I really want to have a “GM talk” hangout at some points.
I really want to have a “GM talk” hangout at some points. It would basically just be about GM’ing Dungeon World, and maybe even the Apoc Engine in general.
It would be cool to collect a lot of questions from self-proclaimed n00bs that could be answered or discussed on air.
I think it could be pretty fun, and even helpful for some. Anyone who would want do participate in something like this?
My fears for tonight’s session (with five old friends) was totally brought to shame.
My fears for tonight’s session (with five old friends) was totally brought to shame.
Five players, my highest total so far, playing the following classes:
– Titanius Dread, the Human Paladin
– Humble, the Human Thief
– Siegfried, the Dwarf Cleric
– Foamy of the Blue, the Human Druid
– Hector, the Human Fighter
So, we talked about the characters and the setting, ended up with a really fantastic scenario with a crime syndicate called the Black Brothers who had covertly taken over the capital city. Everyone was in their pockets, and they earned incredible amounts of money from liberating the city of a precious substance called Neodymium, which was also the name of the city; New Dymium.
The players wanted to confront these fellows, and I started out having them in cover behind a couple of turned over chairs in an inn called The Rusty Door Handle. They were there because a priestess of Alatea (god of Law and Healing) had a vision that Eric the Barkeep would have valuable information regarding to their mission (this was the Cleric Players idea).
They were taking cover as an Ogre Enforcer called Grobnok had splatted down the door and ordered his 4 henchmen to shoot down everyone in the establishment. Needless to say, everyone except the heroes had already fled.
This was a pretty awesome fight, and they actually captured one of the henchmen whom they questioned for some info, particularly about who had sent them, and how he knew about their investigation.
Highlights:
– Foamy, druid of the Open Sea, shaeshifted into a Giant Clam, closing itself around the Ogre Enforcer head, preventing him from seeing anything, which let the Fighter cut off his legs, killing him from shock.
– Paladin skewered the henchman on his longsword after questioning, (lawful: denying mercy to a criminal), which actually created some fekkin’ sweet drama.
– Cleric defended Paladin in a fight, running by his side with a big round table to block arrow fire and eventually the ogre’s massive club. Whenever I said that the ogre attacked the paladin or someone shot arrows at him, he just said “who cares! Siegfried has my back!” totally ignoring he danger and taking half damage from hold expenditure.
– First thing thief does is to coat a throwing knife with Serpent Tears, poisoning the ogre. He was pretty satisfied with himself 😉
– Fighter was pretty sweet over the block, attacking with total disregard for his own safety. First roll he made was a flying charge at the ogre, which he missed, making the ogre squash him. Druid asked if he could defend him, I told him yes, how? “I turn into an ox, and ram that ogre”. Worked wonders I might add. Fighter halved the damage, taking 6 instead of 12 (before armor).
Also, we had a fight on a burning ship, in boiling water, with an enemy wizard summoning frost demons.
Everyone had a lot of fun. After the first fight I asked them what they thought. They were initially confused about the lack of initiative, and worried that the loudest would “do more”. I asked them if they noticed how many times I asked another player to “wait a second” until I had heard the answer from the guy I asked something. After that, they just bought totally into it.
I rolled 3 times on the treasure chart, plus handed them the Infinite Book from a wizard the slew.
Everyone was pretty satisfied, and I told them I was thinking about running a campaign. A lot of them (those leaving nearby) really wanted to join.
These are players used to very rigid system, and they totally saw the merits of the system, and we all had a wonderful time.
I can’t tell you guys how glad I am for selling the system so well…
This is going to be a very Vincent Baker-like RPG-theory post, based on some thoughts about my last session of DW…
This is going to be a very Vincent Baker-like RPG-theory post, based on some thoughts about my last session of DW with Eric Nieudan and Patrick Smith.
I’ve gotten a lot of experience with improv GM’ing Dungeon World under my belt now, and I’ve found that an “encounter” (to use D&D terminology) takes roughly an hour to complete, including the time it takes to get to the next encounter. This assume we are playing via Hangouts.
OK, lets call it Dramatic Situation, shortened to DS. I don’t like the word encounter, it sounds weird in this context. It makes me think about fights, which is not everything that there’s to it.
So, if you want to make a one-shot, running for about 4 hours, you usually spend a little less than an hour to start the game out, making characters, asking all the necessary questions and setting the scene.
This leaves the GM with 3 hours of actual game play, which means that we can roughly fit 3 Dramatic Situations into it.
So, if you are like me, not really preparing stuff, then this is actually incredibly useful, because it gives me some knowledge about what we have time for.
So, an easy model for improv gaming I’ve come up with is the following, after yesterdays game:
The first DS can give clues to another DS, which in turn gives the player a means to complete their “quest” by leading them to a final, conclusive DS. This model could be called “Clue, Means, Conclusion”, or CMC-model.
A base assumption for the CMC-model, as I see it, is that the players should have a clear goal the minute the game actually start. The model then have the advantage that it doesn’t require preparation. You just go with the motions of the players, react to their actions.
When a DS emerges, think about how it can lead the players to another DS, one that makes sense for the players to seek out.
In my game yesterday, after the first DS, the Bard got poisoned by stepping into a dart trap. Their captured enemy told them how to find the medicine man (the medicine croc, they were small-sized crocodile men) of their tribe, after some “persuasion”. This was the first DS, leading to a DS with the Medicroc, also going by the name Chiqual.
In this DS, I thought about how I could lead them to a conclusive situation, so I used the fact that Chiqual had leverage over the poisoned bard, making them promise to dispose of the tribe leader, a monstrously huge crocodilian named Xecotl, who was carrying the artifact the players went down into the ruined temple to get.
This turned out to be the conclusive scenario, because they had to either persuade Xecotl to give up the artifact, or take it by force. They tried the former, but because they started provoking him, it ended up being a fist fight to the death between Xecotl and the Paladin, while the Bard sang songs of glory to support him.
It was wonderful, the paladin barely won, and they got hold of the Eye of Ogden, the artifact they were seeking.
I used this CMC-model without thinking about it, but afterwards I talked with Eric Nieudan, and he mentioned that it was the first proper one-shot, actual one-session game he ever played. That just made me think about why it “worked”, and this is my pseudo-conclusion.
It seemed to work pretty well. What do you guys think? Comments? Thoughts?
Dungeon World One-Shot. I’ll happily GM. Time is GMT. Can be later though, as I’m available all night.
Originally shared by Kasper Brohus Allerslev
Dungeon World One-Shot. I’ll happily GM. Time is GMT. Can be later though, as I’m available all night.
Just so people know, I just launched a hangouts about DW, One-Shots and at-the-table improv.
Just so people know, I just launched a hangouts about DW, One-Shots and at-the-table improv.
If anyone wants to join, feel free!
While it isn’t strictly Dungeon World related, I’m going to use it for a Dungeon World game, so please listen.
While it isn’t strictly Dungeon World related, I’m going to use it for a Dungeon World game, so please listen.
I want to know about how actual naval battles (or skirmishes) were fought, before cannons were invented.
I know next to nothing about this. I need it for a “flying boats” one-shot I’m going to run on Sunday for five of my glorious friends.
Also, I’m gonna make custom moves like crazy…
Just thought of a fun way to start a game.
Just thought of a fun way to start a game.
“So, Dalos, you wake up screaming. You had a dream, you are almost sure it was a dream, but it felt so real… It was utterly horrifying though. What did you dream?”
They give you an awesome answer and then you ask “How long have you had these prophetic dreams?”
When starting out a session, as the GM, do you ask what the players are currently doing, or do you “set the scene”…
When starting out a session, as the GM, do you ask what the players are currently doing, or do you “set the scene” for them?
I haven’t tried the latter yet, even though I wanted to. Usually, a player mentions something about their character that sets the scene for me, and it is usually very “safe”, like standing in their home village or something. In the moment, it is hard to turn this into something interesting, so usually I’ll spend half an hour poking them into the snake pit.
I’m thinking about telling the players beforehand that they shouldn’t say where they are or anything like that, but only answer the questions I ask them, letting me set the scene.
It’s not that I mind not setting the scene, it’s just easier to throw some action their way when you do it.
Thoughts?
I finally got a group of friends together to play DW! It’s conversion time!
I finally got a group of friends together to play DW! It’s conversion time!
Three has already told me they could make it, but two of them still needs to figure it out, but they probably will.
If everyone makes it, it’ll be the largest group I GM’ed DW for.
I’m so looking forward to this. Three of these guys are from my first RPG group, and I’ve played a fair amount of games with the other two.
Thanks for a fun game last night, to Tim Franzke, Larry Spiel, Jonathan Henry and Cameron Corniuk!
Thanks for a fun game last night, to Tim Franzke, Larry Spiel, Jonathan Henry and Cameron Corniuk!
For everyone else, here is a short overview:
Akleus the Cleric of Zeus, Andreas the Thief, Thornelios the Hoplite Fighter and Halek the Ranger, with his wolf companion Murder, is travelling by ship to the city of Pompeji, which was recently destroyed by an eruption of the volcano Vesuvio, to recover an artifact, the Thunderbolt of Zeus.
Akleus wants to recover it for his temple, and believes everyone else on board has the same agenda. Meanwhile, Thornelios and Andreas is running a con on him to steal and sell it, since Andreas is in a monumental debt and Thornelios has vowed to protect him. Halek seems to be in for the ride, his motives unclear as of yet.
The entire crew has died mysteriously, so Thornelios is steering the ship by himself, as he is the only one with sailing experience. They hear a beautiful singing voice among huge collection of shipwrecks, and Akleus persuade the others into investigating it.
It was a trap! The ship runs aground, and siren-harpies emerge, trying to kill the party. After a long battle, the harpies are killed. They search a nearby galleon and finds a small boat they use to get to shore.
They decide to follow the beach to Pompeji, and comes to the still standing city gates, but as it is dark, the group sees the light of a campfire with huge shadows projected onto the city wall.
The rest of the party hides while Andreas the Thief sneaks in to check things out. Minotaurs, and two of them! One of them takes of, and Andreas decides to sneak up and poison the tankard the last of them was drinking from. Unfortunately, he was caught in the act, and it bound and gagged him, while muttering words eerily akin to “Fire Titan” and “Sacrifice”.
The rest of the group grew anxious after a while, and Akleus asked Zeus what they should do. As a sign, a bolt of lightning threw in Andreas direction, so the party hurried towards the campfire. They saw Andreas tied up, and Thornelios charged the minotaur at the fire, assisted by Akleus, while Halek snuck around and started firing at it with his bow. During the fight, a group of small minotaur-like creatures emerged, made from rubble and moss, which significantly complicated matters.
Halek was slain and Hades came and visited him. He gave him the bargain that if he destroyed the Thunderbolt of Zeus, he would grant him back his life. Halek agreed and returned to the world of the living, unconscious.
This is where the session ended. Basically, this was set up to be a greek tragedy in all its foreboding glory, since if the quest was succeeded and the Thunderbolt found, friends would turn on friends.
I really hope we can continue this game some day, it was a blast 🙂