The Dungeon World Tavern: Fronts – Page 2 – Dungeon World Tavern G+ Archives

I’d love to abuse this beautiful community for some inspiration if I may.

My PC’s got split up and a couple of them are currently trying to escape a desert residence / small palace that they were imprisoned in. The place is on alert (due to the other PCs messy escape) but no one knows the remaining PCs are stil there and trying to get out.

The PCs trying to escape are basically a rogue and a homebrew bellydancer class with (secret) firecontrolling powers. They have no qualms about killing, but are not likely to survive an all out fight given where they are.

What I am looking for are some interesting situations / microfronts to put in front of these two characters on their way out. They will of course be a lot of sneaking involved and they will likely need to obtain some horses/camels to escape the desert palace they are in. We are using a arabian-nights kind of setting.

Thoughts?

Dungeon World Endgame

Dungeon World Endgame

There are no guidelines in the rules on an ideal upper limit on the number of sessions for a Dungeon World campaign. Unless you count the rules for advancement past 10th level, which create a significant change even though they don’t say “stop playing”.

I wonder what others have found to be an ideal limit, if there even is one.

We had Session 18 this week, and every single session continues to bring the campaign into sharper focus, with vivid conflict and no shortage of electricity. Around Session 12 or so, it really felt like we were fast approaching the campaign’s ultimate climax. But 6 sessions later, the tension keeps escalating with no end in sight.

I’m perfectly happy if it goes on like this. I have no fear that it would peter out—the GM moves alone simply prevent that. But I’m wondering whether it might grow too sprawling. Has that happened to you?

Or does Dungeon World naturally reach an endgame that concludes the campaign, in your experience?

Do you set a boundary at the outset or determine one as it grows? That seems to go against playing to find out what happens, a little, but it can’t hurt to have everyone on the same page in terms of expectations.

Dungeon World Session Prep: How I do it with less confusion

Dungeon World Session Prep: How I do it with less confusion

I did not get how to set up Fronts in Dungeon World for a long time. I can’t remember when or how it clicked, but I wanted to write up what I’m doing differently now:

https://d6.beardedbaby.net/the-flameghoul-reloaded-dungeon-world-session-prep

Hey folks, I’m hoping someone can help me with the fronts I’m developing.

Hey folks, I’m hoping someone can help me with the fronts I’m developing. I’m having trouble with the distinction between an adventure front and a danger.

So at the high level, I want to have this evil empire that’s trying to invade. They’re trying to do this in two ways: 1. with an army and 2. by infiltrating and sowing dissent and rebellion so it’ll be easier to take over. The evil empire has basically a sultan and a bunch of advisors, who all have their own agendas, so like advisor 1 is warlike, advisor 2 is cautious, advisor 3 is sneaky.

So when I’m writing my campaign front, I got the description and cast part figured out. Now correct me if I’m wrong, the dangers would be something like:

Danger 1: The invading army

Danger 2: The evilest advisor

Danger 3: The internal rebellion

The part that I’m struggling with is what’s the advisor’s impending doom? Step 1, they stir the rebellion pot (but that’s a separate danger), step 2, they declare that their army will march (but that’s also a separate danger).

And then what about the other advisors, and the sultan? They all have their own agendas, they’re not a unified group. So maybe each advisor is their own danger?

And then the other part I’m struggling with is that danger 1 and 2 are both external, like they both are part of the evil empire. Then danger 3 seems quite separate, even though it’s caused by danger 2.

So should the internal rebellion be, a separate front? Because I want this to come up a lot, and within the rebellion they don’t know they’re being incited, so there’s a bunch of personalities and different strategies, and different things going on within this rebellion… so how do I know when something should be a danger and when something should be a front?

A Sundered World is the Deal of the Day on DTRPG! Can’t wait for Dungeons and Delvers Black Book to make it on there.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/

Inspired by this blog post (http://blog.trilemma.com/2014/10/non-mechanical-difficulty-levels-for.html?m=0), I’ve…

Inspired by this blog post (http://blog.trilemma.com/2014/10/non-mechanical-difficulty-levels-for.html?m=0), I’ve been thinking of tags that can be applied to dangers to reflect their disposition. These tags can be used to paint a picture of what an engagement against that danger would be like: how quickly the PCs get noticed, how the danger reacts, etc. here’s what I have so far, what others could be added?

• Slow: They are relatively easy to run away from.

• Fast: They can outrun an average human, making escape difficult.

• Unorganized: They do not work well together or communicate poorly, and could be dealt with piecemeal.

• Factional: There are factions within the group that don’t always get along, creating opportunities to make alliances or divide and conquer.

• Militaristic: They are disciplined and trained to quickly and aggressively respond to threats.

• Gestalt: They operate as one mind. If one knows something, they all know, and they can coordinate with frightening efficiency.

• Defensive: They act to drive others away from their immediate homes, but not any further.

• Territorial: They pursue threats to their territory, which may be as large as an entire region, and won’t stop until the threat has left the area.

• Vengeful: If you mess with them, they’ll make sure you won’t do it again.

• Proactive: They are actively searching for threats, and will bring the fight to them.

• Vigilant: They have scouts, keen senses, or magical scrying to warn them of approaching danger.

• Stationary: They cannot move from their position.

• Site-Bound: They don’t leave the site where they are found.

• Ranging: Their reach is far and wide, able to cross entire regions.

• Horde: There are hundreds of them, or maybe even thousands.

• Stealthy: They remain hidden from sight until it’s too late. Expect ambushes.

So.

So. Tomorrow is game night, and for the first time I want to try my hand at some Fronts. As usual, I turn to you guys for advice.

My single campaign front at the moment is embarrassingly cliché, but still fun for us as first-timers: the lizard priest cult wants to bring the blood god Groth back into the world. So the doom is “usurpation”, and the grim portents are obvious, I think: 1) find a victim (cult already did this), 2) find magical battery doohickey for ritual (heroes thwarted this first time around), 3) perform equinox ritual, 4) Groth manifests into victim’s body, 5) the world burns.

First question: I suspect that the Abbot of the cult is secretly plotting to subjugate Groth once he manifests, so that he (the Abbot) will become the true ruler of the world. Would I best represent that as an additional Danger in the campaign front, or is it better to turn that into its own Front once the manifestation Front is complete?

Next, I need to translate the ongoing story-so-far into a couple of adventure fronts, and that is causing me a bit of a headache. Is the big bad forest that the heroes have already passed through once and which has various monsters and dangers inside it a Front of its own, or is it a Danger in the scope of a larger “return the kidnapped girl to her parents before she gets sacrificed” Front?

Is the imminent arrival at the abbey of two surviving lizard priests from an earlier encounter a couple of sessions ago a grim portent in the “Groth usurpation” campaign front? Or is it also a Danger/Portent in the aforementioned “Kidnap rescue” adventure front? Or is it maybe its own Adventure Front?

The Abbot is also trying to get the heroes to retrieve the battery doohickey for him (they’re on to him, but playing along for now), and some of the monks in the monastery are suspicious of the Abott and have asked the heroes to help them uncover the truth. (The heroes have so far not followed up on that request.) I am having trouble placing events like these (which just arose naturally on the spot during game play) in a Front.

I understand that the beauty of Fronts is that they are just flexible groupings of ideas that are allowed and expected to move from one grouping to the other, so I suspect there’s not real One True Way of answering my questions, but I’m nevertheless curious: do you have any guidelines or rules of thumb for how and where you incorporate events such as the ones I mentioned above into your Fronts?

As always, many many thanks in advance for your feedback!

Sorry for the long post in advance. (Fronts at the end for reference)

Hello! Newbie here. I’ve played a couple of sessions and I’m already loving this game, specially taking into account that I came here looking for a lighter and more narrative system. That being said, I hope you can help me with a small issue for my prep.

Note: I’m sure there are a lot of things I’m not understanding or looking from the wrong angle I write what I got from what I read so you can tell me where I got confused.

At the first session, the game turned into a zombie apocalypse pretty fast, ending in a cliffhanger with the PCs garrisoned in the local tavern surrounded by zombies. The city is like a massive metropolis with different districts divided by walls and a citadel in the middle. I want to take advantage of that focusing the action there, also I want to make the zombie apocalypse last more than one session. At the time, the city guard has closed all the doors around the merchant district containing the zombies there and locking the the PCs and survivors inside. I thought of having a necromancer hiding in the sewers of the city but I put it aside in favor of leaving gaps, also it wasn’t immediately relevant. I decided to make two Dangers, one for the zombies (horde, pestilence) and one for the city guard to represent the extreme measures to contain the zombies ending with a “nuclear solution” (there’s some high fantasy elements) type of ending if nothing gets done (ambitious organization, destruction). After that, it’s where my doubts started.

The examples from the rule book and the guide seem like Campaign Fronts to me, are they? I’m not familiar with how much progress can players make but after playing for about an hour during the first session, it was amazing how much stuff happened. Maybe they are Adventure Fronts, however they seem very large scale for me to be the prep for one or two sessions. For example, I want the next session to involve surviving in the tavern, maybe saving survivors, dealing with the city guard, gathering resources, at best, escaping the district, maybe if they fail to save most of the people, the massive number of zombies will destroy the doors from the district walls and advance the Campaign Front. I thought of having the city guard killing anyone who tries to escape and sending execution teams to kill survivors and zombies alike to prevent the growth of the disease. Here’s where things get confusing for me: I have the same Cast and Dangers for both the Campaign and Adventure Fronts (which makes sense) and I feel that the Grim Portents from the Campaign Front are basically the Impending Dooms from my Adventure Front (which doesn’t seem too crazy) but the problem I’m worried about is when I look at the two possible outcomes at the end of the session or resolution of the Adventure Front:

1) (Less likely) If the players solve the Dangers form the Adventure Front (AKA succeed during the session?), the campaign would end in the first session.

2) (Most likely) The characters fail and the Adventure Front reaches it’s Impending Doom, for the tension to grow, I find interesting and fictionally reasonable for the Campaign Front to advance but I feel I wouldn’t give the players any chance. If the players fail regularly I see it being frustrating to them but If they succeed dealing with the Adventure Dangers, the Campaign Front will never advance. Can the Campaign Front advance regardless what the PCs do? I feel that’s what I’m dealing with here. I know that with playing I’ll get more experience but I’m sure I’m missing something here. Maybe I have problems designing the Adventure’s Dangers.

Campaign Front

Danger 1: Zombies

Grim Portents

– The zombies take over the district

– The zombies expand to nearby districts

– The zombies consume everything and the citadel is the last bastion

– The zombies consume everything in the city

Impending Doom: Pestilence

Danger 2: City Guard

Grim Portents

– Execution teams start killing zombies and survivors alike. Guards in the walls kill survivors trying to escape.

– The mages of the citadel build the eye of amonkhet and start firing it against everyone

– The grand alchemists and the mages close the eye of amonkhet (destroy the city)

Impending Doom: Destruction

Adventure Front

This is where I don’t know how to do it. Previously I explained my ideas for it.

Thanks a lot, hope you can provide some insight. I’ve read a lot of forums but I haven’t found any answer.

Fronts seem to confuse me, I understand the basics but not sure if I am doing them correctly here is a front I did,…

Fronts seem to confuse me, I understand the basics but not sure if I am doing them correctly here is a front I did, not even sure the grim portents make any sense?

Adventure Front

Name: What Lies Below

Description: A long lost city, that vanished below the earth, during a full moon, is revealed to the surface, as the sands parts. Sleeps an ancient evil, who’s worshipers flood to the city, offering sacrifices to their god.

Cast:

Lord Behbur – Lava Demon

Soren Bloodworth – Head Cultist

Stakes:

Will they save the Sacrifices?

Will Senka hesitate when the demon tells her, he knows where her uncle is?

Danger: The Demon

Type: Demon Prince (impulse: to open the gates of Hell)

Impending Doom: Rampant Chaos (laws of reality, of society, or any order is dissolved)

Grim Portents

 Lord Behbur is summoned

 The sacrifices are sacrificed

 Lord Behbur opens the portal to hell

Danger: Entering the Chapel

Type: Cult (impulse: to infest from within)

Impending Doom: Tyranny (of the strong over the weak or the few over the many)

Grim Portents

 The cult completes the summoning Ceremony.

 The victims are Sacrificed

 The cult uses the weapon to kill Lord Behbur

Dungeon World is by far my favorite tabletop rpg.

Dungeon World is by far my favorite tabletop rpg. But the one thing that I can’t seem to do with any success is using the Fronts.

I think I have a difficult time conceptualizing the long term outcomes for events.

I love the idea of Fronts, and I’d love to incorporate them effectively not only in Dungeon World, but some of my other favorites.

Am I alone on this?