So we tried Dungeon Worlds for the first time yesterday and I had to share our experience because it was awesome!
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Quick and dirty background as part of character creation:
One player got sick so we were left with one elven warrior veteran named Eleheir; a general from the wars that had his right arm and both legs mysteriously replaced with intricate steam-punk prosthetics after a terrible run in with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The dinosaur mauled him just as he was about to catch Hykkorax. An elven youngling and a druid that forsake his family and community to go on a fools quest to the Blasted Wastelands that were left after the great meteorite struck the earth, awakening the dinosaurs….
Having almost eluded Eleheir a third time Hykkorax was chased out of the ruined mechanical city by the Halfling mafia after he released all the beasts, animals and monsters from the mafia’s gladiatorial pens.
Game on:
Now the two fled for their lives and came crashing and tumbling and falling as the ground suddenly gave way to a sharp slope. They came to rest at the bottom of the slope and as they got up, brushing the thick ash layer from their clothes they set eyes upon a scorched valley filled with the broken trees and bones and boulders of the world before the great calamity. To the south, on the horizon, miles and miles away at the end of the valley they could make out a clear blue sea. Like the promise of well-deserved rest after a long and arduous journey. Just in front of them ran a deep ravine and to the west not far, a couple of caverns opened up with their dark and ominous entrances.
To the north they could hear their pursuers and their beasts, not far behind, come crashing through the burned out forest. Without hesitation Hykkorax ran towards the ravine and leaped into the air, transforming himself into a Pterodactyl gliding to safety. Eleheir would not let the young fool escape him a third time, not on his watch! With no thought of his own safety he too leaped into the air managing to grab the feet of Hykkorax just as he transformed. This caught the young elf off guard and the two landed heavily on the other side of the ravine just as the Halfling mafia halted on the slope above them. A few of their mutated and rabid hounds threw themselves into the ravine in their mad efforts to catch the two elfs but the rest of the mafia soon gave up.
After a short while as the two descended down the valley a huge roar reverberated throughout the valley and beyond and they thought it best to enter the caves, else they might have to face whatever terrible monster was out there.
Walking into the darkness they suddenly came crashing through the tunnel floor and into knee-deep water in a vast cavern! Even with their keen elven senses they could not make out more than that the cavern was very large and filled with shallow water. They had dropped their torches as they fell and to better judge their surroundings Hykkorax transformed into a bat. With his sonar he understood the cave to be a couple of hundred meters across easily, with a handful of openings spread across the walls and stalagmites and stalactites crisscrossing the air. Worse, a group of smaller creatures were stealthily making their way towards the two elves and before long arrows came whistling through the air!
Hykkorax quickly transformed into an old dinosaur sea beast but misjudged and his great size not only hampered him greatly as he trashed about in the knee deep water. It also took Eleheir by surprise as the body of the sea beast pinned the general down in the water, barely allowing him to breath. As a reflex Eleheir struck out with this serrated steam-punk prosthetic hand and carved a huge gash in the side of Hykkorax. The great dinosaur sea beast trashed even more wildly, drenching the old general in foaming water and spraying blood before Hykkorax transformed back into his normal form.
By now the creatures were all but upon them and while the old general braced for the charge in the dark cavern Hykkorax again transformed, this time into his signature form – the Velicoraptor. With a shriek the dinosaur jumped on top of a charging goblin tore its spine out and bit the head of another! The general did not faulter but decapitated three of the vermin using nothing but his well-honed combat instinct. With one lash of his serrated chain attached steam-punk prosthetic hand that he let loose in the darkness. Still the goblins kept coming and Hykkorax took a ragged breath for he was gravely wounded but still they fought on and soon the goblin’s will to fight was broken and what few vermin lived scampered off into the dark from whence they came.
Only now did the two elves realize that the cavern was being illuminated by torch-light from one of the tunnels to their left. After a quick palaver they decided to not hide but to greet whatever group of creatures that exited the tunnels.
A group of heavily armoured dwarves came marching out in formation and set up a defense. Hykkorax tried to parley with them and managed to greet them with the deadly insult “Hello dwarves!”. Recognizing his old friend from the wars, general Rundrig, Eleheir quickly stepped in and smoothed things over. Very happy to see his old friend the ancient Rundrig escorted the elves back to their camp while Eleheir told him all about their recent happenings and his mission to bring Hykkorax back to his kin for some much needed re-education.
After their ordeals Hykkorax and Eleheir were both glad to be able to rest in the well protected dwarven encampment. Naturally Hykkorax transformed into a cat before going to sleep on a pillow underneath his bed. After all who would stab a cat in its sleep? The only thing disturbing him during the night was Eleheirs soft caresses as the old general simply could not leave the cute cat alone…
In the morning they were brusquely awoken by a gruff dwarven sentry who invited them to break their fast at Rundrig’s table in the officers command tent. During the quick breakfast Hykkorax greatly impressed the gathered dwarfs by defying the strong and no doubt dangerous dwarven mead, drinking three jugs in quick succession. Rundrig explained that the goblin vermin had unexplainable began to push into dwarven territory again after their defeat during the wars. They wondered whether the cause could be the great legendary monster that the elves had heard roaring earlier and which no dwarf had been able to lay eyes on and live to tell the tale about.
In any case the elves broke camp with a dwarven cohort lead by Rundrig. Who could turn down an offer to stand side by side with old war buddies like times of old? Not Eleheir, that’s who, and Hykkorax was glad just to postpone being dragged back to his so called friends and family a while longer.
Pushing deeper into goblin territory the stout dwarves fought off an ambush where Hykkorax again transformed himself into a dinosaur a couple of sizes to large, managing to pin himself to the roof of the tunnel all the while separating the dwarves on point from the rest of the group. After that small mishap Hykkorax promptly transformed into a small chicken size dinosaur in order to escape the ire of the dwarves. After a couple of hours of trudging along the snaking tunnels the party could clearly hear the unmistakable chatter of a mass of goblins up ahead. Apparently the craven vermin had decided to take a stand. Finally time for a real battle!
Judging that the tunnels widened into a larger cave where the goblins had set up positions, Hykkorax transformed into a gigantic Triceratops. Barely being able to squeeze through out into more open ground and of course, at this point there was nothing left to do for Eleheir but to gather some of the flasks of burning oil that the dwarves kept for close encounters. Thus equipped he climbed up onto Hykkorax, just behind the neck shield and bit down hard on the slow burning dwarven fuse, one flask in each hand…
With a rumbling roar Hykkorax the Triceratops charged the goblin line that were hiding behind a pile of dead wood and boulders. Unused to his new body Hykkorax misjudged his charge and rammed the end of the line, inflicting only minor damage. Eleheir barely managed to keep his place on top of the bucking Triceratops and dropped some burning oil down the neck of Hykkorax. Most of the other flasks went wide or did little damage. At this point our two elven heroes were far ahead of the dwarves, fighting the goblins left and right but doing very little against the 30 or so goblin warriors sitting along the lines of boulders.
Finally the dwarves charged with Rundrig at the front and again the two ancestral enemies clashed in mortal combat. Hykkorax continued to trample the scurrying creatures to death while Eleheir had fallen behind some boulders. As the chaos of battle commenced in earnest a crackling bolt of lightning struck the ceiling above the dwarfs! A mad goblin shaman had made his presence known!
Knowing full well what the unpredictable powers of a creature such as that could do Eleheir deftly rolled under the feet of the trampling Triceratops and came to a halt behind the battle with a clear line of sight to the goblin shaman. Not breaking his movement Eleheir’s roll came to a halt and in one fluid motion he readied his borrowed dwarven crossbow and put a bolt straight in the head of the sorceress vermin just as it drew in power to send out another bolt of lightning.
With its powers interrupted the creature and several of its nearby minions exploded in a flash, sending scorched hunks of meat flying across the cavern floor. The goblins will to fight very much broken and the dwarves and Hykkorax made short work of them. As the last surviving goblins fled back from whence they came Eleheir found himself overwhelmed by the panicking tide of vermin clawing and kicking and biting to get away from certain death.
Seeing Eleheir fall underneath the goblins Hykkorax came bounding and stomping to his rescue. With his huge neck shield he managed to clear the goblins from Eleheir and the two elves could stand together watching the last of their enemies flee before them. Rundrig walked up to them and with a wary eye towards the mad druid gave Eleheir a hearty thump on the back for old times’ sake. The old dwarven general seemed to have become young again as the two old friends felt the flush of battle on their cheeks.
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We talked a bit about the system afterwards. Essentially it is a little too light for us but I am personally eager to see how it holds up with a tighter focus and more detailed background, reigning in some of the gonzo zany stuff that easily crops up when giving roleplayers free reign. I think it would be an interesting world and story building experiment to play it a little bit more traditional, putting most of the narrative power on the gm while keeping the abstract system as is. One of the player mentioned that it jarred his experience a bit when being asked to come up with background stuff on the fly.
All in all it is a very cool game that I’ll be sure to come back to. If only there were less awesome games out there…..