stonetop – Page 3 – Dungeon World Tavern G+ Archives

The Singing Sword

The Singing Sword

Solitary, small, magical, amorphous

HP 19 Armor 5 (made of metal, quick)

Cutting, thrusting, and slashing: [b]2d12 damage (hand, messy, 2 piercing)

Qualities flies; made of Maker-fine steel

• Make strange music in the dark

• Strike a warning blow, deft but nonlethal

• Block their way with a razor’s edge

This naked blade needs no wielder. It dances about the air, making music as it moves: every bob a hum; every slice a whistle.

It was set here long ago as guardian of this crumbling hall. Those who forged it fell and for ages it has kept its vigil. Yet, this is not some mindless thing waiting to cut down foes. It remembers, longs, yearns for the days in which this hall was filled with light and laughter and–joy of joys–music!

And so it waits. In the dark. Singing songs to itself that have been not been heard by any living mortal ear. It waits, dutiful, and worries that it has misremembered the songs it once knew. It waits. In the dark. Alone.

Instinct: to defend the hall, to ease its loneliness

If they make noise: respond with strange music

If they enter the hall without making music: try to scare them off

If they flee: let them go

If they persist: draw blood

If they sing or make music: respond enthusiastically

If they then make to leave: wail, moan, and stop them

#Stonetop

Anyone willing to playtest some revised Aid or Interfere moves for me?

Anyone willing to playtest some revised Aid or Interfere moves for me?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking hard about these moves. I’ve never really liked how either Aid or Interfere work, and I’m strongly leaning towards using these revisions in #Stonetop. I’ve started using them in my home game, but we just don’t play enough (and the moves don’t come up enough) for me to get a really good feel for them.

Note that these versions don’t use Bonds (though they don’t preclude you from resolving bonds at End of Session).

If you use these, please let me know! I’ll have questions for you!

Aid

When you help another character who is about to roll for a move, tell us how you do it. If everyone agrees that it would help, roll a d6 and they can use your roll in place of one of their dice. Regardless of whether they use your die, you are exposed to any risk, cost, or consequences associated with the roll.

When you jump in to help another character who just rolled_, tell us how you plan to do it and ask the GM what else is required or what the consequences will be. If you accept, increase your ally’s roll by +1.

Interfere

When you try to foil another character’s move, say how you do it and roll…

…+STR if you use brute force

…+DEX if you move quickly or employ finesse

…+CON if you hold steady or suck it up

…+INT if you exploit a relevant detail or expertise

…+WIS if you had a feeling they’d do this

…+CHA if you rely on subterfuge, charm, or wiles

On a 10+, they pick 1 from the list below; on a 7-9, they pick 1 but if they let you foil their move then you are off balance, exposed, or otherwise left vulnerable; ask them what they do next.

• Do it anyway, but take -2 to the roll.

• Relent, change course, or otherwise allow their move to be foiled

An adventure starter for #Stonetop, inspired by the great Dungeon Starters by Marshall Miller, Mark Tygart, and…

An adventure starter for #Stonetop, inspired by the great Dungeon Starters by Marshall Miller, Mark Tygart, and others.

Breaking with the traditional form a little bit here, and I’m sure there’s a bunch of typos and whatnot. So: feedback greatly appreciated!

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

When you first start a game of Stonetop, you’ll make characters and do introductions, establishing details about the village and the NPCs who live there. But then you’ll make the Seasons Change move to let spring break forth.

The result of that move should end up with a valuable insight or interesting news (on a 10+), threats abounding (on a 6-), or a boon plus a threat (on a 7-9). I’m intending to include “adventure starters” for each result.

This is the 10+ result for “valuable insight into a threat that’s been plague the steading.”

https://goo.gl/RRDWUr

The first full draft of a chapter for #Stonetop. All art is placeholder.

I’d really appreciate anyone who’d give it a close read for language, clarity, typos, questions, etc.

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

Draft of the Steading Playbook chapter. I’ve posted various versions of the actual playbook before, but herein you’ll find explanations of the stats and moves, along with substantial examples of most of the steading moves.

I’m sure it needs a bunch of editing, and I’d definitely appreciate feedback and questions. Like, for reals. Typo hunts are good, too!

(The layout is also a draft, something for Jason Lutes to eventually professionalize, and the art is all placeholder.)

https://goo.gl/NjOqCS

Updates to the GM Playbook for #Stonetop, including the threats from my ongoing home campaign.

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

Updated version of the GM Playbook, with threats from my home campaign. (If you happen to be one of my players… don’t read this!)

I wanted to see how well the threat types of instructions would work for the stuff we already had established. Mostly it worked well! But it led to a little bit of rewriting. For example, a threat doesn’t need to be active for it to have an Impending Doom/Grim Portents. It needs a trajectory. That’s a slight, but important difference.

Anyhow: comments, questions, and feedback appreciated!

https://goo.gl/ze0XvH

GM Playbook for #Stonetop.

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

I’ve been playing with GM moves, “fronts,” and how to organize them, and it’s led me to here: the GM Playbook.

The intent is that this would be a booklet, 3 sheets of paper, with front & back cover and 5 internal spreads.

I’ve pretty much decided that I won’t be using Fronts for Stonetop. They just don’t work. The AW2e approach to Threats is much more appropriate. You’ve got threats, and threat types, and moves that come with them, and a countdown clock (grim portents) if they need them.

So, yeah, here’s my go at it. I’ve also made some tweaks to the core DW moves, ported over my Monster Creation Cheat Sheet, and added a few miscellaneous things I’m always looking up.

Questions or comments about the format, the approach to moves, or anything else? I’d love to hear them.

https://goo.gl/vggJcT

This week in my home #Stonetop game…

The PCs returned from the Great Wood in the dead of night, having recovered the body of a woman who’d been sacrificed to an evil spirit by someone from the village.

They were really smart about things! They ID’d one of the cultists and spooked a confession out of them, confirming the PCs suspicions of who the cult’s leader was. They gathered the nascent town council and presented evidence. Then they went to get the cult leader, who the sheriff’s apprentice had been spying on. I was expecting this to be the end of the cult!

But… I had the Sheriff’s roll +Quality for his apprentice (we’re using the Perilous Wilds follower moves) and he rolled a miss. I decided what happened but didn’t give them any immediate details.

The Fox (our rogue analog) snuck up on the cult-leader’s house, peered through the shuttered window and spied the cult-leader alone in his house, calmly smoking a pipe at like 3 in the morning–and some vague, muffled sound coming from out his life of sight.

The Sheriff and Ranger joined the Fox, then left him at the window and went around front to burst in the front door. The cultist appeared to hear (or sense?) them coming and sighed, hoisting something from the floor outside of the Fox’s view.

The Sheriff kicked in the door to find his apprentice hog-tied and bug-eyed, the cult-leader hiding behind him with a knife to his throat. The Sheriff used his I am the Law effect to demand that the cultist let the kid go, and got a 10+, but the cultist choose to attack. I revealed his newly-acquired Word of Pain, wracking the Sheriff and temporarily stunning him (7-9 to Defy Danger with CON).

The Fox tries to burgle through the locked shutters and take the cultist out from behind, but biffs the roll. I reveal an unwelcome truth: the shutters were warded! The Fox’s hand and arm ripples with debilitating pain and drops to the ground, writhing.

The cultist (apparently a sorcerer, now) gives a gloating smirk at the Fox’s grunts and the Ranger darts in and closes the distance (Defy Danger 10+). She then tackles the sorcerer with a 7-9, succeeding but drawing an attack as well… the sorcerer grabs her face and zaps her with a painful, poisonous touch that spreads under her skin! She mentally calls her saber-toothed tiger to come help them.

The sorcerer gets up, hits the Sheriff with another Pain Word , and walks out the door to find himself face-to-face with Sita, the saber-tooth tiger. The ranger rolls +Quality to have Sita do her thing, and… misses.

We cut to one of the other PCs passing the house, bringing the victim’s family to the common house. She sees Sita wimpering in the snow, and goes in to find the Sheriff and the Ranger recovering, and no sign of the sorcerer. He’s gone, in the wind, his tracks vanishing a few steps outside his door. And we end the session there.

Play to see what happens!

Tree spirits for #Stonetop. Questions and comments appreciated!

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

“The Tall Ladies, Daughters-of-Seed, the Slow Sisters: these are all titles given to the brennauwed, powerful tree spirits and, if you believe them, kin to Danu herself.”

My take on dryads and treants

https://goo.gl/3jC71o

A Possible Way to Consolidate Rations, Adventuring Gear, Etc.

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

A Possible Way to Consolidate Rations, Adventuring Gear, Etc.

I’ve been tinkering with alternative travel moves for #Stonetop (https://goo.gl/DV5akZ) and that’s been making me think about rations, adventuring gear, and the like.

Which led to this. Not sure I’ll use it, but I might try it out.

It’s definitely a draft! Thoughts and questions welcome and appreciated!

https://goo.gl/IRQCqK

I keep thinking about travel moves for #Stonetop.

Originally shared by Jeremy Strandberg

I keep thinking about travel moves for #Stonetop.

We were originally were using Jason Lutes’s moves from Perilous Wilds, but they were too explorey-hexcrawl for Stonetop.

Then, I tried two “primary” travel moves: a Venture Forth that you used when you were heading somewhere known but through dangerous terrain, and a Wander move (similar to Jason Cordova’s and David LaFreniere’s labyrinth move). I’ll link to those moves below in the comments.

We tried those moves a couple times, and they felt too artificial. Wander, in particular, actually took us too far out of the fiction. That got me thinking about a comment Timothy Stanbrough had, about navigating megadungeons, that “Perhaps a purely GM facing structure is better, something that helps you create the fiction rather than dictate the outcome.”

And that got me thinking about Savvyhead workshop moves, and the Wizard’s Ritual.

So, maybe something like this?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ID4MBs2dM9Kbmo4d_8qCm9JdVmk0u0YBweOLUVdrqFE/edit?usp=sharing