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Topics - donbaloo

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Just really noticed the Multiclass moves and no one has taken one yet in our game. In feading they really seem to steal the spellcasters' thunder though. Does anyone have a character in their game that has picked up Multiclassed spell casting of a caster type that already exists in the group? How's it playing out?

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Okay, some questions we hit upon while playing last night.

1)When Defending, can you use all of your hold at once or is it one at a time? We went with using as much as you wanted at once as it didnt' feel (to me) like a couple of the options made much sense otherwise.

2)When Clerics fail a casting, do they automatically lose the spell too or is this up to the GM as a Golden Opportunity choice? We decided that you do lose it, otherwise you could just keep reattempting it.

3)Can Clerics memorize the same spell twice? We've thus far said no.

4)Can you lose your Rotes the same as other spells, upon failure?

5)After poison has been applied to a weapon, is it used up with one strike or is that another GM move option for weak hits and failures (deplete their resources).

6)Can you Aid/Interfere with someone you have no Bond with? As written, the answer is no but it seemed a little strange.

7)Do you get XPs on a failed Aid/Interfere roll? In the light of day this seems like an obvious yes, but for some reason I questioned this last night. Yes?

8)You can only get 1 XP per session for resolving bonds. But can you resolve other bonds if you feel like its time to move on and rewrite them, just not get experience beyond the first?

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Dungeon World / BloodStone Idol, AP2
« on: April 29, 2012, 12:25:37 PM »
So we began this week by transitioning the characters over to Beta 2.2. It was quick and easy. Everyone had gained enough XPs to level in last session so we all just agreed to pick up with everyone starting level 2 and going forward with the new system. Rudiger the Fighter changed his alignment over to Neutral after deciding that Good wasn't what he wanted and Pox the Thief, after seeing the new option of Chaotic, switched to that. We didn't stick to Alignment change rules for this, just considered it early character discovery and moved on.

Since we took zero time to discuss ANY world stuff or character motivations for the initial session, we spent a couple minutes talking a little about that. Its still pretty soft right now. We know that Rudiger was a member of the Black Gauntlets and though we didn't really establish what these guys are we did know that they had a plan for creating a goblin/lizardman threat to the area so that they themselves could swoop in, destroy the threat, and be local heroes. I'm thinking they're probably a mercenary band or something, looking for a good payout to take care of a problem that they secretly created. Who knows.

But we do know that Rudiger has bailed on them and has moved prematurely to end the threat in hopes of gaining all the glory for himself AND exposing the Black Gauntlet's plans to the people of Battlemore (or something like that). I'm still not really clear on what Pox and Siggrun's motivations are. We do know that the group established a working relationship after some failed heist attempt on the Black Gauntlet by Pox and Siggrun. I think they were running some sort of con on Rudiger just before he bailed on the Gauntlets but evidently in the fallout of the failed heist Rudiger liked what Pox and Siggrun were trying to do and supported their escape from retribution. If it sounds confusing, it probably is. You know exactly what we know about it, we left it pretty soft. Honestly, we spent about 2 minutes on it.

So this session turned out to be a bit more action packed than last and we had a lot of fun. It included an epic standoff with lizardmen and their leader in a frozen chamber, a near disastrous (and failed) attempt on the lizard man lair itself due to some hideous aquatic version of a junk yard dog, and a quick but bloody showdown with the goblins.

To retell in detail would be a bore but let me just say that the system handled action packed combat so well that we were all flying around the battlefield, shield bashing, backstabbing, eviscerating and pretty much creating a brutal pink mist where ever we went. We almost entirely forwent noncombat mechanics but really got into colorful uses of the various combat moves. I think we all came away with our own personal favorite moments of the night.

There was a rough section just after taking care of the lizardmen where Pox tied off with his Rope of Tricks (named "Ox") with Rudiger holding anchor. Pox took a swim up the stream that flowed through the frozen chamber to scout out what we assumed would be the lizardmen's lair. He was attacked by some hellish lizard/fish with tentacles and things were looking grim for poor Pox.

As I recall, instead of trying to escape he began Hack and Slashing and this was going poorly for him. At the same time, Rudiger is trying to reel him back him. We were confused about what we should have been rolling in that situation. It felt like Rudiger was aiding Pox but that would have fell upon a Bond roll which just felt weird, instead of relying upon the fighter's greatest and most reasonable asset, his strength. But Defy Danger felt a little strange too because Rudiger wasn't necessarily in Danger himself. We ultimately went with a Strength Defy Danger, as Siggrun joined in. It was weird because I think we had Siggrun do an Assist to Pox (or maybe Rudiger) but that just doesnt' make much sense either. Either way, Rudiger failed the Defy Danger, the roped slipped away and Siggrun is pulled into the water.

The whole time, Pox is alternating between hack and slashing and defying danger, mostly all were turning up with weak hits. On the other end, it was a comic routine of Rudiger trying to get a hold on the dwarf (who still had the rope) but with two Weak Hits on Defy Danger was mostly just thrashing around in the water. By now Pox and the creature had floated downstream enough that we were all in close proximity and the fish was starting to lash tentacles out at Siggrun and Rudiger. Siggrun played his alignment and bailed out, saving his hide and frantically heading for shore. Rudiger chose to ignore the tentacle and made a last ditch grab for Pox with another Strength Defy Danger, got another Weak Hit and managed to throw Pox to shore while simultaneously having his legs wrapped up by the beast.

This led to Ruddiger making a couple more defy dangers to try to escape, getting weak hits again, so gaining no real traction. Finally he abandoned escape and just brutally hack and slashed his way out. Everyone survived but it was harrowing.

So, all of that to say yes, it was a terrifying and exciting scene. But, we had a TON of weak hit defy dangers and hack slashes there. That scene really stretched out and we were having real difficulties coming up with good weak hit tradeoffs. After about 10 or so, you start getting a little worn down creatively and then 7-9's start just becoming status quo results as you wait for that next roll to hopefully just succeed or fail outright. Anyone else deal with this?

So after all was said and done, we've pretty much wrapped up the Bloodstone Idol location. We still haven't explored the lizardman lair, after the hellfish we just abandoned that area for now. But we have the heads of a goblin chief and a lizard chief, we have weaponry that is obviously from the Black Gauntlet foundries as evidence of their involvement with the humanoids, and a map depicting battleplans from the goblins that is obviously not designed by goblin hand, further evidence of collusion with the Black Gauntlet.

As far as the new XP system, it seems to be pretty sweet. Under Redbook our Thief nearly doubled the Cleric and Fighter in XPs. The Thief rolls amazingly hot. I'd guess 90% of his rolls are successes so he gained very little roll related XP. I think the Cleric and Fighter both had 8 roll related XPs and the Thief had 3 or 4? We finished up with alignment XP awards (Thief and Fighter got theirs), resolving bonds (Thief and Fighter resolved bonds), and then we all got 2 of 3 end of session question XPs. We all leveled and went home having played a very exciting and fun session. Everyone's hooked on Dungeon World right now!

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Dungeon World / Poison discrepancies in 2.2
« on: April 25, 2012, 11:36:57 PM »
Wanted to throw this out real quick. The descriptions of poisons under the Thief class on p.83 don't match the descriptions on p.107 in the equipment section. Im assuming this isn't intentional as it creates extra questions. Which should we go with?

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Dungeon World / Bloodstone Idol AP and Discussion (obviously spoilers)
« on: April 14, 2012, 01:16:23 AM »
Alright, just finished our first play of DW and much fun was had by all! Here's the quick and dirty on what happened in game. We were hitting the Bloodstone Idol and my buddy, first time GMing (actually I was reminded that its his second, ran Og a while back), did a pretty sweet job.

Rudigar the Fighter, Pox the Thief and Siggrun the (Evil) Cleric are hunkered down outside the main entrance, scoping the place out. Two goblin lookouts appear to be the only obstacle but a Discern Realities later shows that there's some oil in the road, a potential trap. Not wasting much time Pox attempts to slip up on the sentries but fails and gets spotted by another lookout above who calls the alarm. Pox fires an arrow and drops one goblin while Rudigar and Siggrun charge to the doors. We notice the other goblin become terrified as 5 lizardmen coming swarming around an outcrop towards us and we all pile through the front door and slam it shut behind us, but not before Pox drops another goblin with his bow.

We're greeted by an insanely loud image being "projected" maybe out of a mosaic on the floor, greeting us all by name and essentially notifying everyone of our presence. After hearing some battle from one of the corridors we choose the other but not before we realize that our weapons are growing warmer. In hopes that it has something to do with the magics in the room, we move quickly into the corridor which solves the problem. With Pox keeping an eye out for traps we proceed down the corridor until we get to a door. A quick listen and lock pick later, we're in a room full of shelves...and spirits. Well, two of them. They're mumbling some stuff about "sunlight" and "kill the goblins".

Rudigar offers up that we're already working on the goblins, which really catches one of the spirits interest and he approaches to essentially beseech us to continue to wipe out the goblins. We promise to do just that and Rudigar even escorts the other spirit to the front door (more loud greetings) and sets the spirit free. Siggrun, back in the room, also gets the name of the other spirit's wife and a request to visit her and let her know that her husband has moved on to a better place. Meanwhile, Pox has searched the room over and turned up a nifty magical rope that appears to do his bidding. He's quite pleased.

Heading down the corridor Pox finally flubs a trap roll and we all fall for the old stairs-into-slide trick and get dumped in the mud in a strange room full of glowing veins of some kind of ore and big damn fireflies. Siggrun and Rudiger are happy enough to ease out of the room, leaving well enough alone but some failed Defy Dangers had us in a heap again with fireflies swarming down at us. Pox used his new rope and a Discern Realities to escape back up the slide while Rudiger and Siggrun dashed out of the room and made in a stand in the more narrow corridor beyond. Only 4 fireflies followed and it was a tough battle with both taking some heavy damage but surviving, while Pox hung back and waited for things to settle down. Some cure lights wounds and a quick breather and we're all plowing ahead again.

Next room is a weird looking parade of mystical creatures, blocking us from getting to the far side but a Discern Realities tells us that only the Goblins are real and that the others are probably illusions. Pox takes out the Goblins with his bow and a bunch of light hit Defy Dangers has us simultaneously stranded in the midst of the parade as Pox activates two of the "illusions" against us. Rudiger manages to take them out but not before being mind clamped by some weird force that keeps telling him to attack his friends. As his friends attempt to lasso him out of the parade with the magic rope, he is triggered to attack them but makes a saving throw and snaps out of it. We eventually safely cross the room.

Next room appears to be a small arena of some sort with obsidian statues. A failed inspection of the room sets off more loud "magic mouths" greeting us and essentially mocking our attempts to determine their purpose. Pox detects no traps around the back side of the seating areas and we all quickly leave this room behind us.

We enter the next room, and find an illusion of a man sitting at a desk writing frantically in a book. Rudiger doesn't trust the room at all, too many books, and is just telling the others this as they hear footsteps approaching from the opposite passage. Siggrun and Rudiger take cover against the wall next to the corridor while Pox ducks behind the desk. To our surprise, a man that looks just like the illusion strolls in and introduces himself as Grunloch. He offers us a partnership and requests our assistance in harnessing the Bloodstone Idol. We're pondering this offer when he proceeds to tell us that the alternative is dying here before him. This made the decision easy for Rudiger who answer with a shield bash to Grunloch's face, "No deal."

The battle is quick and furious with Rudiger and Siggrun bashing the wizard pretty good but Pox was really the hero, launching poisoned arrows from behind the desk. Grunloch got off one spell, sending Siggrun scurrying to the corner in fear but it was short lasting as Grunloch became a pincushion and a chopping block. We ended here.

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Dungeon World / Weapon Lengths, come up much?
« on: April 13, 2012, 09:51:19 AM »
Weapon Lengths feel a little strange to me in Basic. Combat strives to be very loose and abstract but for some reason Weapon Lengths feels like it wants to get crunchier. Does this come up in your abstract fiction very much in play? I really don't have a good idea on how to use them. I certainly don't know enough about medieval combat to presume to know when certain weapons are unusable in combat.

So is it just a fiction thing and occassionally crops up? If it weren't for having a racial ability (Human Fighter) tied to it I probably wouldn't even think about it much. But tied to a racial bonus like that it gives the impression its maybe more important that I'm imagining. Thoughts?

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I get the impression that Defy Danger will be a very frequent move in play. The GM is constantly threatening with Impending Doom (be it an Ogre's club descending upon you or a gas trap slowly filling a room) and you're responding. My question is, do you use Defy Danger when you're trying to carry out and a different action or only to avoid the danger? The ogre's club is descending, what do you do? If you're willing to, God forbid, take the blow so that you can finish the last words of the ritual, is that a Defy Danger? Or is that just a Golden Opportunity: GM deals out damage or any other hard move, but you finish the ritual. Or is attempting to finish the ritual Defying Danger, so roll the move?

Make sense?

Edit for another example: Same ogre, club arcing down. Fighter what do you? "I run my sword through his gut and steel myself for the impact!" So what did he just do? Did he just give the GM his golden opportunity by ignoring the threat while simultaneously taking the Hack and Slash move? Or does he actually need to make the Defy Danger move (to act despite a threat) before he even gets to Hack and Slash?

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Dungeon World / Beta 2 changes, add them to first play?
« on: April 06, 2012, 02:19:38 PM »
We're looking to give this a go next Friday and will be playing from the Basic PDF we downloaded. Looking at the news section, there's a lot of changes going on. Do you folks recommend moving forward and implementing the ones that are easy to do and straight forward (like HP changes) or should we just plow ahead with the Basic rules as they stand?

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Dungeon World / New To DW, just read it, question about examples.
« on: April 06, 2012, 10:34:14 AM »
Hey folks, brand new to DW. Quick resume: 35 years old, played about 20 years of D&D, took a very long break, started dabbling in indies (SoY, DitV, PTA, etc) then fell in love with Burning Wheel. I own Apocalypse World, read a little of it but never got around to doing anything with it, certainly haven't studied the game. Was intrigued by DW last year but I don't follow the gaming forums very closely so knew only the basics about. Grabbed an episode of The Walking Eye this week and it was the Sage/Adam interview. Told a gaming bud from the group about DW, we both bought the pdf yesterday and I've now read it once.

I made that as quick as possible but wanted to give an idea of where I'm coming from. I've listened to or read no APs of DW. I am absolutely a virgin mind/eyes to the work. I'm very excited about this because, for the first time in about 2 decades I get to be a player in the group and not the GM! That said, I still read the rules as if I'm going to be the GM/facilitator. Which leads to my actual question.

I read everything except for the adventure so as not to spoil anything. is it intended that the adventure serves as example/explanation to GMs about what they should be doing? As I read throught he GM stuff, I have a loose idea of what the GM should be doing but its hard to really know without examples. Keep in mind, I've read it only one time so this is only very preliminary feedback. But for example, when I read stuff like "put them in a tough spot, give them a hard decision" I feel sort of adrift. I can come up with any number of things that that could mean and maybe its intentionally vague. It just feels like there are some ideas that maybe we're expected to have in our head (posssibly carried over from AW?) to apply to these instructions.

As a player, i think I'm very clear on what I'm supposed to be doing. But the sorts of stuff that the GM should be doing with his Moves are not firm in my mind. Would it be more clear if I read the example adventure?

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