Player 1, how is this thing on your character sheet going to make you awesome soon?

Player 2, what is this organization you are clearly a part of doing that is getting in the way of Player 1 being awesome?

Player 3, how have you been profiting off the conflict here?

Player 4, you have something, a skill, special knowledge, a unique attribute, something that both sides need to get what they want, what is it and why are you lothe to give it up to anyone?

These are just an example but the quicker you can pull everyone in the same direction, even if they are at cross purposes, the better.

Asking leading or open ended questions is core to running DW off the cuff. Even in a module asking questions is important as a way to bind your party together. Keep asking questions until 1) the party has some reason to be together, 2) there is some obvious short term goal most of the players can get behind.

Way-

That makes a lot of sense and I think that is more or less what I'm going for but with a greater degree of abstraction (numbers rather than objects). A hand full of steel is worth relitively little in Greyhawk, a week at a fine inn in Waterdeep, and a goodly portion of land in Athis.

Noofy-

I'm thinking of tying the wealth into the Town system. You decide to invest in a wizards college in your home town? You are able to hire casters. You found a militia? The attack or defense capability of your town increases. There are likely to be cases that don't map well there but I want to tie it as close in to core mechanics as I can.

I'm certainly thinking about doing just that. I would likely use the trigger condition: When you find yourself in possession of more wealth than you can actively keep account of... That line of thought leads me to what other uses wealth might have. Building projects come to mind, so does maintaining a staff, what else can you think of that might be in the wealth category?

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. 

Had a great playtest of WC today. Played half an hour with some non-RPG friends of mine who really dug the "kids TV show" vibe. The game was short, which was good, and the play was tight. The end game mechanic never came into play and we only rolled 7-8 times with a lot of open narration. The scenario we ran was Mr. Frog and Mr. Snake fight over a fish. The initial conflict got us into the action quick and the ramifications were widespread through the rest of the game. Can't wait to play it again!

I tend to let the player's focus determine the game's focus. If they focus on the Dungeons, play the Fronts to the hilt and make that fun. If they focus on the town though I will make that just as interesting. I think the main thing is to make sure that you put your Fronts in front of your players, not way off where they will not care.

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.