Dungeon World Thread (Messy, Forceful, Stunning)

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

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

Ilor posted:

having someon hit "pause" and explain what they're doing and why is usually very helpful.

Yeah, this is what I had in mind. I would love to pull players of all stripes from this thread and just explore how much we can learn from each other.

# ? May 4, 2018 05:08

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 23:33

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

While getting together for explicitly instructive workshopping type stuff sounds like a great idea, I'll also note that it can be helpful to watch/listen to actual play content from experienced GMs when trying to figure out how a game works. Particularly if you can find content from the creators themselves. For Dungeon World you're particularly in luck because one of the two creators, Adam Koebel, has been employed by Roll20 to GM for their Twitch/Youtube channel (and also appears on RollPlay's channel and occasionally other places online) so you can find examples of him running Dungeon World pretty readily. (Not to mention other PBTA games, Burning Wheel, various stripes of D&D, Mage the Ascension, and more.)

# ? May 4, 2018 05:14

PupsOfWar: Dec 6, 2013

re: my "what would be the best way to boost damage" question from a bit ago

I maintain that the way damage and weapons work is pretty unsatisfying

but maybe instead of fiddling with the numbers overmuch, I should come up with a custom move that you can optionally trigger when using each weapon type (axe, sword, polearm, etc) as an alternative to hack & slash

I would like weapons to feel more satisfying and variable, particularly as we're about to start a pseudo-hexcrawl where loot will be a bigger deal than in our previous campaign...but I feel that, to a certain extent, it would be contrary to the spirit of Dungeon World (if not mathematically unsupportable within PbtA) if I went through and worked up a big weapons table with a bunch more tags and numbers than the game already has for gear

# ? May 7, 2018 09:03

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

PupsOfWar posted:

re: my "what would be the best way to boost damage" question from a bit ago

I maintain that the way damage and weapons work is pretty unsatisfying

but maybe instead of fiddling with the numbers overmuch, I should come up with a custom move that you can optionally trigger when using each weapon type (axe, sword, polearm, etc) as an alternative to hack & slash

I would like weapons to feel more satisfying and variable, particularly as we're about to start a pseudo-hexcrawl where loot will be a bigger deal than in our previous campaign...but I feel that, to a certain extent, it would be contrary to the spirit of Dungeon World (if not mathematically unsupportable within PbtA) if I went through and worked up a big weapons table with a bunch more tags and numbers than the game already has for gear

If it wasn't working for you, you don't need to pursue it, but I like the idea of "ignore the result of the damage roll to do X thing instead".

So a sword is artful, an axe is crushing, a polearm is tactical, and each of those corresponds to a different thing you can do instead of damage.

# ? May 8, 2018 21:24

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

If you look at the sword the crown and the unspeakable power, it has a more dynamic combat move. If you combine that with fixed weapon damage and tags you should be able to reduce randomness and increase choice.

# ? May 9, 2018 01:57

Harvey Mantaco: Mar 6, 2007; Someone please help me find my keys =(

Anyone got any cool blank npc cards I can just fill in on the fly?

# ? May 15, 2018 01:37

Vulpes Vulpes: Apr 28, 2013; "...for you, it is all over...!"

Wrote up some moves for tonight's game, where the PCs will be infiltrating a play as the stars. They're fairly softball, but we'll see how it goes.

# ? May 18, 2018 21:56

thefakenews: Oct 20, 2012

Pollyanna posted:

That�s one of the things I�m concerned about - I�m not great at thinking quickly and I�m a very disorganized person, so I�m worried that relying on some basic stuff I write up ahead of time, even if it was really vague, would still confuse me. I�m worried about fumbling over my words, taking too long to think about the situation, not coming up with cool enough things, etc. I�m not a super creative person by nature either, and I�m not the quickest on the draw...I�m sure I could make it work, but I have no idea if I�m good at it yet.

Stuff like writing down the various actors, principles to follow, and stuff helps - I have a poor memory.

Maybe take a look at Servants of the Cinder Queen. It's an adventure for Dungeon World that basically consists of locations, obstacles and enemies, with some ideas of how to move between them. It's very loose, and you need to improvise the structure.

Perilous Deeps, from the same publisher, might also be worth a look.

I have runs Servants of the Cinder Queen a couple of times with good results, and I have used some stuff from Perilous Deeps for non-prep sessions.

# ? May 20, 2018 10:01

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

Working on a Dungeon World hack/2nd edition project and am looking for your best suggestions/ideas.

I've already picked out a few mission statements/concepts as guides.

The one D&Dism Dungeon World got rid of that it should have kept is the ability to freely mix and match race/people/origin and class. So bring that option back.
Basic stats should be more about what a character is doing or how they're doing it, and not their innate qualities.
HP and weapon damage need to be revamped entirely.
Everyone needs to be good at combat and good at exploring in some fashion.
The party/adventuring company should be something that matters. This includes coming up with a better way to reflect relationships and history.

Here's some of the ways I'm trying to meet those goals.
Basic Stats

Basic stats are based around the idea of how something is accomplished. They still reflect D&D stats to some degree but are less about the character's innate capabilities and more about how they apply them.
Currently looking at Might (uses raw power and direct force), Finesse (grace and speed), Expertise (training and practiced skill), Insight (learned knowledge and close observation). Trying to determine one or two more stats, leaning towards something like Tenacity (perseverance and endurance) and then maybe Appeal (personal allure and persuasion).

Characters/Playbooks

Playbooks consist of three elements you select to create a unique character. Origin, Background, and Class you select.
Origin and Background are much smaller than playbook. They provide a top line benefit like Race/Alignment (and equivalents) in Dungeon World, a way to mark XP, and potentially one or two advances you can take along the way.
Origin includes race/people but things like "raised by wolves" and so forth. It has to be what you are/where you come from. Broadly, it represents the shared traits and/or experiences of a group you're part of, but not your individual experiences and lifepath.
Background lets you flesh out some character concepts that don't necessarily need to have a specific class dedicated to them, like a wizard who was trained by the military. This represents more the specific experience of the character.

Moves/Mechanics

Every class gets a defined stat for their attacks in combat, it's set as a high modifier. That stat also gets a tag reflecting a more descriptive explanation of their approach (like arcane for wizards or martial for fighters). The stat in question and the descriptor offer will adjust some of the options they have when they make the attack move(s?).
Additional moves based around exploration, and massively overhaul Defy Danger in particular.

I'm also considering something more radical, where every class gets its a Combat and an Explore stat at +1 each, and those have descriptive names. So a Wizard might have Arcane and Lore, and when they get to add that +1 to combat moves when the specific action involves magic somehow, and +1 to explore moves when it involves tapping into some piece of obscure information they've learned. I'm not totally happy with it as described, but I feel like there may be something there conceptually.

Anyways, suggestions and feedback are welcome.

# ? May 20, 2018 17:52

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

Comrade Gorbash posted:

Basic Stats

Basic stats are based around the idea of how something is accomplished. They still reflect D&D stats to some degree but are less about the character's innate capabilities and more about how they apply them.

Currently looking at Might (uses raw power and direct force), Finesse (grace and speed), Expertise (training and practiced skill), Insight (learned knowledge and close observation). Trying to determine one or two more stats, leaning towards something like Tenacity (perseverance and endurance) and then maybe Appeal (personal allure and persuasion).

I'm not seeing a clear distinction between Expertise and Insight; training vs learned knowledge is not a pair I'd want to try to distinguish between. Fate Accelerated did something similar with their approaches but may have too many of them at 6:
Careful
Clever
Flashy
Forceful
Quick
Sneaky

# ? May 20, 2018 20:03

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

Just use harm like every other powered by the apocalypse game.

# ? May 20, 2018 22:47

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

I've been toying with this in my head too fwiw. I've discarded the D&D classes in its entirety though but I haven't gotten a lot of the class replacements down. My intention is classes based around their role in a party, i.e. Guardian, Bruiser, Mystic, etc. Rather than Origin and Background, I have Peoples/Race and History with the former being representing either a character's race or the people they come from/belong to (like Aristocracy or Scholars or Bird people). History would have little to no advancement options and represent what the character was doing before the present and what things they bring to the table. I'm a little ambivalent on having that last sheet at all.

I'd take the Harm clock from the other PbtA games or use Fellowship's method of tracking damage wherein stats are harmed until there's nothing left to harm. In my approach, attack moves pretty much resemble their Dungeon World counterparts (one move for melee attacks, one move for ranged), but some classes will have specific moves that let them choose another stat with which to use those attacks (ex: an evoker-type character would use a more mystically oriented stat instead of Finesse to make ranged attacks, but still rely on Might to hurt people with weapons or fists). Damage against enemies would also be 1 or 2 damage per hit, no more without exceptional circumstances. Instead of just stacking more damage or damage dice, attacks would just do other things like impose negative characteristics on enemies or give advantage to subsequent attacks.

Part of PbtA games is the reduction of fiddly bonuses. Instead of getting a bonus in certain situations, they get to do more things in moves related to it or automatically get the effects of certain moves. Like being able to Command Lore about one piece of information at no cost when encountering a given thing for the first time.

# ? May 20, 2018 23:29

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

Xelkelvos posted:

I've been toying with this in my head too fwiw. I've discarded the D&D classes in its entirety though but I haven't gotten a lot of the class replacements down. My intention is classes based around their role in a party, i.e. Guardian, Bruiser, Mystic, etc. Rather than Origin and Background, I have Peoples/Race and History with the former being representing either a character's race or the people they come from/belong to (like Aristocracy or Scholars or Bird people). History would have little to no advancement options and represent what the character was doing before the present and what things they bring to the table. I'm a little ambivalent on having that last sheet at all.

I think we've hit on a similar approach vis-�-vis Origin/Background and Peoples/History. In my case the two were very reduced - it's not so much the Spirit of '77 approach of two elements of relatively equal weight, but more like the D&D approach where the Class defines the lion's share of elements, and the Origin/Background provide smaller tweaks, with the potential for a player to lean into that more over time.

Xelkelvos posted:

I'd take the Harm clock from the other PbtA games or use Fellowship's method of tracking damage wherein stats are harmed until there's nothing left to harm. In my approach, attack moves pretty much resemble their Dungeon World counterparts (one move for melee attacks, one move for ranged), but some classes will have specific moves that let them choose another stat with which to use those attacks (ex: an evoker-type character would use a more mystically oriented stat instead of Finesse to make ranged attacks, but still rely on Might to hurt people with weapons or fists). Damage against enemies would also be 1 or 2 damage per hit, no more without exceptional circumstances. Instead of just stacking more damage or damage dice, attacks would just do other things like impose negative characteristics on enemies or give advantage to subsequent attacks.

I like the harm clock and I like how Fellowship does damage, but I don't feel like either quite works for a Dungeon World-type game. However the current HP system is definitively worse than either and I don't have a great alternative to the harm clock or damaged stats yet. I think there is something there that could be done, but not sure what yet.

As for moves, one of the things I wanted to move towards was the idea that the Wizard would roll Might if they were fireballing the poo poo out of something, while the Fighter would use whatever stat ends up representing a more nuance based approach for a lot of their attacks. At the same time I want everyone to be good at combat, so I haven't quite squared that circle.

Xelkelvos posted:

Part of PbtA games is the reduction of fiddly bonuses. Instead of getting a bonus in certain situations, they get to do more things in moves related to it or automatically get the effects of certain moves. Like being able to Command Lore about one piece of information at no cost when encountering a given thing for the first time.

This is definitely something I want to move towards, where the difference between an arcane and a martial and a divine attack (or any action really) is mostly represented by the list of choices you select from.

# ? May 21, 2018 15:24

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Comrade Gorbash posted:

I think we've hit on a similar approach vis-�-vis Origin/Background and Peoples/History. In my case the two were very reduced - it's not so much the Spirit of '77 approach of two elements of relatively equal weight, but more like the D&D approach where the Class defines the lion's share of elements, and the Origin/Background provide smaller tweaks, with the potential for a player to lean into that more over time.

I'm definitely of the same tack, at least initially. Class offers move moves than Peoples which offers more moves than Origin. With the first one offering more advancement options than the second and the last one offering maybe one or two potential advancements.

Comrade Gorbash posted:

I like the harm clock and I like how Fellowship does damage, but I don't feel like either quite works for a Dungeon World-type game. However the current HP system is definitively worse than either and I don't have a great alternative to the harm clock or damaged stats yet. I think there is something there that could be done, but not sure what yet.

D&D style HP just feels to granular for a PbtA game to me and part of the point of Harm is to reduce that granularity. It need not be the clock ala Apocalypse world and different classes could withstand more or less Harm, but, ideally, everyone is within one point of each other with those extra bits of harm being granted by moves or ways to recover or negate harm via equipment.

Comrade Gorbash posted:

As for moves, one of the things I wanted to move towards was the idea that the Wizard would roll Might if they were fireballing the poo poo out of something, while the Fighter would use whatever stat ends up representing a more nuance based approach for a lot of their attacks. At the same time I want everyone to be good at combat, so I haven't quite squared that circle.

This is definitely something I want to move towards, where the difference between an arcane and a martial and a divine attack (or any action really) is mostly represented by the list of choices you select from.

One of the things with PbtA is that there's not really meant to be a formal deliniation between combat and non-combat unless you mean being capable of hurting things. It's easy enough to give every character a move that's capable of harming enemies. That's reflected in the Base Moves. If you want a character to use a specific stat when using those moves, either write it into the mechanics or have those classes start with a move that reflects that. You'll have to be more clear on what you mean by "good at combat" because in Fellowship, nominally every character can contribute effectively as long as they lean into what their character is good at. And again, Combat as a specific phase of gameplay isn't really a thing in PbtA games. If you want to make it a thing then you might have your work cut out for you there.

As far as differentiating attacks, that's, again, as simple as a move declaring it so. i.e.:
Divine Might
As a Paladin... You may choose to apply the Divine tag to attacks when using a weapon favored by your Diety of Worship.

# ? May 22, 2018 03:04

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

Comrade Gorbash posted:

Please

with updates
I'll happily play test stuff with my group too if you get anything on paper

I'm on mobile right now but I'll try and read your post properly and reply if any suggestions come to mind later

# ? May 22, 2018 14:48

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

Xelkelvos posted:

One of the things with PbtA is that there's not really meant to be a formal deliniation between combat and non-combat unless you mean being capable of hurting things. It's easy enough to give every character a move that's capable of harming enemies. That's reflected in the Base Moves. If you want a character to use a specific stat when using those moves, either write it into the mechanics or have those classes start with a move that reflects that. You'll have to be more clear on what you mean by "good at combat" because in Fellowship, nominally every character can contribute effectively as long as they lean into what their character is good at. And again, Combat as a specific phase of gameplay isn't really a thing in PbtA games. If you want to make it a thing then you might have your work cut out for you there.

I think this is more of a semantics mismatch. I'm thinking more in terms of Fellowship than it being distinct phases. It's mostly a thing I want to keep in mind, that I don't create an ur-stat that either everyone has to spend resources on, either by raising the stat directly or getting stat replacement moves (which I generally dislike as a concept outside of very specific corner cases).

For a D&D-esque game, the two things everyone does is fight and explore, which means those are the things I want to be careful about having the best moves tied to just one stat. That most likely means having more granularity in the fighting and exploring basic moves, so they can be spread across the stats evenly, but I want to be open to other ideas.

Now that you mention that, I think there is room for it to be distinct, like how Night Witches has day/night moves, or more in line with Blades in the Dark. I'm not sure that's where I want to go, but it's worth considering.

I should be upfront that I'm willing and in fact would prefer to stray from the typical PbtA mold, though probably not as far as BitD did.

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 15:11 on May 22, 2018

# ? May 22, 2018 15:00

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Having "Overworld" moves and "Encounter" moves would be an interesting thing to play around with in terms of design space. I'm not familiar with BitD or Night Witches and I can't really say much on how well I think their approaches work, but I think that's an interesting place to go

# ? May 22, 2018 23:30

BinaryDoubts: Jun 6, 2013; Looking at it now, it really is disgusting. The flesh is transparent. From the start, I had no idea if it would even make a clapping sound. So I diligently reproduced everything about human hands, the bones, joints, and muscles, and then made them slap each other pretty hard.

Odds on Inglorious coming out in this, TYOOL 2018? I really don't care about it at this point (or at least I'm not playing stock DW), but it's pretty ridiculous how long the final stretch goals have taken to come out.

# ? May 22, 2018 23:41

OfChristandMen: Feb 14, 2006; GENERIC CANDY AVATAR #2

Going to Kublacon this weekend and possibly running a DW session for my friends.

Admittedly, I'm a little intimidated (since I've been a bit rusty). My goal was to bring a blank basic playbook, and add in some additional tables / cards / inspiration from Perilous Wilds. I'm also interested in the non-traditional bond system (I forget what it's called) where it's more "motives" or "features" of a character class rather than straight up bonds? I would appreciate a link.

Also looking for a very streamlined but possibly not well-known Dungeon World scenario I can use as a framework for the session. Looking for any really good scenarios that people have done in the past!

# ? May 24, 2018 20:36

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

OfChristandMen posted:

Going to Kublacon this weekend and possibly running a DW session for my friends.

Admittedly, I'm a little intimidated (since I've been a bit rusty). My goal was to bring a blank basic playbook, and add in some additional tables / cards / inspiration from Perilous Wilds. I'm also interested in the non-traditional bond system (I forget what it's called) where it's more "motives" or "features" of a character class rather than straight up bonds? I would appreciate a link.

Also looking for a very streamlined but possibly not well-known Dungeon World scenario I can use as a framework for the session. Looking for any really good scenarios that people have done in the past!

Enjoy it! DW is an awesome system and it sounds like you're all set to play. There are a number of non-standard systems replacing Bonds but it sounds like you're describing Flags - https://rpg.divnull.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_World_Flags

As for scenarios, I'll toot my horn here and say I've designed two that have been really well received by the goons I've run them with, one is a pretty basic "Evil Wizards Tower That's Bigger On the Inside" with some meta D&D jokey twists, the other is a bit wackier - it's about a necromancer who has built a computer system out of ghosts inside a pocket dimension. .

If you like the sound of either, here's some 50% goon discount links;
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=91688d5810 - Deadly Tower
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=91699bab86 - Bone Machine

I would also recommend checking out Dungeon Starters, they're brilliant for a very loose set of ideas and concepts that you can use to inform your game - http://www.finemessgames.com/DWsupplements/dungeonstarters

# ? May 24, 2018 20:49

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

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

I would also recommend checking out Dungeon Starters, they're brilliant for a very loose set of ideas and concepts that you can use to inform your game - http://www.finemessgames.com/DWsupplements/dungeonstarters

The Starters are awesome. There are some very clever ideas in them, and they come with critters and customer moves.

# ? May 24, 2018 21:16

OfChristandMen: Feb 14, 2006; GENERIC CANDY AVATAR #2

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

Enjoy it! DW is an awesome system and it sounds like you're all set to play. There are a number of non-standard systems replacing Bonds but it sounds like you're describing Flags - https://rpg.divnull.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dungeon_World_Flags

As for scenarios, I'll toot my horn here and say I've designed two that have been really well received by the goons I've run them with, one is a pretty basic "Evil Wizards Tower That's Bigger On the Inside" with some meta D&D jokey twists, the other is a bit wackier - it's about a necromancer who has built a computer system out of ghosts inside a pocket dimension. .

If you like the sound of either, here's some 50% goon discount links;
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=91688d5810 - Deadly Tower
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=91699bab86 - Bone Machine

I would also recommend checking out Dungeon Starters, they're brilliant for a very loose set of ideas and concepts that you can use to inform your game - http://www.finemessgames.com/DWsupplements/dungeonstarters

Yes thank you so much! The Deadly Tower sounds good but I'm super immature and want to run T H E B O N E M A C H I N E!

Thanks for the discount link, and yes Flags was what I was thinking of! Thank you team!

# ? May 24, 2018 21:37

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Oh man, those starters look pretty drat cool - I don't know if I'd use them yet, but they do give me ideas.

What's the best way to bring someone unfamiliar with Dungeon World (and TTRPGs in general) up to speed? I'm running a one-shot in a couple weeks and one of my prospective party members doesn't have any Dungeon World experience that I'm aware of. Is it enough to give a basic rundown of "to do it, do it; let your moves flow naturally from the fiction; play to find out", or should I be directing them to a document to read? This would be someone who is basically coming from square 1 and I don't think it'd be reasonable to just say "go buy this book and read it", but maybe there's a better alternative.

# ? May 30, 2018 23:19

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

I'd say it really depends on the person, but by and large people who are super green to TTRPGs have warmed to the system really quickly through play alone. You might have to work a little harder being more overt and intentional with GM moves and general GM stuff you might be lax on with established players, but frankly "here's how moves work, here's how RPGs work in general, now you're stood at the entrance to the Skull-Ship as it prepares for launch, what do you do?" Is as good as start as any. Make that first session exciting and bombastic as you can, ask as many questions and highlight them a whole bunch, you'll be fine.

# ? May 31, 2018 00:34

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

Pollyanna posted:

Oh man, those starters look pretty drat cool - I don't know if I'd use them yet, but they do give me ideas.

What's the best way to bring someone unfamiliar with Dungeon World (and TTRPGs in general) up to speed? I'm running a one-shot in a couple weeks and one of my prospective party members doesn't have any Dungeon World experience that I'm aware of. Is it enough to give a basic rundown of "to do it, do it; let your moves flow naturally from the fiction; play to find out", or should I be directing them to a document to read? This would be someone who is basically coming from square 1 and I don't think it'd be reasonable to just say "go buy this book and read it", but maybe there's a better alternative.

Are they aware that D&D is a thing? If they have, like, just the cultural context of it, they'll be fine, because that's about the form Dungeon World usually takes. A bunch of people talking back and forth about the fantasy adventure that's going on.

You have to tell people there are basically two ways to approach that question you'll constantly be asking them, "what are you doing?"

- just say what seems right for your character to do, and you'll see how that feeds into a move you'll ask them to make
- look at the list of moves and see what consequences they're trying to achieve, and try and see how they can do the thing the move wants them to use

And one way to approach the other question you'll constantly be asking them, "(Fightgar/Wizzrobe/Fletcher) where'd you (get your sweet sword/learn magic/meet Rockjaw)?"

- say what you like; as long as you take your answer seriously, I can work with it, and there is no secret best answer

Most of the operational bits of the game you can "teach" during character creation, going over the basic moves as people pick stats and picking at the various individual class bits as people fill them out.

# ? Jun 1, 2018 02:57

Nemesis Of Moles: Jul 25, 2007

The new Bundle of Holding is up and is a Dungeon World collection, including 20 Starters and The Perilous Wilds.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/DungeonWorld3

Full disclosure; something I made is in this in the Level Up catagory, The Boughs, a setting/campaign guide set in a massive forest where everyone lives inside giant trees, it's kind of magic take on MegaCity One kinda.

# ? Jun 4, 2018 19:06

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Nemesis Of Moles posted:

The new Bundle of Holding is up and is a Dungeon World collection, including 20 Starters and The Perilous Wilds.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/DungeonWorld3

Full disclosure; something I made is in this in the Level Up catagory, The Boughs, a setting/campaign guide set in a massive forest where everyone lives inside giant trees, it's kind of magic take on MegaCity One kinda.

gently caress yeah gimme!

I'm running my one-shot on Wednesday. Still unsure of what I'm going to do...

# ? Jun 10, 2018 03:33

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

I played in an Adventurer's League game of 5e last night and boy am I glad I made the switch to DW / PbtA.

I wish I wasn't always stuck as the GM so I wouldn't be so desperate to play something.

# ? Jun 10, 2018 22:44

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

In what way(s) was it awful?

# ? Jun 11, 2018 03:07

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

Overemotional Robot posted:

I played in an Adventurer's League game of 5e last night and boy am I glad I made the switch to DW / PbtA.

I wish I wasn't always stuck as the GM so I wouldn't be so desperate to play something.

whenever I get in a DND game or similar I chant 'seize by force' over and over in my brain now

# ? Jun 11, 2018 03:09

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

Ilor posted:

In what way(s) was it awful?

It felt like I was playing "Numbers: The Game," which yes, I know, almost all TTRPG are basically that, but in my particular game there was no roleplay. No one playing their characters (to the point I started feeling weird playing mine) and just... Like an entire game of metagame? It's hard to explain exactly how it felt. The DM was really tough (which in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing) but really didn't leave us any openings to be creative in order to solve problems or get around fights.

I joined the party at level 1, since they were in their 4th session they were all level 3. I walk into a room, flanked by people to protect me. I say (as my character) that I can go ahead and look since I'm little and sneaky (a goblin ranger). But they ignored me, lit a brazier with a fireball, and I went down immediately due to a swarm of stirges that spooked due to the braziers. It was like that for eveything. I found some lamp oil at one point and got excited because I thought, "ooh, I could make a bomb, or slick the floor, or put it on the doors that are apparently super squeaky and keep giving us away" but was quickly reminded that it wouldn't really help all that much in the dungeon.

It was very frustrating because every round was, "I shoot my bow. I shoot my bow."

Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jun 11, 2018

# ? Jun 11, 2018 03:22

Harvey Mantaco: Mar 6, 2007; Someone please help me find my keys =(

Moving people from d&d to dw is so loving awkward because of the numbers crutch from d&d allowing people to ignore development and role-playing, the look they make at first when put in a "this is it this is the game" position, Jesus, it's like being like Alright now Kevin, stand up and show everyone your Penis, go on.

# ? Jun 11, 2018 03:33

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

Luckily, a lot of the people I GM DW or other PbtA games for have never played TTRPGs before, and when they grock what they can do they soar so high, like majestic eagles. When people say in this thread that D&D makes people's brains break, I believe them.

I think there can be good, fun, role-playing 5e games, though. I just got a bad group / bad DM. But, like you said, people ignore developing their characters or role-playing because: NUMBERS! MY NUMBERS ARE REAL GOOD!

It's funny, because when people in my party would "attack" I kept having to stop myself from saying, "ok, but what does that look like?"

Edit: Oh, and something else I just thought of that happened. I kept telling myself, well, if I am the example of how to describe a character doing things maybe they'll start doing it too. So when I would attack I'd say something like, "I quickly nock an arrow and slide under Athas' legs, loosing it at the ghoul's head" and the DM would be like, "so you're dashing?" "n-no I just mean... I just want to move past Athas and attack."
I did this a few more times and the lady beside me SIGHED DEEPLY at my descriptions, so I stopped.

Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Jun 11, 2018

# ? Jun 11, 2018 03:43

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Yeah, D&D (in all its editions) definitely trends more towards the TacSim than the story board, especially in combat. Part of the problem is the sheer number of inconsequential rolls. It's hard to get all descriptive and narratey with each of your attacks when you know you're going to have to make like 20 of them and only a third of those are going to have any result other than "you miss, try again next round." All extra narration does at that point is slow down an already slow game (hence the DEEP SIGH from your neighbor).

# ? Jun 11, 2018 16:46

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

Yeah, I tried to keep the flavor very short, but realized what I had gotten myself into a few fights in.

I wish Dungeon World had the cultural umph behind it so I could find a game to play in. Unless I'm running a PbtA game it's D&D or nothin' around here. Burning Wheel, GURPS, I'd take anything at this point but D&D.

Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Jun 11, 2018

# ? Jun 11, 2018 22:01

Shanty: Nov 7, 2005; I Love Dogs

I know Flags are everyone's favourite thing, but if playing with standard bonds, how many would you encourage players to create at startup? Is it a bad idea to do all of the listed ones?

# ? Jun 12, 2018 20:22

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

Shanty posted:

I know Flags are everyone's favourite thing, but if playing with standard bonds, how many would you encourage players to create at startup? Is it a bad idea to do all of the listed ones?

No, that's fine. It does things like give the Bard more party connections than the Wizard, which is a nice touch.

# ? Jun 12, 2018 20:33

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Alright, so I�m running my Dungeon World �one-shot� tonight. I haven�t planned to try and wrap everything up in one session or anything, I was just going to run it as any other first session. Here�s the plan:

1. Introduce ourselves, the players
2. Explain the core concept of Dungeon World - band of adventurers exploring the land, having adventures, and seeking riches and treasure (maybe)
3. Explain the role of the players vs. the role of the GM - they get into character and act naturally, I handle everything else and also tell them what to roll
4. Coach everyone through creating their characters, asking questions about the characters as they do
5. Introduce ourselves, the characters
6. Explain and write down bonds
7. Quick ~10min break to rest and for me to draw up an action scenario to begin with
8. Plop the characters down into an (appropriate!) action sequence and go from there

Does that sound about right? I worry primarily about putting the characters in a situation where they can immediately begin acting, whether that�s a battle, a tense confrontation with other people, or breaking into a guarded mansion. I don�t know if I will be able to pull that off well.

# ? Jun 13, 2018 15:01

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

It's a good outline but I would add two notes.

1) I would go ahead and give them the principles as well. The players should be keeping those in mind too.

2) Ask them questions to set up that first sequence. Give them a prompt and have them fill in the detail. "You're approaching the tomb of Alriss the Ever-ready, feared warlord from the the Age of Legends. Wizard, what defense do the ancient texts warn you of?"

EDIT:
On that note, I did a quick rough draft of DW player principals. I'd like to know what folks think.

Be a fan of the other players' characters
Respect the boundaries of other players and the GM
Embrace the fantastic
Begin and end with the fiction
Give every thing you own history, and everyone in your history life
Think dangerous, with your actions and your fiction
Think offscreen, too
Fill in the blanks on the map
When you're asked a question, give an answer the person asking can use
Address the other characters, not the players
Make a move that follows
Only name your move if it describes what you're doing
Don't roll the dice until the GM asks you to

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jun 13, 2018

# ? Jun 13, 2018 16:13

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 23:33

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

Pollyanna posted:

Alright, so I�m running my Dungeon World �one-shot� tonight. I haven�t planned to try and wrap everything up in one session or anything, I was just going to run it as any other first session. Here�s the plan:

1. Introduce ourselves, the players
2. Explain the core concept of Dungeon World - band of adventurers exploring the land, having adventures, and seeking riches and treasure (maybe)
3. Explain the role of the players vs. the role of the GM - they get into character and act naturally, I handle everything else and also tell them what to roll
4. Coach everyone through creating their characters, asking questions about the characters as they do
5. Introduce ourselves, the characters
6. Explain and write down bonds
7. Quick ~10min break to rest and for me to draw up an action scenario to begin with
8. Plop the characters down into an (appropriate!) action sequence and go from there

Does that sound about right? I worry primarily about putting the characters in a situation where they can immediately begin acting, whether that�s a battle, a tense confrontation with other people, or breaking into a guarded mansion. I don�t know if I will be able to pull that off well.

I'd add in there using the X-Card (or other safety tools) and maybe what Tone/Concept for the game you're planning, just to make sure everyone is on the same page about what you all are going to get out and what you're staying away from. Helps the party jell in my opinion since everyone can sometimes have a different idea of what "fantasy" is

# ? Jun 13, 2018 21:50

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

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