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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Theres no reason spending XP to power a move is 'bad'. The Arrow Moves are huge things that have only ever been used once in this 25~ session campaign, and that time was this awesome cinematic moment. XP is handed out like candy in the basic game so, either way, it's worked out great for me so far. Maybe your players are different, but I know mine would never, ever, use that thing and spend 1xp. There's something sacred about levels even in DW. Also, Nemesis Of Moles posted:On a 6 or below, the arrow becomes immutable for some time, and your XP is lost. I think the last part is redundant, the XP is lost anyway, right? Well it's your move so it doesn't matter how you word it if you understand it  I like the idea for your weapons and it sounds like a cool campaign.
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Aug 31, 2015 09:14
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Nah you're right, I'll edit that out
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Aug 31, 2015 11:52
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:The Man-Made Arrow of Defiance
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Aug 31, 2015 13:22
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Where can I find a copy of the old playbooks? I'm looking through DriveThru RPG, and it looks like they won't let me download the old version I paid for.
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Sep 5, 2015 06:19
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I think most of you have already seen it over in the Kickstarter thread, but I've just launched a kickstarter for my Dungeon-World-But-Better game, Fellowship, and I've also made an SA thread for it. So check those out, if you haven't already. I don't want to derail any more threads so please post about it in the Fellowship thread, not in here.
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Sep 5, 2015 16:12
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Turtlicious posted:Where can I find a copy of the old playbooks? I'm looking through DriveThru RPG, and it looks like they won't let me download the old version I paid for. Yeah, it looks like they removed the old versions everywhere. Except my local copy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwff2GXz9bMnYnRFaXc0RFVZS0U/view?usp=sharing
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Sep 5, 2015 17:29
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Theres no reason spending XP to power a move is 'bad'. The Arrow Moves are huge things that have only ever been used once in this 25~ session campaign, and that time was this awesome cinematic moment. XP is handed out like candy in the basic game so, either way, it's worked out great for me so far. Yeah actually spending XP on a power or move is pretty much always bad design. Either the cost in XP is low relative to xp being earned (as you describe in your game) making it a trivial cost, so there's no reason to have a cost at all. Or the cost is high relative to the xp being earned in which case nobody will ever use the ability because leveling up is always better than a one time effect. Making them earn the effect through play is a better option in every way.
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Sep 5, 2015 18:08
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Also, it takes XP - which is normally just a fun thing to watch go up - and makes it another resource to keep track of. When it comes to resource management, DW is meant to work more with the rations, HP, losing spells, and so on. I don't think making XP an additional resource adds anything.
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Sep 5, 2015 19:47
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What type of setting/adventure would you guys recommend for a true introduction to DW? It's looking like it is going to be a group of 5 that is a mishmash of people with different levels of RPG experience, mostly D&D 4/5 with some Call of Cthulhu and Paranoia experience. In our D&D sessions I typically DM and we run fairly combat heavy encounters even though everyone enjoys the non-combat stuff too. We just find that combat encounters take up way too much time and bog down everything with rules, so we are giving DW a try. I'm sorta defaulting to a traditional temple delve with some traps and whatnot but I want to make sure that players get a good idea of what sets DW apart from other settings. I'm not sure if a temple delve is a good setting for that. Anyone have any good success stories for a quick one-off session or maybe a small-ish campaign? Bazanga fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Sep 9, 2015 |
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Sep 9, 2015 22:41
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Before the game starts, say "You're all in the same mercenary group, why did you join?" After you get answers, have them get hired to clear out a troll lair. They go do traditional DnD dungeon delve poo poo. (There are traps, made by not trolls, let them tell you why.) Then have them take it from there. Ask them questions about the world.
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Sep 9, 2015 22:59
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I wouldn't think "campaign", I find it distracting. It makes it harder to improvise moves in the moment. Play out a session with a focus on catering to the characters' interests (your cleric hates evil, maybe some cultists or demons are running around). After the first session, take the best parts and spin those into a campaign.
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Sep 9, 2015 23:08
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When you say "ask them questions about the world"? How often is too often? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the "players have as much say as the GM" when it comes to storybuilding. I just want to make sure that I'm giving enough fluff/texture to the players that they can get inspired to make up some cool poo poo.
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Sep 9, 2015 23:54
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Bazanga posted:When you say "ask them questions about the world"? How often is too often? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the "players have as much say as the GM" when it comes to storybuilding. I just want to make sure that I'm giving enough fluff/texture to the players that they can get inspired to make up some cool poo poo. So maybe in the above example, have them fill in details about the mercenary group. They mercenaries are there on behalf of a Lord. Who is that lord again, and what is he known for? There's a well-known troll lair near town. What is it? Everyone knows there's something dangerous between here and the lair (maybe a monster that roams that part of the land). What is it? That kind of thing. If they're total newbies, be prepared for some lame answers, but they'll get the hang of it really quick.
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Sep 10, 2015 00:24
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In media res usually works best, and ask questions and let players answer from there. "Fighter, you're on the ground under the mountain troll as it raises a tree stump high to smash you, the cliff only inches behind you. How did you get here? Who is behind the troll with an opportunity to help?" "Rogue, the ruby is in your hand but the doors to the mages sanctum have slammed shut and a strange mist starts swirling around everyone's feet. How did this happen, and who in your group seems to be immune to the mist?" "Bard, you're now in the middle of a mob of people completely enthralled to you, pitchforks and torches in hand. What are you leading them toward, and what secret does your friend beside you know that would turn them all against you?"
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Sep 10, 2015 04:55
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Bazanga posted:When you say "ask them questions about the world"? How often is too often? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the "players have as much say as the GM" when it comes to storybuilding. I just want to make sure that I'm giving enough fluff/texture to the players that they can get inspired to make up some cool poo poo. As often as you feel, but it's a lot of fun! Allow for constant little facts ("What's the name for the city Watch?") and fewer big ones ("What's the current political climate between SavageNordland and MoreDarkThanGreyEmpirePlace?") this allows for the players to feel like they have a bit of control, but makes the important calls all the more interesting. If you drown them with big question then the setting just won't appeal as much, since the misteries are revealed and the excitment of the uknown fades.
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Sep 10, 2015 07:28
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Bazanga posted:When you say "ask them questions about the world"? How often is too often? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the "players have as much say as the GM" when it comes to storybuilding. I just want to make sure that I'm giving enough fluff/texture to the players that they can get inspired to make up some cool poo poo. My interpretation is that the players have a say in how the world appears to their characters. Their input should be tied to their characters. So I try to ask questions not like, "Are there trolls here?" but rather "what do you think of trolls/why are you fighting a troll?" If the barbarian has no interest in religion, he shouldn't be describing Temple politics (but the cleric might, or the militant atheist thief).
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Sep 10, 2015 19:36
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PerniciousKnid posted:My interpretation is that the players have a say in how the world appears to their characters. Their input should be tied to their characters. So I try to ask questions not like, "Are there trolls here?" but rather "what do you think of trolls/why are you fighting a troll?" If the barbarian has no interest in religion, he shouldn't be describing Temple politics (but the cleric might, or the militant atheist thief). For instance, the last two games of Inverse World I've started (for different groups) I came to the first session with a short explanation of the setting and exactly one statement and four questions (one for each player) prepped ahead of time: You're falling. Was it voluntary (did you jump or fall)? What are you falling towards? What are you falling from? What else is dangerous here? In both instances, it was a great success, and we ran with it to build some awesome intro sessions.
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Sep 10, 2015 19:48
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So many of the best moments of my campaign came from asking the players a leading question and letting them go hog wild. One of my favourites was, after they'd 6ed a Spout Lore on the location they were headed: "What do you incorrectly believe to be true about your destination?" They fought for the opportunity to describe how perfectly safe their characters thought it was and how trusworthy and friendly the local halfling villages were said to be.
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Sep 11, 2015 12:47
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One of our best Apocalypse World world-building set-ups happened from just this kind of leading question; we'd already established that the hold in the game was a place called "Abilene," a neon-glitz city in the middle of a desolate, blasted plain. The last vestige of "the time before," clinging to existence thanks to an old Tokamak reactor (which provided power to a protective grid used to keep out "the ghosts"). Anyway, I decided that rather than there being a single hardholder in charge (as none of the PCs picked that playbook) that the town was run by a 12-member council called "The Jury." During character creation, it came out that the Chopper worked for one member of the Jury and the Gunlugger occasionally did freelance work for another. Then I turned to the guy playing the gangly, awkward, creepy Brainer and asked, "So Burroughs, what's your relationship to the Jury?" Without missing a beat, the player said, "I'm ON the Jury." Of course you are! It gave the game a scheming political dimension right out of the gate, which was loving awesome.
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Sep 11, 2015 15:19
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Ilor posted:One of our best Apocalypse World world-building set-ups happened from just this kind of leading question; we'd already established that the hold in the game was a place called "Abilene," a neon-glitz city in the middle of a desolate, blasted plain. The last vestige of "the time before," clinging to existence thanks to an old Tokamak reactor (which provided power to a protective grid used to keep out "the ghosts"). Anyway, I decided that rather than there being a single hardholder in charge (as none of the PCs picked that playbook) that the town was run by a 12-member council called "The Jury." During character creation, it came out that the Chopper worked for one member of the Jury and the Gunlugger occasionally did freelance work for another. Then I turned to the guy playing the gangly, awkward, creepy Brainer and asked, "So Burroughs, what's your relationship to the Jury?" That's awesome. You have a good group sounds like.
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Sep 11, 2015 17:00
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That was actually for a one-shot. 4 players, all seasoned role-players whose experience was mostly old-school games, and only one of them had ever played AW prior to that session. But it turned out to be an awesome evening, and every time I see him, the guy who played the Savvyhead harasses me to "get the band back together" for another session. Unfortunately he and one of the other players now live out-of-state, so I dunno when that's gonna happen. But my regular gaming group is pretty rad too.
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Sep 11, 2015 18:05
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How should I handle discern realities when it comes to story? I've listened to a few examples of play and it feels like hitting a 10+ on it leads to some major mysteries being resolved way before they are intended. I'm worried it is going to end up breaking the show, don't tell rule. Like, the "what should I be looking out for?" Question. If they are in a crypt that has had rumors of ghosts, is it cool to just say "ghosts" on a 10+ roll? Or would you just go ahead and say "oh there's a crazy old Mage here who uses illusion spells to keep kids away."? Trying to figure out how much info to give without feeling like I'm just doing an info dump on the upcoming surprises or plot.
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Sep 12, 2015 00:44
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Rulebook Heavily posted:The core DW design left stealth out deliberately so that anyone could do it via description, but they just didn't key on to "you can have the Thief do it better" at all. After cutting stealth, they didn't really come up with a whole lot. Do you guys usually treat sneaking up on someone as defy danger DEX or WIS?
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Sep 12, 2015 00:52
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Root it in the fiction. If they triggered DD by searching the room and the answer to their question is ghosts, then you say "you find ectoplasmic residue oozing down the walls, slimy silhouettes of dwarves." "Rumors of ghosts" is more of a Spout Lore response after someone spends time asking around wherever people in the know hang out to familiarize themselves with the local stories. In that case you also say who told them this, give them a name, follow all the DM rules, etc.
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Sep 12, 2015 00:56
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Bazanga posted:Trying to figure out how much info to give without feeling like I'm just doing an info dump on the upcoming surprises or plot. One of the things I always like to do in vanilla Apocalypse World (and that translates well to Dungeon World) is to give the players some idea of how they know something gleaned from reading a sitch or spouting lore or discerning realities. You can also enlist the player's aid in this too. "What to be on the lookout for? Well, you suspect there's strong illusion magic going on here. Magnificor, how do you know?" And if the player says, "I see sigils in non-descript places, sigils used to trigger illusions under certain circumstances. And further, those sigils look like the ones drawn by the guy who was my roommate in Wizard Collegium," well, there you go.
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Sep 12, 2015 01:04
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The IW Captain is such a fun playbook. Such an interesting and great set of moves.
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Sep 12, 2015 01:20
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I'm actually gonna get to run a game of DW for GOOD PEOPLE starting next weekend on Sunday nights, because the choice was that or 5e. Also this reminded me I should finish The Neckbeardian.
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Sep 12, 2015 02:14
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I may be about to start up a nautical-themed Dungeon World campaign. My question: there's nothing in the Inverse World Captain playbook that couldn't easily translate to sailing the seas instead of the skies, right? I gave it a look over and it looks like I could just replace "airship" with "ship" and "skies" with "seas" and we're fine, but I want to check and make sure I'm not missing something else that's intrinsically airship-y. (It's basically going to be Wind Waker: the tabletop RPG.)
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Sep 14, 2015 19:02
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Harrow posted:I may be about to start up a nautical-themed Dungeon World campaign. Aww, Harrow doesn't like us anymore. 
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Sep 14, 2015 19:08
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Error 404 posted:Aww, Harrow doesn't like us anymore. I can run two campaigns! Especially if one is in person and the other is one that I can run from my work computer (shhh don't tell my boss).
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Sep 14, 2015 19:13
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Harrow posted:I may be about to start up a nautical-themed Dungeon World campaign. p.168 of Inverse World talks about transplanting the Captain to different environments, it should be pretty okay. The only difference would be sailing an airship implies a faster, more dynamic style of movement that a ship I would imagine. Rereading the IW playbooks, that would make a cool environment for the Walker with the Background option that lets you walk on water.
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Sep 14, 2015 19:35
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What happened with Pirate World anyway?
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Sep 14, 2015 20:58
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So in getting some basic ideas of what people would like to play before the first session with a partially new group/game next week, one player is adamant about wanting to play a bard, whose bardic aspect is channeling sounds like a DJ/techno music, but wants to be as flavorful in a fantasy setting as possible. His initial thought is a thin round piece of slate with a lightning elemental inside, and when manipulated it makes those sounds. Ya know, because lightning = electricity = dance music I guess. Any other ideas to help this along?
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Sep 14, 2015 21:15
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Harrow posted:I may be about to start up a nautical-themed Dungeon World campaign. It works fine. I had a player do it in a long-running campaign. The only caveat I would make applies equally to sea-ship and air-ship: if you have a Captain character, they're not terribly strong compared the other IW playbooks unless a lot of play time is happening on the ship. The ship really is a huge part of the Captain's niche, so if you spend much time away from it they're going to feel less cool. (My campaign transitioned a bit away from high seas stuff to city-based politics and the Captain player eventually switched to another playbook.) We also had someone switch the Sky Dancer to the Sea Dancer, which worked pretty well. There's a couple other things you end up tweaking but on the whole it's a pretty easy change. Hugoon Chavez posted:What happened with Pirate World anyway? Good question. Some early material was released, mostly in the form of Google documents. No final release of anything (pdf, art, etc) has gone out, despite a kickstarter update back in May claiming the final pdf was imminent. The author (who I believe posts on SA as The Supreme Court) has stopped responding to comments, refund requests, or the Google Plus page for the kickstarter. So the outlook doesn't look real great for it.
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Sep 14, 2015 21:18
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Fenarisk posted:So in getting some basic ideas of what people would like to play before the first session with a partially new group/game next week, one player is adamant about wanting to play a bard, whose bardic aspect is channeling sounds like a DJ/techno music, but wants to be as flavorful in a fantasy setting as possible. His initial thought is a thin round piece of slate with a lightning elemental inside, and when manipulated it makes those sounds. Ya know, because lightning = electricity = dance music I guess. Any other ideas to help this along? WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER When you need to talk to a player about his dumb character idea, point out the obvious issues and roll +Bond. On a 10+, he runs with your idea and even improves on it. On a 7-9, he accepts your suggestion but sulks whenever he has to describe how his moves work. On a 6-, explain to the forum why you had to Sever and take +1 forward on the next candidate for the gaming group. Actual suggestion: he has a complex dwarvish/gnomish magitech device that he has to crank manually with one hand -- he controls and modulates the tempo at which the pulsating sounds emerge, and then further alters the sound when he manipulates the controls with his other hand. Fitting these other effects at appropriate moments of the machine's operation is essential.
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Sep 14, 2015 21:29
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Hugoon Chavez posted:What happened with Pirate World anyway? Which is lame because pirate world looked cool. He should have just released what he had if he gave up. Where can you get what was released if you didn't back but were interested?
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Sep 14, 2015 22:04
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Fenarisk posted:So in getting some basic ideas of what people would like to play before the first session with a partially new group/game next week, one player is adamant about wanting to play a bard, whose bardic aspect is channeling sounds like a DJ/techno music, but wants to be as flavorful in a fantasy setting as possible. His initial thought is a thin round piece of slate with a lightning elemental inside, and when manipulated it makes those sounds. Ya know, because lightning = electricity = dance music I guess. Any other ideas to help this along? I am thinking more tiny lightning bolts = tiny thunderclaps (possibly echoing in a specific device) = dance music beat.
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Sep 14, 2015 22:27
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I DMed a game this weekend for the first time with a group of people who were all new to DW. It went pretty well and overall everyone enjoyed it a lot more than other systems we had played. However, I'm definitely running into some issues DMing this game. I read the DW book cover to cover and the Dungeon Master guide that is in the OP, but I still can't grasp combat. Here are some of the issues I'm having trouble with: - The DM guide says that the general flow of combat is that the NPCs do something, the players respond, and the roll determines the narrative outcomes. Ok, easy enough. This is how I DMed it. However, the players said that they felt that they were always responding and on their heels and never had a chance to plan or intimate anything. Looking back, combat was mainly "Ok, the Orc runs over to you and tries to grab your shield away from you, what do you do?" and then any response they did ended up almost always being a Hack and Slash or a Defy Danger. Our casters really didn't like this because they had low DEX and getting into melee-heavy combat was a chore because of how often they failed DEX-based Defy Danger. - Speaking of that, we had a situation where an Ogre was swinging a club at player. That was the setup. The player being targeted wanted to blast them in the face with one of his spells to try to get him to reel back. How would you handle the rolls for this? It wasn't a Hack and Slash because it wasn't melee combat. There was danger present, the danger of a club flying at the player's face. Is this just a Defy Danger move? As in, he rolls Defy Danger and if he succeeds then he gets his spell off? Would he even need to roll to cast a spell at that point? - We had another situation where an Immolator wanted to heat up his hands and put them onto a vine that was tangled around his leg because he had an ability that let him use his hands to craft metal. It made sense in the narrative, but I also explained that crafting metal probably had some setup time and assumed he had casted a spell initially to start his hands on fire, so it was going to count as a spellcast and it triggered a move. It didn't just automatically succeed. The way I handled it was treating it as a spell cast to summon fire, but he had a vine around his leg flailing around so I had him defy danger first to see if he could power through it to cast the spell. After he passed the defy danger check, he failed the spell cast and he took damage from grabbing the spiky vine. He wasn't happy, and asked if every time someone casts something they have to do a defy danger check if they are in melee range and complained that it felt like everything the players did in combat on their own accord (not in direct response to an enemy) ended up being prefaced with a defy danger check. I didn't know. How should I have handled this type of situation? I'm pretty sure I'm using Defy Danger wrong, but I don't know how. - In general, once player succeeds, what then? Does the DM get a chance to respond? The book says the DM gets to perform a move on a failed move, when the players look to the DM, or when a "golden opportunity" presents itself. Ok. Got it. But what about on a 10+ success? Do the players just keep making moves until they fail? How do I keep flow of battle going with this? It felt like whenever the players succeeded, we assigned damage and then everything just sorta stopped. I think this might be people being used to initiative and "turns" from 4e/5e. I definitely like the game, but I feel like the way I ran combat was too loose. People couldn't figure out the rules because they felt really inconsistent and arbitrary. And even when I was DMing it I felt like a lot of the decisions I was making were pretty arbitrary and the players were showing their frustration because of it. It was hard to get a grasp on the structure of combat besides "do poo poo that sounds fun and then the DM will just sorta decide what rules apply and tell you what to roll." My group loves combat-heavy dungeon delves so I want to make sure I'm getting combat down pat before the next session.
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Sep 14, 2015 22:49
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"Down pat" is kind of a misnomer for DW. I think the thing to do is to allow players to follow through on their own successes. So instead of a 10+ on Defy Danger being a "you don't get hit," maybe make it a "you don't get hit AND..." then ask the player what it was they were trying to accomplish. Part of this is up to your players too. Instead of simply reacting to the NPCs, ask them what they're trying to do. Distill their answer down into an appropriate move and snowball from there. So in your Ogre swinging a club example, maybe it goes like this: DM: "The Ogre raises his club high overhead, looks at you with his beady eyes, and begins his haymaker swing. You know if it connects, it's gonna hit like a ton of bricks. What do you do?" PC: "I blast him in the face with my Firebolt spell." DM: "OK, but the timing will be tight. Go ahead and Defy Danger with INT to see if you can get the spell off in time." PC: <rolls> Crap, I only got an 8. DM: "Well, the spell goes off, but just as you release the energy, the club makes contact. <both PC and NPC roll damage> or PC: <rolls> "Huzzah, an 11!" DM: "A paragon of concentration under fire, you manage to recite the incantation faster than you've ever done it before. You blast the Ogre in the face, forcing him to reel backwards. <PC rolls damage> or PC: <rolls> "Oh poo poo. A 5." DM: "Yeah, your concentration is totally rattled by the Ogre. You flub a part of the incantation and it's all over." <NPC rolls damage> And so on.
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Sep 14, 2015 23:28
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Fenarisk posted:So in getting some basic ideas of what people would like to play before the first session with a partially new group/game next week, one player is adamant about wanting to play a bard, whose bardic aspect is channeling sounds like a DJ/techno music, but wants to be as flavorful in a fantasy setting as possible. His initial thought is a thin round piece of slate with a lightning elemental inside, and when manipulated it makes those sounds. Ya know, because lightning = electricity = dance music I guess. Any other ideas to help this along? Mount the device right there in his throat and chest. He can sing synth sounds, and rip open his shirt to deploy the subwoofer. How it works? Uh... lightning elementals, experimental alarm system, terrible accident.
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Sep 14, 2015 23:40
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