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LowellDND posted:For fiction creation, my group stole something from Fiasco. We all have a stack of 3x5 cards, and when we have an idea, we write it and toss the card in the center, and it becomes canon. It's a nice ritual feeling to it. It doesn't even has to rewrite reality; one of my cards was that the dwarves believed that the cloud giants stole the sun, and above the clouds is the Eternal Sunlit lands. No idea if its true yet. That's neat!
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Jun 19, 2013 18:09
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On the first time advice topic, I really want to GM this at some point and have a couple of newbie questions: 1) Any tips for establishing a darker and more realistic tone? Something along the lines of Dragon Age or WHFRP. Similarly can DW tolerate a lot of politics being thrown in? Or does the fact that the rules are mainly focused towards killing monsters get in the way? The one sentence setting I'm thinking of pitching is "the collapse of Roman Britain....with Elves." 2) Is there a particular reason (other than fitting the D&D feel and cutting down words) why you shouldn't allow any race/class combination? I was thinking of telling my players that they can pick a race which is not listed and we'll agree on an appropriate racial move by the second session. Mainly I'm worried about making them balanced. Also a very late reply: Boing posted:My new idea for a campaign is to stretch out the world-building by having the PCs be time-travelling bounty hunters or something, who are constantly on the move and hopping from setting to setting, perhaps in pursuit of a similarly time-travelling big bad or trying to escape from some time-travelling pursuers of their own (the bounty hunting agency, whatever).
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Jun 19, 2013 21:14
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Erberus posted:On the first time advice topic, I really want to GM this at some point and have a couple of newbie questions: 2) Nope, fire away. You can even use completely made up races. In my current game, I had a slime ranger and now have a kobold spellslinger, a gorgon mage, experimentally altered human thief, and a dwarf fighter. In that game mentioned in 1), I played a vampire priest (long story there). Just be open to possible tweaks later on of the racial move if it turns out necessary. The gorgon took a few tweaks, for example. Kaja Rainbow fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 19, 2013 21:44
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Someone's probably wrote this idea out already, but humor me. When you defeat a large monster while mounted on, clinging to, or otherwise riding it, you may take this move at level up: Monster Climber When you latch on to a monster and begin climbing it, roll +Str. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 2. On a 6-, hold 1, in addition to whatever the GM says. Spend your hold, 1-for-1, on the following options:
After you have taken Monster Climber, you may take any of the following moves at level up. No, THAT Way When you are climbing a monster and try to redirect its attack or movement, roll +Str. On a 7-9, pick two of the following options:
Like A Monster, But Better-Smelling Your monster-climbing moves apply to any constructed vehicle you can latch onto and climb. Like A Monster, But Not Trying To Kill Me When riding on a friendly creature trained to bear riders, take +1 ongoing until you dismount. Glazius fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 06:31
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Posted in the Pick-Up Game thread, but I'mlooking to run a quick Dungeon World one-shot via G+ Hangouts on Friday night at 7pm EDT if any goons are interested. Nothing too fancy, just some old-fashioned dungeon crawl and experimenting with playing games with Hangouts.
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Jun 20, 2013 07:16
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Time for some late night spooky Dungeon World Classery, I present the very much work in progress Vampire. The Vampire: Names: Alucard, Vlad, Soma, Turbo-Dracula HP: : 6+Con Damage: D6 Starting Moves Creature of the Night You are an unholy monster rejected by the warmth of the sun, while your skin is exposed to direct sunlight, take -1 ongoing. . Your curse is also a blessing, for you have perfect vision in the dark. Sustained by Blood Food and drink are like ash on your tongue, the only thing that can sustain you is the blood of the living. Whenever a move would tell you to mark off a ration, you ignore that cost. However, if you have not consumed blood since last sunrise, you may not benefit from the move. Feeding Frenzy When you sink your teeth into a living being, you may drain them of essence. Deal your class damage to them and regain half as many hp rounded up as you dealt to them. Attempting to feed from someone trying to defend themselves may require you to defy danger. What is a Man? Whenever you try to shake the confidence of your adversary with guileful words, roll +Cha. On a 10+ choose both options from the list below, on a 7-9 choose 1. Your words shake them, they hesitate, stumble, or flinch. You or any ally acting on this take +1 forward against them. Your words do not draw their immediate ire. Dread Power When you draw from your unholy power to bolster yourself, take 1d4 damage that ignores armor and gain 3 hold. Spend hold 1-for-1 on the following. Blood rushes to your muscles and they swell with stolen life essence. Take +1d4 forward to damage. Vile celerity speeds you to any location within near range in the blink of an eye. Dark fortitude allows you to ignore the effects of a debility for a while. Equipment: You have a memento of your time among the living, describe it (0 weight) Choose a weapon: An Elegant Rapier, close, precise, 1 weight. A wicked dagger, hand, piercing 1, 1 weight. A hand crossbow, reach, near, reload, weight 1. and a pack of bolts, ammo 3 Choose a defense A crested shield, +1 armor, 1 weight Chain armor, 1 armor, 2 weight 2 health potions, 1 weight each. Advanced moves 1-5 Form of the Beast You can assume another form for a short period of time, pick one from the list below and add them as options to Dread Power. Form of the Wolf, A agile and deadly hunter. When you use feeding frenzy while in this form you gain hp equal to the full damage you deal, not half. Form of the Bat, A small, innocuous rodent. You may fly as you will and take +1 to attempts to defy danger exploiting your size. Form of the fog, A pale ethereal mist. You may hover of obstacles and seep through any opening. Indiscriminate Feeder You have adapted the ability to feed on the energy of more than just the living, undead and constructs alike are valid sources of sustenance. Was a Man. When you play up your tragic condition to those who knew you in life, you always have leverage against them.
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Jun 20, 2013 08:04
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I am going to be critical, I hope you don't mind! Creature of the Night - Personally I can't take "-1 ongoing while exposed to direct sunlight" seriously. That's the equivalent of someone wearing armour and not being trained for it. Sunlight on your skin should be turning those parts of your body to dust or setting them on fire! Maybe you have a particular flavour of vampire in mind, but going by most every piece of vampire fiction I would rather you see 'going out in sunlight' as a crazy thing that shouldn't ever even be considered. Maybe make it -2 ongoing while completely covered and with no skin exposed to sunlight, which constantly gets more uncomfortable and would end up killing you anyway. Better yet, I would prefer it to be a move, to play up the danger and desperation of it. "When you cloak your entire body and attempt to brave the sun, roll +Con..." What about other weaknesses? Stakes? Garlic? Fire? Holy symbols? Running water? Private property? Maybe make it a list you can pick from, like the Fey - "You are a vampire. The sun kills you. Choose X other weaknesses..." Sustained by Blood is unclear - it says if you haven't had blood, then you can't benefit from the move. Which move? The one about not eating rations? So as long as you drink blood you don't have to eat rations, or you can avoid drinking blood and just eat rations instead? Or did you mean another move? Feeding Frenzy - seems a bit awkward to use, and relies on Defy Danger where there should really be explicit consequences to main combat moves. I would go with something more like "Your fangs are a weapon with the tags hand and precise. When you deal damage with your fangs, you may drain a living victim of essence..." - this seems more elegant and would let you follow all the normal rules for combat damage where necessary (like not having to roll Hack & Slash against a sleeping target, you just drain them of all their blood, etc.) What is a Man? is not a very exciting move for a vampire, given all the cool things that a vampire could be doing. Being able to slightly unnerve someone is hardly a cool supernatural power. Ditto for Was a Man, which is also not exciting at all - both of these could be wrapped into a glamer or domination starting move. You don't get people to do what you want by being pitiful and having them sympathise with you. You get them to do what you want by staring into their eyes and subduing them to your will because you are a kickass vampire. Dread Power's power level is all over the place. 1d4 damage for 3 hold is a crazy amount of hold. You can use that hold to: do a little more damage (not very exciting), ignore a debility (even less exciting), or insta-zip anywhere within crossbow range, which you can do 3 times for a negligible cost. That is huge! And could define the entire class! It's unclear whether you're going for balls-out Twilight/True Blood style superspeed, superstrength, made-of-steel vampires, or more subdued oldschool mysterious Dracula vampires. If the former, superspeed probably makes sense but the other two Dread Powers do not communicate the strength and resilience of them at all. Superstrength should let you punch people through walls and rip their hearts out and stuff. Dark Fortitude should let you brush off arrows and turn aside sword blows like straw. If subdued oldschool mysterious Dracula vampire is what you were going for, superspeed raises a whole bunch of questions! What happens if you use your superspeed to ram into somebody? You're probably going to do way more than d6+1d4 damage, and they're not going to be able to avoid it. Or should it be more explicitly "disappear and reappear somewhere else" so you can monologue while confusing the errant vampire slayer as to where you are exactly. It ought to be clearer in any case, and you should consider what kind of character you're trying to create here. Equipment - would health potions work on vampires? The only thing that can sustain you is the blood of the living, after all. Maybe blood potions? Maybe instead of starting with them, have 'bottling blood potions' be an advance move? Form of the Beast is cool. I hope a lot of the advance moves are just cool vampire powers from all over fiction that you can perform at a cost, in a sort of "build-your-own Vampire folklore" kind of way. Indiscriminate Feeder is strange and should probably explain exactly how you can feed on the essence of a stone golem or a rotting corpse or something. I would prefer to drop it entirely since the idea of consuming the blood of the living is so intrinsic to vampire stories that it's really hard to get rid of. It's why vampires are so terrifying. If they could just feed on zombies all the time then a lot of that menace goes away. If you really like the idea of linking everything to HP, that can work, but I think you'd still need to change how the moves work. It seems odd to spend HP on hold which you then use to perform moves - why not just spend HP on moves? It might not be entirely what you want, but I really like the way World of Darkness did vampires. Instead of spending life on hold, you could just have a special Blood hold that you get from drinking blood, and expend with sweet vampire powers (similar to how the Metamorph generates and spends Morph). Make a move about feeding - you get more blood if you drain someone completely (and maybe a +1 forward or something, because totally draining the life out of someone probably feels great), but you have to deal with the consequences if appropriate, and you might not be able to stop yourself if you're hungry. Then Sustained by Blood is neater, since whether you can use your powers isn't about when you fed but about whether you have Blood or not. My idea for a feeding move would be: When you sink your teeth into a living victim and feed on their blood, choose one: - You take only a little of your fill. They are confused and disoriented, and will likely not remember you, but are otherwise unharmed. Gain 1-Blood. - You drink deep. They are left weak and pale, and may never fully recover from the ordeal. Gain 2-Blood. - You drain them dry. Nothing remains but a lifeless husk. Gain 3-Blood and take +1 forward. Then you can base a bunch of moves around how much Blood you have, from healing and shapeshifting to other crazy vampire powers. Mind control, flight, healing, disguises, creating your own thralls and siring new vampires, that kind of thing.
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Jun 20, 2013 15:41
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Regarding vampire vulnerability to the sun: that's far from universal in mythology and fiction. Sunlight crispifying them is a relatively new thing. Hell, at least one of the fictional sources identified by the names, they can go out in sunlight. Dracula for example walked around in broad daylight. I think a move reflecting discomfort in sunlight is a reasonable compromise in terms of still having sunlight be an issue while retaining playability (because having sunlight outright kill you would suck for a lot of games and force the party to play around your character's weakness).
Kaja Rainbow fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 16:04
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Hmmm. Instead of homing in on exactly what is or isn't a vampire you could pull back and try to make the class more of a 'construct your own hungry undead' kind of thing. Pick a hunger and a bane. Example hungers: Flesh, blood, fear, etc. Example banes: Symbol, rare plant, hope. When you Grievously harm someone to sate your hunger roll +Con. On a hit, gain 1 hold. On a 10+ pick two, on a 7-9 pick one. -They don't die from the experience -They don't remember what happened -You're not mystically bound to them (think ghosts if they die.) When an enemy wields your bane against you roll +con. On a 10+ pick 1, 7-9 pick 2. -You're driven back. -You're weakened. -You can't harm them. Spend hold to -Negate a bane -Give yourself 1 ongoing for the scene
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Jun 20, 2013 16:21
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Kaja Rainbow posted:Regarding vampire vulnerability to the sun: that's far from universal in mythology and fiction. Sunlight crispifying them is a relatively new thing. Hell, at least one of the fictional sources identified by the names, they can go out in sunlight. Dracula for example walked around in broad daylight. I think a move reflecting discomfort in sunlight is a reasonable compromise in terms of still having sunlight be an issue while retaining playability (because having sunlight outright kill you would suck for a lot of games and force the party to play around your character's weakness). Yeah, this was my general thought process. It really limits the kind of adventures and stories the vampire can take place in if they just get destroyed by sunlight -1 ongoing is pretty rough in this system actually. Though I agree that I could make it a little more varied in terms of what the weakness is. Boing, thanks for the feedback, I would not be posting it here if I was not ready for some criticism. For your points on What is a Man, I could make it explicitly magical influence, with outcomes similar to I Am The Law. Benagain, I think it's a neat idea, but I am pretty set on the specific motif of the vampire. You should take a crack at the idea though, i'd be excited to see what you do with it.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:19
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I tried writing some custom bonds for the one-shot I'm running tomorrow night. The game is starting off with the party captured and bound by slavers and while I like these ideas, I wanted some feedback. I feel like I several are focused on suspicion, but I wish I had a few more positive ones unique to the situation. Any suggestions? Bonds/Questions The last person I remember seeing before being captured was _____. During the night, I vaguely recall waking up to see ______ talking with the goblins. _____ and I have journeyed together for a while, but they've been acting suspicious lately; I'm not sure I can trust them anymore. _____ scares me; if the slavers don't kill me first, they might! I believe _____ has the talents of a natural leader; if I follow them, I just might make it out of this mess!
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Jun 20, 2013 19:26
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So I really wanna buy the DW/pdf bundle but it won't let me  . Does anyone know when this will be back in stock? Unless they're still not available and I'm just being an idiot.
S.J. fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 03:21
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S.J. posted:So I really wanna buy the DW/pdf bundle but it won't let me LaTorra posted on G+ that they hoped to have some printed copies at GenCon, but for now it looks like just the PDF is available.
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Jun 21, 2013 15:54
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I emailed them, they had a few in stock but they aren't posted on the site, you can contact them and see if they have any left. This is one of those few situations where they actually do have some in the back.
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Jun 21, 2013 15:56
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unzealous posted:I emailed them, they had a few in stock but they aren't posted on the site, you can contact them and see if they have any left. This is one of those few situations where they actually do have some in the back. Huh, thanks. I'll have to see if I can get ahold of them about that.
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Jun 21, 2013 16:00
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axelsoar posted:Yeah, this was my general thought process. It really limits the kind of adventures and stories the vampire can take place in if they just get destroyed by sunlight -1 ongoing is pretty rough in this system actually. Though I agree that I could make it a little more varied in terms of what the weakness is. Then I'd still say make it -1 ongoing when you're fully covered, rather than when it's on your skin. You are a creature of the night, direct sunlight on your skin should be doing more than making you awkward and clumsy. I think if one of the characters in the party is a vampire that's going to set the tone for a very different kind of adventure than normal anyway.
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Jun 21, 2013 16:03
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Boing posted:Then I'd still say make it -1 ongoing when you're fully covered, rather than when it's on your skin. You are a creature of the night, direct sunlight on your skin should be doing more than making you awkward and clumsy. I think if one of the characters in the party is a vampire that's going to set the tone for a very different kind of adventure than normal anyway. yeah, the power of Dungeon World is Fiction First. Being bound to the night should give you some big fictional downsides. You smoulder, or appear as a dead thing for all to see. Perhaps the Daystar strips you of your preternatural powers, leaving you weak and vulnerable. Perhaps it sends you into a Fuge, and you must sleep away the daylight. At the very least it should display a tell that warns everybody you're one of the Hungry Dead. A lot of the old Vampire folk tales talk on the Vampire's compulsions. You throw salt outside your door, and the Vamp has to count the grains. It sits there all night, counting the grains until the sun chases it off.
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Jun 21, 2013 17:52
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Since I can't stop thinking about this I made some tweaks. I think the core is a decent start but I'm scratching my head thinking of appropriate advancement moves. Thoughts? Cursed Hunger When you transgress against a higher power and suffer its punishment you may take this class. Pick a hunger, a bane, and a sign. Example hungers: Flesh, blood, fear, etc. Example banes: Symbol, rare plant, hope. Example signs: Fangs, glowing eyes, decaying features, etc. When you grievously harm someone to sate your hunger roll +Con. On a hit, lose one hunger. On a 10+ pick two, on a 7-9 pick one. -They don't die from the experience -They don't remember what happened -You're not mystically bound to them When an enemy wields your bane against you roll +con. On a 10+ pick 1, 7-9 pick 2. -You're driven back. -You're weakened. -You can't harm them. At any time you can gain hunger to: -Negate a bane -Give yourself +1 ongoing for the scene -Mask your sign for a scene When your hunger becomes unbearable roll +con. On a hit, you manage to keep yourself under control, but you can no longer give yourself a boost and take penalties equal to hunger on all rolls. On a miss, you try to eat whatever’s around you, friend or foe. - You may take these moves when you level up Little Drink You always pick 2 when you feed. edit: My goal here is to set it up so hunger allows you to do cooler and cooler things as you level up, at the cost of hurting/killing people and possibly trying to eat your friends. Benagain fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 21:01
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One of my players has a question about the Thief move Shoot First. Does the Thief's immunity to surprise take effect always, under all circumstances? We're thinking specifically of taking watches. If the Thief is asleep because it's not her watch, does it even matter? Does Shoot First obviate the need for a Take Watch roll? The text of the move is pretty clear: you're never caught by surprise, ever. On the other hand, follow from the fiction and all that. Thoughts?
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Jun 21, 2013 23:31
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Kestral posted:Does Shoot First obviate the need for a Take Watch roll? This is going to sound flippant, but the answer is "I don't know, does it?" Ask the thief questions about the move and why she wouldn't be caught offguard. Does she set some kind of perimiter warning? does she sleep lightly? What's the terrible fear or phobia that stops her from sleeping soundly? This is a pretty interesting bit of information about her character, ask a bunch of questions to find out more and get context of what she thinks it means, and this will help you decide where it works, and how much time she has. It says the thief gets to act first, but it doesn't say they have enough time to rouse the camp and prepare them for battle. She may be able to spring up out of her bedroll and avoid an attack, or fire off an arrow or shout out to her allies, but everyone else is still surprised if it wasn't the Thief's watch.
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Jun 22, 2013 00:19
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Experienced GMs for the game, how do you feel Dungeon World works with more horror-based fantasy? The continual ratcheting-up of tension on failures is one of the things that makes *World games great, but the 'downside' is that the game greatly encourages player input and making up their own established facts to add to the setting. It seems like that might interfere with the whole 'feel of the unknowable' things that a lot of good horror has going on. On a similar tack, when the PCs are dropped into an unfamiliar setting, does that have any unusual complications with gameplay norms? Take exploring an unknown continent, for example - it seems like it might be difficult to Spout Lore about something that a character would have no reasonable way of having seen before.
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Jun 22, 2013 04:55
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bewilderment posted:Experienced GMs for the game, how do you feel Dungeon World works with more horror-based fantasy? The continual ratcheting-up of tension on failures is one of the things that makes *World games great, but the 'downside' is that the game greatly encourages player input and making up their own established facts to add to the setting. It seems like that might interfere with the whole 'feel of the unknowable' things that a lot of good horror has going on. I've had fun running horror-themed sessions. It's easy as hell to twist around things the players establish about the setting around on them. As for unknown continents, just establish similarities between things the characters are familiar with and the things they're discovering...honestly explorations one of the easiest things to do in DW. KillerQueen fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Jun 22, 2013 |
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Jun 22, 2013 06:18
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I'm taking another stab at running a DW game, and we're putting a nice spin on it - 2 GMs in 2 different sessions running concurrently in the same world. My co-GM had never seen DW before I pitched this idea to him. It's all online - using Roll20 for dicerolling/tabletop (when necessary) and Skype conference calls for voice (Roll20's voice/video is atrocious) We ended up with 19 unique characters/classes played by 12,different players (some are in both sessions) - only 3 of whom have played DW before. I had to dig pretty deep in the OP to come up with some of the custom playbooks that fit with the campaign. I'm going through the normal growing pains of breaking people of years of 'bad habits' from playing DnD 3/3.5/4 and getting them to contribute. It's hard to take people who are used to the 'GM talks, you listen' mechanic. Anyway, if anyone is interested in following along (maybe joining at some point? We might have some drop out), check it out.
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Jun 22, 2013 16:40
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God I love this game. I'm setting my buddies up with new characters and reeling off options for a friend of mine and she's like "eh, not so much." So I crack open the Inverse world playbooks and instantly she lights up and goes "YES. I WANT TO BE A CAPTAIN." Thus was born Captain Frank, last of the imperial aerial force on a desperate quest with the royal tutor/mage Locna and a congnome artificer named Cosmo to find the heir and restore the throne. All of which was player suggested. DMing is never a chore with this game and I take an immense amount of delight out of just riffing off of whatever the hell they say. "Cool, so the plague only spreads to the dishonest and greedy? So which of you feels moral enough to head down there to get the treasure?" Benagain fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jun 23, 2013 |
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Jun 23, 2013 21:02
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Just ran a session with no preparation but a deck of tarot cards that ended with my players constructing a rube goldberg device to steal magic cocaine from a dragon. I love this loving game.
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Jun 24, 2013 07:43
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Androc posted:Just ran a session with no preparation but a deck of tarot cards that ended with my players constructing a rube goldberg device to steal magic cocaine from a dragon. How'd you use the tarot cards?
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Jun 24, 2013 08:00
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Mimir posted:How'd you use the tarot cards? It's part of the setting thing I'm working on- a way to create a plane of existence with five cards. In the current iteration, they refer to the general nature of the plane, its recent history, what's unique or interesting about it, the main threat to the PCs or the plane, and the hook that gets the PCs involved. The 'magic cocaine' thing actually came from a player, a Captain who decided that he was in the smuggling business. The specific spread I got for the plane gave me the idea of an extremely mercantile plane ruled by competing mercenary guilds that used the magic drug to both strengthen their soldiers and as a source of power and income in itself. A massive quantity of it that would completely destroy the market had been uncovered, and the players ended up competing with two rival airships seeking it out along with the (amorphous, liquid metal) dragon protecting it. Androc fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 08:09
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Androc posted:It's part of the setting thing I'm working on- a way to create a plane of existence with five cards. In the current iteration, they refer to the general nature of the plane, its recent history, what's unique or interesting about it, the main threat to the PCs or the plane, and the hook that gets the PCs involved. The 'magic cocaine' thing actually came from a player, a Captain who decided that he was in the smuggling business. Yeah that sounds basically amazing. I love running this game - in tonight's session, I had the party's Witch pull off her craziest stunt yet: quote:To explain, Eura (the party's Witch) just stole a finger from Zoraida, the strongest witch who ever lived, who lives in a giant spider named Richmond. Eura just dropped an explosion potion she tried to throw at Zoraida, and everyone exploded and fell over on the floor right by a giant cliff that goes all the way down to the open skies, and Zoraida caught up to them. Then this happened: So yeah. She stole the ring finger from what basically amounts to the god of witches, and escaped by sailing away on a glorified paper airplane, and she's gonna brew that finger into the strongest potion she's ever put together. I love this game. gnome7 fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 08:29
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I also played in a DW game recently. I played a dragon mage, puked up black stuff, and fell in a river. We can't all be winners.
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Jun 24, 2013 09:58
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Alright, I have a confession.  I've been running this game for something like four months, and I have no idea how a front works. I've pored over everything I can get my hands on and something is just not clicking. Can somebody explain this to me like I'm a grandma?
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Jun 24, 2013 16:14
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Let's just say that all that talk about the playbook market being saturated earlier in this thread wasn't loving kidding.
Androc fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Aug 10, 2017 |
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Jun 24, 2013 18:00
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EscortMission posted:Alright, I have a confession. A front is a dude or a bunch of dudes that wants a thing. Generally a bad thing. This thing is the front's impending doom. Maybe there's a thieves' guild who wants to take over a town. Maybe there's a rogue magician who's doing crazy experiments that will blanket the earth in demons. Maybe there's a gargoyle lairing near a peasant village that's going to kill a couple villagers and a bunch of sheep. All of these things are fronts. If the PCs don't do anything, the front's impending doom is going to come to pass. But along the way to that impending doom are grim portents - signs visible to the PCs that something is going wrong. A bunch of toughs shake down a merchant for protection money. A water demon bursts out of a well in the town square and starts wreaking havoc. Three sheep are found dead. That kind of thing. Introduce grim portents at your leisure, when the PCs stop for downtime or if it would make sense as a consequence when they honk a move. Fronts also often have custom moves associated with them, either narratively linked to the threat (and available to you as a GM move) or handling something the PCs do to confront them as a special case. These moves are not grim portents in their own right, though they can lead to them. The thieves' guild runs recon on the PCs as a threat. The rogue magician learns the true name of a demon too powerful for him to control. The gargoyle scars a shepherd who was trying to protect the sheep. Ultimately, a front is there to help with your bookkeeping, and provide a context for the moves you're making against the PCs.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:23
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Androc posted:Arcane Duelist is now up for sale. No fancy cover art this time- let's just say that all that talk about the playbook market being saturated earlier in this thread wasn't loving kidding. Yeah but are 90% of them even good? Seems might be better for something like a peer reviewed/SA compilation to just be released.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:45
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Glazius posted:A front is a dude or a bunch of dudes that wants a thing. Generally a bad thing. This thing is the front's impending doom. Maybe there's a thieves' guild who wants to take over a town. Maybe there's a rogue magician who's doing crazy experiments that will blanket the earth in demons. Maybe there's a gargoyle lairing near a peasant village that's going to kill a couple villagers and a bunch of sheep. All of these things are fronts. So, lemme try to make an example, to see if I'm doing this 100% right. If I'm going to run something based fairly closely on Die Hard, Hans Gruber and his men are the main Front. Their Impending Doom is "Break into the basement vault, take the money, and escape scot-free." Various grim portents might include "The douchebag yuppie coworker tries negotiating with the terrorists," "the giant german guy Karl shows up with breaking people in half on his mind," and "the power is turned off, unlocking the final lock on the vault." I'm not super sure on the last one, but the general idea is "these are used to break up the monotony when things need to start getting worse," right? Various custom moves might be "Send a goon to investigate," "Display command over the building's security systems," or "Announce that a hostage will be executed in the next sixty seconds unless a demand is met." They are kind of long move names, but they represent things that can be done fairly frequently in response to the party's actions. Is this about right or am I off base still?
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Jun 24, 2013 19:04
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I'll give an example of a Front in my game. There're those mysteriously appearing dungeons all over the world (which are actually their own mini-planes). Clearing them gives treasure, glory, and power. But they're actually a Front. First the PCs notice that the number of them is increasing over time, faster than they're getting cleared out. And then things like trading posts and towers start turning into dungeons. (Those're Grim Portents.) There's been talk of, essentially, planes or collections of planes that swallow up other planes. So, yeah, unless they do something about it, their world'll get swallowed up by dungeon-planes. (This is the Impending Doom.) But they've found that there's a 'heart' to the whole phenomenon and if they manage to get to it they might be able to do something to stop it. But that'll require mastering travel through the void between planes. Fortunately, by this point they already have most of the pieces necessary, including a claw so sharp that it can cut through anything including space itself. Basically, there's a major bad thing happening or going to happen, and as a part of that there're smaller things that provide warnings to the players. Often those smaller things can be thwarted, but their primary purpose's as warning signals for the players, so they can take action to stop the major bad thing. And even if the primary threat of a Front gets defeated, there can still be fallout. For example, there's currently a local civil war going on after the country's entire royal family got offed by this guy embodying another Front which the PCs defeated.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:32
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bewilderment posted:Experienced GMs for the game, how do you feel Dungeon World works with more horror-based fantasy? The continual ratcheting-up of tension on failures is one of the things that makes *World games great, but the 'downside' is that the game greatly encourages player input and making up their own established facts to add to the setting. It seems like that might interfere with the whole 'feel of the unknowable' things that a lot of good horror has going on. I think it can do it just fine. But I'm still going to mention tremulus. Which is apparently about to start shipping. I'm not sure when it will be available to buy to non-backers, though. It's another Apocalypse World hack with a good amount of differences, just like Dungeon World (but also fairly different from Dungeown World).
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Jun 24, 2013 20:01
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EscortMission posted:So, lemme try to make an example, to see if I'm doing this 100% right. The Impending Doom is the absolute last thing that happens: "get away scot-free with the money". "Break into the vault" is more along the lines of one of the portents. Probably the last one before the doom hits. But other than that, I think you've got it. If your players aren't on this board, you might want to post a current or past Front for feedback.
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Jun 24, 2013 23:09
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Wait a minute. Follow me on this one, and tell me if I'm on the right track. In addition to an adventure-planning tool, a Front is also mechanically something like an adventure-sized monster. Its Impending Doom is like its Instinct. Its Grim Portents are like some kind of adventure-sized moves to make the player's lives harder, and bring related custom movesets online. In fact you could just write a BBEG as a Front and not even have him physically show up til the Grim Portent "With a slow clap, BBEG physically shows up" activates. Then in the ensuing conflict, he would be some kind of double monster. Man this is some next level poo poo, I feel like I just had the mysteries of the pyramids explained to me. 
EscortMission fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 23:53
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Androc posted:Arcane Duelist is now up for sale. No fancy cover art this time- let's just say that all that talk about the playbook market being saturated earlier in this thread wasn't loving kidding. Hey Androc, Is it possible that the licence you've chosen is also having an effect? I know I'm more fanatical about these things than most, but I usually only buy CC Attribution or CC Attribution-ShareAlike licensed playbooks.
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Jun 25, 2013 11:08
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EscortMission posted:Wait a minute. I literally did that in one game I ran. The players were fighting a bad guy whose body was literally an entire plane of existence. So first they confront his various component beings. I wrote it up as follows: Front: Holy Tyrant's Ascent First Portent: The Barrier weakens as the god-monster touches it directly, making summoning extraplanar creatures easier. - When you summon a magical being, it appears without fail, but is extremely difficult to bind or control. (This was one that both antagonists and the PCs exploited a lot, but that's ok. I wanted them to think that this wasn't a bad thing initially.) Second Portent: War of the Kings breaks out, as literally every ruler who didn't have someone above him in his society's hierarchy declared war on someone. - When the locals become suspicious, they will send for the local ruler's soldiers. Third Portent: A World of Brass and Pitch - the world starts to become more like the plane that is the big bad. - When you undertake a journey into an area where summoning was common, the landscape slowly becomes the hellish cityscape of the Holy Tyrant's inner world. Fourth Portent: The Proclamation of Conquest - the King of the Gods descends to the mortal world to offer a magical crown of corroded brass to anyone who can claim it. - When you hear about the Crown of Glory, you instantly know who currently is your greatest rival for it. (Again, actually useful for the PCs, but that's OK.) Impending Doom: The Holy Tyrant's Ascent - At this point, the big bad appears in the real world, and it starts to rapidly become the World of Brass and Pitch. Note that this is the only point in this Front's progression where the Big Bad can be interacted with as a character. This section, too, has a move: - When you act to assert dominance while the Holy Tyrant is in the world, take a +1 to that action.
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Jun 25, 2013 13:36
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