Dungeon World Thread (Messy, Forceful, Stunning)

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Quidthulhu: Dec 17, 2003; Stand down, men! It's only smooching!

Make him improvise a song every time he fires off a heal. When he misses, he fucks up the lyrics (which he also has to improvise), and the lyrical fuckup describes what happens.

# ? Aug 30, 2017 02:03

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 17:58

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

Gosh yes ok

# ? Aug 30, 2017 02:13

Blisster: Mar 10, 2010; What you are listening to are musicians performing psychedelic music under the influence of a mind altering chemical called...

quote:

The Brute is really great for when someone wants to be just absurdly strong and unstoppable as their whole thing without it boiling down to just being "bigger numbers!"
Its very first move starts with "When you pick up an enemy and swing them around": you can't go wrong.

Yes! I love the brute. I played one in a one-shot game a while ago and it was awesome.

# ? Aug 30, 2017 02:32

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

ShineDog posted:

Man I need to hash out with my bard player exactly what the nature of their healing is, because it's a struggle to come up with interesting moves off the back of fails with it. I'm not quite ready and it's not quite in keeping with our campaign to like, disfigured people because the spell misfired and grew warts

It's also tricky to work into the conversation because it's a pretty hard mechanical action done for almost purely mechanical benefit. Any advice on making healing an interesting thing?

Well, it's music, right? Maybe the energy heals more than expected: Like anyone who hears it. Or if it's life magic provided by an ancient tribal ballad, maybe plants and animals grow wild and strong in the area on a misfire, to the chagrin of everyone nearby.

# ? Aug 30, 2017 15:49

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

In this case, the bard writes in a book with magic ink and kind of nudges the truth.

# ? Aug 30, 2017 15:51

Strom Cuzewon: Jul 1, 2010

ShineDog posted:

In this case, the bard writes in a book with magic ink and kind of nudges the truth.

In that case his handwriting is really bad.

"he stops bleeding from the hoe in his leg"
*gets entangled in gardening tools*

# ? Aug 30, 2017 15:55

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

ShineDog posted:

In this case, the bard writes in a book with magic ink and kind of nudges the truth.

That's actually really cool. A poet/historian bard? Nifty.

Strom Cuzewon posted:

In that case his handwriting is really bad.

"he stops bleeding from the hoe in his leg"
*gets entangled in gardening tools*

X-D

# ? Aug 30, 2017 17:35

Handgun Phonics: Jan 7, 2012

ShineDog posted:

Man I need to hash out with my bard player exactly what the nature of their healing is, because it's a struggle to come up with interesting moves off the back of fails with it. I'm not quite ready and it's not quite in keeping with our campaign to like, disfigured people because the spell misfired and grew warts

It's also tricky to work into the conversation because it's a pretty hard mechanical action done for almost purely mechanical benefit. Any advice on making healing an interesting thing?

I don't know how up-to-date it is with the current understanding of how to run * World games, but I tended to treat healing pretty similar to a basic Defy Danger- if there's nothing stopping you from healing up, there's no reason for it to fail. If you have plenty of time to sit back and heal up, it's probably also a Make Camp.

If neither of those are true, you've got some kind of active threat, and you've got a guy stopping to write in a book before that threat comes true. Maybe he's jumped by one of the kobolds that caused the wound he's trying to heal, and has to go all Black Jack and try to heal while being mauled by dogs- or avoiding them is taking too much of his attention, and he can't heal until someone bails him out. Maybe he can't finish before they take more wounds, so he's losing ground. Maybe the enemy figures out what he's doing and decides to try and pop the medic first.

The most fun I've had with failing is when the player doesn't mess up, the enemy is just surprisingly good at their job.

# ? Sep 1, 2017 02:02

Infinite Oregano: Dec 31, 2007; I'm going to make my friends eat infinite oregano and they'll have to do it because the recipe says so!

Recently I have been pondering how one might implement a sprite- or pixie-like (or something similar to that) character in Dungeon World. How would you go about it?

I mean hypothetically one could make a special racial move (akin to the ones in Number Appearing), perhaps with drawbacks like the stronger ones in that book. Or alternatively use (or create) a playbook of your own for this specific purpose. Or alternatively more simply swap out a starting move for the Sky Dancer's Take To The Sky move. But I suppose what I'm asking is what people think is the best option for attempting this feat.

Any thoughts?

# ? Sep 3, 2017 19:26

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Blasphemeral posted:

I realize I'm catching up to the thread a bit late, but

Honest question here, guys: Is there a reason that Androc and my The Gallant never makes it onto these lists? Is there something about it that needs to be fixed/adjusted, or do we just get forgotten all the time? I see the Templar always makes it on and, to me, that playbook fills a very different niche as far as the whole Holy Warrior thing goes. (And one that I personally like much less, which is why I worked on The Gallant.)

I personally throw out the Paladin immediately and go for the Gallant. My players like that its a playbook about being righteous and stalwart instead of just having paladin powers and expecting you to use them for righteous causes. I wouldn't mind seeing a variation on the Gallant for the Fighter/Warrior where its about being grizzled and experienced and maybe being a little too old for this poo poo. The Mercenary?

But I also put the Princess on the list 100% of the time, so :shrug:

For what its worth my personal list is mostly the improved goon versions of the core classes, Berserk, Gallant, Monk, Psion, and Witch. I like Gnome's mages a lot but they're a lot for a starting player to take in -- I like them much better in an "everyone picks a wizard" game.
Arcanist
Berserk
Chaplain
Gallant
Hunter
Monk
Outlander
Princess
Psion
Rogue
Skald
Warrior
Wild Shaman
and Witch

# ? Sep 3, 2017 22:41

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

EscortMission posted:

a variation on the Gallant for the Fighter/Warrior where its about being grizzled and experienced

when you've seen this poo poo before...
when you save a youngster from themselves...
when you volunteer, because you've had a good run...

# ? Sep 4, 2017 02:20

madadric: May 18, 2008; Such a BK.

Infinite Oregano posted:

Recently I have been pondering how one might implement a sprite- or pixie-like (or something similar to that) character in Dungeon World. How would you go about it?

I mean hypothetically one could make a special racial move (akin to the ones in Number Appearing), perhaps with drawbacks like the stronger ones in that book. Or alternatively use (or create) a playbook of your own for this specific purpose. Or alternatively more simply swap out a starting move for the Sky Dancer's Take To The Sky move. But I suppose what I'm asking is what people think is the best option for attempting this feat.

Any thoughts?

Fairy is one of the 'race' options of my Fae playbook.

Fairy (Seelie)
You are small, have beautiful wings, and can fly. In addition, take the following as one of your chosen weaknesses:
Little Folk - You find danger where others do not because of your small size.

free Gdoc version here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-VDkU1HKJNy9u5SslZm_s3RIbYAFk89JKqw30n9yb8o/edit?usp=sharing

or DTRPG formatted version here: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/113709/The-Fae--A-Dungeon-World-Playbook

# ? Sep 4, 2017 23:52

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

EscortMission posted:

I personally throw out the Paladin immediately and go for the Gallant. My players like that its a playbook about being righteous and stalwart instead of just having paladin powers and expecting you to use them for righteous causes...

Thanks for the feedback. ^_^
It's good to hear that people are enjoying it.

EscortMission posted:

... I wouldn't mind seeing a variation on the Gallant for the Fighter/Warrior where its about being grizzled and experienced and maybe being a little too old for this poo poo. The Mercenary?

Subjunctive posted:

when you've seen this poo poo before...
when you save a youngster from themselves...
when you volunteer, because you've had a good run...

This is a fun idea. I'll let it roll around in my head for a bit; see if I get inspiration to whip it up.

# ? Sep 5, 2017 18:15

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

EscortMission posted:

I personally throw out the Paladin immediately and go for the Gallant. My players like that its a playbook about being righteous and stalwart instead of just having paladin powers and expecting you to use them for righteous causes. I wouldn't mind seeing a variation on the Gallant for the Fighter/Warrior where its about being grizzled and experienced and maybe being a little too old for this poo poo. The Mercenary?

But I also put the Princess on the list 100% of the time, so

I guess I should be glad that it's always on offer, but this makes me think maybe I shouldn't be? Help me out here.

# ? Sep 5, 2017 20:56

Verisimilidude: Dec 20, 2006; Strike quick and hurry at him,
not caring to hit or miss.
So that you dishonor him before the judges

So I'm starting up a Dungeon World campaign for a homebrew world and I have a few questions:

First, does anyone have a character sheet editor that works in Acrobat, Word, or Excel?

Second, does anyone have any character classes similar to Avatar benders? In the world I'm making there are elemental monks, and a friend would like to essentially be a water bender type.

Third, are there any pre-built races for dragonborn, thri-kreen and aarakokra (or bird people in general)? The solutions I've come up with is that dragonborn can breath a cone of [element they chose] once per combat for 2d6 damage that ignores armor, and aarakokra (garuda in my world) can fly.

# ? Sep 7, 2017 16:58

N0data: Dec 6, 2006; "Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici."- Faust (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.)

Verisimilidude posted:

So I'm starting up a Dungeon World campaign for a homebrew world and I have a few questions:

First, does anyone have a character sheet editor that works in Acrobat, Word, or Excel?

Second, does anyone have any character classes similar to Avatar benders? In the world I'm making there are elemental monks, and a friend would like to essentially be a water bender type.

Third, are there any pre-built races for dragonborn, thri-kreen and aarakokra (or bird people in general)? The solutions I've come up with is that dragonborn can breath a cone of [element they chose] once per combat for 2d6 damage that ignores armor, and aarakokra (garuda in my world) can fly.

Off the top of my head, I'd think that 2d6 is extremely powerful considering most monsters have relatively low hp compared. Then adding in the ignores armor and your Dragonborn is Smaug.

# ? Sep 7, 2017 19:11

PupsOfWar: Dec 6, 2013

I'd try to make the dragonborn's species move a narrative or social thing, like other racial moves are.
Racial moves also tend to be fairly minor and situational things.

if you want it to be Breath Weapon, perhaps make up one special "effect" per element, similar to the druid shapeshifter's one special move per wildshape, instead of a big damage roll.

Saying "once per combat" is also a bit problematic, since DW does not have action economy like D&D does.
Combat isn't a distinct phase of the game, doesn't have initiative or rounds, etc.
There are some existing moves that trigger off of "when you enter combat", but they probably shouldn't be articulated that way.

You might try either making it something they roll to use, with a distinct trigger like any other move would have, or making it key off of some other move, or making it into a modification of an existing move.

for instance, maybe Breath Weapon just lets them trigger Volley without having a ranged weapon in hand or expending ammo.
maybe it's a damage boost for high rolls on Hack & Slash.
both useful but not amazingly powerful things.

PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Sep 7, 2017

# ? Sep 7, 2017 19:46

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Verisimilidude posted:

So I'm starting up a Dungeon World campaign for a homebrew world and I have a few questions:

First, does anyone have a character sheet editor that works in Acrobat, Word, or Excel?

Second, does anyone have any character classes similar to Avatar benders? In the world I'm making there are elemental monks, and a friend would like to essentially be a water bender type.

Third, are there any pre-built races for dragonborn, thri-kreen and aarakokra (or bird people in general)? The solutions I've come up with is that dragonborn can breath a cone of [element they chose] once per combat for 2d6 damage that ignores armor, and aarakokra (garuda in my world) can fly.

I made a Dragonspawn companion class, which is kind of like a bolt-on pile of alternative moves, racial moves, backgrounds and so on. Its firebreath move could do with a bit of balance but I heard good things from people who doofed around with it at GenCon this year
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/212241/The-Dragonspawn--Dungeon-World-Companion-Class

Edit: and a free use blank character sheet that works in Word - http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/207617

Nemesis Of Moles fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Sep 7, 2017

# ? Sep 7, 2017 19:58

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

Verisimilidude posted:

So I'm starting up a Dungeon World campaign for a homebrew world and I have a few questions:

First, does anyone have a character sheet editor that works in Acrobat, Word, or Excel? ...

Do you mean, like, for making entirely new custom playbooks (classes)? Because you otherwise don't edit "character sheets" (playbooks) except to write your name and stats and stuff on them when you play.

# ? Sep 7, 2017 20:17

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Blasphemeral posted:

Do you mean, like, for making entirely new custom playbooks (classes)? Because you otherwise don't edit "character sheets" (playbooks) except to write your name and stats and stuff on them when you play.

Most of the PDF characters aren't actually editable, though the srd links to spreadsheet versions that are. As in, you can't click on the boxes and type in your name and stats and such.

# ? Sep 7, 2017 20:25

Verisimilidude: Dec 20, 2006; Strike quick and hurry at him,
not caring to hit or miss.
So that you dishonor him before the judges

Yeah, I'm still getting used to the wording of Dungeon World (I'm more used to D&D). How about something along the lines of:

Dragonborn Fighter

Dragon Breath: depending on the Dragonborn�s background, they can unleash a powerful gout of fire, cold, lightning, acid, or poisonous gas from their mouth. When performing a Hack and Slash, the Dragonborn may use their Dragon Breath instead of their weapon to deal 1d8 damage that ignores armor.

Blasphemeral posted:

Do you mean, like, for making entirely new custom playbooks (classes)? Because you otherwise don't edit "character sheets" (playbooks) except to write your name and stats and stuff on them when you play.

I mean "playbooks" that I can edit to make custom classes, yes.

Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Sep 7, 2017

# ? Sep 7, 2017 20:38

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

The easiest way to do dragonbreath is just to give it to them as a weapon using their class damage die.

E.g.

quote:

Dragonborn
You have the ability to breath fire, ice, acid, or poison like your draconic forebears. Decide which element your dragonbreath is, and describe what it looks like when you use it. When you hack and slash, you can use it as a weapon with range of reach and reload, ignores armor.

And then I'd allow players to take custom moves to improve their dragonbreath if they really want to focus on it. I might even add an "area" tag for it; it's not a standard option in DW but it's a straightforward and logical addition.

For thri-kreen and aarakocra, remember that narrative effects are very powerful in PbtA. If you say something is so, it's true and the reasonable benefits from that descriptive truth should apply.

Eg.

quote:

Thri-kreen
You have four arms, and you can leap thirty feet from a standing start, or a dozen straight up.

quote:

Aarakocra
You can fly; when you do, you can hold items and wield weapons with your feet. You're strong enough to carry another person of about your size.

You don't really need to attach any numeric benefits to those. The narrative aspect is itself a mechanic in DW - a non-thri-kreen might need to roll Defy Danger to make it over a slick wall while trying to avoid the city guard, but if its only ten foot high a thri-kreen can just jump over it. They'd also reasonably be able to benefit from a shield and a two-handed weapon at the same time.

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Sep 7, 2017

# ? Sep 7, 2017 21:17

Infinite Oregano: Dec 31, 2007; I'm going to make my friends eat infinite oregano and they'll have to do it because the recipe says so!

Another alternative regarding dragonborn would be using the heritage moves from the planarch codex.

# ? Sep 7, 2017 22:15

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

Comrade Gorbash posted:

The easiest way to do dragonbreath is just to give it to them as a weapon using their class damage die.

E.g.
...

This is a lot more in line with how DW does things.
One thing to note, that "Ignores Armor" tag does not mean it can harm just anything. Honestly, instead of saying "Ignores Armor", I'd give it a sentence that suggests they talk to their DM about what kind of things it can harm (and which it cannot) based on the elemental type. Lightning breath is going to act differently to acid breath, and it might be good to work that out with the table at chargen.

# ? Sep 8, 2017 15:58

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

I think it's just in line with the usual way armour works in dungeon world. Where you can maybe create a situation where you ignore it.

So if youve established that your using a gout of fire then maybe if youre faced with a big shield someone can hide behind you have to defy past it, if it's full plate it works normally, if it's a padded armour you can ignore it because it goes up easily, or something.

'Ignores armour' is almost too broad, in my opinion. Just being a fire attack is so powerful when people can toss a flask of oil onto a person.

ShineDog fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Sep 8, 2017

# ? Sep 8, 2017 16:14

Verisimilidude: Dec 20, 2006; Strike quick and hurry at him,
not caring to hit or miss.
So that you dishonor him before the judges

Thanks so much for your help everyone! Taking these all into account, this is what I've come up with so far.

Dragonborn
You may use your dragonbreath as a weapon. It has a range of Hand through Reach, and the properties Reload and Ignores Armor. When you attack with it, roll+Con to determine results. Choose what element it is composed of (fire, ice, lightning, acid, poison gas, etc.) and describe how it looks when you use it.

Advanced Moves
My Breath, Death! � You can unleash an endless stream of energy from your mouth. Your dragonbreath loses its Reload property.
Dragon Hide � Your scales harden to an incredible degree. Replaces Steel Hide. You gain +3 armor.
Spawn of the God-King � You become immune to the effects of your chosen breath element.

Garuda
You can fly; when you do, you can hold items and wield weapons with your hands and feet. You are strong enough to carry another person of about your size.

Advanced Moves
Eagle Scout � Your vision is keener, and your senses are sharper than regular creatures. You gain +1 to attempts to Discern Realities, and on a 10+ you may ask the GM 3 questions, on a 7-9 you may ask 2 questions.
Aerial Acrobatics � You fly with incredible swiftness. When you Defend you can roll+Dex and can choose to spend 1 hold to move to an advantageous position, giving yourself +1 forward against the attacker.
Peregrine � You fly with great speed, and you gain +1 to attempts to Defy Danger.

ShineDog posted:

I think it's just in line with the usual way armour works in dungeon world. Where you can maybe create a situation where you ignore it.

So if youve established that your using a gout of fire then maybe if youre faced with a big shield someone can hide behind you have to defy past it, if it's full plate it works normally, if it's a padded armour you can ignore it because it goes up easily, or something.

'Ignores armour' is almost too broad, in my opinion. Just being a fire attack is so powerful when people can toss a flask of oil onto a person.

I like this a lot, too! I'm still tooling around with it, but some ideas I've had if I were to remove the Ignores Armor tag from the Dragonbreath:

Fire - Fabric, wood, and other combustible materials catch fire. Targets struck by firebreath take 1d4 damage that Ignores Armor ongoing until someone puts the fire out.

Cold - The stream of dragonbreath causes ice to form on contact. Targets struck by coldbreath take -1 ongoing, and one of their limbs are frozen in place.

Lightning - Shocking lightning arcs towards metal and flesh alike. Lightningbreath gains the Forceful tag and can deal stun damage instead of normal damage. Its range increases to Hand through Near.

Acid - A vicious stream of steaming acid arcs through the air, melting everything in its path. Acidbreath gains the Ignores Armor tag, and instantly corrodes whatever it hits.

Poison Gas - A miasma of thick vapor pours forth, causing intense sickness in everything that breathes it. It lingers in the air for some time after use, forming a dense cloud that gives targets trapped within it -1 ongoing, and blinds whatever it touches for several minutes.

Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Sep 8, 2017

# ? Sep 8, 2017 16:17

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

Verisimilidude posted:

...
Advanced Moves
My Breath, Death! � You can unleash an endless stream of energy from your mouth. Your dragonbreath loses its Reload property.
Dragon Hide � Your scales harden to an incredible degree. Replaces Steel Hide. You gain +3 armor.
Spawn of the God-King � You become immune to the effects of your chosen breath element.
...
Advanced Moves
Eagle Scout � Your vision is keener, and your senses are sharper than regular creatures. You gain +1 to attempts to Discern Realities, and on a 10+ you may ask the GM 3 questions, on a 7-9 you may ask 2 questions.
Aerial Acrobatics � You fly with incredible swiftness. When you Defend you can roll+Dex and can choose to spend 1 hold to move to an advantageous position, giving yourself +1 forward against the attacker.
Peregrine � You fly with great speed, and you gain +1 to attempts to Defy Danger.
...

Anywhere you're tempted to put down +numbers, try to find a way to give an alternate effect that gives more flavor rather than more numbers. Numbers are boring, and more numbers in Dungeon World tends to make things more boring rather than make them more exciting.

# ? Sep 8, 2017 17:09

Verisimilidude: Dec 20, 2006; Strike quick and hurry at him,
not caring to hit or miss.
So that you dishonor him before the judges

Blasphemeral posted:

Anywhere you're tempted to put down +numbers, try to find a way to give an alternate effect that gives more flavor rather than more numbers. Numbers are boring, and more numbers in Dungeon World tends to make things more boring rather than make them more exciting.

That's why I added the descriptors. So Peregrine gives you +1 to DD, but also makes you fly incredible fast.

# ? Sep 8, 2017 17:15

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

Yeah I was gonna say, those read a lot like D&D feats. Try something like;

Dragon Hide � Your scales harden instinctual when attacked. When rolling+Con with Defy Danger, you may opt to reflect damage back to its source
Advanced Moves
Aerial Acrobatics � You fly with incredible swiftness. When you Defend you can roll+Dex and on a 10+ you may create an advantageous position. Describe it to the GM.
Peregrine � You fly with great speed, when you need to get somewhere, roll+Dex. *On a 10+, you're there, in less time than expected. *On a 7-9, something came up, deal with it, and now you're late.

These aren't like, perfect or even that good but you get the idea.

# ? Sep 8, 2017 17:24

KirbyJ: Oct 30, 2012

What are some of your favorite offbeat or really weird playbooks? I'm probably going to try to come up with something weird to show off DW and if I can get a head start reinforcing that weirdness with a curated set of playbooks, so much the better.

# ? Sep 10, 2017 09:24

Deltasquid: Apr 10, 2013; awww...
you guys made me ink!

THUNDERDOME

All the inverse world playbooks aren't really weird but they take concepts that are wildly different from the typical dungeons & dragons staple. Outside of that, inverse world is a cool weird setting to start out in.

Outside of that I'd plug my own Maestro playbook, though I should give it another balancing pass one of these days.

EDIT: Madadric's Spellslinger is a personal favorite of mine as well, if you're planning on some sort of magic frontier/wild west setting. I've never played with the Namer nor the Psion but at a glance they're also pretty weird and recommended by goons. Check the second post of this very thread.

Deltasquid fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Sep 10, 2017

# ? Sep 10, 2017 10:02

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

That Timemage is weird as poo poo and great fun

# ? Sep 10, 2017 20:22

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

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

That Timemage is weird as poo poo and great fun

FYI: It's really hard to GM for the time mage.

# ? Sep 11, 2017 16:47

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

What do you all do for 6- on Spout Lore?

I generally don't like giving false information, because with the shared narrative creation aspect it feels like it betrays some of the central tenets of PbtA. In some circumstances I'm okay with it - cases where it's not me providing bad information, but where bad information exists in the world itself. But when speaking as the GM I prefer always to say true things.

As a result I tend to fall back on reveal an unwelcome truth or show signs of an approaching threat based on the subject at hand. At other times, I find it better to provide incomplete or confusing information - a half-remembered prophecy or excerpt from something they read, maybe. They know something about the place they're going but it's an either/or piece of information that could lead them astray (e.g. there's a red gem and a green gem and one let's you in and one activates the defenses and I don't remember which is which).

I'm always looking for other ways to do it though.

# ? Sep 11, 2017 17:38

kaffo: Jun 20, 2017; If it's broken, it's probably my fault

Comrade Gorbash posted:

What do you all do for 6- on Spout Lore?

I generally don't like giving false information, because with the shared narrative creation aspect it feels like it betrays some of the central tenets of PbtA. In some circumstances I'm okay with it - cases where it's not me providing bad information, but where bad information exists in the world itself. But when speaking as the GM I prefer always to say true things.

As a result I tend to fall back on reveal an unwelcome truth or show signs of an approaching threat based on the subject at hand. At other times, I find it better to provide incomplete or confusing information - a half-remembered prophecy or excerpt from something they read, maybe. They know something about the place they're going but it's an either/or piece of information that could lead them astray (e.g. there's a red gem and a green gem and one let's you in and one activates the defenses and I don't remember which is which).

I'm always looking for other ways to do it though.

One of my favorites which I struggle not to overuse, is tell them something incorrect which will cause the party problems (aka tell them a poisonous flower is non-poisonous) then tell the player if they act on this obviously wrong knowledge they gain an XP.
It gives them a choice, allowing you to "what do you do now?" and it's still a fail because they never learned anything useful about it either.
And if they don't act on it, therefore never finding out they were horribly wrong, it can create some pretty fun situations later down the line "Quick feed the princess this flower! It's got strong healing properties I'm pretty sure!"

That said, I too would like to hear other people's ways of handling it too

# ? Sep 11, 2017 18:52

kujeger: Feb 19, 2004; OH YES HA HA

depending on the player and context, you could try asking them what their character erronously believes is the truth of the matter when they roll 6-

# ? Sep 11, 2017 20:39

RedMagus: Nov 16, 2005; Male....Female...what does it matter? Power is beautiful, and I've got the power!; Grimey Drawer

I always enjoy giving them what they want, and more! So if this is a magical wand of fireballs, they're fireballs of impractical usage (village size, pea sized, etc). Plus it means I've just challenged them to find a good use for it later.

# ? Sep 11, 2017 21:05

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

I almost always ask them what the character BELIEVES is true, then back-fill based on that

# ? Sep 11, 2017 21:26

N0data: Dec 6, 2006; "Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici."- Faust (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.)

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

I almost always ask them what the character BELIEVES is true, then back-fill based on that

This.

Last session our Dwarven fighter believed he could challenge an Ogre Chieftan to single combat, and if he won, would become the tribe's Chieftan in return. The spout lore roll failed, so the Dwarf also believed that he could only become Chieftan if he also only used the Ogre's weapon of choice...an uprooted tree.

# ? Sep 11, 2017 22:51

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 17:58

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

I like that variation - have the player spout the lore they would have anyways, and then either add a detail or have part of it be wrong.

# ? Sep 11, 2017 23:23

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

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