That is pretty dang awesome.

On the other hand, I've never felt deprived for not having a clear idea of the character of the Maelstrom. I've never been at a loss for good questions to ask with a Maelstrom lacking a defined agenda. I suppose I could describe it has having an impulse, to learn about the PCs, and perhaps an agenda may develop in play, but I've never started with one.

I suppose I'll try it your way in my next game and see how it fits. I could easily imagine a Maelstrom with the agenda "push everyone towards extremism," for example.

Questions that then come to mind: "When have you backed down when you should have stood up for yourself?" and "When has a compromise come back to haunt you?"

Hiya folks. I managed to run a session of Dungeon World over Google Plus with some friends, and I'd like to talk about it.

Before the game, I daydreamed a starting scenario like this:

The goblin warren has thrived in the deep woods for some time, but it never affected Nook's Crossing before. When an otyugh, deep in the warrens, started an outbreak of Filth Fever, Skullthumper the Orkaster sought to solve the problem with magic. Whatever half-baked spell he mustered, it turned the infected into undead and started a different sort of outbreak. Most of the survivors have fled into the countryside and begun proliferating wherever they find themselves, and life in Nook's Crossing's has been poorer and more dangerous for it.

My descriptive palette included words like fetid, swollen, dank, reeking, musty, cloying, acrid, foul, offal, refuse, discarded, ramshackle, rotting, dark, close, cramped, soft, and cold.

During introductions, the players heard this:

Nook's Crossing has suddenly fallen victim to increasingly bold goblin raids, and no one knows why. You'll start at the edge of the forest clearing looking upon an entrance into a tunnel braced by random deadfall in the side a hill. You've found a goblin warren.

I made sure to describe the day-long drizzle they'd trekked here under, and the fresh, delightful odor of a forest rain in spring, in contrast to what would follow.

Inside they would find a handful of surviving goblins in a foyer of sorts, bracing a makeshift barricade against something deeper inside. More on that later. Next up, it's character introductions and bonds.

P.S., can I be in the adventurer's guild?

Stop, you're making me blush. :)

I am also interested to see what points stood out for you, so chime in whenever (I'll get in gear on the next section soon).

Quote from: strongbif on September 06, 2012, 12:27:07 AM

You should make a thread for your game, too, and link to it here!

It has been done! Here's my session report with more detail than necessary.

Ha! Yes. Deciding what to leave out is the hardest part.

I feel obliged to link to John Harper's excellent advice on the subject of hard moves.

I review that every time I have an AWE game coming up. (AWE=Apocalypse World Engine, because I like punchy acronyms.)

EDIT: Thinking about it, I don't know how well this fits your problem. Enjoy it anyway?

I can nowhere find a pdf. Am I deficient? Where can I buy it or rent it or get it somehow? It's bound to be cheaper than $699 InDesign CS6.

Perhaps I will email Sage.

EDIT: I just read all about the Guild. It all makes sense now.

First Session: The Cast

The following inhabited our apocalypse:

Absinthe the Battlebabe

• Look: slim ambiguous (maybe androgynous?). Provocative.
• Outlook: super-cynical, opportunistic hedonist. Freelance security escort for shipments of slaves from Longview.
• Notable Crap: 4-harm silenced shotgun
• Hx: distrusts Dust and religion in general. Friends with Briyent, Paul owes him/her one.
• What does the Maelstrom look like to you? (I don't think we ever learned). I asked during her/his vision of death, but I can't remember.

Briyent the Skinner

• Look: also slim and ambiguous. Wears a signature fancy brown scarf.
• Outlook: pretentious aesthete hipster. Annoyed when folks pronounce the silent "t" in his name, which they always do.
• Notable Crap: Artful and Gracious in the form of making beautiful tools. Sells at a stall in Shazza's market.
• Hx: Friends with Absinthe. Knows about Dust's secret love.
• What does the Maelstrom look like to you? A shifting heaving miasma of patterns and color. (The player never said this, but I pictured a moving Jackson Pollock.)

Dust the Hocus

• Look: rough brown robes and austere features.
• Outlook: religious ascetic hermit who worships dust as the stuff of dead gods. Preaches asceticism.
• Notable Crap: Religious cult scattered across the valley holdings. Insightful but often blasted on "spice." +insight +stupor
• Hx: Secretly in love with Briyent despite his beliefs. Paul is a dust cult member and Absinthe is not.
• What does the Maelstrom look like to you? A cacophony of whispered voices in total darkness.

Paul the Driver

• Look: stocky and rough-hewn in utility wear.
• Outlook: restless and stand-offish. Plies a trade route between Toll Bridge and The Tip.
• Notable Crap: Car is a beat-up sedan with no original parts. It smells like oil and sweat inside, and it's easy to maintain and fast, but really loud.
• Hx: Member of the dust cult. Absinthe got him out of some serious shit with cannibals, and they both know he owes Absinthe one.
• What does the Maelstrom look like to you? a gargantuan machine in need of a tune-up. Reveals and learns things as Paul works on it. He never sees the whole thing at once; he works on different parts each time.

OK, I went into PAX with this in mind and found that it was useful, but only if loosely adhered to. Rather than treat it as a checklist, like "make sure all this crap gets asked," it ended up being more about "OK, Dust won't let Paul take Enough-to-Eat back to Longview even though the alternative is walking miles with her through the barrens. He's expressing a value here that's more important than the consequences."

So, Yarrum, you were spot on. It's a sweet analysis tool when I remember to apply it.