Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Nifelhein

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4
16
Ohhh, thanks for sharing.

I hate myself for not checking kickstarters back when DW was there.

17
Dungeon World / Re: Play by Tweet
« on: January 07, 2013, 04:05:39 PM »
make a new account? :)

18
Dungeon World / Re: I am the Law
« on: January 07, 2013, 06:35:11 AM »
In the way it is written the order must be a direct action to a deity's tenents, the Paladin can't just speak any order he wants, telling someone to give them their money could be fitting, if said person stole it / acquired it from illegal sources / is not sharing it when he/she should.

It is very open ended, but fleshing out the god will give the power more definition, giving an order usually means defining a course of action too, so not just stating "facts". If they try to use it on a prisoner, for example, I would not use the move, falling to parley instead, the base of the order is not his divine authority, in this case, it is the fact that he is ordering someone who is trapped / locked / imprisoned.

19
Dungeon World / Re: Campaign Starter Booklets
« on: January 07, 2013, 06:25:23 AM »
I would go with cool ideas not entirely developed, some settings have presented that for D&D, where they throw a cool idea that is not entirely described in the book, it is something enticing.

Overall I am now avoiding knowing everything about a place, person or thing, leaving room to define it via play, a module that would see the most use in my game would have some fleshed out stuff and some left open, like  presenting a werewolf in a small town and yet not saying who is it while still fleshing out the important NPCs.

20
Dungeon World / Re: Running Chases
« on: January 07, 2013, 06:21:52 AM »
I'm curious when we all started to think Dex = speed...kinda like Strength =/= Bulk

Well, I took the act fast choice for choosing Dex straight from the rules written in defy danger, specially because they are not defined in DW aside from that move in particular.

Completely off topic but interesting to note.

Anyway, so basically you suggest using Defy Danger with custom consequences based on the scenario....so the exact same thing as a custom move based on a stat of choice with an outcome that fits the fiction...

I think my advice is more akin to use a move that is done and ready to use instead of spending time to create a custom move that will work for a single situation or get so generic it will end up being defy danger written for chases, meaning two moves that do the exact same thing.

But if you prefer to have a specific move for this, go for it, I just don't see the need to make a move that I already perceive as existing in the game, that is all.

AKA: The exact same thing as just making up a move for it.

Yup, the exact same thing, so, why make a new move then.

Fair enough. I discounted Defy Danger in my original post 'cos it seemed too much of a zoom out for the immediate fiction - too meta, like resolving a whole combat in a single roll - but if that's the only real solution I can handle it.

My suggestion of using a given number of "counters" is directed at the notion that you can only use defy danger to completely resolve an entire situation, this kind of zoom in will work great for some situations, and how hard you want it to be is how many counters they need to accumulate.

It is not built in the rules, mind you, but very little rules have that kind of counting in the system, and I have used and seen it used quite frequently.

Basically you're redefining DD to be generic contest resolution - full success, partial success, fail - which is as AmPm says the same as a custom move. Imagine the same situation without the giants, the 'danger' being 'the orcs get away', and it's clear can the 'danger' doesn't need to be dangerous at all - it's just 'you fail at what you're trying to do'.

I don't see myself redefining anything, in a system when I need to create an ad hoc rule I usually look for similar rules, I suppose most people do the same, Defy Danger doesn't write itself for this kind of situation, but is easily used in it, if a custom move would just have the same structure I prefer to avoid the time spent on a new rule when I can just tag one the players and myself are familiar with and it can solve things well.

I think that's pretty much what I've been gleaning from play - if there's no clear move, roll 10+ for complete success, etc. I was originally looking for something a little more attritional for chases, hence the 7-9 result upthread.

The system is not meant to prolong specific actions, and I can see how that can become a problem, it is entirely based on the idea of failure generates a new situation, incomplete success and success changes things, as you say.

The 7-9 options upthread are nice, but the entire move there seems like a specific instance of defy danger, the 10+ result also resolves the entire sequence, the 7-9 follows up into the chase and the 6- ends with an unsuccessful chase or a successful one, something I find mind boggling.

By using the counters idea I effectively created more attrition, moving out of the one roll solve it all part, you can look at it as hp applied to a scene, the characters are burning the hp when they succeed and the opposition is healing the hp when the party fails.

21
Dungeon World / Re: Dungeon Starter example play?
« on: January 06, 2013, 08:57:11 PM »
In my first sesssion I went with a notebook ad the DW book in an iPad, told themt eh classes and they picked, then I went to questions, the most important part here is to ask about their characters first, who are they, what brought them to the point in life they are at the start of the game, where they learned whatever it is that they do, how old are they, and so on, with that you will have them develop the characters, you can then end asking them what they are doing there or hold the carrot to them, using the adventure's central idea adapted to what the characters would want.

I think you are loosing a crucial part, establishing who the characters are, their stories, attitudes toward life and desires. An example on how my character process started with the players:

Classes: Warlock, Fighter, Druid and Wizard.

First question asked after they chose how they look and their names:

Warlock, WHY did you make a pact with the demon?
To gain power.

Ok, what does your pact state you gave to the demon, and I am thinking your soul is there, and what does your demon require of you (check your sheet, it is right there in the Contract move.
I did not sell my soul, I made a pact to gain power in exchange for bringing the demon a lot of souls, my soul is forfeit to the demon if I don't get the number of souls I promised.

Another player asked: HOW MANY souls does your contract asks for? (I grin)
I don't know, a lot, how about 999? (I grin again and accept it.

This revolved around a single move of the Warlock class and its basic premise, "you have a deal with a demon". I asked a lot more questions, but with those alone I already knew he wasn't looking to solve the pact in-game, he also was willing to corrupt others (tied to his evil alignment), and  demons and souls would be part of the game.

Hope it helps shed some light.

22
Dungeon World / Re: Running Chases
« on: January 06, 2013, 08:42:22 PM »
Yeah, I was a bit generic because I didn't have more information about the fiction, but the fiction would not stop. ever.

My idea of the 7-9 is that the giants are warned to something, but creativity might even put them out of alert.

23
Dungeon World / Re: New Attributes
« on: January 06, 2013, 08:35:47 PM »
I am pretty sure they will tell you to hack away.

Dungeon World is strongly familiar and is what got me into it and made it easy to sell it to my players, as time passes I suspect I will feel more and more like you do, wanting to leave Dungeon World's anchor (with D&D) behind, the system itself is simple enough to be easily house-ruled and adapted, to make it an entirely new system though... I probably would just get lazy and not even try. ;)

24
Dungeon World / Re: Not sharing Moves Sheet with players
« on: January 06, 2013, 08:29:44 PM »
My players would not go for it if I had not shared the sheets, what i made clear though, is that those are references for how things can be handled, not to what actions they can take, with what do you do and asking questions to define what they want to achieve and how they are doing it, they totally forgot about the move snot on their character sheet, only referencing those when they were not in the actions happening at the table.

Also, I only had 1 moves sheet per two players, so they had to share. At the second session the move sheets were looked upon when I asked them to choose a question for discern realities or to check what they can spend holds for Defend.

My players and I were too used to the I attack, roll attack, roll damage mindset, and having them see nothing at all would make them more lost than glad, on the 2nd session they are just not caring for move any more, their actions are now framed by their characters only, not the system.

I guess it depends on how much your players like to describe and be creative on their actions in the other games you played.

As Hyvemind said, the most important thing when the moves are on the table is making it clear to them that they don't need to choose from a sheet, they need to choose what they want their characters to do, within the character's capabilities.

25
I don't know, I would probably ask the player what he wants out of the werewolf form and it needs to be defined if a werewolf still retains his mind when transformed. I tend to consider werewolves out of the WoD scenarios as not in control of their beast, so they could be one, but I would go towards the uncontrollable rage at first, and work out a compendium class for the abilities and control over the beast.

The basic move could be simple:

Cursed by Lycanthropy
When the full moon is on the sky or when you are under an intense emotion roll +Wis:
10+ You managed to keep the beast at bay
7-9: You shift into a man-wolf form but still retain some degree of control, any actions are directed to your enemies, if none are present then the beast rages towards your friends, you can defy danger to control it and shift out of the form
6-: the beast is in control, depending on why you shifted you either won't change back until sunrise or after your emotions are soothed, this usually means nobody alive around you.

The compendium class would then be something to happen in-game.

26
Dungeon World / Re: Running Chases
« on: January 06, 2013, 08:06:36 PM »
GM: "The orcs run down the corridor, you know tehre are giants ont he other end, what do you do?"

Players: "We stop them!"

GM: "Ok, how are you gonna do that?"

Ranger Player: "I take a shot at them as they go."

Fighter Player: "I run to catch them, hacking any I come near"

Wizard Player: "I cast sleep on the furthermost."

Thief Player: "I go with [Fighter], throwing daggers when I get a chance.

GM: "Ok, the ranger's arrows and the wizard's spells will determine how many orcs will remain for the chase, so we will resolve those first.

In this case you got two players chasing, two attacking. Wizard rolls casts a  spell, Ranger uses volley or called shot (I would go with this one here), Fighter and Thief roll defy danger, I would go with Dex for both.

For the defy danger rolls my stakes would be:

10+ The fighter and the thief reach the orcs, I would allow them to describe how they are attacking and see how fiction goes from there, depending on how many orcs are left.
7-9 The party stops the orc right as they open the door / shout out for help/ reach the giants, depending on how the warning will be given.
6- The orcs that remain outrun the party, warning the giants.

You can make a lot more rolls for larger chases, but defy danger here works for me. The structure of the mvoe is kinda simple:

Danger they want/need to avoid: The orcs warn the giants
How they are doing it: by acting fast (+Dex)

Changing the scenario is only a bad choice if the players already know how it is, otherwise it is just you making things more interesting, you don't have a commitment to your prep, but with the fun of the game, whatever is already established though, should not be changed.

In general chase scenes are always at the danger of loosing your mark, if you want to zoom to micromanage then you can even make a simple system of counts and tell those to the players: any character who scores a 6- on a chase action (defy danger) or doesn't chase looses a point toward the mark, they can take another action but any 10+ is treated as 7-9, any who roll 10+ while chasing gets a point and can take an action if they want, without chance of being slowed down unless they stop running (they can get creative on trying to stop the mark), on a 7-9 they don't get closer and can take an action, the new action can slow them down on a failure)

They get to -3 they lost the mark, they get to +3 they catch the mark.

In this scenario they would be rolling defy danger every time they don't stop running, and they could take other actions like cast spells, throw things, shoot arrows, try to get above or below the mark and so on.

27
Dungeon World / Re: Fractal fronts
« on: January 02, 2013, 06:04:06 AM »
It seems to me that you want a kind of timeline, this is not exactly the best for me, but I understand what you think, the major problem with having larger timelines is that they players might actually loose track of the entire sequence at some point. I would, for example, break that front into three different fronts, the Necromancer, the Orcs and the Dwarves. The unifying theme is the banished god, but I would not flesh him out until the players got close enough to interact with it.

In my mind I usually consider how things can and would interact, then I make some notes down near the fronts, that alone has given me the juice to make them seem coherent and yet separate.

I don't want to join things too much because I take a risk at making them run through a more encapsulated story and path, something I am trying hard to avoid.

28
Dungeon World / Re: GM Screens
« on: December 27, 2012, 09:46:57 PM »
Hmm... I wanted to do one myself, but I was going to a more minimalistic text approach, with some page references for whatever was longer and could be necessary.

But a lot of the stuff is right there.

29
I used this on the one session I ran:

Wizard fails on detect magic:

"You notice a strong magic emanating from the core of the ruins, as you approach it you feel a terrible presence behind it." They were headed for a circle of stones that could be used to teleport to the location of a Dragon's Lair.

30
Dungeon World / Re: Fronts, needed for a one shot dungeon crawl?
« on: December 27, 2012, 09:41:25 PM »
You have pretty much everything you need right there, what i think you are lacking is a more organized schedule for the in-game progress, most of the interesting stuff is right there, I agree starting them right where the action is might be the best choice, maybe right at battling the Ice Witch.

If you want to make a developing thing for it though, I would go with:


Front: The Everlasting Winter
Dangers: Ice Witch, Demon Gate, Demonic Minions

Ice Witch
Impending Doom: The land is covered in winter
Grim Portents: 1. The Ice Witch makes a pact with the Demon Prince, demonic minions cover the area; 2. the Ice Witch retreats to her lair and a blizzard strikes the surrounding area; 3. The Ice Witch casts her winter spell.

Demonic Minions
Impending Doom: the Demon Gate is built
Grim Portents: 1. the demonic minions control the night; 2. the demonic minions enslave the settlements; 3. the Demon gate is built.


Demon Gate
Impending Doom: the Demon Prince walks through the Demon Gate
Grim Portents: 1. Villagers are sacrificed to the Gate; 2. undead plague the area surrounding the gate; 3. the Ritual of Summoning is cast.

You can lower the steps for a one shot game though: the ice witch's grim portents are the actual dangers and those do not have any impending doom or grim portents.

It would be like this:

Front: The Everlasting Winter
Dangers: Ice Witch, Demonic Minions, Demon Prince
Impending Doom: The land is covered in winter
Grim Portents: 1. a Demon gate is built; 2. a Demon Prince walks through the Gate; 4. The Ice Witch casts her winter spell.

This would make it all into a single simple thing that can quickly evolve, if they help secure some villagers they learn of the Gate and have a chance of stopping the Demon Prince from coming, this would make the Ice Witch a lot weaker.

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4