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My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

I gave my players a blank map of the kingdom our game takes place in at the start, just the outline and one city a player had provided in his backstory, and said "alright, we need some geography and places of interest here, go nuts guys." Didn't get poo poo. I guess I'm unironically the shepherd.

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fosborb
Dec 15, 2006



Chronic Good Poster
Cold opening on a blank slate world without prompts is going to be as hard for everyone else as it is for a GM homebrewing their own setting. The only difference is the number of people sitting around staring at that blank piece of paper, trying to get their creativity into gear.

I've had more success saying things like "we need a mountain range, where is it?" especially when those kinds of questions happen part way through a session as the need arises, instead of everything decided up front.

CountingWizard
Jul 6, 2004

fosborb posted:

Cold opening on a blank slate world without prompts is going to be as hard for everyone else as it is for a GM homebrewing their own setting. The only difference is the number of people sitting around staring at that blank piece of paper, trying to get their creativity into gear.

I've had more success saying things like "we need a mountain range, where is it?" especially when those kinds of questions happen part way through a session as the need arises, instead of everything decided up front.

It helps alot too if you come up with a few randomized rules as guidelines, like: number of major civilizations, number of ancient civilizations, civilization levels for each, race of civilization, max populations, ethnic earth counterpart, etc. Just rolling those and fleshing out from there can do wonders. I also enjoy setting an overarching theme for the setting such as: low fantasy, high fantasy, alien fantasy, sci-fi, weird fantasy, historical fantasy, crime noir, steam punk, daft punk, cyberpunk.

Only the broad strokes of the world and its mythology needs to be determined at the beginning, and the adventures/modules/player interactions help fill out the details as you play.

karmicknight
Aug 21, 2011

fosborb posted:

I've had more success saying things like "we need a mountain range, where is it?" especially when those kinds of questions happen part way through a session as the need arises, instead of everything decided up front.

Asking leading questions is one of the GM's greatest friends in getting players to think creatively, I've found. So long as the GM is prompting the players into thinking, players usually are able to come up with stuff off the cuff and get it worked in by the rest of the group. Without the leading questions to guide the group onto the same page, everyone gets lost in their own interpretation and ideas, or finds that they can't come up with anything.

deadly_pudding
May 13, 2009

who the fuck is scraeming
"LOG OFF" at my house.
show yourself, coward.
i will never log off

CountingWizard posted:

It helps alot too if you come up with a few randomized rules as guidelines, like: number of major civilizations, number of ancient civilizations, civilization levels for each, race of civilization, max populations, ethnic earth counterpart, etc. Just rolling those and fleshing out from there can do wonders. I also enjoy setting an overarching theme for the setting such as: low fantasy, high fantasy, alien fantasy, sci-fi, weird fantasy, historical fantasy, crime noir, steam punk, daft punk, cyberpunk.

Only the broad strokes of the world and its mythology needs to be determined at the beginning, and the adventures/modules/player interactions help fill out the details as you play.

Similar guidelines are things along the lines of, "So, goblins. What are the goblins in this part of the world like, and where should their major settlements be?" If you're doing group worldbuilding, sometimes it can help to come up with an idea of what a culture is like, and therefore what its geographical placement should be (i.e., terrain preferences, near vs. far from human settlements, proximity to Bad Things, and so on).

So, if somebody wants goblins to be a PC race, maybe the answer is easy and goblins are more or less blended into human societies, and here are the stereotypes that they have to deal with:..

Pre-written campaign fixtures can be tweaked in this way, too. "A quite powerful vampire resides within this kingdom, and has a certain policy of mutually-assured destruction with the royal military. Which city is his castle uncomfortably close to?"

petrol blue
Feb 9, 2013

sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers
In our Dw campaign (as a player), I've come to dread the "So, what do you believe that's horribly inaccurate" and "Tell me, what's just gone hilariously wrong?". It's brilliant and torture at the same time.

E: was referring to GM prompts.

fosborb
Dec 15, 2006



Chronic Good Poster
Still lolling at the idea of rolling for "ethnic earth counterpart."

My savage/shamanistic, fantasy skin toned, reproduce-through-rape, no soul hulking monster orcs are... huh... 19th century Swedish-emigre Wisconsin farmers.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Collaborative world-building isn't just about getting your players together, putting a blank paper in the middle of the table and telling them to go hog wild. You have an intended setting in mind: tell the players what it is so to create an aligned limit on how monkey-cheese their suggestions will be!

Robin D Laws' HeroQuest posted:

Before creating your first characters, take a few moments to examine your favorite characters from fiction and the movies. Pick three or four characters you like and know well, perhaps from a variety of genres.

Before you start, your Narrator will provide you with a set of parameters to work within. You’ll learn about the setting in which your character operates, the tone of the stories he’ll feature in, and any limitations you’ll be expected to follow. The Narrator’s parameters will include most or all of the following points of information:

Genre

In a few short phrases, the Narrator will tell you what genre you’re playing in. Chances are you’ll recognize the reference points. If not, ask for examples of existing works from similar genres. Fun new settings can arise from the collision between genres:

• Pirates versus Zombies
• Yes Minister meets Starship Troopers
• Dickensian London with robots
• Anthropomorphic teen animals attending magic college

Setting

The setting tells you where the story will take place. It might be a familiar contemporary city, or a complete imagined world, ancient or futuristic.

Narrators often use existing settings, either from published roleplaying supplements, or favorite movies, TV shows, comics, or novels. If you’re familiar with the source material, the name of the property being used is often all the explanation you need.

On the other end of the spectrum, your Narrator may create an entirely new world with its own distinct themes, images and character abilities. If they work well, original settings make up in novelty what they lose in familiarity. They also give you, the player, more license to build elements into your Narrator’s creation.
A collaborative Narrator might let you flesh out your character’s tribe, nation, religion, or culture. The setting will suggest the sorts of characters you can play, which may be narrowed further by the series premise.

Mode

The Narrator should also indicate narrative mode of the upcoming series, so you can create a character that suits it. Your comic relief character won’t suit a grimly realistic portrayal of life on the streets; nor will an amoral mercenary fit in a world of nostalgic cliffhanger thrills. The mode is a narrative pattern from which the game draws its assumptions

The mode suggests elements to build into your character. A procedural demands professional competence. A parodic series encourages a series of absurdly named abilities.

Mode also suggests behavioral norms for the characters. Picaresque characters are supposed to be clever and waggish, and remain sympathetic even when they engage in a little larceny. Epic characters, by contrast, should be heightened in both their positive qualities and their tragic flaws.

Premise

The premise tells you what the PCs have in common, and either explains or implies a collective goal. It can be summed up in a formulaic sentence: The characters are X who do Y:

• The characters are members of a touring rock band continually drawn into supernatural mysteries.
• The characters are interstellar revenue officers assigned to patrol a lawless quadrant.
• The characters are either psychic warriors protecting mankind from extra-dimensional invasion, or hallucinating drug addicts in a deteriorating bungalow in Santa Ana, California; they’re never sure which is actually true.

Because the premise impinges the most on the characters’ identities and objectives, Narrators should be highly ready to modify it in response to player input. The Narrator may suggest a setting and then ask the group to collaboratively create the premise themselves. Or she might allow you to create a disparate team of PCs, place you in an environment, and let you create your own agenda in the course of the story.

Many existing settings imply a premise. Expect to be informed in advance if your Narrator intends to depart from the setting’s default premise.

Deific Presence
May 7, 2007

gradenko_2000 posted:

• The characters are either psychic warriors protecting mankind from extra-dimensional invasion, or hallucinating drug addicts in a deteriorating bungalow in Santa Ana, California; they’re never sure which is actually true.[/i]

I know what my next campaign is going to be. Suggestions for a system?

petrol blue
Feb 9, 2013

sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers
I've found dungeonworld lends itself to a slightly dreamlike "and then this happened" flow/feel, so maybe one of the Xworlds? Something light, so reactions to Weird aren't drowned in rules.

e: Isn't that basically the Metaplot Big Reveal of SLA industries, according to that leaked style-guide? Yep, but 'mad' instead of 'drugged' - it was the 90s.

quote:

That the World of Progress is the mental creation of an insane man named Brent Walker. The whole history of the WoP takes place in the instant Walker dies, and the main movers and shakers of the setting are all elements of Walker's psyche.

Slayer is Walker's conniving ego, Bitterness is his rage, and Intruder is his core personality. The Killneck are all friends of Walker's from the real world who somehow got into this.

The Stormers are infused with real souls, which is why they are strong. This is the purpose of the deathwake device (I think that's what its called).

Finally, Stigmartyr agents know a little about the truth, which is what makes them so badass- they're capable of Matrix-esque feats, but this gives them a short life span as it forces them to realize that they don't really exist.
:jerkbag:

This way of doing it was pretty drat self-indulgent, but I reckon it could totally be done well.

petrol blue fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Mar 10, 2015

DrOgreface
Jun 22, 2013

His Evil Never Sleeps
Ok, I'm wondering how people like to give out magic items/loot in a low magic DnD game. I'd like to have the notable loot found organically as part of story points (no magic shops), but I have 6 PCs. I don't them to always find caches of six magic items at a time. Are there good ways to dole out magic loot an item or two at a time without it seeming like any kind of favoritism is taking place?

Turtlicious
Sep 17, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I'm running a Sixthworld game. (Shadowrun DW-hack.)

I'm playing with people that want a lot of freedom but also need hand holding constantly. I end almost every sentence with "what do you do?" Or "what do you want" or "what do you think you'll need" and they always seem confused like they don't know or they'll turn the question back on me "well what should I do?" These are new players and they're having fun but I'm not having fun because I thrive on watching my players interact with each other.

They told me they like the bite sized mission a night thing instead of like an overarching plot. So I'm trying to accommodate that while also making a plot up for myself to enjoy. They don't like talking in character at all, so there is a lot of I lie to him, I tell him the truth, I introduce myself. Stuff like that. Back where I used to live I was running the game with an improv theatre group, so that might be a huge part of it. I feel like saying "I want you to act more," Would be messed up.

So on the one hand, I can just make things happen around them and they're cool with that, but on the other I'm not getting to watch a lot of the roleplaying that seems fun.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

DrOgreface posted:

Ok, I'm wondering how people like to give out magic items/loot in a low magic DnD game. I'd like to have the notable loot found organically as part of story points (no magic shops), but I have 6 PCs. I don't them to always find caches of six magic items at a time. Are there good ways to dole out magic loot an item or two at a time without it seeming like any kind of favoritism is taking place?

If it's a low magic game, then any items they find might not always be magical, or at least not so magical that they'd directly contribute to a character's combat stats. Something like an ever-filling canteen would already be a boon.

As well, most low-magic settings have ways to tweak the mechanics so that you don't need magic items to be able to keep up with monsters/combat, and then suggest alternate rewards: favors from powerful people or factions, gold as a means to drive change rather than to buy equipment, titles, influence, and so on.

Babylon Astronaut
Apr 19, 2012
I've ran all martial, magic is incredibly forbidden campaign (Madlands), and every magic item was reskinned to something non-magical. The +3 blackjack became a fish covered in glue that just knocked people the gently caress out left and right. Don't have 6 items in each cache, have 6 encounters. If someone really cares that someone else got a shiny half an hour before them, sever.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

DrOgreface posted:

Ok, I'm wondering how people like to give out magic items/loot in a low magic DnD game. I'd like to have the notable loot found organically as part of story points (no magic shops), but I have 6 PCs. I don't them to always find caches of six magic items at a time. Are there good ways to dole out magic loot an item or two at a time without it seeming like any kind of favoritism is taking place?

You could make the magic items singular, very unique ones. Potentially think of something that either benefits the group as a whole (the endless canteen mentioned) or something that could potentially benefit everyone, and have the players decide who deserves it. Or put one magic item (not all the time, either) among 5 other mundane but otherwise good items.

This is also a good way to tell which players are greedy and selfish fucktards who try to gobble up all the loot and get mad when someone else gets their shiny, so you can deal with them.

Golden Bee
Dec 24, 2009

I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.

Turtlicious posted:

I'm running a Sixthworld game. (Shadowrun DW-hack.)

So on the one hand, I can just make things happen around them and they're cool with that, but on the other I'm not getting to watch a lot of the roleplaying that seems fun.
What about Shadowrun is normal, and what's abnormal? Give them the strange AND the pedestrian, the 7/11 and the Rent-a-Police-Squadron.

When they say "I introduce myself", ask "What does that sound like?"
Then show you're listening, with things like: "You're telling him your full name?" or "Is Skyraider your codename?"
Make a meal of some things: "What do you feel about Skyraider using her full name? How do YOU introduce yourself, De'Shawn? Have you handled these sorts of missions before, Trainwrekk?"

Turn it around on'em. But if they're lost, go slow, and relate it to the real world. ("It's kind of a Cyberpunk McDonalds. Each of their machine pistols fires as fast as two AK-47s. Aluvio is the King of the projects, but the guy demanding payment from you is like a serf.")

Turtlicious
Sep 17, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I gave a character 1 xp for emoting, showing interest in something, and fleshing out her character. All of a sudden people started acting.

By the end one person was fake crying while she allowed her friend to stab her as pennance.

A weird game, but hey, they're interacting with each other.

fosborb
Dec 15, 2006



Chronic Good Poster
That's awesome. Good job!

Razorwired
Dec 7, 2008

It's about to start!
For filling out world maps I've involved the party and dice. I can't find the game that I took it from atm but I remember taking it from some ruleset. Depending on the size of the group their specific role varies. For an example I've broken down a three-person party into "roads" "obstacles" and "civilization""



Using a 10x10 grid I had "Roads go first" he rolled 2d10 and placed his tokens on the map. Say he rolls a 4 and a 6. 4 x 6 on the map now has a road token.

Next "Obstacles" Rolls. Say he gets 3 x 8. Places appropriately.

Then "Civilization". repeat.

I have all my players go until there's a reasonable amount of markers on the map. Then I let them design with a few rules in mind like "If two markers are adjacent, draw a circle around them to create one space"

Next we start to flesh out. "Roads" Has to draw lines that connect all their tokens to the "Civilization" spaces without going directly through "Obstacle" spaces. If two markers are adjacent, explain the relationship. If a "Roads" marker is next to an "Obstacle" it may be a tricky mountain pass, decrepit forest path, or other dangerous part of the road that adventurers may have to clear. Hell, maybe the first quest is to clear out a bandit camp or reactivate a ward in a subterranean highway in that spot. If "Obstacles" are near "Civilization" then maybe it's a town that's only reachable by a harbor or is surrounded by a wall because the local lord is a crazy rear end in a top hat. Roads+Civilization means a fuckton of people travel through the area or it's otherwise an important location for somebody. Maybe it's a pilgrimage site, if so, what's the significance of the pilgrimage? Is the Cleric on this journey? Is it a trade hub? Is the Rogue wanted for smuggling in this area?

If more than two tokens are close in an area you're probably looking at a capitol or otherwise key area to the campaign. 3+ areas are your Lonely Mountains, your Hogwarts' or your Kings Landings.

Does anyone else use a system like this for your rolling session? My parties have a lot of fun with making up the story of the world and it helps give them a sense of what they're doing without me having to drop exposition every time they walk into a town.

Spekhogger
Nov 13, 2013

Razorwired posted:

For filling out world maps I've involved the party and dice.

I've never done this, but goddamn do I love stuff like that. Number Appearing for Dungeon World had a similar-ish deal, where not only would everyone at the table make the world map around, but also their home dungeon where all their monstrous PCs live.

Fumaofthelake
Dec 30, 2004

Is it handsome in here, or is it just me?


Our group usually meets on Wednesdays but the 11th and 18th were no-gos and we weren't able to arrange an alternative date. All we're missing on the 18th is our DM and a couple other people asked me if we could still have a game night (we meet at my house even though I don't DM for us).

We're up to our eyeballs in board games and things but I thought it might be fun to do some kind of one-shot adventure since everyone is bummed about missing out on our campaign. I've never run a game before but I figure if things go south, no harm done since it's just one night and we have other things we can do.

I'm looking to run either 4e (since I already have source materials) or some other system that would be relatively easy to run even if I'm the only one with the pdf (something in the range of $20 for the core rules). I'll be pre generating the characters. I'll be inviting 5 people but only plan for 3 or 4 to show up.

Any suggestions?

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

13th Age could be fun. Easier to pick up on the fly than 4E, and with backgrounds and unique things, players can have some input on their pregens. You do the mechanical bits, they tell you who that wizard or ranger actually is, then you go on an adventure.

petrol blue
Feb 9, 2013

sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers
Dungeon World costs :10bux: for pdf. Easier to pick up on the fly than 13th Age, and with backgrounds and gear, players can have some input on their pregens. The game does the mechanical bits, they tell you who The Wizard or The Ranger (or Juggernaut or Mastermind) actually is, then you go on an adventure. :v:

The mechanic is 2d6 + stat, 10+ = success, 7-9 = success at a cost, 6- = get xp.

Very fast and fluid, great for one-shots. You could do pregens fine, but chargen only takes a couple of minutes.

petrol blue fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Mar 15, 2015

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora
You could try Last Stand (http://tinyurl.com/LastStandCollection) since it's free, very easy, and maybe you want something that's not just a slight variation on stabbing goblins for the thousandth time.

Heliotrope
Aug 17, 2007

You're fucking subhuman
Fiasco is pretty great for this. It's a GMless game for 3-5 players that emulates Cohen brothers films, requires no prep or set-up ahead of time, the pdf is $12 and you can just print out the Playset, Tilt, and Aftermath tables for everyone else. There's a whole bunch of free additional Playsets on their site, including a D&D parody called Dragon Slayers if you want to go with a twist on the traditional fantasy gaming.

petrol blue
Feb 9, 2013

sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers
Seconding this. Fiasco is amazing if you like Snatch, Lock Stock, or anything by the Cohens.

paradoxGentleman
Dec 10, 2013

wheres the jester, I could do with some pointless nonsense right about now

If the idea of roleplaying kids or teenagers and their reality bending monster friends appeals to you, then I suggest trying Monsters and Other Childish Things. The pdf costs 15 bucks, the system is simple and it's the RPG manual that I have had the most pleasure reading.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/51541/Monsters-and-Other-Childish-Things-Completely-Monstrous-Edition

E: I also find the pre-gen characters to be incredibly charming, but that's just my opinion.

paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Mar 16, 2015

Lucky Guy
Jan 24, 2013

TY for no bm

I have a plot point that I wanted to see if anyone else could improve on.

Lord Harconus is an evil cutthroat merchant with a very good reputation in the community for his civic spirit and charitable works. He'll do anything for money and power, but he values his image greatly, so he goes to great pains to make sure none of his schemes can be linked back to him. In the PCs backstories before the campaign began, Harconus hired some thugs to harass a small village of free peasants, with the goal of either driving them off the land so he could claim it, or turning them into serfs under his control. The mayor of the village was in on the plot, presumably he would have gotten some reward for his help. However, one of the PCs, Udett, drove off the thugs before they could intimidate the villagers. Another of the PCs, Flynn, broke into the mayor's house while this happened and stole *something* that could incriminate Harconus. Flynn handed the stolen item to his father, a member of the thieves guild. Now his father is trying to blackmail Harconus with the evidence, and Harconus has used his political influence to declare war on the thieves guild, hoping to eliminate them before the evidence gets out.

The question is, what is this incriminating evidence? Currently I'm leaning towards a set of deeds drawn up by the crooked village mayor that would give Harconus ownership of the lands, but dated before the thugs attacked - the mayor was greedy and stupid. It seems like it would be easy for Harconus to just state that these are forgeries made by the thieves guild to slander him - that's one of the reasons he made a very public first move against the guild, to poison the well against anything they might say. Any ideas?

Deltasquid
Apr 10, 2013

awww...
you guys made me ink!


THUNDERDOME
Maybe Harconus had a signed contract with the mayor promising some far-off land as a deal sweetener? He could still state that they're forgeries but they have his signature on them, and Harconus would have to prevent an expert from checking the validty of the documents.

You can make it extra fun by involving a third party, like the King's notaries, trying to pin Harconus for fraud and eliminate the thieves guild as well. They'd certainly be interested in a shady deal that attracts so much buzz in the underworld.

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost
Could be that the Mayor had suspected Harkonus was going to betray him and had dug up some dirt on Harkonus as an insurance policy.

That dirt can then be pretty much anything, depending on how you figure the justice system works in your world and what would be admissible as evidence. Hell, it could even be the contract Harkonus signed with a devil to grant him riches and power or something metaphysical like that.

Megaman's Jockstrap
Jul 16, 2000

What a horrible thread to have a post.
I also think the thieves guild trying to go public with anything is just silly in my mind. They're thieves! Nobody is going to to trust a word they say! It would be better if Harkonus was trying to intercept and destroy the evidence before the thieves guild got it vetted and turned over to a trustworthy source (I assume the thieves guild is not a big fan of an rear end in a top hat who doesn't work with them and squeezes the common man) rather than "declaring war on a guild who specializes at not being located or caught". A bit like the War on Terrorism, that.

The evidence should be an insurance policy from the mayor - perhaps some correspondence with one of Harkonus's black sheep relatives who comes right out and says that he can't wait to be Senschal of Mudsville whatever after Uncle Harky takes over the town. And it's sealed/signed with the Harkonus crest. Not great but not airtight. So now we have a couple of interests at play:

Harkonus
The Mayor, who certainly doesn't want it known that he's got insurance on Harkonus
Harkonus's dumb family member, who will certainly renounce his letter and so may need to be persuaded (either with favor or with scares) that he should come clean
The Thieves Guild, who just wants to ruin Harkonus (maybe they're after the family member too, and they're not gonna be nice about it?)
The PCs, who know Harkonus is a piece of poo poo.

Let it rip, see how it shakes out? IDK hope this helps. The nice thing is that this sets up the PCs to be visited by three or four different people that all want the letter or protection from the letter's fallout.

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost
Ooh, what if the McGuffin the mayor had was a copy of Harkonus's ledger? Not the one he shows the taxman, but the actual ledger, showing money coming in from his various schemes and extortions and being used to fund mercenaries and assassins -- as well as where the profits have been hidden. It's not a problem for Harkonus because it points to any one particular crime -- it's a problem for him because anyone armed with it has a complete roadmap of the workings of his criminal empire.

Lucky Guy
Jan 24, 2013

TY for no bm

The idea of the mayor proactively gathering dirt on Harconus is a good one - he originally was just dumb enough to have incriminating evidence, but I like the idea of him being cunning enough to try and cover his own rear end. I already killed the mayor off, thinking that Harconus did it to cover his tracks and made it look like a natural death, but the players have only heard rumors. I can easily change that into the mayor faking his own death to go into hiding, especially after thieves stole his insurance policy.

I also like the idea of the ledger copy; it opens the option of digging into all those various schemes.

Thanks!

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

I like the ledger a lot. If there's one place you don't want that thing to end up, it's in the hands of the thieves guild which you haven't been cutting in on your stuff.

I'm trying to pull the old "you're trapped in an illusion without realizing" trick on my party. The situation is, they're acting as sort-of bounty hunters, and their prey is stuck inside his own dreamworld so they have to get in there and snap him out of it. They'll get the attention of some dream spirit or something along the way, it makes them believe they wake up while they're actually still asleep, and from then on it's just business as usual until they figure it out.

Two issues I'm having. First, delivering their prey is going to be the conclusion of a long storyarc, and they'll want to do it right after they wake up. Foolishly, I've established they can contact their employer at a moment's notice, and he's a powerful dragon who can most certainly be there in a jiffy. So they wake up and do that, and then they go on their merry way, except when they for real wake up later they're going to have to do it again and it'll lose its punch.
(Actually just typing that out I think I've figured out a solution, when they contact the dragon after "waking up" they get a response of "meet me at such-and-such two days away" and boom, there's a convenient excuse to have them travel around a bit more and introduce some clues that things are off. So that's that sorted out, I think.)

Second, and this is more of a playstyle thing, my players are pretty genre-savvy. Also, paranoid. If they hear "you'll fall asleep and explore the dreamworld" there's about an 80% chance they'll immediately say "let's make super double sure we're actually awake again when we think we're awake again" and, I dunno, set up some ridiculous contraption. 50% they're actually going to leave one of their own behind to make super double extra sure even if it means that player misses out on all the dreamworld adventures. Anyway: obviously I do want them to figure it out and get one over on that dream spirit, but it would be really cool if they didn't just immediately jump to the conclusion when they hear the setup and happen to be right about it. Particularly because one PC is all about the dreamworld and I'd like to have some stuff happen for her during the trip (also so those X hours of illusion adventuring aren't just a waste).

petrol blue
Feb 9, 2013

sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers
If you don't want to say 'you fall asleep and have a dream', disguise it some - they get there by meeting a wise old shaman who feeds them a shitload of drugs, locks them in a sweat lodge, and leads them into 'the spirit realm'.

To help them (slowly) realise it's a dream - they keep rolling for things, but everything starts becoming easier and easier. Have lower rolls start working out for them, make everything work out better and better, and eventually they're just saying "I'm kinda hungry" and a boar runs out of the forest and keels over in front of them. That big bad you foreshadowed five sessions ago? Turns out they're the solution to every PC's plot hooks, all of them, all at once. And then everyone stands up and cheers.

I'm thinking similar to Better Than Life (from Red Dwarf) - they start getting everything they want, but it becomes meaningless because of how easy it is, until they reject it.

e: If they're abusing genre knowledge, do it too (in this case only): they question how easy that roll was, you admit to the mistake, and have the monster knock off a token amount of hp. Do everything they suggest until they question it.

Having said that, you need the group's trust if you're doing something like that - for a group you don't know well, that might come off as abusing OC info and encouraging them to do the same. What does the thread reckon?

petrol blue fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Mar 18, 2015

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

If they try to leave someone behind to wake them up, the best way to do it is to "force the issue" and prevent them from realizing that they even entered a dream. Like the aforementioned "drugs and sweat lodge" idea. You do something where they get drugged or knocked out and it's not explicitly mentioned that they lost consciousness. Remember that when you fall asleep, you don't notice the moment it happened or have a memory of it occurring. Your brain just shifts straight into its own little world as far as you're concerned. If they're doing some kind of task when it happens (especially a boring one), they could slip right into unconsciousness with little to no notice. Even the person who might ostensibly get left behind as a precaution could be knocked out and have little memory of what happened.

Wapole Languray
Jul 4, 2012

I've been trying to get into an online RPG for so long that I decided to say gently caress-it and run my own. Going with Dungeon World, and while prep is STRONGLY DISCOURAGED, I'd figure as a first-time GM; and likely to be running with firsttime players IE some random jackholes on the internet I figured starting the game with a basic "seed" plot for the first session to jumpstart the adventure, have some action in between character/setting development, let the players learn the rules/flow of the game, and finally sorta imprint the kind of "feel" I'd like to GM to sorta establish a starting point.

What I've got so far is:

The players start waking up in a ship's brig, with a portly pirate looking guy standing on the other side of the bars. Said portly-pirate will explain the situation: They got slipped some drugged booze and were shanghaied onto this boat: The ship of the dread pirate Torchbeard! Said portly-pirate will introduce himself as First Mate Gibson, and make a deal with the players: Everyone on the ship hates Torchbeard, him being a greedy, murderous, and just plain mean. But, they're too afraid to mutiny. So, in exchange for letting the players out, and giving them all their gear back (He obviously has it with him in a pile) they, being heavily armed badasses, give Torchbeard the boot.

This will lead into a combat on a pirate ship, a good introduction to how the game plays, with Torchbeard who's an Orc who does the Blackbeard thing but more insane, using magic beard oil to make his beard catch fire while striding into battle. So, crazy flaming Orc pirate and a handful of loyal mooks Vs. the players. Obviously they're free to come up with other ways to get rid of him.

If they succeed (they will), the ship will be at their disposal to do... whatever. If they want to be "Captains" of the ship and use it to sail about having adventures, great! If not, then Gibson is more than happy to let them off at the nearest port with a goodly bit of Loot as a reward for helping out. If the players seem... indecisive then Gibson recruits them into helping the crew get their precious Pirate Loot back, which that rear end in a top hat Torchbeard has hidden in an ancient trap-filled monster infested temple on a desert island. This would be a pretty obvious "PLOT AND LOOT OVER HERE" thing to help keep the game moving.

Is that too much planning? Just wanted something to give the very start a bit of structure, and give an idea of tone and theme for the game, while easily leading into whatever other kind of story the players would want, with the out of PIRATE TREASURE if they don't have a better idea.

petrol blue
Feb 9, 2013

sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers

Wapole Languray posted:

Is that too much planning? Just wanted something to give the very start a bit of structure,

It sounds pretty cool, as long as you're flexible about abandoning the plan if they want to do other things.

E: Torchbeard is cool. Check out Inverse World, iirc it has a few boat/sailing related playbooks: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?cdbi5ol0y8jha67

petrol blue fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Mar 18, 2015

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

petrol blue posted:

If you don't want to say 'you fall asleep and have a dream', disguise it some - they get there by meeting a wise old shaman who feeds them a shitload of drugs, locks them in a sweat lodge, and leads them into 'the spirit realm'.

chitoryu12 posted:

Remember that when you fall asleep, you don't notice the moment it happened or have a memory of it occurring. Your brain just shifts straight into its own little world as far as you're concerned.
That's exactly how I set it up already. :) I did mention it was about their prey's dream explicitly, because I wasn't planning ahead that far. The dreamworld is so far removed from where they are right now that they're sure to notice. I was going to have a short sequence where they set up for the trip, the shaman does a brief guided meditation thing, and *snap* they're in the middle of the dream situation, but I could probably skip the introduction and start right with the *snap*. So they do their thing in the target's dreamworld, and when they "wake up" it's a different kind of dream designed by the spirit to keep them docile. Things working out unexpectedly good for them was what I was planning as a clue so that all seems like it would work fine. And when they wake up for real they remember drinking the shaman's brew, his soothing voice etc.

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Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

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Nap Ghost
Dungeon World tends to be at its weakest when the PCs have to think of something, and at it's strongest when the players have to think of something. I would recommend:

* Ask the players how their characters came to be on the boat

* Ask the players what Torchbeard did to them specifically to earn their ire

* Ask the players what has stopped them mutinying so far, and what is happening now to give them that opportunity.

If you're concerned they'll not be able to answer, come up with three canned answers on your own for each, and if they struggle to come up with something give them a choice of three.

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