Tag: Jeremy Riley

Originally shared by Jeremy Riley

Still struggling to get the balance of Play To Find Out games. Love their potential but can’t seem to get the GM – Player input ratio right.

I think next time the players come through a manhole, into a room and then out another door – the player should tell me what’s there. I’ve telegraphed the approaching threat and the players want something cool to happen to their character.

Perhaps they lurch out onto a balcony and clamber onto the roof. Maybe they see five guards with crossbows break down a door but are sure they can make it to the other side and into the dumb waiter. Perchance they run straight into Two-Ton McGee who owes a big favour to the players but has also been hired to kill them, only just discovering their identities.

Do others struggle with finding this balance? Is there a quick release? 🙂

I played a simple game for my two kids on the weekend. My daughter, Jemima, is 6 and my son, Gulliver, is 8 and they are aware that I play RPGs though they are a little light on the detail of what goes on.

After rolling up a halfling thief called “Trixie” for Jemima and a human Fighter called “Damager” for Gulliver we got down to it. I gave them a brief synopsis about the awesome but tiring adventures they’d had over the last few days and then there was a howling and a woman’s scream from up ahead among the trees.

“What do you do?”

They freakin’ loved it! Trixie put herself in danger to get the shot on the werewolf, while Damager lay about him, dispatching the wolf pack with aplomb.

Needless to say they want to play again 🙂

Thanks Dungeon World!

Another DW one-off, another win! I’m getting the feeling that DW is a near-perfect system for one-offs!

This one began with something a little more complex than previous examples:

BOOM! The deck of the sky-ship lurches as a huge flaming rock smashes into the hull, your ears ring and you grab for a handhold. A sailor is thrown overboard, falling to his likely doom.

Questions:

Who is firing at you and why?

One of you is a stow-away, why?

There’s an additional threat on the attacking force, what is it?

The battle lasted about 2 hours and was a perfect introduction to the three players, all of whom were experienced role-players but none had played DW (preferring Shadowrun).

I’m not share I understand how ‘hold’ moves can best be used in the fiction. Presumably the players record the amount of hold and use it at their discretion. Is it held indefinitely?

The doco uses the example: “you can’t spend your hold from defend on trap expert or vice versa”.

So this Defend hold effectively becomes an item on the player’s inventory? Are the moves that generate hold designed to come up often, thus making good use of the hold?

For my follow-up game to my very successful first session, I chose the Indigo Galleon as the module. Far from being successful, it felt flat and a chore to GM. There were a few factors that could have influenced the outcome:

Perhaps the return to a more traditional format – GM + module – generated expectations of a more traditional experience. (Including me dropping back into a less collaborative mindset).

A new player not at the first session, where bonds were forged and a player from the first session not at the second.

A very disruptive player, regularly breaking the 4th wall and cracking funnies.

Some difficulty accepting the octopus folk as ‘valid’ creatures.

My initial mistake of providing the location of Capt Hobart too early, negating the need for exploration

The first session was so good – just like in the brochure – that I want to recapture some of that magic for the next game. I’ve written to the players, apologized for the quality of the session and asked them to be more invested in the next one but what are your suggestions to get a game back on track?

As background: I’m a traditional RPG’er, mainly running Role master games for many decades but made the switch to DW when I got so frustrated with the work required to GM that system.

Gm’d my first Dungeon World game today. It went really, really well and I am very pleased with the system.

I have GM’d for decades on and off but only ever with Rolemaster. I decided to try it with a familiar gaming group, with behaviours I could predict.

It was a four hour, afternoon session with four PCs. I had done a beta test with a single friend a few months ago but only to understand DW’s ‘moves’ concept.

Although the suggested GM tactic is to free-form the first session, taking extensive, plot-hook notes, I had a clear situation mapped out. 

Even so, the players quickly exhausted my prepped stuff and I started to push them to be creative.

Attacked by pirates, then allied with them and attacked by lots of guards they explored the cave shaft under the house. Only to shoot out halfway up the cliff above the ocean and a pirate ship – Goonies-style!

I barely opened the rule-book, though I spent a lot of timing fighting the urge to describe the players’ 10+ success rolls 🙂 Everyone seemed to have fun and stay focused, which has always been a challenge for my group – the lack of official ‘turns’ helped but the speed of resolution meant that focus could quickly move around, getting to everyone every few minutes.

As a GM with a full real-life workload, I find it difficult to invest the time in prep but DW shares it more evenly across the group.

I’m looking forward to more!