Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: Fronts

Hello!

Hello!

Hello! 😀 I’m new to DW and not english speaking, so don’t be mad pls. I’m GMing and I made my first campaign fron, and I want to know what do you think about it. 

The game is taking place in small country surrounded by mountains, and players are heading to the capital city to their sanctuary, because there is paladin and priest with the same religon, I made out a front called 

Gor’hal’s awekening

1st danger is it’s cult which is trying to take over control capital city to be ready for when Gor’hal comes on earth. 

doom is tyranny and grim portents are:

-sending bandits to attack tracks and villages to make king sent soldiers out of cities.

-recruit own micro-army

-bribe capital city watch, maybe even use magic on them to make them obedient to cult’s will

-assasination of king

-coup d’ĂŠtat

second danger is Gor’hal himself who’s gonna descend on earth to kill his opponents etc

grim portents are:

-climat changes what shows god’s intervention into the world

-choosing the vessel for Gor’hal to descend

-making potential vessels meet and fight – choosing the winner

– god’s spirit descends on this human beeing take control over his cult and make an apocalypse

What do you think? Is it good enough/bad/does it need some changes? I’ll be glad for everything. 🙂

I’m working on my campaign front, and somehow the grim portents just don’t feel

I’m working on my campaign front, and somehow the grim portents just don’t feel

I’m working on my campaign front, and somehow the grim portents just don’t feel … right. They feel kinda boring even though there is progress. Would some of you being willing to take a look at them and offer some suggestions or critiques? This is my first time filling out the campaign front.

Please forgive the brackets. I had to leave home suddenly due to an emergency and didn’t bring my notes. Will fill in that information later when I am back home.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ktheRjo3NVliMkoxNJIcAM6p_JghUBh_zQElzlLPBZ8/edit?usp=sharing

Fronts + Planarch Codex

Fronts + Planarch Codex

Fronts + Planarch Codex

Starting a Planarch Codex game, and I’d love some guidance here. I’m pretty sure the city of Dis itself is a campaign front, but how much else should I prepare? I’ve been thinking that just rolling on the job table might be better than coming up with adventure fronts. Should I be thinking of adventure fronts for parishes and planes? Factions in the city? Or maybe something else entirely?

So playing this game again I’ve noticed a few things I seem to be better at and one of those things is thinking of…

So playing this game again I’ve noticed a few things I seem to be better at and one of those things is thinking of…

So playing this game again I’ve noticed a few things I seem to be better at and one of those things is thinking of Fronts in different ways. For example I feel I’ve always had a problem with Place of Power and Underground Instincts. Be controlled or tamed, and defend the terrain from outsiders respectively.

Until I looked at it a different way. For example in my campaign I thought the Great Forest was a place of power but instead of the bad things happening because it wanted to be tamed, it happens because its not tame anymore(the protectors of the forest were all killed. And the same with the Centaurs instead of the fronts being about defending something thats already defended which I feel doesn’t give to many options for Impending Dooms, their goal was to get into a position where they could defend the forest and the impending doom is that they are the only defenders.

I think its interesting to look at Instincts and Fronts in a different way if your struggling with some of them.

Romance as a Front

Romance as a Front

Romance as a Front

I was reading an article about including romance in RPGs earlier, and the author placed what seemed like a lot of emphasis on preplanning things, at least on the GM side of the screen. I thought this an odd thing to plan out; surely “play to find out what happens” should apply to relationships as much as adventures, if not more so.

So then the lightning struck: why not make the development of a romantic or otherwise important relationship into a Front? My initial thoughts on this follow; I apologize for any disorganization or meandering. I want to get the thoughts out there while they’re still fresh and get y’all’s thoughts on the subject.

•The simplest thing to do would be to make the romance a stakes question in an existing front: “Will Lucien find true love with Helga the barkeep?” This marks the romance as important but keeps it secondary to the overall campaign front; this may be the best way to do it in many games.

•If you decide to make the romance a Front in its own right, the resolution should not be a stakes question; it’s the center of the Front, so it should be handled at the Danger/Impending Doom level. Grim Portents would be things that affect the relationship and surrounding world in a permanent and meaningful way going forward. (Awkward lexicon is awkward.)

•My chief concern would be that romance would typically center around one PC, creating inherent spotlight imbalance. I would therefore only write up a full Front if the npc in question is a character that all the PCs are invested in in some way. Examples of this would be idiosyncratic I feel, but having each PC be in competition for the heart of the NPC is a solid universal idea. Having a romantic rival in the form of the campaign Front’s big bad is another one. Regardless, have stakes questions centered on the romantically uninvolved PCs as well; spotlight discipline, you know.

And that’s about what I’ve got right now. Thoughts? Would this even work, and if so, how would you handle it?

So, this is my first real attempt at using Apocalypse World-style fronts, but I’m using them for my Fate Core game…

So, this is my first real attempt at using Apocalypse World-style fronts, but I’m using them for my Fate Core game…

So, this is my first real attempt at using Apocalypse World-style fronts, but I’m using them for my Fate Core game based in the Camelot Trigger setting.

This campaign front involves MerGN-A (a sentient AI bent on dominating or exterminating mankind) and her robotic horde of Emergent slowly returning to prominence in the solar system, having been overthrown and sent into retreat by the united forces of humanity under King Arthur.

I’ve got two dangers figured out already:

One is a cult who worship MerGN-A, employing brainwashing techniques developed by the Emergent to recruit new followers.

The second is a shape-shifting assassin (called a Shade) who can take on the form and personality of those it kills, on a mission to disable Avaluna Base’s Quantum Moat: a defence system which prevents the Emergent from using their more advanced hyperdrive technology to directly materialise within humanity’s seat of power.

The third…I want the third to show the return of the Emergent and the gradual escalation of their attacks against humanity’s forces (primarily those on Venus, Earth and Mars as they’re the ones who have firmly united against MerGN-A so far). I see it as being sort of like the slow return of the Shadows in Babylon 5, but over a shorter timeframe. I’m just trying to figure out how to reflect that in Grim Portents. Any ideas from people more used to designing fronts?

I’d like to make sure that I grok Fronts and that I’m not making any egregious errors with these.

I’d like to make sure that I grok Fronts and that I’m not making any egregious errors with these.

I’d like to make sure that I grok Fronts and that I’m not making any egregious errors with these.

First Session: The PCs are investigating a cult of water-themed necromancers with an artifact of the sea-god the Priest of the party worships, a large silver Scrying bowl. They fought a zombie sea-serpent in a large cave, and the party Mage heard a malevolent voice in his head directing him to find the voice’s sanctum. The party was alerted to the location of the artifact by a mysterious beggar.

The Fronts:

Adventure: The Cult of the Deep Death

Cast

– The Beggar

– Sharad, Sahuagin Baron

– Arkos, Deep Priest of Taigon

Stakes

– Will the Sahuagin escape to infiltrate Reefton?

– Will Rasputin the Mage accept Tlazhocatl’s Bargain?

– Will Arkos break the seal?

Danger: Warren of the Sahuagin

Type: Cursed Place – Shadowland

Instinct: To corrupt or consume the living

Impending Doom: Usurpation

Grim Portents

– The Sahuagin have found a suitable victim

– The Sahuagin complete their vile experiments

– The Sahuagin escape into an underground river

Danger: The Voice of the Deep

Type: Arcane Enemy – Ancient Curse

Instinct: To ensnare

Impending Doom: Impoverishment

Grim Portents

– The Voice tempts Rasputin (checked)

– The Voice offers its boon… for a price

Danger: Rites of the Cult

Type: Horde – Cult

Instinct: To prepare the way

Impending Doom: Destruction

Grim Portents

– Arkos communes with the Eye

– Arkos fills the Eye with sacrificial blood

– Arkos casts the Eye into the Maw and becomes the Child of the Deep

Campaign

Cast

– Aresceth, The Hungry Voice, God of Entropy

– Tlazhocatl, ancient aboleth

Stakes

– Will Arasceth unmake creation?

– Will Tlazhocatl reform the world in his twisted image?

Danger: Aresceth, Breaker of Chains

Type: Planar Force – Elemental Lord

Instinct: To tear down creation to its component parts

Impending Doom: Destruction

Grim Portents

– The First Seal is broken

– The Second Seal is broken

– The Third Seal is broken

– The Final Seal is broken and Aresceth slips his bonds

Tlazhocatl, the Remaker

Type: Ambitious Organization – Cabal

Instinct: To absorb those in power, to grow

Impending Doom: Usurpation

Grim Portents

– The Cult of the Remaker establishes a foothold in Reefton

– The Cult of the Remaker operates openly in Reefton

– The Cult of the Remaker is in charge of Reefton

In short, it’s Temple of Elemental Evil meets Shadow over Innsmouth. Tlazhocatl is trying to manipulate the party into releasing and then defeating Aresceth so it can turn reality into its own twisted perversion of a paradise.

My questions;

– How are my Grim Portents? I tried to make them the “To Do list” of each of the dangers, and to not rely on any particular PC action.

– Should I add another Campaign Danger?

– How are my stakes?

– Do you have any special idea that might mesh well with these?

Thanks!