I’m winding up to starting a new DW campaign as game master. I’ve never really liked the effect that the XP questions “have you looted a treasure/defeated a so and so?” had on play. I’ve always like RPGs for other reasons – beholding the awesome vistas, unearthing the hidden dark secrets.
Especially, I got to thinking about how in the best fantasy movies there are always these amazing landscape panoramas, and yet in game so often I whiz by the wilderness travel to get players to the next action bit. I want to break that habit. So I thought, “what the hell, it’s hacking time!!” In my new campaign I am going to road test these XP questions to replace the old ones:
1. Did you stand in awe of a magnificent vista?
2. Did you discover the secret nature of some person, place, or thing?
These could also be GM principles (“Present magnificent vistas” “Reveal the secret nature of a person, place, or thing”) but I wanted to involve the players in making sure we all pause and appreciate.
Because magnificent vistas!