John at Deep Six Delver – Page 6 – Dungeon World Tavern G+ Archives

John Allder Stephens wrote:

Today I met up with Travis Newcomb “The RPG Guy” and played session one of Dungeon World, Creep on the Borderlands (inspired by the classic dungeon module by Gary Gygax). The delvers were so cautious I was worried that the game might veer into boredom, but I guess my style is more intense than they expected. I’m used to playing with a reckless and wild band that includes my nephew, but it’s no wonder that other players have a little more sanity. We had a great time, and I can’t wait to brew up some Fronts for session two.

Retirement moves

Retirement moves

Grim World adds the idea of Death Moves to Dungeon World, but epic or not, death isn’t the only way a character exits active play. The other is “retiring to safety”.

I’m nowhere near this yet—we don’t have any characters above level 3—but I wanted to get this germ of an idea into the hands of shrewder minds than my own in case there’s something to it.

I wonder if it would add anything to offer players moves that trigger when they retire a character. I was thinking of a move that just adds a fact to the fiction, like monster moves, rather than something that includes a Roll+(anything). Since the buildup of fiction between level 1 and level 10 could lead anywhere, I don’t see the retirement moves being class-based. But they could easily be added to certain Compendium Classes, or even be self-contained Compendium Classes with just one move that triggered when the character retires.

When you retire with enough gold to lay down in and a gold crown upon your head…

When you leave your adventuring career having survived the collapse of civilization…

When you recover all eight fragments of the Triforce and defeat the cruel wizard Ganon…

When you construct an invisible tower to conduct your magical experiments in seclusion for the rest of your days…

Classic D&D assumed that the endgame involved strongholds and domain management, and those might be some of the options. I’m also thinking of Sorcerer, which gives players the opportunity to narrate something about their characters’ destiny (when their Humanity bottoms out).

Anyway, this might be how the “retire to safety” option is played already, and adding formal “moves” might be unnecessarily restrictive. I haven’t formed the idea fully, I just wanted to get it out there for further development by the able.

Converting Vancian OSR spells to Dungeon World

Converting Vancian OSR spells to Dungeon World

Has anyone developed guidelines for converting spells from old-school D&D and its simulacra for use with Dungeon World? There are a bunch of interesting spell lists out there that could make interesting treasure or even distinctive Compendium Classes.

The major difference is that most D&D-like spells are defined with strict measurements of range, area, or duration, where DW uses a less buttoned-down descriptive approach. That’s easy enough to deal with: Just leave off the mechanics that aren’t necessary in DW.

But DW has its own mechanical distinctions that aren’t completely a matter of narrative description—like spell level, “-1 to cast a spell”, or “cannot cast a spell”, and similar elements. It would be interesting to hear about the rubric Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel developed to translate the most iconic spells into Dungeon World, or any other wisdom the community has hashed out. Are there any links to previous discussions or other resources?

#spells #osr #dnd #vancian

Grim portents for gritty “It’s a trap!” adventures

Grim portents for gritty “It’s a trap!” adventures

I own a bunch of adventures written by James Raggi. If there’s a consistent design feature of his adventures, it’s that the dangers are usually “laying in wait” for the players to unleash upon themselves. In one adventure I won’t name [SPOILER ALERT] there are a few environmental hazards, but the major world-transforming menace depends on the players taking a specific action to awaken something awful. If it weren’t for their curiosity and avarice, the delvers could just walk in, grab some loot, and leave—and that’s okay: Play to find out what happens. The fact that players have to work for their impending doom is part of what makes the adventure appealing from a GM perspective, and it’s a pattern that appears in different ways in other LotFP adventures.

But the idea of “nothing happens unless you stir up trouble, and then hell explodes” seems counter to the way Fronts are set forth in Dungeon World. In DW, grim portents are described as the bad things that happen if the adventurers don’t intervene. In Raggi World, the grim portents often follow the delvers’ own choices.

Is it trying to fit a square peg in a round hole to use adventures like this for Dungeon World? How would you convert threats like this into Fronts?

#weird_fantasy #traps #fronts #grim_portents #impending_doom

Monsters on the fly?

Monsters on the fly?

Do you have a shorthand method for generating monster stats quickly, in the middle of an encounter?

I really dig the fiction-first Q&A method described by the book, but I like to maintain eye-contact with the players as much as possible. I come from playing Tunnels & Trolls, which shares with Dungeon World a fiction-first notion of monster abilities, without formal moves and tags. But monsters in T&T have a single stat, called a Monster Rating, which makes it super easy to make them right when you need them.

Up to now, I’ve always found the stats I need for impromptu encounters right in the rulebook: It’s not hard to grab a monster and change one or two moves and the description as needed. But unless the page is bookmarked, it’s not much faster than using the questions.

Maybe there is no faster way. I understand that the description alone may be enough for a session or even a whole campaign, depending on what the players do. If you have a strong image of the monster and it’s goals and behavior, you don’t need a formal list of moves and tags to wing it. The stats are the choke point—not because there are a whole mess of numbers to worry about, but because they each depend on the whole gamut of questions.

This isn’t much of a problem, I’m just curious what other GMs do! 😉

Awesome Points as a countdown

Awesome Points as a countdown

One thing I love about Old School Hack is the Awesome Points economy. It turns all the players into fans of the whole party: Each player can give Awesome Points to other players when they describe something awesome; they can spend their Awesome Points to do something awesome; and they can only level up when everyone has spent a certain number of Awesome Points. It gives everyone the incentive to play awesome, but it’s also important to notice when other people are being awesome.

I never thought of using Awesome Points in DW until I saw this thread on BFA:

http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=6163

I wasn’t quite satisfied with the idea of offering Awesome Points in place of XP, as suggested by some of the comments there. In my view, the reward for spending Awesome Points is part of what makes the mechanic work: Otherwise, people will have to weigh the tradeoffs between a temporary benefit and advancement, which will encourage miserliness.

Here’s my idea: Add a countdown to every character sheet, maybe six boxes. Players fill in a box whenever they spend an Awesome Point. Add this question to End of Session: “Were we totally awesome?” The answer is yes only if every player has all their boxes filled in.

Check out OSH here:

http://www.oldschoolhack.net/

#awesome_points #countdown

http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=6163

Wandering Monsters in DW and WoDu

Wandering Monsters in DW and WoDu

Once upon a time, I had TSR’s board game DragonStrike! (Feeling brave tonight?) There were four boards, each with a timer dial on one side. Every turn, the DM was supposed to advance a token on the dial; once the timer ran out, the dragon would show up. I could never consistently remember to advance the dial, but it wasn’t long before I was running my own adventures and hacking the game to embrace more role-playing, so the timer ceased to matter.

Today I was thinking about how I might create more tension in a DW delve, without all the bookkeeping of old-school procedural dungeoneering, and my mind turned to the lurking menace of wandering monsters.

I’m mindful that the GM moves handle this completely, and there’s no need for a separate system. I thought of one anyway.

Here’s my idea: Whenever the delvers are exploring a dangerous area where monsters may be lurking, create a countdown on an index card, and put it in the middle of the table. (Countdowns are explained in Dark Heart of the Dreamer.) The GM may use a Die of Fate (from World of Dungeons) to determine how many boxes are in the countdown, or just pick a number based on the how near and/or sensitive the monsters are.

Fill in a box whenever the delvers make a loud noise or otherwise draw unwanted attention without an immediate consequence. (This counts as “making your move elsewhere”.) Loud noises might include the din of battle, Bardic anthems, spirited conversations between delvers, or clatters caused by Tookish curiosity. What you count as loud depends on how vigilant your monsters are and what else is going on. You might also fill in a box whenever the delvers are taking their sweet time.

When the last box is filled in, wandering monsters catch up with the delvers. If there are more monsters lurking about, you might create another countdown right away.

Anyway, that’s the idea. Could it work?

#wandering_monsters #countdown

“Behold my true form and despair!”

“Behold my true form and despair!”

What do you do with a boss monster that has multiple distinct forms, each with its own moves? Do you write it up as a single monster with a whole mess of moves, and just use the fiction to determine what moves are available? Or do you write up a separate monster for each distinct form?

I see that Ancient Vampire Lord uses the former method, elegantly stating the multiple forms in a single move:

http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/629012

But in that case, the most of the forms are common animals that probably wouldn’t require memory prompts for their moves. For boss monsters that transform into demonic chimerae or mythic creatures, would you follow the same pattern?

I reckon the correct answer is “whatever works for you”, but I was wondering if there are any examples from the field?

#shapeshifters #castlevania #halloween

http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/629012

Demon Castle Dracula!

Demon Castle Dracula!

Castlevania, the castle of Dracula, which is rumored to appear every century, suddenly materialized out of the mist as if to show her the way.

I might get a chance to run a Castlevania-inspired dungeon ruckus for Halloween. I’m reflecting on Symphony of the Night (my favorite game in the series), and just beginning to consider how it might translate into Dungeon World.

Consider this thread a “Give a Penny, Take a Penny” for your Castlevania Adventure Fronts, Monsters, Bonds, Compendium Classes, and anything else that seems essential. Feel free to post write-ups or moves for your favorite creatures of Castlevania, or anything else you deem creepy enough for the occasion!

I will post some initial ideas later tonight, after I get my kids to bed. I’m also a big fan of Bram Stoker’s portrayal of the vampire as a an apocalyptic Antichrist nightmare, and my ideas might get inflected by that.

But enough talk… Have at you!

#dracula #vampire #halloween #castlevania #monsters

I’ve been meaning to say this too: Thank you Sage and Adam for offering DW in EPUB and MOBI!

I’ve been meaning to say this too: Thank you Sage and Adam for offering DW in EPUB and MOBI! I depend on my Dungeon World ebook.

Cf. http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2013/10/now-i-want-my-rpgs-in-mobi-format-say.html