Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: Discussion

Finally getting around to posting the extra materials for the Planarch Codex!

Finally getting around to posting the extra materials for the Planarch Codex!

Finally getting around to posting the extra materials for the Planarch Codex! First, here’s the sheet I use when I run it with World of Dungeons. John Harper was kind enough to let me include a half-page condensed summary of the WoDu rules. Maps coming next.

http://corvidsun.com/2013/01/26/planarch-codex-planes-of-dungeons/

When you learn a new spell and have time to sit and meditate for a few hours per level on its arcane mysteries roll…

When you learn a new spell and have time to sit and meditate for a few hours per level on its arcane mysteries roll…

When you learn a new spell and have time to sit and meditate for a few hours per level on its arcane mysteries roll + INT:

On a 12+ you learn the spell and get to add a detail that makes the spell uniquely yours (to be decided by the player).

On a 10+, you learn the spell without a hitch.

On a 7-9 you learn the spell but there is a new cost or problem that now comes from casting the spell (to be decided by the GM).

On a miss, you learn the spell but it has a disastrous side-effect that now goes along with it (to be decided by the GM).

Within the Devils Reach Review

Within the Devils Reach Review

Within the Devils Reach Review

Within the Devils Reach is the first in a series of adventures for Dungeon World. Given that there are scant few published adventures available for this excellent system, I gave it a download from drivethrurpg.com and checked it out.

The product presents three loosely defined adventures that can be run independently, or as part of a series, with the author planning on publishing more titles and expanding the concept into an entire campaign. All the adventures centre around the titular settlement of Devils Reach, a grim and inhospitable mining town that’s described as “A blight at the edge of the map…”

So, the perfect place to stage some Dungeon World adventures then.

Within the clean and nicely presented twenty-six page pdf you get an assortment of scenarios, the first being a more traditional dungeon crawl into an ancient tomb, the second being an investigation style adventure where you try to uncover the plot of an evil cult (with a mad Frankenstein like monster thrown in for good measure) and the last – a delve into the towns deep silver mines themselves, in an attempt to thwart an ancient evil from returning to the world.

Each adventure follows a similar format, starting with the adventure front and then progressing into sections on locations, foes, loot and magic and ending with a few words on how to tie the three scenarios together. At the end we get two Compendium Class’s that relate directly to the events of the adventures, and we are rounded off with a small bestiary with a dozen or so new stats for new monsters.

I have a few problems with the format that Within the Devils Reach has adopted. As anyone who has ever played Dungeon World will know, the game itself is very loose and open-ended. One of Dungeon Worlds golden principles is for a GM not to over prepare his scenarios and “play to see what happens.” In this vein every adventure starts with a number of questions to ask the players about the current situation, and to its suggested you twist their answers against them.

In theory this should work, as it allows many thing to be defined in play but most of the time I just didn’t know who-was-who and what was meant to be going on in the scenarios. The plot details that exist are a bit all over the place, and I frequently had to go back and forth to try and remember what was suppose to be going on. More clarification of the adventures fronts at the beginning of each chapter would have made things more concise, and would have also given the GM a much clearer picture of the authors intent. Although the events of a Dungeon World adventure unfold as a result of the players actions, background material does not have too, and should be clarified if there is a complex storyline going on behind the scenes.

There are also a few other nit picks such as the triggers for the new moves not being Bolded as they are in the dungeon world book, and most of the magical items presented are fairly uninspired. A simple +1 shorts sword is just not Dungeon World-y to me.

The art by Storn Cook is excellent and provides a happy medium for me between old-school and modern art styles that is really evocative. Every few pages is interspersed with a cool looking new beastie, or a scene from one of the dungeons. On the topic of dungeons, kudos also has to go to Matt Jackson for his brilliant dungeon maps that frequent many of the pages. It should be noted that in keeping with Dungeon Worlds philosophy for maps, that many are not keyed encounter locations ala Dungeons and Dragons but rather give you a description of the area along with some enemies, and its up to the GM to decide the specifics of things on the fly. This I like very much.

Would I recommend Within the Devils Reach? Yeah, probably. Overall there is a lot to use here for your own game, even if you don’t run it as written. I think it would have benefited more by presenting the town as a toolbox, and threaded the fractions and locations in there for you to use as you please. This is how I’m going to make use of the product anyway.

Layout: 4/5

Crisp black and white that is easy to read and find what you are after.

Art: 4/5

Relevant and evocative.

Substance: 3/5

The meta plot should have been removed or further clarified. Locations, new enemies and loot are all very usable regardless if you are using the storyline or not.

Value: 2/5

I got the pdf for $9 as part of a Dungeon World bundle on drivethrurpg.com, this seemed a bit pricy for a small press product that came from kickstarter originally.

Overall (not an average): 3/5

I’m writing up a DW/WoD/Planarch Codex version of Githyanki with the serial numbers filed off.

I’m writing up a DW/WoD/Planarch Codex version of Githyanki with the serial numbers filed off.

I’m writing up a DW/WoD/Planarch Codex version of Githyanki with the serial numbers filed off. I’m posting them here before I post them up on my blog for critique as they are the first monsters I have made for this system.

Thanks, Jonathan Walton for the help getting it this far:

The Silver Swords are named for the arcane weapons they carry into battle, forged from the astral chains that kept them in slavery for centuries. Since rebelling and gaining freedom from the psionic monsters who dared call themselves their masters the Silver Swords have founded a city in the Deep Astral built from the wreckage of a thousand cathedrals, the psychic detritus of dead faiths.

The Silver Swords put their faith in no deities but in the corpse of the young lady who liberated them. When she died, their warlock eunuchs set the body on their Dragon Throne and continued to rule in her name. If one of their own people should be ritually sacrificed after completing a great work, their soul will fuel the Corpse Queen, allowing her body and will to animate and rule. When she is in repose, the Silver Empire is run by the cruel warlock eunuchs.

When the queen is awake, the Silver Empire is ferocious, just and embraces change.

When the queen is dead the warlock eunuchs are in charge of the empire and the Silver Empire is then ferocious, myopic and fearful of anything or anyone who could upset the status quo.

The Silver Swords are not quite human. Maybe it was from the psychic torments of their era under slavery’s cruel tentacles or from in-breeding with all manner of dragons and mythical creatures from a hundred different worlds along the astral sea. They are humanoid in shape and bipedal but vary greatly with only a single silver eye to unite them.

A Silver Sword is a monster with these moves:

Claim land for the Silver Empire’s Corpse Queen

Make a pact with a greater mythical beast (dragon, liche, etc.)

Free slaves from their bondage

P.S. There is an off-shoot of Silver Words, those who threw down their blades, refused to worship the queen after she died. They lead lives of contemplation in floating monasteries amidst the primordial chaos from which the primordial ur-gods created everything.

The Chaos Monks are monsters with the following moves:

Release land from feudal bonds.

Give an enemy’s inner turmoil a physical incarnation.

Let others know how to destroy the economic realities that make slavery profitable.

DW Stats

Silver Sword

HP: 7

AC: +2

Damage: d8 (roll two, take the higher)

Tags: Planar

Chaos Monk

HP: 7

AC: +1

Damage: Fists, 1d6, Psychic Blast 1d8+1

Tags: Planar

Other things to stat out: The Corpse Queen, Eunuch Warlock, Silver Sword Dragonrider

Maps: Silver Empire Colonial Outpost, Silver Navy Astral Corvette, Silver Captital in the Deep Astral, Monastery in the Chaos Waste, The Deep Astral, The Chaos Wastes

A SINGLE STEP: An introductory/campaign starter for Dungeon World.

A SINGLE STEP: An introductory/campaign starter for Dungeon World.

A SINGLE STEP: An introductory/campaign starter for Dungeon World.

“_Are there other wizards?_ Not really. There are other workers of arcane magic, and the common folk may call them wizards, but they’re not like you. They don’t have the same abilities, though they may be similar. Later on there may be another player character with the same class but no GM character will ever really be a wizard (or any other class).” – Dungeon World, page 178

Have you ever wondered why that is?

—-

Long ago, there were great heroes. A warrior who was as strong as an army, master of all weapons. A wizard who could shake the earth with his magic. A priest capable of bring his god’s will to the world. A thief who wielded shadow as a tool and a weapon. The bard, whose songs could inspire nations. The druid, embodiment of the power of nature. The ranger who mastered beasts and became one with the forests. The paladin, who protected all with sword, shield, and faith.

They were the world’s first heroes.

They fought evil, as individuals and later as a group, stopping unknowable monstrosities and terrible foes. They defeated every foe they faced and saved the world dozens of times over.

But time is one foe that can fell even the mightiest of opponents. The heroes knew they could not live forever, and even after their passing the world would face danger once again. How, then, could they continue to protect the world? Training proteges would take too long, and even if they did find a way to live forever, there was the chance that they would be unable to change with the times and adapt to the new threats that would inevitably arise.

Then the wizard and the bard had an idea.

There was one place the heroes could go to both escape the ravages of time and be ready to reappear at a moment’s notice: the shared imagination of the world.

Oh, the bard and the wizard used lots of complex terms to describe it; “collective unconscious , “zeitgeist”, “heroic archetypes” and the like. But what mattered was the result: the heroes would cease to exist as people, and would become ideas. And when needed, they could empower individuals with their power and abilities  allowing for heroes that had ties to the world they lived in.

So the heroes left the world we know. They did remain, however, in the backs of the mind of the people of the world. In legends and fables. Some sought the power of the heroes, but those who sought rarely found; a hero is chosen by the need to protect and forged in deeds. It’s not something you try to become for fame or fortune.

Still, there are those who sought the power of the heroes in other ways, such as through worship. Around the world, one can find altars and statues of the heroes that were used in futile attempts to beseech them for their power. Over the generations, these makeshift temples faded from memory.

But on a small ignored island, one such temple is about to be discovered by the survivors of a shipwreck. Others are there already, seeking what they believe is forgotten magic for their own ends. The stakes begin as survival, but may end up being the world itself.

It is a a world, a time, a moment in need of heroes.

What do you do?