Tag: colin roald

A couple questions came up in last night’s session:

1) How much should hirelings cost?  The rules mention a hireling’s “number”, and mention that costs could include half a dozen things other than money, but I’m surprised to find no rule of thumb or starting point in the rules (x coins per week per point of skill, or whatever).  Is it there and I can’t find it?  It seems a strange thing to say “you should should just make it up”, when the rules are happy to include prices for all kinds of other adventuring stuff.

2) How do you handle allied NPCs in combat?  I have a couple tagging along with the party who aren’t hirelings, and can’t really be ordered around or plausibly treated as an extension of any particular character.  Strictly speaking, I think, the only time the DM gets a move is when a character fails a roll, but this seems a strange time to describe how the ally is helping.  But I don’t really want to get into playing the ally as an additional PC in the fight, either.  I’m splitting the difference, more or less, by rolling some dice and narrating her actions every once in a while — less often than the PCs so as not to steal the spotlight, but sometimes.  Does anyone have any tricks or rules of thumb for making this play well?

How do you guys play Take Watch?  By the rule, the player only rolls if “something approaches the camp”, but there’s no advice about how it should be determined if something does.  I guess, by the rules, after the characters decide their watch order and bed down, they players probably look at the DM to hear what happens next, so it’s time for a DM move.  DM decides whether to attack the characters, decides what time of night it happens, then that player rolls Take Watch.

It feels kind of arbitrary, though.  Does anyone use Wandering Monster tables for this?  Or any other, more clever kinds of randomization?

I posted this below on the scrolls thread, but I think the thread was dead by the time I did.  Would love to get comment or ideas for improvement, as I’m thinking of using it.  It kind of bothers me that the Thief is the only class that has no multiclass options at all, and something like this is pretty classic.

Thief Advanced Move (2-5):

Sorcerer’s Apprentice

You can use magic items that require arcane ability, such as wands, scrolls, and certain ioun stones.  Tell the DM the downside of your knack, such as:

* You struggle with control, and have a tendency to backfire, hit the wrong target, or burn extra charges.

* Your knack is erratic, and can leave you nauseated and disabled on a miss.

* Your knack is chaotic, produces loud and showy side effects, and occasionally draws the attention of things from beyond.

* You bought your knack from a higher power, who demands occasional payments.

* Your knack depends on an item you stole, and someone wants it back.

* A powerful wizard’s or templar’s guild hunts anyone with your knack.

Concerning the Barbarian:  a player in my game was using the Fighter playbook for a very barbarian-ish character, and last session we switched over to make him a proper Barbarian.  The player had a few concerns that we decided to play as written for now, but I’d be curious to hear the design rationale:

1. The Barbarian has two less hit points than the Fighter.  My player was disappointed, thinking the Barbarian is supposed to be especially hale and hearty.

2.  The Barbarian’s Load is 4 less than the Fighter and Paladin and 3 less than the Ranger.  I’m not sure how these are figured, but it seems like an unexpectedly large difference, especially since the Barbarian has the option of wearing heavy armour.

3.  “I hadn’t realized that everyone hadn’t leveled up the same time as I had, which brought me to an interesting conundrum with the Barbarian Class as written.  I believe I earned 7XP in one session, far more than anyone else, and I’m right in line to hit 3rd level next session.  Some of them were from stuff that everyone gets, like the session bonus, the notable enemy, boons, etc.  But I had at least two extra avenues for earning XP above anyone else: the Outsider-history-of-my-homeland thing, and the first Advanced Move I chose (What Is Best In Life, if I recall).  I’ve GM’ed enough to recognize an unbalanced, and potentially game-breaking character when I see one.  I love powergaming as much as the next guy, but I’m playing Dungeon World for the story, not for min-maxing.  I’m getting a real kick out of playing Armok, and I like where his story is going, and especially as regards interparty conversations.  But I really don’t want him to completely derail the game, either by simply being overpowering in combat or eating through levels like tic-tacs.”

I suspect the advancement is not quite as game-breaking as he’s afraid, since characters don’t gain as much power on advancement in DW as in D&D, but almost a whole level in one 3-hour session feels like a lot. 

The fact that we play relatively short sessions (2-3 hr) might be part of it, as it changes the balance between how many xp you expect to get from the dice vs the end-of-session move.

Scenario starter:  What else should be on this list?

Endless, trackless sea of grass

Abandoned temples of the Ancient Race

Lone volcano, cloud-bannered

Caravans on the Opium Road

Tribes twisted, strengthened by blood magic

The colossal corpse of a god, turned to stone

The nearby roar of a lion

A sacred well, haunted by ancient atrocity

Great hunting birds soaring overhead

Give me good ideas and I’ll name a villain after you.  🙂