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Please record this for those of us that can't attend.
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Jun 15, 2018 20:39
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Count me down as super interested.
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Jun 15, 2018 22:13
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Gerdalti posted:Please record this for those of us that can't attend. Yep, plan on it!
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Jun 15, 2018 22:31
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Here is the survey as promised: https://goo.gl/forms/aGZKg0RWlVLxj2VH3 I will leave it up until Monday morning and then work on deciding when to hold the camp. The link to all the material in the GM Camp Footlocker is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=19IPMYQBks04a58mor4WBoH5vUzRH74Au
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Jun 16, 2018 00:16
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I forgot to add a potential topic - how to determine the beginning of a one-shot or a new campaign, i.e. the starting situation. What "cut to the action" means, how to be as immediately engaging as possible, how to make them in light of the character's backstories, etc. Also: how much to come up with in advance, and when to stop! vvv Edited! Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Jun 16, 2018 |
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Jun 16, 2018 01:49
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It should let you edit your response, I believe.
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Jun 16, 2018 02:38
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Pollyanna posted:When do you call for Discern Realities vs. not? There’s been a couple times that a player wanted to look around the scene and reached for Discern Realities, but it didn’t seem necessary to me to glean information via a special move instead of just looking around. What’s the threshold for calling for the move? If it's not immediately obvious to anybody and you can think of a downside, light that candle. When someone asks you a question with Discern Realities, they know they're getting a true answer and they get +1 to follow up on it, so there's usually something in it for them even if they're 95% sure of what the answer will be.
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Jun 16, 2018 03:12
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I'd actually love to get in on this since I've only GM'd two to three PbtA sessions and am still fairly raw to GMing in general. Sadly, I don't think I can make it next week or two because I'll be in the middle of starting a new job and moving closer to it.
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Jun 16, 2018 06:48
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Pollyanna posted:I forgot to add a potential topic - how to determine the beginning of a one-shot or a new campaign, i.e. the starting situation. What "cut to the action" means, how to be as immediately engaging as possible, how to make them in light of the character's backstories, etc. I can actually offer some advice on this one: I have three 'standard' openings, and I pick one more or less at random, tailored to what the players choose and what we've already established about the setting. Opening 1: "<Player 1>, you're standing on a gallows/at a headsman's block/under a tree with a noose over one branch. Around you, the crowd is silent, waiting for the big moment, and beside you, your executioner stands ready while the local priest reads out what you're accused of. What are they accusing you of, and are you guilty of the crimes they accuse you of? <Player 2>, where are you in the crowd? What's your plan to get <Player 1> out of this? (Rinse and repeat for further players)." Starts the players out in the middle of things, and makes it clear Bad Things will happen if they do nothing. Also gives them a reason to engage with the setting, but lets them show off how badass their characters are right from the word 'go'. Opening 2: "The warlord scowls, and grips his axe. "You lie, outsiders. And for your lies, you will die." He draws the axe, and gestures to his followers, who grab their own weapons. <Player 1>, what was your mission here? <Player 2>, what kind of weapons are they pointing at you? <Player 3>, what is going to be the biggest threat here once things get going?" Another good one for opening with an action scene, and it lets the players show off and define the setting a bit more. Also good because it immediately establishes that unlike many RPGs, in Dungeon World, the PCs are not shitfarmers with sharp objects, but already competent and somewhat proficient adventurers who were given a task to complete. Opening 3: "At long last, you stand before the Tomb of Belimicus. A crudely-carved stone structure, its appearance belies the dangerous threats it contains. <Bard/Cleric/Wizard player>, what do the legends say about Belimicus and his end? <Bard/Wizard/Thief>, what do the rumors/legends/ancient scrolls say about the threats contained within the Tomb? <Fighter/Ranger/Thief>, what special preparations did you make to plunder the Tomb?" A classic dungeoneering opener, good for a campaign or adventure focusing on some good old-fashioned 'go to the edge of civilization, murder the marginalized indigenous population, and take their poo poo to enrich yourselves' adventuring. Less showy than one of the other openings, but it again cements that they are competent and ready adventurers. Obviously, if the party and setup suggest another opener, than go with that, but these three are pretty solid if there isn't another good one suggested by the setup to go with.
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Jun 16, 2018 15:35
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I've always partial to "another arrow thumps into the <cover> you are hiding behind. Out of the corner of your eye you see one of the lightly/heavily armored men/orcs/elves moving to try and flank you" Player 1 what item are you currently transporting/searching for? Player 2 who did you piss off bad enough that they sold you out? Player 3 you hear a wizard chanting, what kind of spell or ritual are you about to be on the wrong side of?
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Jun 16, 2018 17:06
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It's good to have a few ideas coming into a first session. Like, if the party is a Bard, a Cleric and a Paladin, they might be more interested in court intrigue than in a goblin shootout.
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Jun 16, 2018 21:17
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PerniciousKnid posted:My uber rule is to call for moves when I can imagine what failure means. If they're just hanging out in the library they don't need to roll, they just find whatever they're looking for eventually. Unless they're in a hurry, let's say, and then failure means that they take too long and bad things happen! For me the specific scenario you describe (looking something up in a library with the complication of time pressure) would be Defy Danger, probably INT. In this way of thinking, Discern Realities isn't just for seeing what's there (which is always accessible, just with the threat of taking too long) it's for seeing an extra layer of hidden implications. If a player also says "I'm worrying that the rogue mage we're hunting has also been here and found this book ahead of us, I'm going to see if anything looks disturbed or out of place" that would trigger a Discern Realities. IMHO anyway.
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Jun 16, 2018 22:53
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JerryLee posted:For me the specific scenario you describe (looking something up in a library with the complication of time pressure) would be Defy Danger, probably INT. In this way of thinking, Discern Realities isn't just for seeing what's there (which is always accessible, just with the threat of taking too long) it's for seeing an extra layer of hidden implications. If a player also says "I'm worrying that the rogue mage we're hunting has also been here and found this book ahead of us, I'm going to see if anything looks disturbed or out of place" that would trigger a Discern Realities. IMHO anyway. That's a good point. In practice, if they were researching to find the answers to DR-type questions, it would amount to roughly the same thing. But I agree that book learning wasn't a good example to use for Discern.
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Jun 17, 2018 00:21
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Overemotional Robot posted:Here is the survey as promised: Gonna quote this for anyone who missed it. I'll see how many takers we have by end of day tomorrow. I got caught up doing some things today and forgot to check. I opened up the survey so people could see the results also.
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Jun 19, 2018 03:06
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Are there any must-try supplements for Dungeon World? I’ve heard that Inverse World is pretty good, and I have a couple ideas that might work well with its central conceit. Was it well received? I also got everything in that bundle of holding that got linked a while back, e.g. the starters and Perilous Wilds.
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Jun 19, 2018 18:53
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People here seem to like the Princess playbook linked in the OP.
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Jun 19, 2018 18:57
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Dark Heart of the Dreamer and If On A Wintry Plane A Freebooter, both available here, are both amazing and if you want to do anything Planescape-esque you owe it to yourself to look at them.
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Jun 19, 2018 19:08
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:People here seem to like the Princess playbook linked in the OP. Here's an updated link. I can also confirm that Inverse World is well worth investigating.
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Jun 19, 2018 20:19
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Gonna second Inverse World. It's a really cool setting and adds some good playbooks. I'll also personally rep Servants of the Cinder Queen because it's a cool adventure. The Green Law of Varkith is a cool setting and also inspired by Planescape, plus The Cold Ruins of Lastlife is good if you want to play in a world kind of like Dark Souls. All of these act as guides for you and your players to build a world with that tone. They give you lots of options if you have trouble coming up with things on the spot, but never railroad you. Oh, and for magic items and such: 10+ Treasures, 10+ Treasures: Volume II, and 10+ Treasures: Wonders of the Wyld is good for getting magic items in your game without having to do all the work. Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jun 19, 2018 |
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Jun 19, 2018 21:09
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Got some goooood poo poo to read through tonight.  Not completely related, but I’m not entirely sure how to make an engaging and interesting story yet. When I GMed my session, I felt like my role was very reactive and focused primarily on what was immediately going on, and it feels like story telling on a larger scale will be difficult to pull off. Is it something that just emerges with more sessions in a campaign, or should I practice something in particular?
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Jun 19, 2018 21:24
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It's something that your Fronts will bring out. If you have interesting conflicts and if those interesting conflicts have effects on the world the PCs inhabit, that's where your most engaging story will be. The trick is in tailoring those conflicts to the things in which the PCs are interested (or being willing to change directions with them as the situation unfolds and the players muck about in the world).
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Jun 19, 2018 21:29
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What Ilor said is absolutely right. Fronts are your friend. I struggled with them for a long time (mostly me saying "eh, I don't need those" like an idiot) until finally learning how to use them and embracing them to great effect. When I first started to GM DW I would start with a dungeon starter and just use interesting parts to help me fill in pieces of the world. I was very restrained in my use of asking too many questions of the players. On the one hand, if you have players that have a hard time being creative on the fly this can work out great because it takes the pressure off of everyone. On the other hand, you take away some of that creativity which can really be awesome at the table. It's a great way to find your sea legs, but I wouldn't rely on that method for every game ever because the stories might get a little stale without enough player input. One key to helping make a great story (in my own experience) is to use the elements that players give you, no matter how goofy they sound. But don't make it a one-off thing unless the story calls for it. One of the best campaigns I ever ran was based on pirates. I had a very dedicated group, and we started by playing Dawn of Worlds to figure out what our fantasy world was going to be like. This allowed us to have a consistent vision for what each of us wanted from a campaign. Then we played Microscope to really cement some of the important details like a vague history of the world, gods, and metaphysics. THEN we actually started our DW game based on pirates. It was one of the best campaigns I've ever ran and will probably be my personal metric for success in all my future campaigns. I think the reason it succeeded so well was because I asked questions (with guidance from our worldbuilding) and used every answer I got throughout the game. I also used some of our worldbuilding to create Fronts. You can get the same effect without even playing those games just by sitting down at a Session Zero and creating the skeleton of a world together. Edit: Oh, and if I were to suggest doing any kind of other game stuff before a game of DW, it would be using Microscope's "Palette" rule. The Palette is just an idea pool of what everyone at the table either wants, or doesn't want in the game. Basically make a yes and no list, then have players give 2-3 elements under each list. The yes list is encouraged to be put in the game, the no list is forbidden from entering the game. Anything not listed is fair game. You have a discussion at the table about the yes and no list and define each element. Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jun 20, 2018 |
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Jun 19, 2018 22:48
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Ok, I went ahead and closed the survey since it looks like we've got enough responses. The GM Camp will be held  Saturday, June 30th at 2-4 pm (PDT) / 3-5 pm (MDT) / 4-6 pm (CDT) / 5-7 pm (EDT).This will give me time to write up some general guidelines for the camp and decide if I'm going to do it on Roll20 or Google Hangouts (just comes down to which is easier for me to record). In the meantime, I would suggest people who are going to attend do a couple of things: 1. Create a base Dungeon World character. The sheets are listed in the Camp Footlocker link below. You should do this even if you plan on just GMing, because we are going to shuffle players out as well as GMs. This is so we can have interesting mixes of characters for the GMs to experiment with. We will try to shuffle players around so that GMs have to deal with different elements to their scenarios, but if this goes well I may host other camps where you can use those characters. 2. Go to the Google Sheet located in the GM Camp Footlocker link titled "Players and Classes" and fill out the information. I have a feeling there's more things I'll need, but my brain is kind of dead right now so I may add some more later. 2. If you would like to GM for practice, or to give an example of a best practice, make sure you have familiarized yourself with the dungeon starter Blackmoore (also located in the GM Footlocker link above). 3. If you don't already have one, create a Roll20 account just in case. 4. Read the Dungeon World Guide, if you have not already done so (also located at the link below). Always good to recap! 5. If you would like to GM and teach a best practice please sign up for one of the available slots on the Google Sheet titled "GMs and Scenarios." We may add some more slots later, but I'm thinking we'll struggle to get everyone through as it is. If you don't see something on there that was brought up in the survey, like "getting D&Disms out" or "how to handle soft moves vs. hard moves" it's because I thought we could merge those into each scenario. 6. Same as number 5 if you're a GM with 0-3 years of experience, except sign up for the practice slots. What should I expect from this camp? 1. Expect to see lots of different models of playing and GMing 2. Expect to take lots of notes 3. Expect to ask lots of questions 4. Expect to have a good time, but focus on the learning and teaching aspect With that said, here's the link to the GM Camp Footlocker one more time. Please let me know if you can't add to the Google Sheets. https://drive.google.com/open?id=19IPMYQBks04a58mor4WBoH5vUzRH74Au Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jun 20, 2018 |
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Jun 20, 2018 22:09
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When you say "create a base character", does this mean that character creation won't be part of the first session? Are we just getting the numbers and stuff out of the way before starting, and covering introductions and bonds at the beginning? How do we handle the one-class limit? Or is that not a requirement/best practice? Are we going to track/handle our character sheets ourselves? What happens if a GM needs to know what advanced/extra moves a character has?
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Jun 20, 2018 22:31
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All great questions: Yes, just getting the numbers and stuff out of the way before starting so we can focus on the GMing part. Since people had questions about bonds in the survey, I figure we can handle those when we pull people into a GMs game. The list inside that link should allow us to pull people to be in play. Like, we can go down the list and find a Ranger, Fighter, and Wizard and pull them into play if they aren't GMing. That being said, if you look at the list and there's like 2 Fighters, you probably don't want to make a 3rd one. Yes, you'll have your own character sheet and keep track of it yourself. Everyone will have access to all the character sheets, so you can look at the moves any time you want. However, I should make a section on that list for moves I guess because that's important!
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Jun 20, 2018 22:46
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Signed up, ready to go. This'll be fun. How long were you thinking this should last? Like, people running one-hour mini-sessions or something?
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Jun 21, 2018 04:08
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We'll get as much as we can get done in the times listed. That may mean we won't get to everyone/everything. The way I imagine it is like this: I'll start us off by picking some players and showing examples of how to start a game. It will be quick. I'll show how to ask questions and set up a in media res scenario that can't be ignored by the players (hopefully). While this is happening players and viewers will be writing suggestions, feedback, or best practices they'd like to point out in their notes. We'll pause for 10-15 minutes to discuss what went well or didn't go well, and alternate methods to the scenario. This will also be an opportunity for people to ask questions ("why did you do it this way instead of that way?" "Couldn't you also have done this...?" Etc.) We'll then shuffle the players and the next GM will take the hotseat. The trick here, and I think the kind of fun part, is that the GMs will continue where the last one left off. So, for example, if my scenario is the intro then the next GM will be responsible for quickly moving players to their scenario. So, if their scenario is combat then they'll lead the characters into a combat to exemplify best practices. After the combat we would do the 10-15 roundtable, then move on to the next GM and scenario, et cetera. All GMs will use the same docs note page (sometimes useful for newer GMs to see what live play notes look like) and will build on the previous GM and players worldbuilding. Now, since we're switching characters, there is very little hope of having a fully cohesive story evolve from this. That's not the goal, though. The goal is to set up these little labs within a lab to experiment and demonstrate. For our newer GMs, their jobs will be to take the things they're seeing and put them to use in real time, with real players. But the catch is, they can stop play to ask questions or advice . Which, you know, normally we can't do that without messing up our games. This all makes sense in my head, but I know there will be hiccups. We'll know if it was wortwhile if people can walk away with a little more confidence behind the GM screen, or a few more tools in their mental toolbox. Or, you know, it could end up a complete disaster and then you all can chase me out of the thread with torches and pitchforks 
Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Jun 21, 2018 |
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Jun 21, 2018 05:08
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The camp runs for two hours - if we’ve also got 10~15 minutes Q&A, how much time does each GM get? Will that be enough to accomplish each goal a GM has? Some goals might take longer than others.
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Jun 21, 2018 13:34
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I think it would be useful to have a list of other GM-side questions that don't have specific slots so we can try and hit some of them along the way.
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Jun 21, 2018 14:42
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I am thinking yes, if we pace it well. If not... We may have to do a part 2 at some point. That's kind of the nature of TTRPGs and i don't want to try to "package" them into neat little time frames too much since that would take away some of the charm. After I do the starting scenario I'll be taking a step back and facilitating. I won't be playing a character, just guiding discussion and keeping us on track. Comrade Gorbash posted:I think it would be useful to have a list of other GM-side questions that don't have specific slots so we can try and hit some of them along the way. Great idea. I'll gather some from the survey and find a way to put them into sections on the list. Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jun 21, 2018 |
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Jun 21, 2018 14:47
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drat, Perilous Wilds and 20 Starters have some tasty production.
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Jun 21, 2018 19:06
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Overemotional Robot posted:The Green Law of Varkith is a cool setting and also inspired by Planescape, plus The Cold Ruins of Lastlife is good if you want to play in a world kind of like Dark Souls. Can anyone who's bought these and/or the third one tell me how long they are/how much material they include? Are they actually decent-sized setting splatbooks? At ~$25 for the set of PDFs from drivethru I'm tempted to pick them up, but I can't justify it if they're just like 30-50 pages each. (12 years ago when I didn't have to worry about food or bills I'd have dropped $30 on a single 3.X splat in an instant.  )
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Jun 22, 2018 18:18
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JerryLee posted:Can anyone who's bought these and/or the third one tell me how long they are/how much material they include? Are they actually decent-sized setting splatbooks? At ~$25 for the set of PDFs from drivethru I'm tempted to pick them up, but I can't justify it if they're just like 30-50 pages each. Totally feel you about dropping the money. My growing collection of books has stalled due to fixing up a house. Just checked for you, Varkith is 159, Lastlife is 144. They're meaty. Lots of setting stuff, but also moves, magic items, questions. They're well put together books.
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Jun 22, 2018 19:03
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Overemotional Robot posted:Totally feel you about dropping the money. My ______ has stalled due to fixing up a house. MY LIFE! (rhymes with 'wife')
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Jun 24, 2018 04:19
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Overemotional Robot posted:Totally feel you about dropping the money. My growing collection of books has stalled due to fixing up a house.  Much obliged. I'll probably wait until the end of the month and see what things are looking like, but you've definitely made them a future sale.
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Jun 24, 2018 08:24
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Does anybody have tips or advice on reviewing custom playbooks? A player in my game wants to bring in a playbook they wrote themselves, and as a newbie GM I'm not sure how to review one and what makes a playbook good, or balanced, or anything. Is it something that I should feel free to bring in, or should I wait until I'm more used to running the game before accommodating?
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Jun 24, 2018 16:23
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Why not just put it up here and crowd-source your review?
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Jun 24, 2018 16:26
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It's someone else's book, I wouldn't put their stuff up for review by others un-prompted/un-requested. I guess I can ask...
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Jun 24, 2018 16:34
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I'd honestly suggest holding back on custom books, especially player-made ones, till you've had some more experience with the game. There are tons of custom playbooks that are great and balanced (as someone who sells some custom playbooks I hope so anyway). One thing that might be a useful middleground - one of my players really wanted to be a ghost, but at the time there was no Ghost sheet, so I had them play a Fighter, they got used to the system a bit, I kinda got a better vibe for what they wanted out of the game, then when they died a fair number of sessions later, we, together, spent some time making a Ghost sheet that had all the cool stuff they wanted and they came back with that sheet. Maybe find a similar in-game justification for them becoming [Whatever the sheet is] that'll give you time to learn the ropes and them time to feel out the setting and world you're all building also we'll be nice with our reviews i'm sure.
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Jun 24, 2018 17:02
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Here's the Warlock playbook they've written - it seems to still be in playtesting as far as I can tell: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1txNvpr9xqAT9AzMFxfQ5Nx8egCUQjPnwPiI9s8WK9Dc Nemesis Of Moles posted:I'd honestly suggest holding back on custom books, especially player-made ones, till you've had some more experience with the game. There are tons of custom playbooks that are great and balanced (as someone who sells some custom playbooks I hope so anyway). Yeah, I'm kinda of two minds here. On the one hand, in theory, it shouldn't be much more difficult or complicated to use a custom playbook compared to using Thief or Druid, plus another player is already using megane and gnome's Mage (tho that one thankfully doesn't have to deal with Vancian magic). On the other hand, I've got enough to learn and get used to already...
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Jun 24, 2018 17:10
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