Dungeon World Thread (Messy, Forceful, Stunning)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Dungeon World Thread (Messy, Forceful, Stunning)

Strom Cuzewon: Jul 1, 2010

I have the reverse problem, the group I'm DMing for has a DnD guy who really really wants initiative. And attack rolls for enemies. (Although that was largely my fault for how I was handling groups of enemies. I've now been treating groups as their own thing, instead of three things, and it's been much better)

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

I made a new playbook, The Hexer, which is basically just a Witcher with the serial numbers filed off. I'm pretty proud of the way I handled oils and potions (like spells, prepared on rests and with a new one learned every level), and it comes with a new death move

That's pretty neat, but the serial numbers are very much left on. I do like the oils though.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 14:29

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 09:54

Tevery Best: Oct 11, 2013; Hewlo Furriend

Boing posted:

Some more progress:

I also want to add a Make Port move, to supplement the players' Make Camp move, where you can repair half the ship's damage if you spend a day moored near land, and all the ship's damage if you're in a proper harbour)

I'm happier with Batten Down the Hatches this way, and it ties into the Jury Rigging advance, but right now Anchors Aweigh is pretty awkward, because "you have to stop for provisions" doesn't mesh with provisions being an actual Ration-like item that you have. I'm also not sure about making the players choose between danger and slow-going - how does the move look with just those two options? Should there be a third one? Should it be 'choose only on a 7-9', or the GM always choosing?

Should Scurvy Dogs be more general? Boarding action is pretty specific and is restricted to the pirate lifestyle, and you probably want a move for having your crew deal with fighting sea monsters or whatever.

e: Also, thoughts on replacing all instances of 'Your ship' with 'You', i.e., 'You are fearsomely bedecked with cannons'? Too weird, or just right?

If you're going for keeping track of different munitions, how about heated shot? Deadly, prone to failure, requires extensive preparation. Perfect for an advanced move.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 14:47

Demon_Corsair: Mar 22, 2004; Goodbye stealing souls, hello stealing booty.

Strom Cuzewon posted:

I have the reverse problem, the group I'm DMing for has a DnD guy who really really wants initiative. And attack rolls for enemies. (Although that was largely my fault for how I was handling groups of enemies. I've now been treating groups as their own thing, instead of three things, and it's been much better)

One of my favorite battles I ran in dw was against a swarm of goblins who I decided attacked like waves, they would flow in and crash against an enemy and then rush out.

I used the group rules from the dm guide (I think) so instead of the PCs rolling damage they just rolled how many they killed.

They didn't actually do enough damage to hurt the paladin so I just pinned him down under 30 or so of the little bastards and them gleefully start sawing away at the straps that help his armor together.

... drat I miss this game. The way combat flow is just the best.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 15:34

Blasphemeral: Jul 26, 2012; Three mongrel men in exchange for a party member? I found that one in the Faustian Bargain Bin.

Azran posted:

Remember that game of races-as-classes I mentioned a while back? Boy oh boy is it turning to be one hell of a ride....

... awful poo poo...

...in his words, "whoop their asses". It's like RPGs bring out the very worst in him.

And every now and then he wonders why I skip RPG nights.

Azran posted:

I just got told my character became mute during the session I was absent and its permanent and we are using 10+con mod for hp instead of straight stat so we can actually die

Ugh

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

why are you in this group

UrbanLabyrinth posted:

I'm wondering why you ever attend RPG nights.

Heliotrope posted:

Did this guy save you and now you owe him a life debt or something because goddamn why are you still playing with him?

I was about to say this. You shouldn't be in this group. No one should be in this group. Even if they happen to like the choices he's made, this is a bad experience.

Either the guy needs to learn what it means to be a GM (spoilers: it's not playing god, no matter how boring of a god he wants to play) or he needs to lose players.

If you want to be a real cool bro, you can even point out to him what he's doing wrong.

Azran posted:

I got bait and switched into thinking this would be DW. I'm in the middle of the session - we are making spot-checks btw, he thinks Discern Realities and anything that forces the gm to answer questions is kinda too OP.

We are using a grid for movement and we have to defy danger whenever we move around a city to paasively avoid ambushes

... wait... are you trolling us, now? I'm feeling like you're trolling us now.

And if not, you should absolutely point out, before you storm away from the table in a cloud of fire and smoke, that this is not DW you are "playing". Don't let the other players think that this is how it's supposed to be.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 16:20

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Strom Cuzewon posted:

That's pretty neat, but the serial numbers are very much left on. I do like the oils though.

I never said I was good at filing off serial numbers :shrug:

Glad you like it though!

# ? Feb 17, 2017 16:25

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Ilor posted:

This is actually one of my problems with DW (vice AW proper): it's get just enough of the lovely cruft of D&D to fool people into entirely missing the point of how PbtA games are supposed to work. This game that Azran is in sounds like straight-up fodder for the cat-piss thread.

Yeah, that's my big issue with it too, especially as a gateway into PBTA/other similar storygamish types of things. I think it's probably reasonably solid if you're coming at it from an AW background, but so many people aren't.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 18:34

Strom Cuzewon: Jul 1, 2010

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

I never said I was good at filing off serial numbers Glad you like it though!

One of my players is using The Slayer that forums user Boing and I made, also broadly based on the Witcher, and I really want to slam The Hexer moves into that

One of the things we struggled with was the preparation side of witchering, and our bodge of Readiness never felt very satisfying, so the oils and potions would be a pretty sweet substitute for that.

Strom Cuzewon fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Feb 17, 2017

# ? Feb 17, 2017 19:42

Azran: Sep 3, 2012; And what should one do to be remembered?

Blasphemeral posted:

Ugh

I was about to say this. You shouldn't be in this group. No one should be in this group. Even if they happen to like the choices he's made, this is a bad experience.

Either the guy needs to learn what it means to be a GM (spoilers: it's not playing god, no matter how boring of a god he wants to play) or he needs to lose players.

If you want to be a real cool bro, you can even point out to him what he's doing wrong.

... wait... are you trolling us, now? I'm feeling like you're trolling us now.

And if not, you should absolutely point out, before you storm away from the table in a cloud of fire and smoke, that this is not DW you are "playing". Don't let the other players think that this is how it's supposed to be.

Not trolling, just sharing the pain/doing some catharsis, let's say. I respectfully asked to be excluded from any future sessions which came as a shocker for them. They said I was too hung-up on what DW was supposed to be like and that the other players agreed that the rules as written didn't do enough to force players to earn their fun. Case in point, EXP on a miss.
I talked to the rest of the group who weren't part of the campaign but who expressed interest in trying DW out at some point. This a 10 person group and it was only 5 of them playing yesterday's game because the rest of the group are spread out throughout the country and we only get together during the winter and summer holidays. Luckily, 6 of us want to try actual, proper DW instead of the fiasco I endured and the person who wants to DM next actually approached me saying "hey so, how do I not gently caress up like the previous DM did; how do I play this right" so I think this ended up being a good thing.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 20:13

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Strom Cuzewon posted:

One of my players is using The Slayer that forums user Boing and I made, also broadly based on the Witcher, and I really want to slam The Hexer moves into that

One of the things we struggled with was the preparation side of witchering, and our bodge of Readiness never felt very satisfying, so the oils and potions would be a pretty sweet substitute for that.

One thing that always comes up in almost any game is trying to make a player as prepared as their character would be. I ripped off Gumshoe for that Prepared move that I think sorta works to help with that in addition to the oils and potions as spells thing

# ? Feb 17, 2017 20:16

Arkanomen: May 6, 2007; All he wants is a hug

quote:

Force players to earn their fun

I know this is a toxic mentality common in the gaming world but holy gently caress is it the opposite of everything DW stands for. A game should be inherently fun and if people aren't allowed to have fun they why the hell are you playing it.

# ? Feb 17, 2017 20:45

Duct Tape: Sep 30, 2004; Huh?

What's a good way of driving the "no turn order" aspect of combat? Years of PnP RPGs have engrained combat turn orders into everyone's head. Meaning everyone (including myself as the GM) falls into a "whose turn is it" mindset, and so combat always winds up following a specific turn order.
Even pointing out that turn order isn't a thing, I'll get pushback from the table that "the Bard hasn't gone in a while, he should go next! Bard, how are you chipping in?"

This is never a problem outside of combat, as everyone is much more accustomed to a more free-for-all, narrative-driven gameplay when just roleplaying their characters. It's only in combat that this happens.

I don't want to perpetually pick-and-choose who takes actions when during combat. But if I don't then the table will, without exception, fall into this pattern. Any tips?

# ? Feb 18, 2017 11:58

Wrestlepig: Feb 25, 2011; my mum says im cool; Toilet Rascal

I try to keep track of how many times someone does a move, and then work to keep it fairly even. It's really drat hard to balance that stuff though, especially with varying levels of enthusiasm.

# ? Feb 18, 2017 12:26

Boing: Jul 12, 2005; trapped in custom title factory, send help

Fellowship is excellent for many reasons, but one of them is that it really talks explicitly about this sort of thing. In the same way that Dungeon World codifies the assumptions behind good GMing practice and turns them into actual rules, Fellowship goes further and codifies the assumptions behind those assumptions.

Fellowship posted:

After Setting the Stakes, it is time to take action, and the Spotlight begins to swing around the table. The Spotlight is like the turn order of the game, but unlike in many other games, this turn order is not rigid or fixed. The Spotlight is flexible, and it goes where it needs to be. Pass the Spotlight to whoever has an idea, to start with, and then swivel it around to everyone else as the danger warrants.

When someone is in danger, they get the Spotlight to tell us how they deal with that.
When someone hasn't done something in a while, they get the Spotlight to tell us what they've been up to while everyone else has been so busy.
When someone has an idea, leaps into action, speaks for the group, or generally does anything noteworthy, they get the Spotlight.
When someone's own actions put them directly into danger, they LOSE the Spotlight, leaving their moment on a cliffhanger. The Overlord will tell you who gets the Spotlight next.

Don't let anyone keep the Spotlight for too long (unless the situation really warrants it, which it will, every once in a while), and be sure to share the Spotlight often, and with everyone. The Overlord is in charge of directing the Spotlight, and that can be a heavy responsibility. Most of the game will be played during Spotlight Time, so managing the Spotlight is extremely important.

When a player has the Spotlight, they will describe what they are doing, and the Overlord will describe how the world reacts to their actions. It is a dialogue, where both players speak back and forth until something has happened. When the player has had a long enough moment in the Spotlight, or when the danger shifts elsewhere, or when another player has something to do, or when it would make a good cliffhanger, move the Spotlight to someone else and continue from there.

# ? Feb 18, 2017 13:04

Glazius: Jul 22, 2007; Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.; Clapping Larry

Duct Tape posted:

What's a good way of driving the "no turn order" aspect of combat? Years of PnP RPGs have engrained combat turn orders into everyone's head. Meaning everyone (including myself as the GM) falls into a "whose turn is it" mindset, and so combat always winds up following a specific turn order.
Even pointing out that turn order isn't a thing, I'll get pushback from the table that "the Bard hasn't gone in a while, he should go next! Bard, how are you chipping in?"

This is never a problem outside of combat, as everyone is much more accustomed to a more free-for-all, narrative-driven gameplay when just roleplaying their characters. It's only in combat that this happens.

I don't want to perpetually pick-and-choose who takes actions when during combat. But if I don't then the table will, without exception, fall into this pattern. Any tips?

Maybe try and run combats where other things are also happening, so it makes more sense to shift focus off of or onto people for a longer period of time?

Also, try to never leave somebody in "a safe place" during a combat, even if they rolled a 12 and blew through whatever it was they were immediately trying to kill. Everyone should be aware of the peril they're all in, so it's never that the Bard just "hasn't contributed" for a while. If they think you've left the Bard cliff-hanging for too long and want some resolution, that's fine!

Do break order yourself, you're allowed. "Fuckin' A, Fightgar, you dropped that wall right on top the ogre! But now the goblins can't get to you so they come scrambling around the rubble and fixate on the first thing they see. Oh dear, Bardington, how you dealin' with this?"

# ? Feb 18, 2017 18:38

madadric: May 18, 2008; Such a BK.

Duct Tape posted:

What's a good way of driving the "no turn order" aspect of combat? Years of PnP RPGs have engrained combat turn orders into everyone's head. Meaning everyone (including myself as the GM) falls into a "whose turn is it" mindset, and so combat always winds up following a specific turn order.
Even pointing out that turn order isn't a thing, I'll get pushback from the table that "the Bard hasn't gone in a while, he should go next! Bard, how are you chipping in?"

This is never a problem outside of combat, as everyone is much more accustomed to a more free-for-all, narrative-driven gameplay when just roleplaying their characters. It's only in combat that this happens.

I don't want to perpetually pick-and-choose who takes actions when during combat. But if I don't then the table will, without exception, fall into this pattern. Any tips?

Definitely provide more than one source of danger, or point of interest. I like to move the spotlight around the table very frequently, if a player wants to discern realities about a dangerous situation, I'll say "sure, If only you could get a moment to study the situation without getting blasted by the lichs necromantic ray. Is anyone nearby and have an idea?"

# ? Feb 18, 2017 23:27

Blasphemeral: Jul 26, 2012; Three mongrel men in exchange for a party member? I found that one in the Faustian Bargain Bin.

Azran posted:

Not trolling, just sharing the pain/doing some catharsis, let's say. I respectfully asked to be excluded from any future sessions which came as a shocker for them. They said I was too hung-up on what DW was supposed to be like and that the other players agreed that the rules as written didn't do enough to force players to earn their fun. Case in point, EXP on a miss.
I talked to the rest of the group who weren't part of the campaign but who expressed interest in trying DW out at some point. This a 10 person group and it was only 5 of them playing yesterday's game because the rest of the group are spread out throughout the country and we only get together during the winter and summer holidays. Luckily, 6 of us want to try actual, proper DW instead of the fiasco I endured and the person who wants to DM next actually approached me saying "hey so, how do I not gently caress up like the previous DM did; how do I play this right" so I think this ended up being a good thing.

That's great!

Arkanomen posted:

I know this is a toxic mentality common in the gaming world but holy gently caress is it the opposite of everything DW stands for. A game should be inherently fun and if people aren't allowed to have fun they why the hell are you playing it.

Yeah; like, what the hell, right? I've seen this all over the place, and I think it comes down to some sort of elitism that arises from people suffering through lovely GMs, lovely game systems, and lovely groups. These people seem to feel like they need to inflict that on the next generations, too, because :bahgawd:

dagnabbit, everyone should have to suffer like they did. It builds character!
gently caress that bullshit.

# ? Feb 20, 2017 19:22

Covok: May 27, 2013; Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

Azran posted:

I got bait and switched into thinking this would be DW. I'm in the middle of the session - we are making spot-checks btw, he thinks Discern Realities and anything that forces the gm to answer questions is kinda too OP.

We are using a grid for movement and we have to defy danger whenever we move around a city to paasively avoid ambushes

This reminds me of my former roommate. He wanted to run Dungeon World so I loaned him the files and offered him the book. He refused to take the book and basically confidently said he didn't need it. I tried to, probably more than neccesarily in hindsight, explain why this was silly and that he should just take the book and read it. He refused again and I later got stories of people getting tons of +1 magic items to balance out the monster's AC and make it easier to fight the creature with 100+ HP as well as a d100 table for weird mutations, among other fuckeries that made me go "why not just run actual Dungeons and Dragons, any edition, instead? It's closer to what you actually want."

# ? Feb 20, 2017 20:25

Overemotional Robot: Mar 16, 2008; Robotor just hasn't been the same since 9/11...

D&D breaks people's brains.

# ? Feb 21, 2017 14:40

Golden Bee: Dec 24, 2009; I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.

"I had a good time, but our party ended up with a dozen Forewards +1."

# ? Feb 22, 2017 02:36

Overemotional Robot: Mar 16, 2008; Robotor just hasn't been the same since 9/11...

My spiral towards rules-lite games went from burning out on D&D to 13th Age (which I ran with an awesome goon group) to DW. Never looked back.

Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Feb 22, 2017

# ? Feb 22, 2017 03:01

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

I tried my hand at writing an adventure for DW. One thing I noticed when researching was people were really bad at the "Make Maps, Leave Blanks" thing so I tried to make up for that by having a section for every scene covering Blanks to fill in or have your players address.

This is probably the most time I've spend making an RPG thing, and some of you might have actually played this if you've played with me at GenCon before.I didn't realize when linking Hexer that DriveThru just auto adds it to your cart if you click on a discount link so I'll seperate them, here's the special discount link

I also just finished one that's basically Pokemon/SMT with some freaky soul-eating, spiritual shaman stuff going on. The Soul Tamer

Nemesis Of Moles fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Mar 5, 2017

# ? Feb 28, 2017 23:46

Everything Counts: Oct 10, 2012; Don't "shhh!" me, you rich bastard!

The appearance of D&D in Stranger Things has led my wife to admit she always wanted to play but never felt she had a good way to get into it. So tomorrow I'll be running Dungeon World for her and our son, who's 8. It's been years since I've ran a game or even played regularly outside of PBP so I'm fairly rusty. I'll be running a fairly basic plot--find a missing trader, then track the orcs who stole his shipment--but I want to be sure there's enough buy-in that they'll want to come back for more.

My plan is for them to both earn a minor magic item when they beat the orcs, since we all love loot. For the wife's druid I came up with a spear that will return to her hand when it is successfully thrown at a target. The kid plays a paladin and I want to give him a shield that, when he's using the Defend move to protect someone, will automatically use the "deal damage to the attacker equal to your level" option without spending Hold.

I'm worried they might be overpowered (the shield especially) but I have reasons for coming up with them. The kid really liked the idea of being a defender of the weak but he's new to roleplaying, so I figure having his shield do that would remind/encourage him to Defend. But the shield will increase in power as he does, unless I cap it; I don't know yet if that's a feature rather than a bug. And the teleporting spear mitigates a lot of the risk inherent in throwing it, but to my wife the shapeshifting is the main draw of the druid so I don't even know how much the spear will come in to play. What do you guys think; should I tone these down or am I over-thinking it?

# ? Mar 10, 2017 22:24

ImpactVector: Feb 24, 2007; HAHAHAHA FOOLS!!
I AM SO SMART!

Uh oh. What did he do now?; Nap Ghost

Everything Counts posted:

The appearance of D&D in Stranger Things has led my wife to admit she always wanted to play but never felt she had a good way to get into it. So tomorrow I'll be running Dungeon World for her and our son, who's 8. It's been years since I've ran a game or even played regularly outside of PBP so I'm fairly rusty. I'll be running a fairly basic plot--find a missing trader, then track the orcs who stole his shipment--but I want to be sure there's enough buy-in that they'll want to come back for more.

My plan is for them to both earn a minor magic item when they beat the orcs, since we all love loot. For the wife's druid I came up with a spear that will return to her hand when it is successfully thrown at a target. The kid plays a paladin and I want to give him a shield that, when he's using the Defend move to protect someone, will automatically use the "deal damage to the attacker equal to your level" option without spending Hold.

I'm worried they might be overpowered (the shield especially) but I have reasons for coming up with them. The kid really liked the idea of being a defender of the weak but he's new to roleplaying, so I figure having his shield do that would remind/encourage him to Defend. But the shield will increase in power as he does, unless I cap it; I don't know yet if that's a feature rather than a bug. And the teleporting spear mitigates a lot of the risk inherent in throwing it, but to my wife the shapeshifting is the main draw of the druid so I don't even know how much the spear will come in to play. What do you guys think; should I tone these down or am I over-thinking it?

I'd maybe change the spear to have a number of charges, such that it has the Ammo:3ish property, that recharges when they make camp. That'll interact better with how Volley works.

The shield is pretty nuts. I'd maybe come up with something that gives him an extra option that he can spend hold on for a defend. Maybe "it flashes brilliantly for a moment, briefly stunning those in front of it".

Giving someone +numbers or automatic things on any move is a pretty sure way to break the game over their knee.

As far as the story goes, it looks like a solid intro. Should be fine for getting back into the swing of things.

But personally, I like to let the players have more input into the initial scenario. Have you read the First Session section? It has some really good advice.

Riffing off of what you have, maybe you start them in media res. "While you're on your way to the next town (details to be determined later), you crest a hill. Suddenly, you see a man running out of the nearby woods. He's being chased by something! What dangerous monster is chasing him?"

Then you riff off of whatever they give you. From there it's good to have a few ideas. The "please get my stuff back from the orcs/goblins/scary monster filled woods where I dropped them" is definitely an option. But by letting them have some input, you've automatically got some buy-in.

# ? Mar 10, 2017 23:50

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

The best magic items are ones don't have their effects described in terms of rules. If you have a shield that reflects magic at the firer, or a shield that returns to your hand when you throw it at someone, or a shield that will protect you from lies as well as swords, then that invites the to come up with cool and fun ways to use it in combat. A shield that makes your Defend move have bigger numbers is numerically better, but it won't inspire the same level of creativity.

# ? Mar 11, 2017 00:22

Everything Counts: Oct 10, 2012; Don't "shhh!" me, you rich bastard!

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Some good points here, things for me to mull over.

ImpactVector posted:

I'd maybe change the spear to have a number of charges, such that it has the Ammo:3ish property, that recharges when they make camp. That'll interact better with how Volley works.

The shield is pretty nuts. I'd maybe come up with something that gives him an extra option that he can spend hold on for a defend. Maybe "it flashes brilliantly for a moment, briefly stunning those in front of it".

I like the Charges idea for the spear, I'm definitely going to knick that. I'd also toyed with extra options for Defend on the shield so I'll switch to that, maybe using the blinding light or something similar to give him some crowd control capability.

# ? Mar 11, 2017 05:20

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Magic items can be kinda tough in DW cause almost every other game teaches more numbers = betterer, and that just isn't how DW works.

I like to make items that have moves attached to them. But like everyone else has said, think about cool narrative things you can grant players that encourages clever play and build stuff around that.

# ? Mar 11, 2017 23:16

Elector_Nerdlingen: Sep 27, 2004

For magic items, I've been going with an idea that I got from... somewhere... back when I ran my first DW game. Each magic item is a card-sized printout with two items on it. Ask the person who picks it up which one they found, then get them to tear off the other half and discard it.

And yeah, items that do things instead of items with +numbers have been a much bigger hit for me after I get people to understand that +numbers isn't necessary in DW.

# ? Mar 12, 2017 00:16

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

ImpactVector posted:

The shield is pretty nuts. I'd maybe come up with something that gives him an extra option that he can spend hold on for a defend. Maybe "it flashes brilliantly for a moment, briefly stunning those in front of it".

Make it like Captain America's shield and it's good throwing weapon that can even come back if thrown right. The kid should eat that one up.

# ? Mar 12, 2017 01:45

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

Any bender style playbooks? I've got some players looking to be kind of water and earth bender type characters in a game starting shortly.

# ? Mar 14, 2017 18:58

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Well, there's the immolator, which I'm 99% sure is just literally a Fire Bender. You could pretty easily find and replace Fire and Flames with Water/Earth.

# ? Mar 14, 2017 19:03

Mr. Glass: May 1, 2009

yo,

so i am going to be GMing Dungeon World for a group of close friends. none of us have any experience with pen & paper RPGs. :ohdear:

my wife wanted to play D&D after listening to The Adventure Zone but she was much more into the story aspects of the game rather than wading through a bunch of crunchy combat rules, and Dungeon World seems to fit that bill pretty well (and everyone else is on the same page). I also really like the degree to which the players get to define the setting together, rather than leaning on the GM to come up with everything. I have a theoretical familiarity with how to GM, and I've been listening to Friends at the Table to get a better idea of the flow of the game, but i thought i'd ask if anyone had any resources for complete noobs. Most of the "how to GM" guides i've found seem to be geared more toward getting people to un-learn D&D habits rather than toward someone completely new to GMing. I found (and read through) Read and Understand Dungeon World; any recommendations for other resources, or general tips?

thanks!

# ? Mar 14, 2017 20:01

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Mr. Glass posted:

yo,

so i am going to be GMing Dungeon World for a group of close friends. none of us have any experience with pen & paper RPGs. my wife wanted to play D&D after listening to The Adventure Zone but she was much more into the story aspects of the game rather than wading through a bunch of crunchy combat rules, and Dungeon World seems to fit that bill pretty well (and everyone else is on the same page). I also really like the degree to which the players get to define the setting together, rather than leaning on the GM to come up with everything. I have a theoretical familiarity with how to GM, and I've been listening to Friends at the Table to get a better idea of the flow of the game, but i thought i'd ask if anyone had any resources for complete noobs. Most of the "how to GM" guides i've found seem to be geared more toward getting people to un-learn D&D habits rather than toward someone completely new to GMing. I found (and read through) Read and Understand Dungeon World; any recommendations for other resources, or general tips?

thanks!

Welcome! Dungeon World is a fantastic game for new players and I'd say its one of the best rpg systems ever made and it sounds like you're in for a good time. I honestly would say you've done more prep and read more materials for this than most people probably. One of the issues is that many "GM Guides" are kinda geared toward the style of GMing that DW is explicitly about avoiding, but the good news is that Dungeon World is probably the easiest game to GM I've ever run.

Some things I do recommend;
Reading this thread and other trad games threads!
The flow chart
The 16HP Dragon
Asking Nicely in DW

I'm sure some other folks have other links. One thing I can also recommend is getting one of the more wildly enjoyed one-shot adventures and giving that a run to ease yourself in. The Slave Pits was the go to one for a while but there's been tons released since.

Generally relax, come up with a couple of cool concepts to drive the players, make combat active and exciting, make characters that have quirks and interesting motives, come up with a few cool traps and puzzles, then let the players put it all together themselves.

Edit: Unrelated, but I just finished my last Playbook in the video games class series I was doing. this one is The Nameless, a sort of dark fantasy version of 47 from the Hitman series. Instead of stealing peoples clothes you steal their faces, and includes my new favorite thing I've ever written; The Bodybag of Holding.

Nemesis Of Moles fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Mar 14, 2017

# ? Mar 14, 2017 20:16

Strom Cuzewon: Jul 1, 2010

ShineDog posted:

Any bender style playbooks? I've got some players looking to be kind of water and earth bender type characters in a game starting shortly.

There's the Channeler from Grim World - you pick an element and various tags (blast, area, hazard, wall) to do poo poo like flaming armour, ice puddles, rock walls. It's great fun.

And on a 7-9 one of the DM options is to have the spell go off as normal, but change the element to whatever the hell you like. With hilarious results.

# ? Mar 14, 2017 20:51

Arashiofordo3: Nov 5, 2010; Warning, Internet
may prove lethal.

ShineDog posted:

Any bender style playbooks? I've got some players looking to be kind of water and earth bender type characters in a game starting shortly.

There is also the Elementalist. Which is my fav elemental book. Although it's only possible to get through this campain book.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/127553/DW2-Island-of-Fire-Mountain

# ? Mar 14, 2017 22:48

Friar John: Aug 3, 2007; Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves!

So I've been tapped again by some pals to run an old-school-ish dungeon-delving game, and I figured Dungeon World would satisfy my rules-light desires while still feeling some of that 70s vibe. I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions - I read through the Understanding Dungeon World pdf, and that really helped, but I still have a few things I'm thinking about.
1) It seems like traps are almost entirely reactive. I don't place them on the map, instead it seems like I have a list of traps for a dungeon as a whole, and then *when the players fail a roll* they show up - e.g. failing discern reality and realizing you've put your hand in a bear trap about to go off or something. Am I wrong? Or are there ways to include "static" traps that the players have to discover or work around? I don't think Discern reality really works like a spot check, and I don't want to treat it as such.
2) The players are looking for a treasure-hunting game (at least to start), would it work if my fronts were things like "the massive haul in some other dungeon gets found by someone else" and structure it so?
3) Any good one-page dungeons people like? Especially ones with less combat, I want to give the players more puzzle-ish problems to solve, especially with weird magic items that aren't explicitly geared towards solving a single encounter or room.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 22:36

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

While discern realities is not a spot check, defy danger could potentially be. Spotting a trap before it triggers is as much defying danger as jumping out of the way.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 23:02

Arkanomen: May 6, 2007; All he wants is a hug

Discern Realities is a great way to introduce something like a trap.

10+ has you alert them to the trap
7-9 maybe they don't set it off but can't get easily away without triggering it
6: Consequences

e:I mean depending on what they ask. You'd have to tool it to the question and the character asking.

Arkanomen fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Mar 16, 2017

# ? Mar 16, 2017 23:01

Elector_Nerdlingen: Sep 27, 2004

Friar John posted:

1) It seems like traps are almost entirely reactive. I don't place them on the map, instead it seems like I have a list of traps for a dungeon as a whole, and then *when the players fail a roll* they show up - e.g. failing discern reality and realizing you've put your hand in a bear trap about to go off or something. Am I wrong? Or are there ways to include "static" traps that the players have to discover or work around? I don't think Discern reality really works like a spot check, and I don't want to treat it as such.

In the first DW game I ever ran, one of the coolest things was watching a bunch of long-time D&D players click with the system at different times and in different ways. It was like everyone had a totally different "lightbulb" monent, and you could see it on their face when it happened. The first one was the druid realising that while everyone else was dodging and commando rolling out of the way of incoming arrows, he could instead say "gently caress this, I'm a bear. lovely little goblin arrows just stick in my fur and maybe give me a tiny little scratch or two" and Defy Danger with Con.

The look on the rogues face was amazing when I said "Yeah, this hall is trapped. You've found out by standing on the pressure plate. Tell me what terrible thing is going to happen if you take any weight off your left foot". He just launched into an excited description of the trap and telling the other PCs how to disarm it, since he can't possibly move from where he's standing without it going off. Without further prompting, they all start describing what they're doing, and I only have to step in to make sure they're not talking over each other too much.

But yeah, nothing's stopping you from including a trap that you've created and placed. I guess if they are looking for it then Defy Danger or Discern Realities should trigger depending on who's looking and how. If they're not looking for it and it goes off, describe what happens, then ask "what do you do?" and it should be obvious which moves trigger from their descriptions of their actions.

# ? Mar 17, 2017 00:32

The Glumslinger: Sep 24, 2008; Coach Nagy, you want me to throw to WHAT side of the field?; Hair Elf

Arkanomen posted:

Discern Realities is a great way to introduce something like a trap.

10+ has you alert them to the trap
7-9 maybe they don't set it off but can't get easily away without triggering it
6: Consequences

e:I mean depending on what they ask. You'd have to tool it to the question and the character asking.

What do I do if my players never roll discern reality or spout lore? Have them face the full brunt of the traps?

# ? Mar 17, 2017 01:08

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 09:54

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

The Glumslinger posted:

What do I do if my players never roll discern reality or spout lore? Have them face the full brunt of the traps?

Moves aren't something that players really get to choose happens, they MUST trigger when the time comes. If they don't spend time trying to find traps, then they trigger them and you can discern for the effects of the trap I suppose.

# ? Mar 17, 2017 01:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Dungeon World Thread (Messy, Forceful, Stunning)

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