How would you handle the consequences of the following situation…
How would you handle the consequences of the following situation…
There are four zombies attacking my group’s fighter. Three of the zombies are attempting to push him backward into a pit. I’m using a tug-of-war progress clock for that one. The remaining zombie is just trying to deal its damage and eat his brains.
Should I deal with the zombies as if they are two separate groups attacking the fighter? Or, one group and choose which to use for consequences on anything other than a 10+? If the advice is to treat them as two groups, is it as if I keep the spotlight on him for twice as long when it gets around to him? First make a move to avoid the pushers, and then if the fictional positioning still calls for it, separately ask him to do something to avoid the lone attacking zombie?
I previously talked about Tinkering with Hack and Slash in order to make it a move that explicitly dealt with initiative and, in the process, address some of my beefs with the move as-written. That led me to put some polls up on G+, and the responses (and ensuing discussions) led me to discard the initiative idea and and think more deeply about the move.
GMs, a player triggers Discern Realities and rolls a 7+ when examining a location (say) which in your mind was…
GMs, a player triggers Discern Realities and rolls a 7+ when examining a location (say) which in your mind was unimportant or incidental. How do you tend to answer their questions? Turn the location into an interesting or significant one through your answers, or give answers like “nothing much is about to happen”?
The latter puts less pressure on you but risks devaluing the risk the player took of making the move in the first place (they may have missed the roll and allowed you to make a hard move). So I often feel pressure to do the former.
I’ve run DW twice this week, first time I’ve done it in a while.
I’ve run DW twice this week, first time I’ve done it in a while. And I was pretty strict at hewing to the DW conversation model as I see it:
(1) The GM describes the world state, and what’s just happened
(2) The GM asks the players, or one player in particular, “What do you do?”
(3) One player (GM’s choice) gets to be the one that acts
If they described plausible action corresponding to move trigger, execute the move
If the move fails (roll of 6-) and no special handling of that is given in the move text, the GM makes a hard move
If they describe a golden opportunity for the world or an NPC to fuck them up, the GM makes a hard move
If neither of the above, the GM makes a soft move
(4) Loop back to (1)
This meant that I was making a lot of moves, and doing very little else. This kept things interesting, but felt too intense at times. I’ve heard one of the players talk about another GM’s DW game as being “like being on a rollercoaster”, with threat after threat and no peace.
Questions:
1) Do you think my model of above is right? I think I’ve captured the RAW, but they express this procedure vaguely, across several locations in the text.
2) Do you, in practice, use extra moves a bit like these:
a) Let Them Succeed – just let them do what they’re trying to, without opposition
b) Rest – describe the situation, narrate events, without (knowingly) saying anything dramatically significant
I suspect that in the past, when I’ve been less obsessive about mapping my every response to a move, I’ve implicitly used those a lot.
The hagr (12 feet tall, long-limbed, rolls of fat and muscle, one eye bulging with hate and fury) just took out the…
The hagr (12 feet tall, long-limbed, rolls of fat and muscle, one eye bulging with hate and fury) just took out the Ranger with that tree it was using as a club. It turns that hate-filled eye on the Heavy and the Blessed (who’s dispelling the unholy fog that kept them from coming to the Ranger’s aid).
The hagr flings the tree at them. The Heavy dives and drags the Blessed to the ground, nailing the Defy Danger with DEX and the tree goes smashing overhead. But they hear the hagr bellow and come stomping towards them.
Still on the ground, the Blessed reaches into his sacred pouch and calls on nature’s fury. The forest erupts, ensnaring the hagr with vines and roots and earth, just a few feet away from them. It’s held for the moment, but it’s already tearing free.
The Heavy rolls to his feet, loads his crossbow, and fires. He’s close, and the thing’s restrained, but it’s ripping free and terrifying and this is anything but a sure thing. He rolls Volley. Gets a miss. Oh dear.
The hagr breaks free, swats the crossbow from the Heavy’s hands, and snatches the Heavy by the wrist, hoisting him up and clearly about to use him as a club to smash the Blessed.
I ask them both what they do. The Blessed says he’s rolling to the side and trying to get away. The Heavy is like “I draw my long knife with free hand and stab it in the wrist, the one that’s holding me, so that it drops me.”
Okay, cool! Seems like the Heavy’s move should resolve before the Blessed’s, but how do we resolve it?
(If it matters: the hagr has like 19 HP, 2 armor, and reach; the Heavy deals d10 damage, hand range, no relevant damage-boosting moves.)
Option A The Heavy is attacking the hagr, and the hagr can fight back, so this is Hack & Slash. On a 7+, the hagr drops the Heavy no matter how much damage is dealt; if the Heavy is exposed to attack, it’s something like the hagr booting him with a forceful kick.
Option B Hack and Slash, but on a 7+, the Heavy’s damage roll determines whether the hagr drops the Heavy, and that in turn determines what the hagr’s attack looks like. If the Heavy deals decent damage, the Hagr drops him and then maybe kicks him away. If the Heavy deals only a little damage, the hagr holds tight and maybe uses the Heavy as a club, the Blessed Defying Danger to get out of the way.
Option C The Heavy is trying to get free more than anything, so this is Defy Danger (STR or DEX or even INT). On a 10+, yeah, the Heavy stabs the hagr and cuts himself free, dealing damage cuz the hagr got knifed in the wrist. On a 7-9, we’ve got any number of worse outcomes, hard bargains, or ugly choices to choose from.
Option D As option C, but the 10+ just means the Heavy gets free without dealing damage, but maybe seizing the initiative or giving the Blessed a chance to act.
This is how I view the highest-level structure of DW:
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?”
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.
Wanted to share a food item I made for my Dungeon Rations Zine:
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.
The Fighter is trying to pry open the door to the dungeon, but his roll to Bend Bars & Lift Gates was a 7-9 and it’s…
The Fighter is trying to pry open the door to the dungeon, but his roll to Bend Bars & Lift Gates was a 7-9 and it’s taking a while and making a lot of noise. The noise has attracted bullywugs!
I announced their presence with a shifting in the reeds, and the growing sound of croaking. The Cleric hefts shield and mace and keeps his eyes peeled for danger, and the Ranger draws his bow and hangs back, covering the Cleric.
We resolve it as the Cleric rolling Discern Realities with the Ranger’s Aid, and that gets them a 10+. They learn that…
● they need to watch out for bullywugs creeping up on them in the grass, a few are really close but there are lots more out there!
● the ruin is useful; if they can get inside and close the door, they’ll be safe from the frog-men (for now at least)
● the bullywugs are about to charge, here they come, four of them!
(See me showing signs of an approaching threat with my answers!)
The Ranger lets fly with a Volley (with a bonus for acting on Discern Realities), hits with a 10+, and drops one of them. But that leaves 3 bounding toward you while the Fighter has the door like halfway open, if he let’s go, it’s gonna take forever to get it open again. Cleric, what do you do? (I’m putting them in a spot.)
The Cleric is like “Oh, no they don’t, they aren’t getting past me! I rush forward and smash the one on my left with my shield, then swing my mace at the one on the right, and boot the third one, in front of me!”
Bold move, Cleric, but I’m a fan and we’ve established he’s good in a fight, so let’s have it be a Hack & Slash. He rolls a 7-9, and so his attack hits. Now, I say that he deals damage to the one he shield bashed and the one he smashed with the mace, but not the one he booted. Let’s say he rolls damage twice, and does 2 damage with the shield and 6 with the mace, enough to drop one of them.
Of course, with that 7-9 to Hack and Slash, “the enemy makes an attack against you.” You’re the GM, which one do you do?
Option A: Use the bullywugs’ leap onto or over someone or thing move, and the bullywug that got shield bash jumps on the cleric and tackles him (no damage) and the other bullywug jumps over him and goes after the Ranger and Fighter (who’s still preoccupied), “Ranger what do you do?”
Option B: Deal Damage/Put Them in Spot and have the two remaining bullywugs pounce on the Cleric, doing d6+1 damage. “Ranger you see the cleric get tackled and stabbed, what do you do?”
Option C: Hurt Them and the bullywug on the right (the one that the cleric bashes with his mace) stabs the cleric in the shoulder as he gets his soft skull smooshed in, Cleric it’s a nasty, bleeding gash, take d6 damage. The other two are knocked down and back, though. Ranger, the cleric has that group in hand but you spot other groups of bullywugs getting closer, some approaching from the left and others from the right, they still haven’t come out of the reeds left, what do you do?”
Again, not necessarily what you think you should do, but which one do you think you would do?
