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Topics - JBMannon

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1
brainstorming & development / Boarsdraft
« on: January 06, 2013, 10:24:35 PM »
Are you:
Pure Wizard? +2 Ambition, -1 Curiosity
Half Mortal? +2 Courage, -1 Ambition
Mortal Born? +2 Curiosity, -1 Courage
Half Wizard? +2 Stalwart, -1 Curiosity

Do you favor:
Madris? +1 Courage, -1 Curiosity
Dracon? +1 Ambition, -1 Stalwart
Risara? +1 Curiosity, -1 Stalwart
Urza? -1 Ambition, + 1 Stalwart

Basic Moves:

Locate:
When you try to find out something within Boarsdraft roll + Curiosity. On a hit you find it before you are needed elsewhere. On a 10+ you discover some new facet of the castle along the way. On a miss you are called away before you can find it. Someone is upset with you.

Investigate:
When you take time investigating a magical mystery roll + Curiosity. On a hit you may ask the GM questions about it. On a 10 ask 3, on a 7-9 ask 1:
 - Who made this?
 - What was it's original purpose?
 - Who made use of it most recently?
 - How do I trigger it?
 - When was it put into place?

Chase:
When you rush through the halls of Boarsdraft to find or lose someone roll + Courage. On a hit you catch or lose them. On a 10+ you do so in a timely manor. On a miss you lose your quarry and the GM may make a Hard Move against you.

Tattle:
When you try to tell an adult about anything that does not fit their preconceptions roll + Courage. On a hit you don't get into trouble for speaking up. On a 10+ they take you seriously enough to look for confirming evidence. On a miss, you are risking detention.

Patrol:
When you wander the halls of Boarsdraft aimlessly roll + Stalwart. On a 10+ your GM will offer you a Golden Opportunity. On a 7-9 you are unbothered in your perambulations. On a miss you open yourself up to a Hard Move.

Defend:
When you stand up for someone take a String on them and then roll + Stalwart. On a hit they don't get hurt or in trouble. On a 10+ you don't get hurt or in trouble either. On a miss you both are hurt, in trouble, or both.

Fight:
When you get into a fight roll + Ambition. On a hit your opponents have to visit the Hospital Wing. On a 10+ you don't get into trouble over it. On a miss you are in the Hospital Wing and in hot water.

Make Friends:
When you make an overtly friendly gesture towards someone roll + Ambition. On a hit they do not suspect you of having ulterior motives. On a 10+ they count you as friend if you give up every String you have on them (friends don't hold things over each other's heads).

Favors:
When you ask someone for a favor and give them a String on you then if they do it they mark XP.

Plot:
When you want a character to show up where you are and you have a String on them, burn that String and if at all conceivable they will show up.

Earn House Points:
When you do something that earns you House Points (HM's call) you earn 1 Popularity.

Lose House Points:
When you do something that looses you House Points (HM's call) you earn -1 Popularity.

Plead:
When you try to get a group to do something that is in their best interest roll + Popularity. On a hit they do what you suggest if you reset your Popularity to zero. On a 10+ if things go well for the group you mark XP. On a miss they don't do what you want but you keep your Popularity.

Learning Magic:
When you attempt to learn a spell tell us about it and then the HM will tell you "You can learn that but..." and then 1-4 of the following:
•  it’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months of work to master;
• first you’ll have to get/understand ___;
• you’re going to need ___ to help you learn it;
• the best you’ll be able to do is a weaker version;
• it is restricted knowledge;
• it’s going to take several/dozens/hundreds of tries;
Once you have done what the HM says then write the spell's name (in your best psudo-latin) on your sheet. Make a note if it is restricted or not.

Casting Magic:
When you declare that you are using a spell you have on your sheet while making another move take +1 to the roll.

Advanced Moves:

Show Off:
When you show off in an attempt to gain popularity roll + Ambition. On a hit increase your Popularity by 1. On a 10+ you didn't injure yourself doing it. On a miss everyone thinks your a showoff and you probably hurt yourself doing it.

Press On:
When you decide to act even though your life may be in danger roll + Courage. On a hit you do what you wanted to do. On a 10+ you are not injured doing it.

When you stand shoulder to shoulder with a friend in battle roll + Stalwart. On a hit you both take +1 forward for as long as you are together. On a 10+ you share any damage that comes at you (1 is ignored, 2 is one each, 3 is one each and so on). On a miss you and your friend stand out and become a focus of the battle.

When you search in ernest for the answer to a question roll + Curiosity. On a hit the HM will tell you the answer. On a 10+ you may ask one follow up question.

Friends:
Every friend you have is a permanent +1 to your Popularity. If you ever take a String on a friend they no longer count as a friend and it may mean you have made an enemy.

Insight:
When you use your friends for insight, ask your followers what they think your best course is, and the HM will tell you. If you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in the pursuit. If you pursue that course but don’t accomplish your ends, you mark experience.

This is My Gang:
As long as you have friends with you, you count as a gang (the size depends on how many friends you have with you.

I Have Needs:
When you tell your friends that you need something roll + Ambition. On a 10+ they will bring it to you, no strings attached. On a 7-9 they will bring you something close or at least word on where you can find it. On a miss, they find it but there will be a cost to get it. Your HM will tell you what that is.

Lend Me an Ear:
When you tell your friends that you want to speak with someone roll + Curiosity. On a hit they find them and either bring them to you or you to them. On a 10+ the person is predisposed to talk freely.

Stand Up:
When you want a policy, staff appointment, or some other facet of the way the school is run to change scratch through Popularity and tell us what you do to force the change.

2
Dungeon World / Skies Over Danbury Adventures
« on: November 20, 2012, 11:58:46 AM »
Yesterday I launched the kickstarter for my third Dungeon World adventure book Skies Over Danbury. This is the second in the Gears of the Worm God series and follows the events of Within the Devil's Reach though, like that book, the adventures can be played all by themselves. As I write this we already have half the backers that WDR had which is amazing to me! I hope you will check it out.

3
brainstorming & development / Star Wars Hack AP
« on: October 27, 2012, 10:06:47 PM »
I can't seem to find the thread where the files were posted for the Star Wars hack but I wanted to share a short AP from today. I played with my best friend and his dad (an oppertunity I have only a few times per year) and I decided to give this hack a shake out. Joe chose the Jedi Guardian and Eric took the Ace with a gunship and a transport so that they had two ships to deal with rather than a small fleet. It only took half an hour to get through character creation and rules explanation. We decides that we were in the late KotOR time period, two strong capitols and a long DMZ. Our heroes were smugglers along the boarder running illicit metal out of the Empire, illicit media out of the Republic and humanitarian supplies into the DMZ. They were on the run from an Imperial Admiral and a Jedi Master. They were in debt to a Hutt gangster but one last run would fix that. On the way back to the DMZ they did battle with the Jedi Master and ended up using the water they were transporting to freeze him to keep him from cutting his way into the bridge of one of the ships. One of the Jedi's escort ships managed to escape the battle.

When they landed they duscovered the Jedi missing and their ships in need of serious repair. Their one last run turned into a pretty big liability so it was back to the Hutt to see what they could do for him to make the money they needed. The Hutt needed a large load of high quality, liquid suspended spice delivered to a system right over the Republic boarder. Though they would rather wait for things to calm down before they headed back they went. They trades the spice for a load of media and half the credits they needed. As they were making their way out of the system they got a news report about terrorist attacks using liquid suspended explosives.

They crossed into Empire space hours before an invasion army from the Republic. As their load of illicit media is being unloaded battle starts overhead. Rather than loading up with humanitarian supplies they loaded up with refugees. The prices they paid was half again what the pair owed the Hutt and so as soon as they unloaded their passengers they went to pay their debt. The Hutt graciously accepted their payment and then revealed that the Jedi Master had paid him to deliver the Jedi Guardian to him. Joe's Guardian gave himself up but escaped, during the escape a shot from nowhere killed the Master.

That was where we left it. War has broken out and the PCs may have had a hand in starting it. Two of the three biggest threats have been neutralized but questions are everywhere. Who killed the Master, did the Hutt know his spice was really laced with explosives? Who paid to have him deliver it? Why was the Jedi Council searching so hard for one lost Jedi? All in all a really great session and we will probably be playing again soon!

4
Dungeon World / Thornburg
« on: September 20, 2012, 09:07:18 AM »
With inspiration from my top backer, "a Scooby Doo like town where there are plenty of suspects and anything could be happening", I created an adventure that I feel really gets to the heart of what Dungeon World is all about. In Thornburg you are presented with a town, map by Matt Jackson, and a cast of creepy and odd characters, art by Vanity Games, and all the tools, questions, and advice needed to make the town your own. Each play through will be unique as your players create their own trouble. This is the perfect creepy adventure for a Halloween DW extravaganza!

5
Dungeon World / Within Your Reach!
« on: August 01, 2012, 11:51:11 AM »
Within the Devil's Reach is on it's way to backers and as soon as I get reports that books have begun to arrive I'll be putting up a link to where everyone can pick it up. I can't wait to hear about the adventures folks have with it. I've run all of the adventures three times and had a blast with it. Each time has been so different and awesome in it's own way. This is as good a spot as any to post your thoughts about the adventures.

I'm also looking for a group to run some of the adventures from future books with. If your interested in playtesting them please let me know.

6
brainstorming & development / Boldly Go: Star Trek hack
« on: July 10, 2012, 09:43:46 AM »
Ok so I posted some of this in a free form, stream of consciousness on Twitter a few months ago while rewatching Enterprise and then started fleshing it out over on G+ last week. This is no where near complete and I'm still pondering a lot of this. The base setting is the flag ship of the Confederation, sent out to make contact with new races of the Eastern Arm in an attempt to help unify this area of space. The main struggle here is in deciding what races' resources are worth getting involved in their private issues for. This is basically Star Trek in the generation between Enterprise and TOS with the serial numbers still legible through the rough scraping I've given them.

Things I'm happy with:
Every move feels like something that would be in an episode of Star Trek.
The setting places players in a situation where they have people that are relying on them without being able to provide much support. (I'm thinking about adding in a Liason Officer, a basic move, and a Captain's move that will help reinforce this dynamic)
The emphasis on exploration and discovery.

Things I'm not happy with:
Some of the moves have cruft left over in them from where I stole them from that don't add to the flavor but I'm not sure how they can be replaced yet.
I'm still working out what the fundamental scarcity is. I feel like trust and loyalty are the obvious ones but how do I reflect that?

Things that are obviously missing:
Ship moves, crew moves (I'll probably base those close to what I've done with the Medical Crew), and moves that deal with the fundamental scarcity whatever that ends up being.
Principles and GM moves. (I'm going to try and tackle those next)

I'm sure there are things I am forgetting, things that will become obvious as I fill in the obvious needs and tweek what I'm not happy with. I'm posting this here because this is the quickest way to get to the smartest minds on hacking AW. What I'm looking for is advice on things I've listed that are obvious problems, hints at what might be problems that I haven't pointed out, and ideas for how to better fulfill my goals here. What I'm not looking for is canon arguments, suggestions on better eras or settings, and heated debates about which series is the best. If it will help, feel free to declare your allegiance to the best ST series in the first line of your first response so we all know where you stand and then leave it at that.

So here is what I've got:

Basic Moves:
Set for Stun: When you fire a phaser set on stun, roll with Cool. On a 10+ you achieve your goal without harming anyone, on a 7-9 you do more damage than expected, on a miss you hit someone or something you didn't mean to.

Get Out of There: When you run for your life roll with Sharp. On a 10+ hold 3, on a 7-9 hold 2, on a miss hold 1. You may use your hold, 1-for-1 to do the following:
  •Live to fight another day.
  •Loose your perusers, for now.
  •Do Harm to your perusers or their vehicle.
  •You are able to determine what they want that will make them stop chasing you forever.
  •You don't loose anyone or anything important in your escape.

Take Cover: When you do something under fire, or dig in to endure fire, roll with Hard. On a 10+, you do it. On a 7–9, you flinch, hesitate, or stall: the MC can offer you a worse outcome, a hard bargain, or an ugly choice.

Aaaagh: When you suffer harm in the heat of battle, you may either increase your Pain or do one of the following.
• You lose your footing.
• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding.
• You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to.
• You miss noticing something important.
• You are captured, infected, or knocked unconscious.
Each Pain you have adds -1 to every roll you make.


Security Chief: hard, sharp
Set to Kill: When you fire a phaser set to kill, roll with Hard. On a 10+ you kill or destroy what you intended, on a 7-9 things go crazy and someone or something else gets killed, on a miss your target survives and the situation is worse.

Assess the Situation: When you read a charged situation, roll with Sharp. On a hit, you can ask the MC questions. Whenever you act on one of the MC’s answers, take +1. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7–9, ask 1:
• where’s my best escape route / way in / way past?
• which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
• which enemy is the biggest threat?
• what should I be on the lookout for?
• what’s my enemy’s true position?
• who’s in control here?

Science Officer: weird
What is it: When you encounter a new alien life-form, roll with Weird. On a 10+, all 3. On a 7-9, choose 1.
  •You are able to communicate with it in some form, tell us how.
  •You discover one of the being's basic needs.
  •You do not offend it in any way.
On a miss, the being makes an aggressive move towards you, your ship, your crew, or all three.

Watch This: When you study a piece of alien technology, roll with Weird. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7–9, ask 1:
• what species handled this last?
• what species made this?
• has there been weapons fire near this recently?
• what data was recorded by this?
• what has been done most recently with this, or to this?
• what’s wrong with this, and how might I fix it?
On a miss, the item was trapped and makes an aggressive move towards you, your ship, your crew, or all three.

Captain: hot
On Confederated Authority: When you try to take secure your hold on something, roll with Hot. On a hit, choose options. On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7–9, choose 2:
• you take definite hold of it
• you suffer little harm
• you inflict terrible harm
• you impress, dismay or frighten your enemy

I'm a Starship Captain: When you try to seduce or manipulate someone, tell them what you want and roll with Hot. For NPCs: on a hit, they ask you to promise something first, and do it if you promise. On a 10+, whether you keep your promise is up to you, later. On a 7–9, they need some concrete assurance right now. For PCs: on a 10+, both. On a 7–9, choose 1:
• if they do it, they mark experience
• if they refuse, it’s acting under fire What they do then is up to them.

Councilor: sharp
How Does That Make You Feel: When you read a person, roll with Sharp. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 1. While you’re interacting with them, spend your hold to ask their player questions, 1 for 1:
• is your character telling the truth?
• what’s your character really feeling?
• what does your character intend to do?
• what does your character wish I’d do?
• how could I get your character to __?


Negotiator: When you enter into diplomatic relations with a non-Confederation species, roll with Sharp. On a 10+ hold 3, on a 7-9 hold 1. While negotiating with them you may spend your hold 1-for-1 to:
• Discover a recent event that happened.

• You befriend a useful alien.


• Discover some local resourse that might help the Confederation.

• Not entangled or tricked into involving yourself in issues that might embarrass the Confederation.

• You manage not to offend anyone.

• Discern some secret that they are trying to keep.

On a miss you offend them all enough that they declare war against the Confederation.


Medical Officer: cool,
Infirmary : You get an infirmary, a workspace with life support, hydro-spray drugs, and advanced scanning equipment. Anyone who spends a day in you or your crew's care in the infirmary removes one Pain. When you go into your infirmary and dedicate yourself to making someone better, or to getting to the bottom of some medical mystery, decide what and tell the MC. the MC will tell you “sure, no problem,
but…” and then 1 to 4 of the following:
• it’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months of work;
• first you’ll have to get/fix/figure out ___;
• you’re going to need ___ to help you with it;
• it’s going to require rare alien items or equipment;
• the best you’ll be able to do is to get them stable or rule out one possibility;
• it’s going to mean exposing yourself (plus colleagues) to
serious danger;
• it’s going to take several/dozens/hundreds of tries;
• you’re going to have to take ___ apart to do it.

Healing Touch: When you use your medical scanner to heal someone of their Pain roll with Cool. On a 10+ You heal them of one Pain or two Pain if they treat both as though you had rolled a 7-9. On a 7-9 you heal them of one Pain and they gain an Insecurity that they don't already have. On a miss you don't manage to heal any of their Pain and they gain an Insecurity.

Medical Crew: You have a crew two assistants that can be sent out to deal with medical emergencies or left on the ship to deal with those in your care. If you send them on an away mission roll with Cool. On a 10+ they do what you sent them to do, no problem. On a 7-9 choose if they get the job done or if they come back alive. On a miss they fail on their mission and don't make it back.


Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully make a comment.
J.B.

EDIT: Here is what I've come up with for Principles.

Principles:
Fill the galaxy with the weird, the dangerous, and the wonderful. 
Ask provocative questions and build on the answers.
Make the aliens seem human. 
Be a fan of the players’ characters.
Treat the crew like red shirts. 
Sometimes, disclaim decision-making.
Loyalty to the Confederation is always based on what the Confederation can do for them. 
Address yourself to the characters, not the players.
Make your move, but misdirect.
Peace always comes at someone else's expense.
Make your move, but never speak its name.
Always leap to the worst possible interpretation. 
Give everyone a life.

7
Dungeon World / Drop night at my local game store
« on: May 25, 2012, 07:49:05 AM »
I know we are still a few months away but I'd like to run an event at my local store on launch night and I was wondering if there are others who would be interested as well. I'd be willing to throw together a short dungeon that folks could run during the event if there is enough interest.

8
Dungeon World / Wealth: Special move
« on: May 22, 2012, 02:32:33 PM »
So an interesting thing happened in my DW game. My party moved beyond normal gold standards into true Wealth. They captured and plundered an island full of pirate booty. To handle this I came up with a custom move. 

Wealth:
The group has access to a resource known as Wealth, they may roll wealth at any time they are attempting to buy anything from a merchant over their current gold allotment. -6: you fail to get what you want and reduce your wealth by 1, 7-9: you get what you want if your willing to reduce your wealth by 1, 10+: you get what you want and increase your wealth by 1. You may increase your roll by 1 for every point of wealth you burn. 

This move and it's associated stat is just an approximation that allows us to dispense with the record keeping and focus on the fiction. I've stated that they can, once per adventure, get one item worth wealthX100 as well to represent their cash on hand. As they are now dealing with a ship, crew, and government contracts this seems to be working. 

9
Dungeon World / [Actual Play] The Mines of Madness
« on: April 18, 2012, 12:39:44 PM »
Last night I ran a game of DW for my home group. Due to bad scheduling we are quite a few adventures behind my Skype group but we are all still having a blast at it. We had a new player who just happened to wonder over and look interested. 

To catch you up on the group's activities, this week we had Shanks the Thief, Cassius the Paladin, and Hawke the Fighter (this is a new fighter not to be confused with the previous Hawke). They began the adventure deep in the Hamish Mine trying to strike a deal with two of the factions that make up the Cult of Kryos. 

As the last thing revealed in the previous session was that the zombies that the Venithian faction had made were out of control, we started there. Hawke immediately grabbed a flask of lamp oil from his pack and lit the worm-infected zombies on fire. The Venithans were not at all happy with this and tried to drive the party from their labs. A fight ensued with Hawke taking a pointblank fireball and ending with him pinning an invisible wizard to the wall so that Shanks could finish him off. 

After that they discovered that the Paladin's of Shia had blocked off their route of retreat. They scoured the Venithan labs and discovered three tomes of Kryos lore and the cypher by which they could be read. They devised a plan to use kegs of gunpowder to destroy the hoard of Gnolls that were gathered outside in the main chamber. 

They spent two weeks preparing the ambush and the explosion managed to kill the Gnolls and break open the pool that housed the Aspect of Kryos. Seeing their foes dead (and beginning to rise from exposure to the liquid in the pool), they beat a hasty retreat up the elevator shaft, cutting the cables as they left. 

This was an interesting challenge for me to GM. The act of setting up the barrels of gunpowder triggered no moves but obviously took time. I informed them of the cost in time and they took it. Hawke and Cassius took time to prepare and got a +1 hold for a fight that never took place. Shanks did the work of digging with his magic chisel granting him no bonus but allowing him to spring a nasty surprise attack. How would other GMs have handled this? 

Having escaped the lair of the cult but not having defeated the Aspect of Kryos means that that Front is still active which plays nicely into my future plans so no worries there. They did manage to cause a major set back in the Aspect's rise to power so they counted it a win. 

Once back in town they met with the mayor who pardoned them for the destruction of the Sick Dog and then met with Alastor. Alastor allowed them to take a look around his store for magic items to help them as they got ready to go in search of his old adventuring party. I used the custom Move for Alastor's shop, they described the item they wanted and on a 10+ he had it in stock, on a 7-9 he had something close and on a miss he never heard of such. We agreed that each item would cost them the handful of gems they were carrying (loot from a previous adventure) and if he did not have the item they wanted the could keep their gems. 

Cassius got a shield that added "•reflect spells cast at the person you are defending onto it's caster" to his options for defend. Hawke got a spear that, after a successful Hack and Slash and a Defy Danger on the second round, would deal 2d6 damage to his target. The penalties on his "Exploding Spear" are that if he fails his Defy Danger that the target gets to attack back adding d6 to their damage as the spear backfires. Shanks wanted a key that, once bound to a door, could travel to that room from any other door (basically a teleport spell) but he failed his roll. 

I like handing out magic items like this because it allows me to guide the process and to give treasure they will like and find useful. 

10
brainstorming & development / Burning World
« on: April 03, 2012, 09:28:38 PM »
So I want to run a Game of Thrones style game with the flavor I love from Burning Wheel but with the speed of play and low complexity I love from AW. This is leading me to Burning World (someone shoot me, right the hell now, before I do something dumb). This is going to be the dirtiest hack I've ever done. This is just for my home group but I will be posting (so long as I remain sane to do so) what I come up with. 

This post is just somewhere to keep my ideas for now. I invite all of you to debate the wisdom of this with me, share ideas and suggestions, and point out obvious errors. 

What does BW do that I want to do with AW?

Fights are short and deadly, AW already handles that. 

Circles, easy enough, enmity is almost baked in. 

DoW, again, very easy to model in AW. 

FoRKs, thats new to AW but might be something that can be handled with tags. 

Lifepaths, definitely outside the realm of what AW does well. I'm thinking most LPs will be tag clouds with a move, bonus to a core stat, or both with fewer tags. Prerequisites might or might not make sense. 

Doing that might make each setting a playbook. Limit five LPs and make lead count as an LP with a free bonus to one stat. Make each LP have at least two of the three things, bonus, tag cloud, or move and players can only choose one. Players also have to take one bonus, one tag cloud and one move from their LPs. 

Linked tests, are they central to the feel of BW? I think so and I'm ok with adding that in. Temporary tags? They stick around until they are pealed off by a hard move or another player's move. Since tags seem like they are becoming important I think each setting may need some moves to manipulate them. 

Should tags have roots like BW skills do? If so does a tag rooted in a negative ability give negatives rather than positives? That is too much work unless I can design the LPs so that each tag cloud in them comes from one ability and the abilities on the character sheet have space beside them to list the associated tags. Might be too much hassle. I'll have to see. 

Failure and success lead to advancement. This says to me that I should drop the highlighted stats (was thinking about it anyway but it makes more sense now). Three successes and three failures to earn one XP sounds ok but I'll have to work it out in practice. 

BITs, these are so far from what AW is I'm having trouble figuring them out. Instincts seem the farthest from making sense in a AW hack so I'm going to ignore them for now. Traits seem like they will fit just fine in the tag clouds, I'll drop them there for now. Beliefs seem like Hx stuff but are totally not (Hx does not seem to fit with BW either). I think what I will do is go with something a little closer to DW style Bonds but player written for Beliefs. Each player has a Goal, someone is helping them, someone either wants to profit from it or is standing in it's way. So the Beliefs would look something like this;

"My Goal in life at this moment is...

...is helping me by...

...wants to profit from this by...

...is trying to stop me by..."

And then under that would be;

"I'm trying to help...
I'm trying to profit from...
I'm trying to stop..."

And doing any of those things in a game session earns you one XP at the end of the session. 

Resources are just like Circles and such, very easy to emulate with AW. 

The core stats, probably give them BW names but I'll have to wait and see. I'm only going to tackle the humans at this point and only the non-casters. If the hack does what I want I'll be back to the well with a better understanding. 

11
Dungeon World / Are Steadings Grabby Enough?
« on: March 21, 2012, 09:24:22 PM »
I really like the new Steading mechanic because it adds in a bit of the fundemental scarcity that AW has but I feel like it is missing something. One of the things that makes Fronts really pop is grounding them firmly in people. I think that is what Steadings need too, people who can represent the tags placed upon the town. By giving a tag a person to be it's example you get a better idea of who lives in this town. Not only that but you give a face, someone specific for the party to interact with when they want to make a change in a Steading. It is probably going too far but I keep thinking that the tags could each be treated like an inverse Front, something good that could happen if only someone got involved. That seems like far too much work but it would probably work best as a focus thing. When players are focused on Y aspect of town X then fill in this information. Just a long and rambly thought.

12
Dungeon World / Mid-campaign AP
« on: March 19, 2012, 02:44:20 PM »
Saturday night was my weekly DW game and I went in relatively unprepared compared to the five previous adventures. We had established at the end of the previous adventure that we would be returning to the city of Danbury for a layover before continuing so I at least had a setting. In the week ahead I took a look at the Danbury adventure and noticed we still had an unresolved front there so I tagged that. 

The front was all about the local governor placing the town under marshall law due to the pirate threat. The pirates were dealt with the last time they were in town so I invented a new threat that he could blow out of proportion. I used the old fantasy fall back of Orcs, gave them a reason for being there that also fed into some leads that the PCs were following and decided on a vague location for them. 

That was all the prep I had. 

I didn't bother stating up any of the Orcs and just stole their stats from earlier adventures and boosted the damage a bit. I had two new players so we spent the first 45 min building their characters and filling them in on the pertinent backstory. I have a rule that any new players, their characters are already integrated into the story somehow so we determined that they went on the last adventure in a purely support roll and have now become a part of the crew. 

I had some idea that they might want to get involved with the politics of the Duke's daughter, who was posing as a male cleric so she could follow her love to war, getting to continue with them on their adventure but no one bit so I dropped that thread pretty quickly. The thief provided a bit of entertainment by attempting and failing to steal several riches and getting himself thrown in jail. 

That was an inauspicious beginning for a new character so I was glad when the party decided getting him out was job one. The bard used his ability to know someone in town to narrate in a guardsman and I played nice by making him the jailer. The jailer was nice enough and we had already established that the bard was good at making quick friends so he agreed to release our thief if they could fill his cell with another body. 

The party didn't feel right about putting just anyone in that cell and so went looking for some scoundrel to take his place. They found one and the fighter used his new paladin move, I am the Law, to bring the man in. The party decided to leave with their thief in tow as quickly as possible and head out to deal with the Orcs. 

They tried a fe approaches to the Orc base and were ambushed both times. The second time it was a massive failure but rather than have them deal with a big fight with a bunch of mooks I fast forwarded to them being led into the Orc king's presence by spear wielding Orc guards. 

I had planned on a brazen escape attempt but the group  chose to take a more diplomatic tact. The cleric offered his own life in exchange for all the others which Orc king took as a sign of great honor and was willing to let the rest leave if they left the cleric behind. 

The fighter had a token given to him by the Queen's Emissary (they don't know much about the Queen other than she enjoys making trouble). He gambled that the Orc king might be in her employ and won earning them free passage back to their ship and the promise of the Orc king not to besiege Danbury. 

The cleric elected to stay behind and attempt to convert the godless Orcs. Back at the Duke's keep they convinced the Duke that they had defeated the Orc king and the fighter earned the promise of a maid's hand in marriage. 

The thief's player was not very happy with his character by the end of the session, he had made some decisions at character creation that made him unsure how to play his character. I offered to allow him and the cleric's player to either roll up new characters or to step into the rolls of the Duke's daughter and her lover. I'm not sure what paths they will take but it was a bit of a mixed emotion for me. 

On the one hand the cleric had clearly come to a satisfactory end to his arc and that felt pretty good as a GM. On the other hand I had a first time player who had come away with a bit of a bitter taste. I'm hoping that he will come back and either push for a new character or re-roll his thief to better suit his play style. All in all a pretty good game both showing how campaign gaming can work and showing how very little prep it takes to run a DW game. 

13
brainstorming & development / Woodland Creatures (*W for kids)
« on: March 07, 2012, 08:56:06 PM »
Just threw this together. Might be something here. Then again it has been a weird week so far.

Set up:
Each player takes a creature and four tokens. 

The Mouse
Sneaky: +2, Courageous: +1, Selfish: +1,  Helpful: -1
Special Power: Being small. 
You took something from one of the other creatures, tell us what it was and take a token from them. 
You owe one of the other creatures for helping you, tell us what they did and give them a token. 

The Bear
Sneaky: 0, Courageous: +1, 
Selfish: +1,  Helpful: +1
Special Power: Being strong. 
You got in a fight with one of the other creatures, tell us what about and take a token from them. 
One of the other creatures is your best friend, tell us who and why and give them a token. 

The Pig
Sneaky: -1, Courageous: +2,
 Selfish: +1,  Helpful: +1
Special Power: Being sturdy. 
You got caught by one of the other creatures taking things from the food tree, tell us who and take a token from them. 
You stood up for one of the other creatures when they were being made fun of, tell us what happened and give them a token. 

The Rabbit
Sneaky: -1, Courageous: +1, 
Selfish: +2,  Helpful: +1
Special Power: Being speedy. 
You and one of the other creatures were running away from trouble and you got away but they didn't, tell us who and what the trouble was and take a token from them. 
You came to the rescue of one of the other creatures, tell us about why they needed saving and give them a token. 

Everyone starts each game with four empty harm slots. If they are all filled your character takes -1 to all rolls until the start of the next game. 

When you do something Sneaky; 
10+: No one sees you or you take a token. 
7-9: Someone wants to know what your doing. 
6 or less: Someone tells on you. 

When you do something Courageous;
10+: You impress people or you take a token. 
7-9: Someone thinks you were too risky. 
6 or less: You take one harm. 

When you do something Selfish;
10+: What you did or got was exactly what you wanted or you take a token. 
7-9: Someone saw you and is disappointed. 
6 or less: Someone was hurt by what you did. 

When you do something Helpful ;
10: Someone saw what you did and is proud of you or you take a token. 
7-9: Someone thinks you are doing it selfishly. 
6 or less: It costs you something to do it. 

When you use your special power you may use tokens 1-for-1 to increase your result. 

How to play:

Some woodland creature has a problem and wants some help. Play to find out what happens. 

All characters are woodland creatures and they are names Mr. or Mrs. Whatever-they-are. 

If no move is triggered say yes. 

Let the results of the rolls guide play. 

14
Dungeon World / Within the Devil's Reach
« on: February 15, 2012, 08:47:41 PM »
Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that I am putting together a book with three Dungeon World adventures set in the backwater town of Devil's Reach. The three adventures in Within the Devil's Reach are meant to be introductory adventures you can play through seporately or chain them together. Within the Devil's Reach is going to feature some great art from Storn Cook and awesome maps from Dyson Logos. If you want to know more about it I am posting some articles on my site http://atthetablegames.com about it.

Is anyone else thinking about writing adventures for Dungeon World? Is there anybody else crazy enough to try and tackle writing a campaign for Dungeon World?

15
Dungeon World / Tell me how broken these are
« on: February 14, 2012, 07:21:32 PM »
These three Compendium Classes are going into the second Gears book. Each of these classes come from examples in the adventures themselves in a "see it then be it" way. Two things I'm really not sure about are the Artificer's Builder of Strange Things move and the Necromancer's Roll +Damage taken. With the Artificer it seems like it might be possible to build out of control (the GM price is meant to keep that from happening but is that enough?). The Necromancer's self damaging might be too far over the edge of what people expect from DW. Please, pull them apart and try to make me cry and then I'll do what I want anyway :)

Artificer:
When you have spent time tinkering and examining some piece of artifice you may take this move at your next level. (If you choose not to, you must fulfill the conditions again before having this option.)

Quick Fix: When you are faced with a broken piece of Artifice and determine to fix it name an item you posses. Destroying that item will allow you to repair the Artifice. 

Once you’ve taken “Quick Fix”, the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves, you may choose from this list when you gain a level.

Builder of Strange Things: When you want to craft a new piece of Artifice explain what it can do and what it looks like and the GM will tell you a price (maybe with some strings attached) and an amount of time. If accept that price and spend the time you get the piece of Artifice that you desired. If the Artifact you wish to build is an Artifact Creature you control it and choose it's stats from the list below:
• Damage 4, Intelligence 1, Armor 1, HP 10, Load 4
• Damage 8, Intelligence 2, Armor 0, HP 20, Load 0
• Damage 4, Intelligence 2, Armor 1, HP 10, Load 2
• Damage 8, Intelligence 1, Armor 2, HP 20, Load 0
For each point of Intelligence it can do these things independently:
Hunt, search, scout, guard, fight monsters, fight humanoids, perform, labor, travel 

Always Tinkering: When you work on a piece of Artifice you have already built in an attempt to make it better the GM will tell you a price (maybe with some strings attached) if you pay it Roll +INT. On a 10+ hold 3, on a 7-9 hold 1, on a miss you have damaged your creation and it must be repaired before it is useful again. You may spend your hold, one-for-one, to do the following:
• Increase it's Damage +2
• Increase it's Armor +1
• Increase it's HP +5
• Increase it's Intelligence +1
• Increase it's Load +2

A Man of Machines: When you attempt to control a piece of Artifice that is under another's control Roll +INT. On a 10+ you are in complete control of the Artifice, on a 7-9 the Artifice does either it's damage or it's creators damage to you, on a miss is does either it's damage or it's creator's damage to you and is damaged beyond repair. 

Templar:
When you have dedicated yourself to the cause of a deity and joined a holy order you may take this move when you level and have done something during the last level to forward the cause of your deity. 

One of the Brotherhood: When you spend time consulting your god in prayer you will always know where the nearest encampment of followers of your deity reside. 

Once you’ve taken “One of the Brotherhood”, the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves, you may choose from this list when you gain a level.

The Armor of God: While wearing armor or a shield emblazoned with your Deities holy symbol add +1 to your armor. 

Dedicated to the Cause: When you kill a creature that is in service to one of your deities enemies, mark experience. 

The Sword of God: When you strike a creature that is in service to one of your deities enemies, deal +2 damage. 

Necromancer:
When you spend time amongst the dead and undead coming to understand them you may take this move the next time you level. (If you choose not to, you must fulfill the conditions again before having this option.)

Call of the Dead: When you calm yourself and attempt to sense the dead Roll +WIS. On a hit you get a good sense of where the nearest dead or undead is. On a 10+ choose 1:
• You can tell if it is dead or undead
• You can tell how it died
• You get a sense of the bodies surroundings
On a miss you feel so strongly drawn  to the body that you take -1 forward until you reach the body. 

Once you’ve taken “Call of the Dead”, the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves, you may choose from this list when you gain a level.

Masochist: When you intentionally injure yourself you can choose how much damage you inflict and a number of party members equal to that damage take +1 forward. 

Control Undead: When you wound yourself in the presence of the undead Roll +Damage taken. On a hit, all of the unintelligent undead that are present immediately fall under your control and intelligent undead flea your presence until you heal the GM will tell you their stats. On a miss all of the undead present focus their attacks on you until dealt with. 

Raise Undead: When you wound yourself and drop the blood over a dead body or bodies Roll + Damage taken, On a 10+ the undead rise and follow your commands. On a 7-9 the undead rise but are unresponsive until you wound yourself again in an attempt to Control Undead. On a miss the undead rise and want you dead to the exclusion of all others, they resist any attempt to control them. All undead have these stats:
Damage 4, Armor 1, HP 10, Load 2

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