Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster.
I come here to ask advice from those more experienced than I. I've always been a fan of DW since I first came across it and my current group (4 of us total) was open enough to let me run it for them for a change of pace.
We're only 3 sessions in, with character creation taking its own session because they got really into creating their characters, building bonds and hooking up their back stories (already elaborating wonderfully on each others' back stories before I was even able to go over bonds!). It's been a bit of a learning experience, but they are loving it and are very enthusiastic. Things have been going really well. The party consists of a thief, a bard and a ranger with a wolf companion. They had just escaped from the clutches of a cult who that have seemingly infiltrated the kingdom's guards. They felled their captors and discovered the cultists worshiped a dark creature who hunted the valiant and the heroic. They also recovered a strange golden sword with an intricate design. Last session ended with them taking refuge in an old abandoned church far from the kingdom after finding a hidden door that led downwards.
The issue is that one of the players had their work schedule go into overdrive. It likely it won't clear up anytime soon. We haven't played in three weeks because I've been trying to plan around it, but it's not working. Everyone is understanding of the situation and are interested in continuing as is, and I'm ok to run two different sessions. I'll have to railroad a tiny bit to get things off on the right foot, though the main thing I'd like to do is establish some way for them to be able to affect each other's game in some way.
They will still be in the same 'world', though if they are divided just by distance, or another plane/dimension I don't know. It doesn't have to be immediate, and would still be open to influence from the players' spouting. I mainly just want to add it for some interesting possibilities or hijinks. I was thinking of making some custom moves attached to a magical item that would 'link' the two parties (a use for the golden sword?), allowing them to 'send a move' to their companion. For example, the bard could channel a healing melody that the ranger and thief could use during a moment's pause, or the elven ranger could channel some words of power so the bard could open an ancient gate sealed by elven magic on his end. Misses would invoke DM moves per usual and perhaps in really dire circumstances could swap their locations (mwahaha).
Promising idea? Stupid idea? I appreciate any advice I can get. I don't expect to need anything real concrete thought out by next session with the ranger and the thief. Just going to open with developing the surrounding land, naming places and the immediate situation of the bard being gone with the 'why' being discovered later.
Also any advice/tips on how to convert or alter DW to be more accommodating for a 1 on 1 session would be awesome. I thought I had read an account of someone doing it before and some of the changes they made, but I can't remember where I saw it. I have work in a few hours, but I'll be able to check back after my shift throughout the day tomorrow. Thank you for your time.