I'm a first time GM. Picked up Dungeon World this weekend because I wanted to give GMing a go, and since I didn't have any baggage from other systems to get caught up in, it seemed like a good place to start.
The first session was relatively short; started with a battle with some goblins who were unusually aggressive—breaking into a tavern and attacking the patrons. It was a bit shaky at times, not knowing exactly where and how to push, but I dealt out some good punishments for bad rolls (the fighter tried to stomp in the head of one of the goblins, but ended up hitting the glass of mead he'd dropped on the floor at the beginning of the battle, getting shards of glass in his foot... though, I could have played that up more).
After the battle they spent some time drinking with the barkeep and blacksmith from the town; the thief is looking for her sister, and inquired about a halfling passing through town. The fighter is just looking for bigger and badder things to fight; something worthy. Which I'm pretty sure is going to result in him fighting himself at some point.
They've both been encouraged to travel north to find the things they're looking for; the fighter is happy to travel with the thief, but the thief is being stubborn and prefers to go alone... and I plan on thoroughly punishing her for travelling alone.
Now I've got a rough idea for the campaign front, but I'm struggling to wrangle it into front form. I've reread the chapter on fronts, read the section on fronts in the beginner's guide a couple of times, but I'm still having trouble getting my ideas broken into the constituent parts and organized so that they will propel the story forward.
The premise that has been set forth through the battle with the goblins, and the conversations that ensued, is that creatures have been growing increasingly agitated and violent. The idea that I'm rolling around is that an evil cleric has unearthed a magical orb which he plans to use to give physical manifestation to his deity. He believes that he'll be allowed to rule by his god's side if he completes the ritual. The ritual requires regular sacrifices of blood, and a side effect of the orb being activated is that it sends out pulses which drives beings with little intelligence to violence. Though, as the ritual wears on and the orb grows more powerful, beings of greater intelligence will become effected by the orb. Any blood that is spilled is physically drawn toward the orb as if by magnetism, even over great distances. Once a sufficient amount of blood has been absorbed by the orb, it will summon forth the god of violence and ritual sacrifice.
So, how would I break this down into a front? What are my dangers? If the cleric, the orb, and god of violence are each dangers, then what are the grim portents, etc.? It seems to me that many of them would overlap.
My idea is that the halfling that they heard about in the town they just left was a scholar from the library at the massive city they are headed towards. Scholars there had discovered a tome which alluded to the ritual which the cleric is performing, and they had set out across the land to find more information, to find the whereabouts of the orb, and to try to stop the cleric from succeeding. I intend for them to find the halfling dead as they journey north, discover the halfling's affiliation with the library, and get the idea to go to the library for more information. And if not, suffer the consequences of an increasingly violent world.
Things that might serve as grim portents:
Discovering the book at the library
Increasingly violent behavior from animals and monsters
Finding out that people are going missing (sacrifices for the cleric's ritual)
Discovering the blood is flowing in strange ways (uphill, etc., toward the orb)
People being driven mad by the orb and attacking each other
I'm not sure how to organize it and make use of it during play. And if this is my campaign front, what would serve as my adventure fronts to keep things moving forward and pull the in different directions?
Thanks for the input. I'm hoping after I get this idea formulated as a proper front, fronts will click for me.