The Dungeon World Tavern: Compendium Classes – Page 32

When you have spend a month in the wilderness with your animal companion and without the trapping of civilisation…

When you have spend a month in the wilderness with your animal companion and without the trapping of civilisation like clothing and fire

Compendium Class about being a Wild (Mad) Man. Inspired by the 3.5 Fist of the Forest, Shifters and the Survivor expanded Playbook by Jonathan Walton

So i reworked the Emotional Catalyst again but i think i need a bit of help.

I can’t figure out what to do with the Kindness aura.

I wanted to give some bonus/incentive to Parley but i can’t find something. I could rename it to honesty and give everyone in the aura access to Charming and Open (and the Bard +1 question) but that isn’t really cool.

I looked at a lot of stuff but can’t figure it out.

Any ideas?

Also i a perfect world the auras would be

Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity and Honesty but alas…

The Temple of Night

The Temple of Night

The temple’s rules:

One: Arcane magic is consumed by fire, along with its caster. This is not instantaneous, so spells might still work before the fire is done.

Two: Divine magic only works if the god Fire allows it, and Fire grants no favours unpaid for.

Three: Psychic powers that have nothing to do with fire are unimpaired, but the fires in the Temple of Night burn on multiple planes of existence. Minds that touch them are consumed.

Four: Supplicants may enter the Outer Courtyard, but tourists are not welcome to come and gawk. Only those who have been tested or who are being tested may enter the Inner Courtyard (where testings occur). Only those who have been tested and trained may enter the Secret Courtyard.

Five: If you wish to be tested, you must submit to fire’s judgement and accept the test offered to you. Fire is fickle, roll 1d6 for what kind of test you must face:

1. A test of your charisma. You must successfully preach the merits of flame before the highest council of pyromancers and teach them a new way to appreciate fire. To complete this task, roll+CHA, unless you can find a different method of passing the test.

2. A test of your endurance. You must undergo the Seven Rigours of Fire, each of which tests your endurance. To complete this task, roll+CON, unless you can find a different method of passing the test.

3. A test of your grace. You must dance through the flaming hoops and over the bonfires while tracing intricate designs in the air with burning implements. To complete this task, roll+DEX, unless you can find a different method of passing the test.

4. A test of your knowledge. You must demonstrate the nine colours of fire and finally, extinguish the black flame without being consumed. This requires detailed alchemical skill. To complete this task, roll+INT, unless you can find a different method of passing the test.

5. A test of your strength. You must carry a giant brazier of burning coals across a carpet of sand while acolytes toss more burning coals down upon you. The more you shake and stumble, the more burning coals will kiss your exposed flesh. To complete this task, roll+STR, unless you can find a different method of passing the test.

6. A test of your wisdom. You are presented with three fires. You must identify their types and sources—by touch alone. To complete this task, roll+WIS, unless you can find a different method of passing the test.

Six: When you are tested, you must be tested alone. You may not bring more than you can carry. You may not reject the god Fire during the test.

Seven: When you are tested, roll and add the appropriate stat. On a 10+, you complete the task without permanent injury, but your achievement inspires envy and jealousy among your new peers. You are a pyromancer. When next you level up you may choose the consuming flame.

On a 7-9, you complete the task but are not unscathed. Mark the debility scarred, unless your charisma was tested, in which case mark another debility of your choice until you finish a quest given you by the Temple. You are a pyromancer. When next you level up you may choose the consuming flame.

On a miss, you have failed the test. If you fail the test of charisma, you may not test again and other pyromancers will consider you a foe. If you fail the test of knowledge, roll a d10 and count down the list of colours to see which flame you botched. A roll of 9 indicates the black flame, which consumes your soul. You do not even pass through Death’s black gate and can make no deals with Her. A roll of 10 indicates that you are unable to produce coloured flame and may leave unscathed, the laughing stock of pyromancers everywhere. Any other number, along with a fail in any other test, indicates that you leave with the debility scarred.

If you already have the debility scarred and must take it again, the fire ends your life instead. Take your last breath and proceed to Death’s black gate. If you passed the test, you may not bargain away this success in exchange for your life. Death has no dominion over Fire.

The Nine Colours of Fire:

Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Red, Ulfire, White, Yellow, and the Black Pyre, the un-flame, a fire that emits no light and burns only souls.

The Seven Rigours of Fire:

Boiling, a test of enduring fire and water.

Extinguishing, a test of firefighting.

Freezing, a test of enduring the absence of fire.

Kindling, a test of firestarting.

Roasting, a test of enduring fire and earth.

Smoking, a test of enduring fire and air.

Touching, a test of enduring the touch of fire itself.

Pyromancer

Pyromancer

When you study with the pyromancers of the Temple of Night, and are tested by the fire (mark the debility scarred) you may take this move the next time you level up:

Consuming Flame

When you call upon a fire to obey you, roll+INT. On a 10+, it will follow your commands for up to five words, but as it feeds it also grows. On a 7-9, you still have your five words, but choose one consequence:

a. Ablaze: fueled by magic, this fire rages beyond even your five words.

b. Alarm: this fire attracts unwanted attention from far and wide.

c. Drained: mark a debility of your choice.

d. Enchanted: this fire becomes magical in nature.

Also, every word of your commands that does not describe the fire directly (such as burn, ember, or smoke) is consumed and this fire will not obey it again.

OR:

The Cleric of a god of Bloody Conquest can start with Consuming Flame instead of Turn Undead, but add: Petition: Fire.

The Fighter can start with Consuming Flame instead of Signature Weapon.

The Thief can start with Consuming Flame instead of Poisoner.

The Wizard can start with Consuming Flame instead of either Spell Defense or Ritual.

If you have the consuming flame, the following count as class moves and you may take them when you level up:

Burn Away Lies

When you speak words of power into a flame, you can touch someone with it and it will not burn them until they tell a lie.

Friend to Fire

For you, Earthly fire poses no physical threat at all, and there is always a chance for you to escape magic in fire’s form, by defying danger.

Seven Words

A fire will follow your commands for seven words, and you may save one of them to use on it again.

Summoned Flame

You can produce a handful of fire, out of nothing, whenever you want. If it does not leave your hand, you can also extinguish it at will.

Words of Fire

When you command a fire, on a 12+ your words are not consumed and you may command with them again.

So here is a thing i threw together.

I wanted to get to a “best practises – compendium classes”

Am i wrong in any of this? Am i missing something? Who do you deal with compendium classes in your game? Present everything available totally open in the beginning? Keep it all close to the vest?

Compendium Classes – How to use

“Compendium Classes

A compendium class is a class only available to higher level characters who meet specific requirements. They’re called compendium classes because they first appeared in the Compendiums for Dungeon World Basic. A compendium class is the way to go for a concept that can be layered onto multiple other classes. “

Dungeon World p. 349

But that doesn’t really tells us how to use them in the game. How to present them to players and what happens if a player doesn’t pick the class.

For me there are different kind of Compendium Classes. There are Classes like the Warden, the Gambler of Souls or the Ghostwalker that make really specific assumptions about your Dungeon World. When you include the Gambler of Souls then there is a weird Soulgambling Tournament going on somewhere. If you include the Ghostwalker then you should have Ghosts be important in your adventures. So be prepared to make those adjustments to your game.

Also think about showing these Classes and how one could enter them to your players when they pick classes. Tell them so that they can make stat choices that will later fit and mold their character to be one that would take the class. Listen to your players if they say oohhh and aahh about specific classes – they probably want to play that as fast as they can. Don’t deny that to them – be a fan and offer them opportunities. Maybe they are already part of an Order of Ghosthunters and experienced members are rumored to be able to turn into ghosts themselves. Use hooks like this to anchor the Compendium Class into the fiction.

Keeping them secret from your players will probably mean that they never stumble upon the Class and nobody wants that.

But here is the catch, sometimes, keeping a Compendium Class secret and unlocking them through play can be really cool. These are the second kind.

Look at the Karmic Shaper. There is a sense of achievement in unlocking it for your character and you can only do it by accident (a savvy player can of course maneuver himself into a fitting position but in the fiction you just stumble into it). When a player has met the requirements just tell him that there is a Class he can now use and what it can do. He can think about it when he levels up the next time.

“Tell them the consequences and ask” – now this is a useful move for such a situation too. Telling a player that there is a price waiting for him if he only does X right now is a cool carrot to dangle in front of them. “The old owner of the seven square holes is dying in your arms. If you can convince him to hand you his bar, there is a compendium class waiting for you”. Or “Of course that artifact is dangerous and devours souls but if you pick it up you will be able to access cool new moves no one else can”.

So here is what i do at the table.

#1 Look at all the Compendium Classes available to you and choose which ones are fitting with your beliefs about the game and your sense of cool and wonder.

#2 Present those with more esoteric or involved entrance requirements to your players when you start to play.

#3 Point them at additional ones when they unlock them.

and, most importantly #4

Look at what your players are doing with their character and if it might be an interesting theme to spin into new moves and offer them compendium classes directly fitting with their characters. Write them up (share them online) and present them to your players the next time you play. Heck, maybe they even allready qualify for some of them because of the actions they take.

Use Compendium Classes to flesh out the world and the characters so you all can be even greater fans of them.

I think the new shift by some, to move away from race moves and alignments in favor of backgrounds and motivations…

I think the new shift by some, to move away from race moves and alignments in favor of backgrounds and motivations is great! Has anyone considered having advanced moves for backgrounds? They could be based on social class, geographic or other cultural backgrounds which would offer some moves independent of class. Maybe they could even run in parallel with class, meaning that, for example, you might have separate XP for class and background. You could be a 5th level thief/3rd level commoner, or a 4th level wizard/2nd level Coral Islander. XP gained normally for the class and other triggers, similar to alignment XP and end of session XP, for the background XP.

I put this here because this idea would make your background sort of like a compendium class.

Am I making any sense here?

Alternative way to do a Comp Class

Alternative way to do a Comp Class

In 3.5 there is a class that slowly turns you into a Drider like Monster. I wanted to combine this idea with the werespiders of oWoD Werewolf somehow. They had the creepy ability to turn into a swarm of spiders and survive that way. That got me thinking.

Could this class give you a new last breath type move where every time you die on a 7-9 you get a new spider-like feature but also transform physically until you are no longer human/dwarf/elf/whatever. You only get new powers when you die and then they turn you into a monster.

Would that be okay to not charge you for extra moves?

Alternatively on a 10+ on the new last breath move you choose a new power/transformation, on a 7-9 the GM chooses.

Okay design space?

This is what I came up with after a previous discussion with Trey Palmer Aaron Friesen Ben Wray Krusty Wightbred Tim…

This is what I came up with after a previous discussion with Trey Palmer Aaron Friesen Ben Wray Krusty Wightbred Tim Franzke and others. I decided to make the CC focused on a series of meditations learned from the Warriors of Shalad-Har. I would love to get some feedback. And thanks to everyone who helped out.

Pursuant to another conversation, here’s something I made:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a50D5WZFj64M8x9EcM6lHFz-mmKCQIzwCHYnKD2A7Lo/edit?usp=sharing

So, for now I will release only 1 part of the cc I am working on, this is from the karmic shaper

Make your own luck

You are attuned to the strands of fate and how to twist them but beware, what fortuna giveth, she also taketh away.

When you invoke your luck on a move and roll a 6- you can turn it into a 10+ but when you do, the GM holds 1 misfortune. He can spend misfortune 1 for 1 to turn a 10+ into a 6- on one of your moves.

You can’t Make your own luck, as long as the GM holds misfortune.

Does this work? Could it be cleaned up?