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Whybird posted:I wrote up some rules for a Wand of Wonder in almost my first post in this thread: That's perfect! Thanks!
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Dec 8, 2018 02:31
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Hey Gnome, a couple of links to playbooks in the OP are broken - in particular I'm looking for the Improved Bard.
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Dec 10, 2018 21:18
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Need a little help. Our setting has places of power, but they're like, radioactive? Also people's souls are the same as magic. Also ghosts are just souls without bodies that are also concentrated magic. Anyway, I wanted a move to deal with concentrated magical radiation so I shamelessly stole this one off the Barf Forth Apocalyptica forum and changed some stuff around. When you are exposed to a place of power without proper wards, hit by a powerful spell, or touched by a spirit, mark a corruption then roll +corruption. On a 10+ gain two from below: one chosen by you and one by the GM. On a 7-9, choose one. On a miss, nothing happens. You're lucky this time: - You're weaker. Take a debility. - Your mind is slipping. You must defy danger whenever __________. (I like this one but kind of don't like it) And that's it. I can't think of any more choices and the others from that thread didn't fit. Any ideas on how to make this move not suck / ideas for the choices?
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Dec 18, 2018 02:32
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I don't like those reverse moves, because the 6- is where a lot of the magic happens in DW for me. Why not just roll -corruption? ✴10+ is nothing, ✴7-9 is choose 1. I think making it a specific debility would add more flavour. Are they feeling woozy and losing their teeth? Sick. Are their heads filled with the buzzing of dead prophets? Stunned or Confused. Since you can only pick that option once (until you clear it) that forces players into the other options more quickly and gives it a downward spiral feel. How about having one of the options just being "mark corruption"? But doesn't that make it essentially "free" if you can just mark corruption forever? No. That's where 6- comes in, giving you extremely strong fictional justification to do anything to the idiot with 4 corruption on their sheet. As for "your mind is slipping", that's either just Confused, or you need to spin that off into a separate move. It might be a sort of end-point for the corruption. When you can't mark the debility and can't afford to to take more corruption, you get hit with a more permanent condition.
While suffering from soul poisoning, take -1 ongoing to any roll that requires forethought. On a miss, in addition to the usual results, tell the GM something important from your past. The GM will tell you how that memory is lost, confused or replaced. Or something like that. Probably best not to have that move trigger a roll as well. Since it's not a debility, you can't just shake it with rest. Getting rid of it is strictly a fiction thing (unless some playbook has an unpoisoning move, which is a cool opportunity for that character).
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Dec 18, 2018 08:40
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Overemotional Robot posted:Need a little help. I'm writing these as they come to my head, and they aren't "balanced". * The meeting of living being and strong magic causes a strong magical backlash. GM describes the outcome as someone/something nearby is struck * You feel weak as a body takes form before your eyes. A soul has used this opportunity to become physical for a short time, describe what they look like. * Voices fill your head, some of them you know, others are a mystery to you, but there are so many you struggle to focus on any one voice. If you look at any living person you see their messy magical aura which gives you a headache. The effect wears off corruptiond4 hours later. I'll post again if I think of any others, cos I think that whole setting idea is wwaaayyy cool
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Dec 18, 2018 08:51
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Shanty posted:I don't like those reverse moves, because the 6- is where a lot of the magic happens in DW for me. Why not just roll -corruption? ✴10+ is nothing, ✴7-9 is choose 1. The only thing I disagree with is the 6- thing, but I think that's a matter of taste. I've seen moves like that in several different AW mechanic books that work fine as long as they're not every other move or something. Thematically (and I guess mechanically?) adding the corruption makes sense to me because they are basically accumulating magical rads and seeing if something finally happens to them. Plus I used a moved with that mechanic in our game last year and they were all "ooh" and "ahh" about how novel it was to go backward.  kaffo posted:I'll post again if I think of any others, cos I think that whole setting idea is wwaaayyy cool These are also giving me some ideas, which I'm going to play around with below. We created the world together through Dawn of Worlds and a game of Microscope, so we ended up with a weird magic system that we're all still kind of feeling out. In the last game we all found out that you can have these wards made out of a special stone that will basically absorb a "hit" of magical force before turning to dust. Anyway, this is what I'm leaning toward now: When you are exposed to a place of power without proper wards, hit by a powerful spell, or touched by a spirit, mark a corruption then roll +corruption. On a 10+ gain two from below: one chosen by you and one by the GM. On a 7-9, choose one. On a miss, nothing happens. You're lucky this time: - Mark an additional corruption (up to 5) - Each living thing around you is struck as your body vents excess magical force, ask the GM what happens - A rogue spirit siphons the excess magical energy emanating from your soul and reforms. The GM will tell you what it wants. - STR & DEX debility (just need to flavor) - INT & WIS debility (just need to flavor) - CON & CHA debility (just need to flavor) - Lose one point of HP. Permanently. For each option you choose, mark it off. The options effect remains and it cannot be chosen again until you are purged of all corruption. One corruption naturally fades with a week of rest. So, right off the bat, I think pairing the debilities is the way to go. It shortens the list and really makes them hurt. The HP point may be a bit much. The players in my game need to plan, though, and they have ways of seeing if they're going to trigger this move so it's not like they won't know the risks. Needs a lot of work, but it's shaping into... something!
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Dec 19, 2018 04:11
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The 6- thing is definitely just a playstyle/preference thing, so absolutely go hog wild. The soul corruption thing is a cool mechanism regardless of how you roll. Speaking of custom moves, here's one I plan to spring on my players tonight: Festive Event When you freely give someone a present in the spirit of Festive Event, roll +bond. ✴On a 10+ gain a permanent magical bond with that person and you both mark XP. ✴On a 7-9 you may immediately resolve one of your bonds with that person. You mark XP even if you didn't. ✴On a 6- your present is poorly received (they’ll tell you why). Mark XP and take -1 ongoing to aid rolls until you shake your reputation as a bad gift giver. The name is TBD, I'll start the session by asking the players about the calender/moons/astrology and get them to name Festive Event. A permanent extra bond is strong stuff, I know, but I just thought it was so fitting. And I do want to encourage aid rolls. My only concern is that people who don't have bonds already aren't going to get a particularly interesting effect on their 7-9. Shanty fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Dec 20, 2018 |
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Dec 20, 2018 15:55
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Shanty posted:My only concern is that people who don't have bonds already aren't going to get a particularly interesting effect on their 7-9. Maybe you always get the bond, but first roll +bond and on a 7-9 GM picks one bad thing, on a 6- all three? You feel it wasn't adequate (as existing move), it's frozen in time (can't resolve for XP), you feel disconnected from everyone else (-1 ongoing to aid them until the Festive Event moon is new, or similar significant interval)
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Dec 20, 2018 22:19
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Glazius posted:Maybe you always get the bond, but first roll +bond and on a 7-9 GM picks one bad thing, on a 6- all three? You feel it wasn't adequate (as existing move), it's frozen in time (can't resolve for XP), you feel disconnected from everyone else (-1 ongoing to aid them until the Festive Event moon is new, or similar significant interval) Great suggestions, but we already played it as is. 7-9s all around except, appropriately enough, the one guy who tried to regift. It ended up being called Five Finger Night - the darkest night of the year. The idea is that thieves are extra active on this night, so people give each other gifts to make sure no one is left empty-handed. Very touching stuff.
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Dec 21, 2018 20:13
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Did Inglorious ever come out?
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Dec 25, 2018 05:59
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It seems like I'm running a Dungeon World oneshot on short notice (this evening) for my DnD group since we're missing a player this week, and nobody's played this system yet (including me) but I think I've got a fun self-contained idea for it. Our normal setting has a literal Sky Mall, for adventurers and magic items and stuff, floating in the sky, and I thought it would be a good setting for an adventure. I know I shouldn't plan too much in advance but here's what I've got as a rough idea of how things will go Intent on using it as effectively a bomb, someone has hijacked the Sky Mall command center and is going to drop the whole thing on the capital city unless their demands are met. The players are employees or shoppers in the Sky Mall when this attack happens- and now they're going to Die Hard their way into saving the day. Highlights: - Food Court Brawl - Hidden cloudways between Sky Mall floors and behind shops - unfinished floor between open shops and command center, for Die Hard flavored action with baddie's lead goon and their squad - boss fight on rooftop as finale, possibly while mall starting to fall (if they didn't stop that beforehand) I was wondering if anyone had some fun little ideas to throw in for flavor and encounters/complications, or any recommendations on how to make everyone's first time with the system go smoothly?
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Dec 29, 2018 17:17
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Sea Lily posted:It seems like I'm running a Dungeon World oneshot on short notice (this evening) for my DnD group since we're missing a player this week, and nobody's played this system yet (including me) but I think I've got a fun self-contained idea for it. Our normal setting has a literal Sky Mall, for adventurers and magic items and stuff, floating in the sky, and I thought it would be a good setting for an adventure. I know I shouldn't plan too much in advance but here's what I've got as a rough idea of how things will go That sounds like a lot of fun, I hope it goes well, post results! I'm phone posting so can't go into detail, but make sure you get a print copy of the GM principles/moves and keep them in front of you, an occasional glance at then will really help you keep on track. Especially things like "name everyone they meet" and "address the characters not the players" Likewise, if you guys come from DnD make sure you don't let them ask to roll stuff. Always ask what their character is doing and then tell them if a roll is suitable for that moment. Quickly read the 16 hp dragon to get an idea of what I mean And have a load of fun!
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Dec 29, 2018 17:48
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Thanks! That 16 HP dragon article actually helped me understand how to present enemies really well. The session went great, everyone was way more into it than I expected and I was really happy with everything, once we got past the kind of awkward first 10 minutes or so of actual gameplay, where there was this weird "do you go first? do i go first?" kind of thing with a few mercs being overly aggressive towards the players. I think everyone was still expecting a distinct split between Combat Time and Not Combat Time like DnD has so they weren't sure when they should start fighting people- but we got past that and things got good. the party was a Time Mage, a Spellsword, a Dashing Hero, and a Princess. i gave them a bunch of classes to pick from and they ended up with a fun party with this mix after the food court fight went a little weird (the dashing hero pantsed a guy while the princess gave a big speech, it was good) they talked their way past a pretty big midboss (still had to fight his minions) and then everything went to hell in the most glorious way in the Skymall's control room/magical core. Basically there was a big rune-covered orb that was keeping this thing in the sky, and the villain was using that to move it over the capital city with the intent to drop it like a bomb. so when the players were trying to stop her from operating the controls, one of them threw his magic sword at her- enchanted to cut through anything- and it took off her hand, and went through the control setup for the core, and then embedded itself in the core. And that was it's own whole mess. So instead of the original climax I had kind of planned in the outline (rooftop battle as the villain tries to escape the falling skymall), the villain was subdued without too much trouble, but the players had to scramble to figure out how to fix the core, remove the magic sword, and keep the whole place from crashing to the ground anyway, which worked great. They ended up finding out the core absorbs magical artifacts and can use that to repair itself, but the magic sword's ability to cut through anything kept it from getting sucked in and damaged it instead. So two of them looted the mall's magic item shops while the other two ended up in a fight with some big meat golem monster things as the villain tried to escape- and got killed for her trouble. One player goes down, fails the Last Breath, and dies. But luckily this is an upscale mall- the players are able to find a Dead Man's Coin which they can use to ensure she gets to make a deal with death instead of dying, even when she fails the roll. They just have to get it to her before she actually completely dies. The downside is, this is one of the most powerful magic items here, and they need it to fix the core. They choose to revive their teammate. and then in a clever move, they punt the remaining meat golem into the core, since that thing's big and mean and powered by magic, they figure it should work pretty well as being absorbed to 'heal' the gashes the sword made, as long as it's supplemented by like, three dozen healing potions and random magical rings and amulets and capes and really just whatever the hell they could find. they just dumped it all on the thing. core fixes itself, villain stopped, the day is saved. the magic sword being embedded in the core seems to have awakened something in it, as it has glowing runes on it's hilt now, and the player who died and then didn't die has made a deal with death to kill their own (admittedly probably evil) brother within the next month so he can take her place in the afterlife. otherwise, death is coming for her again. so we got those plot hooks for next time they want to keep playing these characters whenever someone can't show up for the normal DnD game and they seem really into the system so i think it was a success
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Dec 30, 2018 05:49
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Sea Lily posted:they want to keep playing these characters whenever someone can't show up for the normal DnD game and they seem really into the system so i think it was a success Cool, great to know it went well. Defenders of SkyMall has potential as a campaign title, assuming they're still welcome there.
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Dec 30, 2018 09:02
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Glad to hear it went well and the example helped out Now you can start planning that dungeon world campaign for once the DnD game is finished up 
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Dec 30, 2018 13:45
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I’m bringing Perilous Wilds into tonight’s session, entirely because the party followed a plot hook and I want to play around with the book. I feel like that’s a lovely thing to do, but the central concept of the campaign has gone so completely off the rails compared to the initial concept at this point that eh gently caress it. I was thinking of allowing drop-in-drop-out for the campaign via Dark Souls soapstones. I can’t think of any reasons why that wouldn’t work in the system, I just gotta justify it via narrative. Edit: Something I’m realizing is that I don’t even want to prep for even the small amount that DW demands v: Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jan 10, 2019 |
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Jan 9, 2019 18:09
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Long story short: People in the neighborhood have tasked me with running a game. It's kind of short notice, but it should be fine. I haven't ran DW for a group of brand new people in a long time. Need suggestions for what classbooks people have used with new groups and have been successful with (probably shouldn't be too complex, since they're new), otherwise I'm just going to use the base playbooks. Was thinking about a dungeon starter or maybe just starting out in the action and asking questions. Not sure if they're going to want me to run more or whatever. Any suggestions on that as well?
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Jan 12, 2019 23:51
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Overemotional Robot posted:Long story short: People in the neighborhood have tasked me with running a game. It's kind of short notice, but it should be fine. I haven't ran DW for a group of brand new people in a long time. Need suggestions for what classbooks people have used with new groups and have been successful with (probably shouldn't be too complex, since they're new), otherwise I'm just going to use the base playbooks. Base books should probably be okay for first-timers. Even if they want more out of you than a one-shot, you can use a dungeon starter to run a one-shot and then FINAL STAGE: BLOODLINES to a genuine first session in a new campaign once everybody gets the idea of making moves and such down.
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Jan 13, 2019 01:17
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I would replace the cord books that cast spells from lists with ones that don’t. Part of the joy of this type of game is thinking with your mind, Instead of scanning your character sheet. With that in mind, the priest and the mage instead of the cleric and wizard. Maybe put in the city thief if you’re doing a adventure in town.
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Jan 13, 2019 07:18
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I ended up going with the basic playbooks since I was short on time. It all went great, though. They fought a gleeok outside of a temple dedicated to a spider goddess. I ended up not even using a starter, just asking them questions and then weaving that into a coherent story. I really did want to get away from the spell list classes, but I just didn't have the time when it was all said it done. I only had three people and only one chose cleric. He seemed fine with it and he did a great job for a new player.
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Jan 13, 2019 23:33
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Any chance you can share your approach/thought process in weaving a story from the answers?
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Jan 14, 2019 00:35
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Sure. I'm by no means the master of this buy I've been doing it a while and have built up a couple of tricks. I will say, though, that this approach was helped greatly by only having three players. If I had more I probably just would have went with an adventure starter. I led them into character creation, through bonds, then asked them questions like, "what was the first thing you ever stole as a thief?," "what would someone have to do to insult your religion?," and "what is the largest creature you've ever tracked through the forest?" They had chosen thief, cleric, and ranger, btw. I did this to get a baseline idea of what they were looking for in the game. If they mentioned something that seemed like they wanted to explore it, I noted it down for later. An example would be the cleric. He kept mentioning this holy book in all his answers. He also kept mentioning knowledge and secrets. So right away I'm filing away in the back of my mind that I can lure him places with the promise of forbidden knowledge and get him on low rolls by going for his books, staffs, and holy symbols. After I had a few things I started asking them open ended questions to help me figure out the scenario that I was going to start them in. To be transparent here I had no idea what was going to be happening before I started asking questions. The last thing I had read was Dark Heart of the Dreamer, so I took the town of Ditchwater and made them freebooters. I described the town as being in the middle of the forest because the ranger had told me that he liked to help frontier towns. I had a couple of goals for the questions I asked: 1. Make questions open ended, but give them enough to get started and try to tie it all together. 2. Ask questions in such a way where the answers would be mostly true. 3. Make sure that I could keep using the answers to the questions for later fronts or adventure seeds. Your results will always vary by group. This group, amazingly for brand new players, were full of little details and easily answered everything I gave them. I've had the reverse before as well, though, and in those cases you may have to do a bit more heavy lifting than normal. Some people will disagree with this approach, and it's not for everyone, but sometimes I just see how lazy I can be as a GM and how much of the work I can put on them. I crib a lot from video games. However I twist everything a little to give it a flavor that matches the world they want to play in. I did not write my questions down but I think they were something like this (included my best memory of the answers below them): Thief: What did your guildmaster send you here to steal and why did they give you a second chance after what you did? They sent me to steal an artifact but wanted to use this as a test to see if I was worthy of staying in the guild. I stole the guild leader's crest and he let me back in because in his heart of hearts he knows I'm better than him and wants a successor Ranger: What is it that you've been protecting this town from and why has it been so hard? There's something big that has made a nest out in the woods I can't get close because it kills all life wherever it goes. There is a large part of the forest that is dead and dying from where it walks and hunts. Cleric: Why are there so many non-believers in this area and why are you tasked with changing that? My religion is basically a cult and there is another cult secretly operating in this area. They worship the Spider Goddess and I will make them see the light So, my strategy is to start looking for connections right away. I start thinking that the cult is operating out of a destroyed temple, since they're trying to remain secret. Some of the townsfolk are probably cult members, so I want to make sure to keep that in mind as I introduce NPCs. I make a note that there is at least one in the town right now. The treasure that the thief was sent to find is probably in that temple and probably either belongs to the cult or is something they found and are guarding. I decide that it's something they found and tampered with. I write a note that her guild might be connected to this cult in some way, but at this point I'll see how it all plays out. As for the monster, its nest is obviously in the temple, which makes me wonder two things: is it helping them or is it getting in their way? I decide that a three way fight is more interesting and it may have something to do with the artifact. By the way, nobody has brought up anything about the artifact and I have no idea what it is either, so as we play I am looking for facts about it so I can get a clear picture. So I start asking myself. If they just arrived in town and the hidden cult members know they are freebooters, how would they react towards them? They obviously wouldn't want them figuring out that they found something in the temple, especially since they see the cleric is from a warring cult. Well, the cleric helps me with that by doing a detect alignment spell. He's looking for the direction of the evil monster. He doesn't roll well and he discovers a vague aura of evil out in the woods and also in the town, but can't place where. I decide that one of the cult members is going to try and trick them into helping kill the monster, doing all the work for them, then they'll kill the adventurers. So that's basically where we started. A man ran screaming into the town shouting about a monster and they wanted to be good guys and help so they talked to him. He wasn't the cultist, but his friend was. They were reading the wrong guy the whole time. This leads to them going to the temple, finding the monster (which I stole from The Legend of Zelda), and killing it. Of course lots of other exciting things happened but you were asking about using the answers. By the way, that monster didn't leave death wherever it went, but its blood did kill vegetation. It had already been wounded, which was their first clue that something was going on. So I took something he said and made it half true based on his perspective. Anyway, the narrative isn't going to always connect 100% perfectly. Just do the best you can and even if it seems like it doesn't make any sense to you, DON'T SAY THAT! My group thought it was this big mystery where I had a it all planned out and was bread-crumbing them along, but really I was just listening to them talk about the *deep mystery* and using what they said with a twist. Overemotional Robot fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jan 14, 2019 |
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Jan 14, 2019 03:43
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Pollyanna posted:Any chance you can share your approach/thought process in weaving a story from the answers? For instance: say you have a player who has chosen a Barbarian character, and she idly mentions that the tribe is strongly matriarchal. Fantastic! You might ask something like, "Why has this tribe resisted becoming 'civilized' or joining [previously established kingdom]?" And your player may throw something out there like, "Because they follow false gods. We have intentionally kept ourselves apart to maintain spiritual and cultural purity." Awesome, that gives you some motivation for why the tribe lives where it does or behaves like it does. It also gives you some insight into its relationship with [previously established kingdom], but let's say you want to pull on that thread a little bit. Here's a great opportunity for cross-pollination. "Hey, Ranger from [previously established kingdom], how do your people view this tribe?" And his player might answer, "As backwards savages. We have no understanding or appreciation of their culture, and are frankly surprised that they are capable of complex thought." Heh, heh, great! And while we're on the topic of relationships, maybe to be really clever you want to establish the PC's relationship to the tribe, so you ask about that: "How are you related to the tribe? Why have you chosen to leave it and go adventuring?" To whit your player responds: "My mother is one of the tribal sha women, part of the ruling council. I didn't want to follow in her foot-steps, and chose to be a warrior instead. But then I did something that brought shame on my family, and went into exile." Oooh, let's get some history here: "What did you do to bring shame on your family?" And she might answer, "I ran my big mouth, insulted another warrior, and when I got called out on it I backed out on the duel-to-the-death." Intriguing! Let's press for a little bit more detail: "Self-imposed exile?" "Uh, yeah, totally. I'm out in the world trying to do something mighty to expunge my shame." Now the answers to these questions have largely pertained to just this character, but I'm going to rope her player into other players' questions as well. So when the Wizard's player says something like, "My former master was looking for the Dark Orb before he disappeared," I'm gonna go nuts and be like, "So Barbarian, what does your tribe say about the Dark Orb?" and she's gonna reply, "That it is the incarnation of evil, and all suffering flows from it like water from a spring." Fan-loving-tastic! Right away, I know that the Dark Orb is going to figure in this story. But so are the politics of the Barbarian's tribe. Her sha-woman mother is going to have an important prophetic vision, and the message of that vision is going to be carried to her by what messenger? Why, the warrior she dissed, of course - a warrior who is none-too-pleased about being an errand-woman for a coward who didn't have the ovarian fortitude to face her in mortal single combat! And trying to get anyone in [previously established kingdom] to believe the Barbarian that this prophecy nonsense is real will involve hijinks, because, well, we've already established that the "civilized folk" think they're superstitious savages. Everybody knows the Dark Orb is nothing but allegory, a myth used to scare children. Duh. Roll that up with whatever ridiculousness the Ranger's and Wizard's players come up with, and I'll have more than enough material to run a couple of concurrent plot arcs. Does that help? Finally, while it doesn't necessarily get used in formulating your main story elements, I find that asking for details is always a great way to add flavor and a "lived in" feel to the world. "How do the warrior-women of your tribe wear their hair?" "What do the people of [previously established kingdom] eat as a delicacy that everyone else thinks is revolting?" "What garments or symbols distinguish someone of your wizardly order?" That kind of stuff really helps players visualize each others' characters and the world as a whole.
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Jan 14, 2019 23:58
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Ilor posted:Finally, while it doesn't necessarily get used in formulating your main story elements, I find that asking for details is always a great way to add flavor and a "lived in" feel to the world. "How do the warrior-women of your tribe wear their hair?" "What do the people of [previously established kingdom] eat as a delicacy that everyone else thinks is revolting?" "What garments or symbols distinguish That reminds me, I need to do more of this. Very good advice.
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Jan 16, 2019 05:34
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I haven’t been doing nearly enough question-asking and personal roping for my campaign. I did get into that with revelations about the Bard’s family, the Ranger’s sublimation, the Wizard’s college establishment, and the Immolator’s possible divinity, but now we’ve gone off into the wilds entirely because I wanted to play with Perilous Wilds and that felt like a horrible mistake (“because the GM thought it’d be fun” is a terrible rationale for anything), so we’re not doing much social stuff and therefore not much opportunity for backstory/growth. I kinda want to do a big ol’ reset on the campaign cause it’s become rather schizophrenic in its original concept (“dungeon diving and finding the Hell Death Engine in a dead god’s body!!!”) and what it became (establishing a college and a winery with a massive silo and teaching the concept of currency and capitalism to the animal kingdom). Is that a good idea? I don’t know what the gently caress it is now and I’m not sure how to ground myself as a GM and really knuckle down and do things right.
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Jan 16, 2019 20:16
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Are you sure you're not trying too hard to push them in a particular direction? Okay, it sounds like they're out in the wilds now, and you (and they?) are kind of at a loss. Pressing the reset button isn't likely to fix any of the problems that got you here. Instead, roll with it. Seems like a great time for some questions! What legend has the Bard recently heard about this region? What has the Ranger noticed that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up? Let the players create the lore with you, and suddenly you have an area that the players are invested in - because it's theirs. You'll get half a dozen story ideas, too, plus an idea of the types of things the players are interested in. You can still use these uncivilized areas for socializing and character building. Ask more questions! "Cleric, you wake up around midnight, during the Thief's watch, and you see him propped against a tree, snoring lightly. It isn't the first time this has happened." "Paladin, why are you avoiding riding in the same wagon with the Fighter? People are starting to notice...". None of these things are likely to advance the overall story, but it will give them some quirks to play with. The more invested your players are, both in their characters and the game world, the easier your life will be as the GM.
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Jan 16, 2019 21:14
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WhiteHowler posted:Let the players create the lore with you, and suddenly you have an area that the players are invested in - because it's theirs. You'll get half a dozen story ideas, too, plus an idea of the types of things the players are interested in. WhiteHowler posted:The more invested your players are, both in their characters and the game world, the easier your life will be as the GM.
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Jan 16, 2019 23:02
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I’ve been loving awful at asking questions. I tend to declare a bunch of stuff then go “what do you do”, which isn’t very engaging. I think I’m gonna start with a GM move that says “ask all your characters some questions about themselves that relate to their current situation“. Or maybe even my next session I will specifically limit myself to only asking questions and using the answers, just to force myself to do it.
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Jan 16, 2019 23:51
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I know I've mentioned it before in either this thread or the AW thread, but try the following: unless the previous session ended in a cliff-hanger or there is an obvious starting situation, construct your opening scene by asking each player a question. Start with a general premise - a situation that is both a) immediate, and b) impossible to ignore. Rope players in as you go, building on previous answers. Make sure to shake things up such that people aren't just answering from their own perspective - ask the player of the Bard why the Ranger is in trouble, or ask the Ranger's player how the spell the Wizard has just tried to cast has gone horribly, horribly wrong. Once each player has had input into the situation, you'll have all of the potential energy you need. Just throw a tiny dollop of catchy, scene-setting exposition on it, turn it loose, and play to find out what happens next. You can go from nothing to a pretty engaging opening scene in very little time.
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Jan 17, 2019 00:28
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Does asking players questions about each other's characters reduce their agency?
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Jan 17, 2019 00:42
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PerniciousKnid posted:Does asking players questions about each other's characters reduce their agency? For example, maybe I ask the Ranger "what did the Thief steal from your family?", but the Thief's player vehemently feels they're not that type of Thief - in that case, I'd just change the question. "Ranger, why does your family suspect the Thief of a crime she didn't commit?". Or reverse it and ask the Thief instead. Or you could just drop that line of thinking altogether. Be faithful to the established narrative, but don't be afraid to back up a little if new information is getting in the way of anyone's enjoyment.
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Jan 17, 2019 01:10
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There's also a huge difference between asking Player A about what kind of difficulty Player B's character is having right now versus asking Player A to fill in part of the backstory of Player B's character. It's much harder to say "No way, my character would never do that!!!" to "You are in the out-house with your trews around your ankles when the Hobgoblins attack" than to "You murdered my entire family in cold blood."
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Jan 17, 2019 02:03
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I'm also okay with taking away a slight bit of agency during scene setup. To expand on one of my examples: GM: "Cleric, you awake around midnight and notice that the Thief has fallen asleep during her watch shift and is snoring lightly." Thief: "What? I would never fall asleep on duty. I'm a ranking member of the Guild! They'd revoke my letter of marque if this got back to them!" GM: "Perhaps that's true, but nonetheless, on this night you're fast asleep. What do you think may have caused this?" And suddenly this stray observation has created an opportunity for character development, and maybe a potential story hook! Has the Thief been suffering from insomnia because of some massive guilt that was gnawing at her? Had she been drugged? Enspelled? By who? Or what? Or was this just the first time she'd ever felt truly comfortable with her companions, and she let her guard down? And the best part is, the players will likely suggest explanations you hadn't even thought of. This relates to one of my favorite tricks as a Dungeon World GM. I'm good at coming up with individual plot points, but I'm terrible at tying everything together. But that's okay, because a good group of players will totally do that for you. Back to the example: Thief: "Okay, after they rouse me, I apologize profusely, but I'm very suspicious. Something unnatural is happening here." Ranger: "Hey, remember that giant venus fly trap thing we fought in the gnomish ruins? It sprayed spores that knocked out my wolf." Cleric: "And we know that it was controlled by the mad druidess." Ranger: "But she died in the explosion..." Thief: "Did she? Everyone find some cloth and cover your mouths. Ranger, you and the wolf start scouting. If anyone sees a single vine out of place, yell!" Nine times out of ten, none of these connections had even occurred to me. But when they find a broken earring nearby with the mad druidess' family crest, they think I'm a freaking genius. (Edit: Yeah, these are pretty hacky examples, but I tend to be more creative when I'm put on the spot.) WhiteHowler fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Jan 17, 2019 |
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Jan 17, 2019 02:42
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Turns out there was a recent question on Office Hours that covered exactly what I've been worrying about. Most poignant is this discussion of the role of the GM as creative director. I'm still watching, but I'm learning a gently caress of a lot from it. I guess one thing that my table has been having some issues with is that the players don't really ask questions unprompted - in the video, Adam talks about how the PCs have their interests and will contribute to the story as well, but I don't know if I've seen mine do that (or if I've even given them the opportunity to do so). What are some ways to promote the kind of curiosity and creativity that the game encourages in players? Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Jan 17, 2019 |
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Jan 17, 2019 03:31
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WhiteHowler posted:Nine times out of ten, none of these connections had even occurred to me. But when they find a broken earring nearby with the mad druidess' family crest, they think I'm a freaking genius. I really like doing this. I once described a room, they thought it was a puzzle, then they solved a puzzle I never made and though I was just so clever.
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Jan 17, 2019 06:15
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Pollyanna posted:I guess one thing that my table has been having some issues with is that the players don't really ask questions unprompted - in the video, Adam talks about how the PCs have their interests and will contribute to the story as well, but I don't know if I've seen mine do that (or if I've even given them the opportunity to do so). What are some ways to promote the kind of curiosity and creativity that the game encourages in players? I'm pretty sure they have done. How else did the campaign get from "FIND THE HOLY CRYSTALS AND SEAL THE POWER MAIDEN" to establishing the Neon Night Memorial Vaporwave Academy and trying to get squirrels off the acorn standard?
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Jan 17, 2019 18:25
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One of my PCs is considering rerolling because they feel their character doesn’t match the tone and direction the campaign has gone in. Should I stop them, or should I try I to work with them first and figure out pain points before offering some new playbooks? It’s ultimately up to them, but I also feel a little responsible for it (I don’t know why). NGL I kinda also want an excuse to bring in some of the more off-the-wall playbooks. Glazius posted:I'm pretty sure they have done. How else did the campaign get from "FIND THE HOLY CRYSTALS AND SEAL THE POWER MAIDEN" to establishing the Neon Night Memorial Vaporwave Academy and trying to get squirrels off the acorn standard? Well, for those things, they didn’t necessarily ask questions so much as state their intent and what they were trying to do (e.g. acorn standard), or it was something that I suggested/made a move based on what I knew about the character or thought would be interesting (e.g. Sickly Springs Community College). The former case kinda ends up being the same thing anyway, but the latter felt like I was overstepping my role as creative director a bit. Though we do bullshit a lot, I end up doing most of the final riffing steps into the game. I guess that’s what I’m supposed to do, though.
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Jan 17, 2019 18:45
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Pollyanna posted:One of my PCs is considering rerolling because they feel their character doesn’t match the tone and direction the campaign has gone in. Should I stop them, or should I try I to work with them first and figure out pain points before offering some new playbooks? It’s ultimately up to them, but I also feel a little responsible for it (I don’t know why). It can't hurt to talk to them and see if maybe there's a way they can develop their current character into something that they think fits better, but ultimately I don't really think there's any harm in letting them roll a new character and retire their current one. Hell, they can always bring that character back later if they want to, maybe having grown and changed in their time away from the party or something. Lots of Powered by the Apocalypse systems even make "roll a second character" and/or "retire this character to safety and create a new one" explicit advancement options you can take. I don't think that comes up in Dungeon World, but hey, do what works for your group, that's what counts. Whether you're responsible for it or not is... eh. Usually when there's a disconnect like this it's down to the group not communicating their own expectations/interests clearly early on, but ultimately sometimes someone just isn't feeling the character they're playing and it's not really anyone's "fault" or anything.
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Jan 17, 2019 20:59
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In that case, it’s playbooks time I’m gonna guess gnome’s stuff is still good? The list of playbooks in the OP should be enough.
Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jan 17, 2019 |
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Jan 17, 2019 21:18
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 06:11 |
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Yeah, I dig gnome7's stuff a lot. The last few times I've run Dungeon World we've used almost exclusively gnome7's playbooks and they all play really well together and do a great job of sort of... helping Dungeon World loosen up, if that makes sense. They expand the narrative power players have in a way that's really fun and helps them embrace their roles in the party.
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Jan 17, 2019 21:45
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