Tag: J. Walton

Life is incredibly busy and stressful right now, but I’ve been stealing hours in the morning and during my lunch hour to draft parts of a new Calvino-inspired module that I’m writing for the folks at Narrattiva who put together the Italian edition of Dark Heart. The first two sections and a draft outline are posted here, and I will continue to update it as I find time.

Originally shared by J. Walton

If on a Wintry Plane a Freebooter (intro)

With apologies and gratitude to Italo Calvino (1923-1985)

For Claudia Cangini Paolo Bosi and the other fine folks at Narrattiva

[1]

You and your companions are about to begin playing Jonathan Walton’s new Dungeon World module, Se su un piano invernale un filibustiere (“If on a wintry plane a freebooter”). Best to find a space and time all to yourselves. Text your other friends right away, “No, I can’t go see Thor 2!” Use more exclamation marks—they may not be convinced otherwise—“We’re playing an RPG!!! One with pencils and dice!!!” Maybe they still don’t get it; call them and yell: “We’re going to play a new Dungeon World module!” Or, if you prefer, just ignore them and hope they’ll leave you alone.

You acquired this module over the Information Superhighway, a marvel of modern technology and convenience that has nevertheless recreated nearly all the failings and inconveniences of the previous ways of doing things. Such is the inexorable march of history towards endlessly repeating itself. While the module consists chiefly of an entirely-too-long string of zeros and ones, running staccato like a Philip Glass opera through the cyber brain of computers, you likely still feel the need to print it out in preparation for giving it life through the words and behaviors of yourself and the other players. Hence the module will be laboriously reincarnated twice: from bits to the pale flesh of dead trees and then in your own fleshy selves, which – according to the Gnostics – are merely prisons for the divine spark within you, crafted by a malevolent creator. But hardly anyone believes that anymore, so you feel confident that by instantiating the module in your flesh you are not imprisoning it but, rather, setting it free and perhaps also likewise yourselves.

However, you of course remind yourselves that this is just one of an infinite stream of dungeonish games that has flowed incessantly since RPGs first emerged like Venus from the ocean of wargaming. You must keep your expectations in check. While this Jonathan Walton person has been known to exhibit a taste for the unique and experimental, this is still Dungeon World. You might prefer to be playing something a bit more provocative, such as Matteo Turini’s Novanta minuti or Julia Bond Ellingboe’s Steal Away Jordan, but your friends may exhibit undue caution about straying too far from game experiences that are tried and true. They love adventures but only so long as they are not particularly adventurous. This new Dungeon World module may seem a bit peculiar (it doesn’t really begin as you’d expected it would), but surely it will proceed with the delving and freebooting and clashes with monsters in an imminent fashion. If not, if you discover that the module becomes increasingly unnerving, causing you to question previously held beliefs about games and the world that you’d rather not be dissuaded from, you and your friends can always bail and play Munchkin or Mario Kart. You are, after all, fully in control of what you do and don’t do. You are a wonder of self-possession and self-actualization, of which Ayn Rand would be rightly proud.

Indeed, it’s a wonder you find time to play games at all, especially ones that involve multiple individuals all appearing in person at the same time, given the demands of contemporary life. Even more wondrous is that you have chosen to play this particular module, of all the game experiences you could have chosen to partake in. In doing so, you have miraculously survived unscathed – or perhaps only been lightly wounded – in the act of navigating the unnervingly dense forest of Games You’ve Always Wanted to Play, Games Others Have Repeatedly Insisted You Must Play, Games That You Often Pretend to Have Played That You Should Probably Really Play at Some Point, Games That Everyone Else Has Already Played So You Better Play Soon, Games That Your Friends Have Personally Made Which You Feel Obligated to Play, Games That Are Crucial to the Contemporary Understanding of the Medium of Roleplaying, Games Made by Up-and-Coming Designers Whose Names are Already Whispered in Semi-Reverent Tones, Games That Are Probably More Fun or More Important Than This Game, Games That Would Help You Understand Other Games Better If Only You Actually Played Them, and so forth.

But here you all are now, having created a new set of characters or pulled existing ones out of your stylish messenger bags, ready to embark on a journey into the unknown. For in Dungeon World there are no set “encounters” or pre-planned plots, just a set of methods by which you play to find out what happens. Indeed, that makes modules for Dungeon World – or any other sandbox game – particularly peculiar. How will the author invoke a set of colorful and exciting circumstances and yet allow the players, including the MC, sufficient leeway to follow their own bizarre whims and caprices? You suppose it is time to find out.

DRAFT: More material for That Ancient Serpent

CURING THE PLAGUE

There are no guaranteed cures for the draconic plague in this booklet. Maybe the plague doesn’t get cured and the planes are totally consumed and transformed into a post-apocalyptic nightmare (wouldn’t that be a fun setting to play in!). If a cure is found, it’s because the PCs and NPCs in your game worked together to bring the plague to a close, at least temporarily.

If you’re pondering jobs related to looking for a cure, here are some possible leads:

1. There hasn’t been an outbreak of dragons for centuries, right? So whatever stopped them before must have some mention in the imperial records of Dis or the secret archives, armories, and tombs of the ancient dragonslayers. Maybe some immortal beings remember how it was done and already have contingency plans…

2. The Church of the Font played a major role in treating plague victims during the previous outbreak. Surely they know the most about the disease, including potential cures. Perhaps a pilgrimage needs to be made to the tomb of the gorgon Evryali, Mother of Serpents, deep beneath the Noble Parish of the Iron Bourse.

3. Diabolists and blood sorcerers are experts in the properties of dragon blood and entrails, plus they often have good connections with the blood cults. Perhaps the entire population could be vaccinated with small injections of dragon blood, assuming it could be acquired, handled, and administered safely.

4. Maybe all signs of plague should be purged by fire or ice, or perhaps Dis itself could be convinced to swallow or expel the infected parishes.

5. Clearly a crew of freebooters should go back in time and prevent the outbreak from happening in the first place. Sure, you’ll doubtlessly be hunted down by the Sultana’s elite Road Warden unit for preventing large-scale temporal anomalies, but you can handle them, right?

6. It’s rumored that the Sultana herself is infected (or, worse, her child, the city of Dis). The dark prophesies are coming true and the end times are at hand. If we can just play the proper roles in the cosmic readjustment to come, we may yet survive into the next age.

DRAFT: More material from That Ancient Serpent

THE SCARLET VAULT

The blood cults of Dis liaise with kidnappers, freebooters, slavers, and other miscreants to conduct a regular trade in “the water of life” and other “treasures of the body.” The most renowned broker of such wares is the Scarlet Vault, which is both an organization and the heavily guarded repository it runs, where individuals and beasts with rare bloodlines are imprisoned and harvested at a rate just slow enough to keep them alive.

Common targets of the Vault include black sheep members of dragonblooded families, but the repository serves a wide variety of cultic, monstrous, and wizarding clients with a variety of needs and discriminating tastes.

To create a job involving the Scarlet Vault, first roll up a random client (see Dark Heart) and then roll on the table below to determine the nature of the job:

1. The Vault has kidnapped a loved one (or prized servant?)

2. The Vault victimized them in the past and they want revenge.

3. They find the Vault to be a horrific blight that must be destroyed.

4. They are a rival dealer in body parts and fluids, and want the Vault’s trade disrupted or halted.

5. They are a jilted former client or partner and want what the Vault owes them.

6. The Vault has dangerous plans to synthesize dragon blood, which risk a massive outbreak of the draconic plague; these plans must not proceed.

If the job is undertaken, halfway through completing the job, consider rolling again to determine your client’s true motives.

Details on the Vault and the threats it contains will follow below.

DRAFT: Material for That Ancient Serpent

TOMBS OF THE FORGOTTEN ONES

Several months back, Dis broke through the barrier between planes and established a beachhead on a nameless desert world that freebooters have begun calling the Dead Expanse. This new planar connection was not immediately discovered because (1) the Dead Expanse has been uninhibited for at least 1,000 years, it’s former inhabitants having perished or emigrated elsewhere, and (2) Dis invaded through the immense underground tombs that remain, but these endless foul-smelling corridors are not obviously distinguishable from the bowels of the ravenous city.

The tomb complex is described below, but note especially the presence of a mummified dragon corpse, one whose flesh is preserved enough to carry the draconic plague. Both PCs and adventurous NPCs are prime carriers of the disease. Indeed, the plague may be beginning to spread through Dis before the PCs ever accept or concoct a job to plunder the tombs of their secrets.

THREATS

– dragon corpse

– infected freebooters

– undead (infected?)

– ancient traps and machines

– tomb guardians

– partially exposed to surface elements

– risk of partial collapse

– more loot than you can easily carry

VISUAL INSPIRATION

– first temple area of Metroid Prime

This is the most obscure thing I’ve ever written for the Planarch Codex, but I though it would be fun to reshare it here. It was originally posted in a group about hip-hop and RPGs.

—

Dear Sucka MCs,

Hip-hop is introduced to the city of Dis 1,500 years in the future. You, however, have decided you can’t wait that long. As members of the gifted-but-inexperienced crew, An Immortal Ruckus [or insert your crew’s name here], you got tired of being straight-up destroyed by every mediocre MC in the year 4268 of the Sultana’s reign, so you’ve magically time-traveled 3,000 years in the past to “invent” hip-hop and become the undisputed Lordz of Dis.

Have your best MC roll+CHA to see how this has gone so far:

On a 10+, you have successfully cultivated a small but vibrant scene. Sure, the music isn’t quite what you had in mind, since it’s often a couple of fiddle players doing ragtime in the background while one of you beats out a rhythm on a cast-iron kettle, and your crowds are mostly ratmen and spiderfolk so far, but it’s a start, right? And this one spider, who calls herself The Most Loquacious Widow, would honestly be quite sick on the mic, if there were actual mics, and if you could prevent her from stopping to feed on audience members in the middle of her set.

On a 7-9, there’s not a scene exactly, but it hasn’t been a complete catastrophe. You’ve gotten a regular gig at a small, slime-covered bar near the old river and there’s a crowd of folks who you suspect are necromancers and diabolists who show up every Sultanasday to hear you spit. Afterwards, they come up and converse with you about “where the rhymes come from” and their connection with the dark arts, which is cool but also a bit creepy. Let me know if you’ve hooked up with any of the more attractive sorcerers yet.

On a 6-, come on, you think you were the only crew who’d thought of this idea? There’s a well-established cross-temporal guild known as the Elemental Guardians who make it their business to protect the “proper” (that is to say, temporally linear) development of hip-hop in the known planes. History and context, they claim, matter a lot in preserving the authenticity of the medium and its natural spread. While you appreciate their theoretical position, it’s hard to have a conversation when they’re hunting your asses down. Can you escape, or defeat them in an epic, magical rap battle across time, space, and the 63 boroughs of Dis?

Hugs and kisses,

Your GM

Glorious Burden: Child of Destiny

(Totally inspired by the comic book series Saga, which is essentially just the Planarch Codex in space)

Some jobs aren’t tasks that you perform and then are done with. Take, for example, parenthood. By some means — whether of your own doing, the mechanations of others, or a happenstance of fate — you have come into possession of a (the?) child of destiny. Or, really, they have come into possession of you.

Their Destiny Awaits: Create a countdown! For a one-shot it probably has three boxes. For a campaign or long arc it might have 5 or 6 to start. Whenever the child demonstrates their specialness, fulfills some minor prophecy, or manifests strange powers, mark a box in their countdown. When all their boxes are full, their true destiny manifests, in whole or in part. If you continue to play afterwards, keep creating new countdowns until the child’s destiny has fully come into being. (Maybe the child also ages 1 year every time they complete a countdown? See if that makes sense in your fiction, but they should slowly grow up. Or consider skipping ahead a few years every once in a while.)

I Won’t Allow That to Happen: Anyone — you, other people in your group, total strangers, enemies — can, at any time, no matter the situation, choose to place themselves in protection of the child. In such an instance, say what harm or circumstances you want to prevent the child from suffering, and the GM makes a move against you or those around you instead. Consequently, while the child may bring misfortune and difficulties, it is rarely in any true danger. Such simple suffering is not the fate that destiny has in store for it.

The Child is the Key: There are many forces after the child that wish to use or manipulate it for their own purposes. Heck, maybe you should be counted among them. To determine the others, the GM can just roll jobs as normal, but always have the child be the target. Unlike normal jobs, the GM doesn’t necessarily have to ask if you accept the forces arrayed against you (unless you’re totally squicked out by some of them, in which case, the GM should just roll up some different ones, since it’s super simple). You’ve kind of accepted a load of trouble when you got involved with the child of destiny. From now on, you don’t really have to go looking for trouble; trouble will find you. Good luck!