Tag: Erik Buchanan

How do you handle PC healers who want to heal the party in moments of relative safety? When I first started playing DW I would have the healer role cast a spell and then roll the amount healed until everyone was healed or i got to make a move on the healer that halted the process. This turned out to be tedious and a complete game stopper. I then just have the healer make one roll and correlate the outcome to the fiction. Sometimes the whole team would be healed. Other times the healing process would be halted by a sudden door splintering entrance of an ogre. Seems to work out well. Just curious how others handle it or maybe even have an alternative suggestion.

So I’m finally going to adapt the old D&D module “Keep on the Borderlands”. Any tips from others who’ve converted modules into Dungeon World? I realize a module conversion is more railroady than the traditional way to play DW so I’ll probably play loose and fast with what the module states. I’ll also be adding the keep to our campaign world map at the actual border of an Empire in our game.

I’d be interested in knowing how you handle traps and their detection. This was something that always bothered me no matter the system since asking a player to roll for detecting traps is pretty much saying that there is a trap. As far as DW goes do you let non-thieves detect traps? Another concern is the monotonous task of checking every nook and cranny for traps, this can really slow a game down.

My way of dealing with it is assuming the thief is always on lookout for a trap and when one is present I just tell them to roll trap expert. I realize this ignores the trigger of having the thief constantly state they are carefully examining but I feel it keep the game flowing. For all the non thieves they need to trigger discern realities in order to have a chance of finding a trap. I feel this helps enforce the thief as someone you want in a party even if your purse ends up a little lighter.

How do you all handle traps? Any cool game moments involving a trap?

Just picked up Perilous Wilds which is just great. Also have Class Warfare. What other books, settings,playbooks,etc should I be on the lookout for?

On handling the narration of combat. I’m curious on how this goes in others games as far as who narrates the interpretation of the roles during combat. I always tell my players that I’ll narrate what happens but if they prefer to than just step up and do it. About 95% of the time it’s left up to me but honestly I wish they would take more swings at it. I have one player that often has really imaginative outcomes that keep me on my toes and often opens up whole new avenues of were the combat can flow. On the other end of the spectrum I have a player that still says “I use hack and slash”. The majority just say something along the lines of “I swing my sword at the goblin”.

Part of me feels that maybe some players are intimidated by the amount of control they have over the game. It could also be the level of creativity or to quickly improve things varies between people. I feel getting vivid and interesting descriptions really brings the game to life. For example I was playing at a convention game and the gamemaster always used 7-9 in combat as a straight exchange of damage. While she was a competent GM her technique towards combat made it feel rote and lifeless.

So what are your feelings and processes to the above? I want to stress there is no right or wrong I was stating my preference only. I’m curious about other’s preferrences.

Help me find a sci-fi game. I’m looking for a PbtA game that fits the following traits:

1. It’s as simple as DW. The only sci-fi PbtA game I have is the Sprawl. It has to many bits to it for my tastes plus I want to sandbox. I want something as close to 1 basic moves sheet + playbook with no multiple clocks or subsystems.

2. Gonzo space opera. An insectoid cyber ninja vs. Squidoid psionic hitman type deal. Not interested in human centric or hard sci-fi. One of the reasons I love DW things start crazy and only get crazier as moves snowball.

3. Prefer dead tree rules but this is the least important trait.

4. Makes vehicles smooth and simple. Even outside Of PbtA games I find vehicle rules can slow down play.

So any suggestions?

Handling Ambushes

So how would you handle this situation; the players enter a swamp and have to deal with lizard men using guerrilla tactics. I wanted to start off with an ambush but don’t want to make a hard move of “a spear hits you in the back”. If discern realities is used that’s a no brainer. I also know the “do what the fiction demands”. I’m thinking of just doing “a spear flies over your shoulder embedding itself in a nearby tree. What do you do?”. Curious how others have handled sneak attacks, snipers and other lurking dangers.

Faster ways of taking out mooks

In tonight’s game we had a fight with a dozen kobolds protecting a baby dragon. This encounter took over an hour as we slowly took out one kobold after another. While the overall game was fun this battle was a little tedious. Are there any techniques for dealing with large groups of weaker enemies?