Dungeon World Thread (Messy, Forceful, Stunning)

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Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

wrl posted:

First of all asking the GM to come up with moves can be tough, especially with PbP where you may be looking to perform that move in the same post. Secondly there are some questions here, Should these moves require rolling ever? Can they/should they be as powerful as standard class moves? What if the GM doesn't give me the move I intended?

I have a system in mind that essentially uses tags to describe animals, and each tag grants a specific move/benefit. Thoughts?

I've been playing an Initiate with Shapeshift as a Multiclass move in the PbP "Looking for Petryloch". So far, it's been working out great. The moves the GM gave me were interesting, and didn't need a roll, but I also use the occasional Hack & Slash as said animal or a Discern Realities.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2013 15:58

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 19:09

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Lemon Curdistan posted:

Mundane animals generally aren't listed - but then, why turn into a mundane animal when you can turn into something much more interesting?

That said, a bunch of codex-made monster cards for standard animals (wolf, eagle, bear, etc.) would probably be a useful thing to do. I'll have a think.

Hey turning into a big gently caress-off bear is pretty interesting.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2013 16:27

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

So now that I'm more familiar with DW and how it works, I want to try my hand at making some content - in particular, a class. For those of you who already have created DW content, are there any general tips you can give? Or should I just dive in the deep end and get feedback as I go on?

# ¿ Apr 7, 2013 20:53

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Thanks to the advice from everybody who provided it, here is the very first draft of my custom class idea: the Zealot! Inspired by the Avenger from D&D 4E and the Inquisitor from Pathfinder, this guy is less concerned with saving or protecting the weak and more about bringing divine retribution to enemies. Feedback is encouraged heartily.

The Zealot v1

# ¿ Apr 9, 2013 21:20

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Golden Bee posted:

For the Zealot, why are the weapons a fine bow and a rapier? It should be a cruel blade of some kind.

Also, this isn't significantly different or better than a Paladin with a relevant quest. In fact, with the 1d10 hit die, it's worse. The first starting move only lets you get out of trouble that you create; unless you're creating an Inquisitional party in a civic campaign, you wouldn't get to use it very much.

I'm also interested in the fact your class has an advance move making you immune to death. That'd be ridiculously overpowered. Why the zealot and not a cleric or a paladin?

The weapons have already been discussed - my intent was to include a crossbow at first but I couldn't find any ammo for it on the list. Does the DW crossbow just use regular arrows?

With Bow, Stubborn Knees, I wanted to give this guy the flavor that he answers only to his deity, rather than civil justice. Like how Inquisitors in popular culture don't seem to have to answer for when they commit a crime in the name of the pursuit of heretics. Should I just reduce it to the Outstanding Warrants part?

For Eternal Providence, you're only immune to death if you die by the hand of the guy you're fighting. Since you're more vulnerable to other threats, it's more likely you'll die because of some other guy ganging up on you. At first I had it as "if you die while the target of your sacred oath remains undefeated" but realized that was definitely too powerful. If this is too powerful too, what should I reduce it to? I definitely wanted to include a personal death-related move, but wasn't sure what to do other than this if I wasn't gonna step on somebody else's toes.

As for your last question - I'll admit I made this first draft too combat-oriented (as addressed by Shamblercow), but when I started I wanted to make a more rogue-ish divine character. Obviously in this draft that didn't come through enough, so maybe you'll be more satisfied with the next one!

Shamblercow posted:

Opening up that aspect of the class might make it more broadly applicable:

Fanatic
When an enemy breaks or rejects the tenets of your faith, you may declare them a Heretic of your faith.

That opens up the choices a little bit more and allows the character to play nice with party members and regular civilizations. It would be a very cool thing for you to provide a list of names and domains (mix and match) to fit the style of the game, as it would decrease the drag to getting started with the playbook. It would also be boss to include a few tenets or commandments upon which a Zealot might hang their faith:

All Must Refrain from taking ________'s Name in Vain
The Messengers of ________ Must Humble Themselves Before Women
Beggars are Holy, Their Suffering Redeems Us
None Shall Harm a Child, Upon Pain of Death

A good tenet would be something that sometimes puts them in conflict with social norms, and gives the player choices to make.

Another thought: It seems like many of the class features hang on the idea of trying to declare other creatures and NPC heretics, but there doesn't seem to be a fictional constraint on doing so. Maybe by opening up the ability to declare heretics, you can adjust some of the moves to show social consequences to these actions, as currently, being a Heretic is only a disadvantage in combat. There are about 10 moves that give combat advantages against Heretics. There are only a couple that do anything socially.

Ideas for social moves/advantages: starting a cult/inquisition, converting, preaching, temp boost to CHA (suffused with holy fervor?), parley against multiple targets (mass conversion?), converting a town and gaining social standing... and so on.

This is the best thing and I love it. You're right, social moves should definitely be included. I'll have a go at writing up some new things with this in mind.

Thanks everybody for this advice! It helps a ton.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2013 09:36

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Sort of? There's KillerQueen's Diabolist, and also Fenarisk's Pariah, though that one is unfinished.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2013 19:07

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

So we just had a quick one-shot session out of the blue and it was a hilarious crapfest (half the time our GM tried to communicate with us, it was through uncontrollable laughter). Our cast!

Woomod as the benevolent and easily-amused GM
Caphi as Celestus, young Human Paladin recently graduated from paladin-school and very serious about his business;
Jetrauben as Yriel, a Human Cursed Knight who served in the army with a cursed sword and has some sordid (and maybe or maybe not obscene) history with Celestus;
Elfgames as Fenfaril, a Forest-focus Elven Mage who...well, see below;
and Wahad as Lip, the Brownie Fae who is attached to Celestus' household but hasn't seen him since he went to paladin school and is now travelling with him for a time as his indentured servant;

We start in the very opulent and lavishly decorated offices of Sir Pinglekins Fluffy Winklebottom III, owner of the nearby tuna-canning factory who has hired the services of the party to investigate the strange noises in his factory that have been scaring his workers away. Celestus, naturally eager to defend the weak from the inequities that beset them (his words, not mine) gets some dramatic lighting and mood music as he swears a divine oath to protect the factory. Arriving at the factory, Lip has a quick look around, but before he can notify the rest about the trapdoor that he found, Yriel has already fallen through it.

The trapdoor leads to a cellar, where the party stumbles upon a few crates filled with a musky, minty plantmatter. Fenfaril, naturally interested in all matters vegetative, creates a teeny tiny musky-mint golem, who was adorable. Meanwhile, the two armored men investigate, and come to the conclusion that the basement leads into a tunnel, which leads to a small cove. There's some tracks there, as well, which lead them to believe that there have been people smuggling things in. Specifically, they denote two different kind of tracks - cat paws (have I mentioned that this is a town of sapient cats? Yeah.) and "something slithery". Lip heads out to the cove, dips his head underwater and talks to some fish swimming nearby, who tell him that a "nice lady" has been doing business with some cats in the cove.

Now on the trail of something suspicious, the party decides to ~~set up an ambush~~stake out the factory (as commanded by Celestus, who had a Vow of Honor for his quest) and wait for the smugglers. The two ruffians show up and Celestus commands them with divine authority to stop and tell him the truth, which they do. Lip helpfully tells them that he saw Celestus hurt a cat once (this was before he was a Paladin, but they don't need to know that). The cat smugglers get terrified and tell them all about the operation. Fenfaril finally figures out that the musky-mint is actually catnip. It has been supplied by a mermaid who goes by the name of Nami, and she'll show up with another drop soon.

Now sitting on a big pile of illegal catdrugs, the party has a talk on what to do it. And by the party, I mean mostly Celestus and Yriel. Yriel, you see, is quite lawful despite his curse, and votes to destroy the catnip ASAP. Celestus, on the other hand, has forgotten how catnip works, and thinks that selling the catnip will create a peaceful state in the cat village, and peace and prosperity are some of his God's tenets. After helpfully reminded by Lip that catnip does not, in fact, chill cats out, Celestus and Yriel finally agree to destroy their (and Lip's, since anything he possesses is technically Celestus') share. Fenfaril, however, has no such noble intentions, and makes mad bank on his share of catnip to the tune of 200 coins.

Still, there is the problem of the supplier - the mysterious mermaid Nami. How she grew the catnip nobody can quite figure out, but la, they wait for her after Celestus swears a very serious oath to Stop the Mermaid Catnip Cartel(tm). After two days, Nami shows up. Lip quickly allays her suspicions (after all, they are not cats), and gets her to approach quickly enough for Celestus to ruin the ruse and start asking questions with dramatic mood lighting and an echo-y voice. Nami lies through her teeth. Yriel broods a bit, and threatens to destroy her boat if she does not cooperate. Fenfaril proceeds to actually make good on the threat through magic and dissolves the boat she brought the catnip on (after contemplating the taste of mermaid out loud). Nami, understandably bummed out, tries to leave but gets cursed by Lip, who takes her gills away and puts forth an ultimatum; to tell master Celestus what he wants to know, and she will get her gills back.

Nami proceeds to reveal that the cats, who - naturally - fish a lot for food, occasionally fish up members of the Mermaid nations belonging to the Triton League, and eat them anyway. The League, enraged by this proposition, started smuggling catnip into the city to make the cats vulnerable to attack and/or genocide. Celestus, quite taken by the plight of criminals, puts on his best idealistic smile and tells her that he will facilitate talks between the League and the Cat Council so that the issue can be resolved as reasonable ~~menpeople with humanoid torsossentient beings~~ creatures. Nami, not entirely convinced, gets her gills back from Lip through a gesture of good faith by Celestus and escapes immediately, despite warnings by Yriel and Fenfaril to the contrary.

Returning to Sir Pinglekins Fluffy Winklebottom III, the party reveals what's going on. Sir Winklebottom, understandably surprised, nonetheless rewards them for their initial job (clearing out the factory) with 500 coins each, then heads off to inform the Cat Council, and that was the end of the session.

Dungeon World, everybody.

Wahad fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Jul 29, 2013

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 01:49

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Some of them work well enough in your bog-standard post apocalypse setting; The Cultist, the Slayer, The Metamorph, The Imposter, The Diabolist, The Mastermind, The Necromancer...

honestly, any of them can work just fine if you make the fiction right. That's what DW's all about, after all.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2014 19:07

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Ducks.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 22:30

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 19:09

Wahad: May 19, 2011; There is no escape.

Bigup DJ posted:

Intelligent ones with opposable thumbs and language I mean! Like Duergar and Gnolls.

But where's the fun in that? An intelligent flock of ducks or swarm of bees is much scarier than your average pack of gnolls.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 09:54

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