the best, but I cleaned up the audio as well as I could.
So far, the party is helping a group of settlers establish themselves in a river delta near a jungle or rain forest. They’re beset by trolls, and I fumble with the rules a few times (a sickle somehow gets turned into a scythe… learning!).
My gaming day on Saturday:
My gaming day on Saturday:
09:00-12:00 Merchants and Marauders, the definitive Pirate board game, and the only game I ever gave “10” on BGG.
13:00-16:00 Pathfinder Society: Rescuing a wayward heiress (a bit like Paris Hilton?) from her evil father.
19:00-22:00 DUNGEON WORLD! My first face to face DW game as a player. One of the guys in our regular group (he is 12th grade in high school) decided he wanted to GM. I did not even know if he read the rules, so I went with slight reservations… Then he opened the game with: “You find yourself in a forest. It is high summer but you are cold. There is frost in your hair and in your clothes. You lie on a bed of broken ice. You remember nothing – not even your name.” OK, I was hooked immediately. The story proceeded from there as a mystery as the characters tried to find out who they were and ended in an abandoned castle fighting a werewolf demon thingy that could summon darkness like a cloud of smoke and run upside down on the ceiling. Scary bastard – he did 2d12 damage and had a few of us piddling our pants.
DW is the first RPG he ever played, and this was his first time as GM.
Thomas, if you read this, WELL DONE! WE’RE COMING BACK FOR MORE!
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25292/merchants-marauders
Lasts night Dungeon World was pretty sweet.
Lasts night Dungeon World was pretty sweet. It having been months since we last played, we started in the midst of the endgame for one of the fronts. Hamshire was now overrun by a voracious swarm goblins. The cast included both old and new characters. From previous sessions, Gregor the Fighter and Piotr the Cleric of Torbath; new to the scene, Ssor the warforged Fighter, Regulus the Paladin of Torbath, and Dagolear the elf Wizard. After two disparate goblin swarm encounters, the new folks managed to handily undo the binding of Azathoth that the old guard had previously spent so many resources putting in place. The doorway to hell was opened. Regulus, after burning his sword hand to a stump trying to close the portal, opted for a noble sacrifice and stepped into the burning void. Everyone else followed him through. Thereafter saw a Perilous Journey undertaken across the plains of hell, searching for Cadeus, the man who had originally sacrificed himself to close Azathoth’s portal, and been bound in hell in the bargain. Ssor set a brutal pace, his warforged-ness having no pity on his fleshy companions. Piotr maintained his connection to Torbath even in the depths of hell, and provided temporarily sanctified ground in which his companions could rest. Their travels were briefly interrupted when the devil lord Blix confronted the group, trying to figure out how and why a group of heroes had found their way into the nether realm. He was convinced to leave by Regulus, but only barely. Finally making their way to where Cadeus had been bound, on a platform above a lake of fire, they woke him from within his broken binding circle. Cadeus outlined how they could sacrifice an item of great power to both close the now open portal and return the group to the mortal plane. Piotr, having rescued the Shield of Torbath from the goblin swarm, briefly conferred with Torbath to assess whether its sacrifice would do the job. Torbath answered in the affirmative but also returned a warning not to trust the man before them. Regulus quickly grabbed the shield of Torbath and slammed it into Cadeus, who was thrown aside in a blast of holy light and revealed to be the devil lord Blix. Commanded by the word of law, the devil lord was forced to retreat. As he disappeared the crumpled form of Cadeus was revealed within the broken circle. The woke the old priest and enacted the ritual, Gregor and Ssor holding off the devil swarm that Blix brought down on them for ruining his deception. There was a tense moment when Ssor was almost carried off by the devils, but in the end our heroes sacrificed the artifact, closed the portal to hell, and found themselves back home. Unfortunately Blix and five other devils followed them through, escaping them and scattering out into the world. Shortly thereafter they took stock of their surroundings and realized that they were back home, but some three years in the past.
I convinced my sons and nephew to try out DW with me. My first attempt.
I convinced my sons and nephew to try out DW with me. My first attempt.
In ten minutes, we established that there were a fighter, a wizard, and a rogue in their party.
The wizard is the long lost heir to an empire, but does not know. The Fighter is his sworn protector, and the rogue is using the wizard to pull con jobs, while trying to keep secret the fact that he stole the wizard’s heirloom magic crystal.
They populated their corner of the world map with a plain of ash inhabited by trolls, a river that transforms anyone that swims in it into fish, and a forest of mostly carnivorous trees.
I put them in a coach, travelling towards the river to collect samples for an old man, wise in the way of alchemy.
Crossbow bolts killed their driver, killed one horse and crippled the other three. Their ride was crashed, and they had to fight their way out of an ambush by goblin bandits.
We went from zero experience to a complex set up, to an In Media Res launch, to a complete first encounter in under an hour.
Not counting the time we took to eat noodles.
Although after the embush, game play slowed down considerably.
With one horse dead, and three wounded they took their time figuring out what to do about the animals.
Eventually, they euthanized the one they knew was suffering the most, and then the human wizard used his cleric spell to heal the other two.
I was impressed with the way they role played compassionate characters.
That moment was imediately ruined when that same wizard used a cantrip to make one dead horse taste like beef, and the other to taste like chicken.
They then camped over night, served themselves giant steaks of artifically flavored horse meat, and started makign plans about what to do in the morning.
I really should have put serious pressure on them, maybe introduce predators or more bandits curious why their friends never returned, etc. But i was so caught up in their intricate horse buffet plans that i just rolled with it.
Maybe not the most heroic first session, but they gave me plenty to work with, and it was fun.
A Dungeon World first foray
Originally shared by Blue Tyson
A Dungeon World first foray
Played a Dungeon World game thanks to Kaillan Reukers on Thursday night.
The first character that sprang to mind was a brute warrior. Then the twist entered my head. How about a reverse John Carter type move.
Thence was born Thark.
Thark being a Thark suddenly waking up in the body of a human Fighter in Dungeon World. Being a Thark the only thing he could remember, not his name, so that is what he called himself. Only minor problem as I discovered was that the GM’s gaming literature education is Burroughs deficient, so didn’t know what a Thark was. He should rectify that!
His partners in mayhem were a halfling thief and the priest of a fertility goddess. He has a con type game with the former…who, being a Thark and having NFI what halflings or elves or kobolds are whatever thinks is just a little boy. Hence worthy of some protection. Adults of course, can look after themselves.
So they head for a tavern in a nearby town that appears of interest, as you do when looking for marks.
At the bar, Thark gets the complete cold shoulder and sneers from the local toughs. So the Thark solution is to punch the biggest toughest looking guy in the face.
The bartender is a dwarf, so Thark is a little annoyed at his complaining about the mayhem after one of Thark’s companions glasses a local. There’s also a rather more classily armed and armoured dwarf in the bar, too. The locals clear out on orders as as the barkeep calls for the guard.
No-one will get Thark a drink, so he grabs the bartender to lift him up bodily over the bar. At this point the other dwarf gets annoyed and comes over to inroduce Thark to his axe. Fast warning from friends lets Thark react in time to continue the grab the bartender from behind the bar turning him into a dwarven shield. The dwarf’s axe whacks the guy in the head a glancing blow, knocking him out and leaving said axeman outnumered three to one.
Thark tells him he should buy them drinks, but the dwarf declines. the ungrateful wretch, and leaves.
The trio grab booze and decide that police=bad and loaded with some halfling mead and proper man’s drink, get out of there.
They see something in the sky that Thark thinks might be something like a Martian airship, which they go to investigate.
As it turns out, it is a kobold pirate ship raiding party. They don’t take kindly to interruption of their looting and move to fight. Thark defends the boy and fights back, disposing of opponents outside. He cuts another couple in half.
They then decide to climb up to the ship, portly priests needing a bit of help.
On board they discover a much, much, larger pirate captain kobold.
And a dragon, clearly confined as part of the ship and rather annoyed. Tharks are not much for waiting around and he really wouldn’t mind a ship, so he decides to go and deplane or deship the pirate captain, forthwith. He manages to pin the trident wielding captain to the ground, while the halfling gets a surprise, a bit of dragon telepathy. Apparently big lizards like telepathy, but not assaults by fighters and biting and frying of Thark is tried. Again, he decides smaller people make good shields and avoids a frying after some horribly botched teamwork with his priest friend. He does manage to make the pirate captain go splat.
Separating him from his trident sees the grumpy dragon eat it. Apparently the controlling device enabling them to slave the dragon to the ship structure.
The dragon orders them off itself in no uncertain terms.
Thark doesn’t want the ship enough to be dead over it. Halfling Rook fancies some minor looting a little bit too much but they manage to talk him out of it, by leaving. Leaving the not enriched thief a bit annoyed.
Down on the ground the crew are a bit shocked at the captain’s dispatch. Thark considers crew possibilities having impressed the now leaderless and dragonshipless bunch. More unwisely decide to fight and don’t last long. Leaving Thark’s situation improved.
The halfling thief decides to drug Thark with a poison throw to the back of the head to get more of his way while his attention is on his possible new lizardmen type mates.
Therein ends this sword and sorcery tale lacking in drinking and robbing for now.
Finished first session of our old Echoes of the Flame campaign revival using DW (with IW classes added).
Finished first session of our old Echoes of the Flame campaign revival using DW (with IW classes added).
Saw two elemental warships from the top of a tree. After that our skydancer (whose name is Dancer) also saw a tank and an APC going that way.
We killed about a dozen bandits and took their stuff (including a sniper rifle made in the military Beta Lab).
Dungeon World…
What?
Part two of my review/AP report of Dungeon World is up. Enjoy!
Part two of my review/AP report of Dungeon World is up. Enjoy!
For the first time I’ve played Dw as a player and not as a Gm!
For the first time I’ve played Dw as a player and not as a Gm!
Here’s my character and what happened to him, and some background story that was developed totally during the game as a consequence of question/answear and moves (Dw still surprise me after a long time about how you can start with zero and end with…a lot of stuff):
Name: The Will (Wizard)
Background:
since he was a kid he had this gift, he may foreseen the future. Unfortunately, people started to think that the boy was bad luck. Years later he left his village and joined a dubious sect. After a few months with the cultist, working hard as a laborer for them, they gave him the chance to test himself by taking on the trial to become a member of the sect and not just one of their followers.
By that time He was starting to think they were only a bunch of manipulator, exploiting other’s people life…
He was locked inside an underground tomb where he had to spend alone ten days in the dark with no food, facing what lies beneath.
After a dozen days in company of spirits and ghosts he emerged, surprisingly, with his sanity intact (almost, but determinated).
That’s when he started to call himself The Will.
Aware of the secrets and the knowledge learned from the dead […] he rised against the cultist, and stole some old tomes from them…
I picked spells of clairvoyance and both wizard and cleric’s spells related to the dead.
Not great at hurting people directly (that’s why I also fought quite often in melee. I’ve also used defend moves to protect the barbarian against some fellow goblins.
A few things I remember (it’s been a couple of months since we played, I’d guess):
…something threatening lies in the deep of the caverns, The Will scry his future on the blade of a sword…
…a man has some crucial informations, but is mortally wounded and can’t talk, so The Will touch his forehead and contacts him telepathically…
…he burns a sheet of paper and rub his face with the ash, then he contacts a spirit of darkness to know where is located the troll..
…draw on the ground the outline of a man and “unseen servant” appears, the Will put his cloak on the servant and use it to lure the goblins ready to ambush…
…fight like a warrior with his walking stick against the goblins…
…grabbed by a troll that is going to crash him, he use telepathy to talk to the troll “I’m the god of the trolls, let go this human fool or you will face my hanger”…
…brings back to life a couple of goblins…but as a zombie. Not really alive….
Also, it’s the first time ever I play a wiz! (forget I’m going to read dozens of pages of spells like happens in an other well known game…I’m lazy when it comes of this kind of stuff, you know, cleaning the house, spells….)