Age of Worms

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Age of Worms
« on: February 01, 2012, 03:20:54 PM »
I know there are some folks here who remember the old adventure path that Piazo put out in Dungeon a while back. I've decided to hack it to run in Dungeon World. I've got the first adventure ready to roll but I'm going to wait till I have playtested it before I release it into the wilds. 

I'm planning on running a game of it over skype either this week or next and I've already got two players interested. I'm going to be running it pretty RaR from the basic PDF but I'll entertain other classes if you can point me to them. 

Reply here, send me a message or email me at josh dot mannon on google if your interested in playing. 

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2012, 09:42:48 PM »
Just finished my first playtest of Whispering Cairn with a new group down at my local game store. I had two players who had expressed interest on the local Meetup group and while I was setting up and waiting on them I noticed that there was a woman I recognized from D&D Encounters wandering around while her husband was battling with minis so I invited her to join in. Once everyone was there I did a quick rundown of the rules (I need to get better at that) and passed around the playbooks. 

The party ended up consisting of Hawke the Fighter, Wesley the Cleric, and Shank the Thief. It seemed like a pretty well rounded group though no one took any of the newer classes. Character creation took barely any time at all and we were off. 

I wrote out some specific questions for the players to answer about their characters and I took their answers for opportunities on down the road and some managed to work in during the first session. I think I need to rework the questions I ask the group and I need to add a few more individual questions but over all they worked out well, filled in a bit of backstory. 

While they were creating characters and answering questions, I drew a picture of the opening to the cairn and a pair of evil looking eyes peering out. When they were done, I laid the paper out and told them that as the approached the cairn they could see the eyes and hear growling coming from the cave. I hit them all with, "What do you do?" in turn and they all came back with drawing weapons and waiting as each failure to act brought on more wolves, getting surrounded and eventually attacked. I took my time and announced a lot of future badness hoping I wouldn't have to break the stalemate but eventually I did. 

The wolf attack almost ended it all. I was using variable damage but it hardly mattered. Thinking back on it I should have really should have used my wolves other moves more, tripping the PCs up or dragging them off but I did decide to announce some future badness by having one of the wolves run off howling to the sound of other wolves off in the distance. 

The party was pretty darn near dead (I need to re-examine the wolves and see if they really should have been as dangerous and tenacious as they were) so the retreated to an abandoned shack nearby to make camp. Hawke spent the evening skinning the wolves and prepping their pelts. Wesley handed out some healing before they went down for the night and all but Hawke were at full health the next morning. 

They approached the cave more cautiously the next day but there were no wolves to greet them only the things they left behind. Wesley found himself a shield and a large, blue, crystal lantern in the wolves den. When they decided to light it, light also appeared far down the corridor. 

They investigated the light and found a burial chamber. Within the chamber were five other lanterns of different colors on long chains. The sarcophagus in the center held both the hints they needed to solve the puzzle of the room as well as a trap, both of which they managed to roll to find out. 

They didn't bite on some of the clues but rather decided to investigate the strange death of a boy who's body they discovered in the chamber. Their investigation lead them to climb one of the chains and discover a hidden passageway with a wind trap that through poor Wesley to the floor of the chamber below. But triggering the trap did convince them that they needed to solve the puzzle before they went on. They finally made the connection between two of the clues and started rotating the sarcophagus which led to an elevator of sorts showing up. 

The elevator took them to a lower level where most of the level was under water. Ever brave Wesley dove in to see what he could see while the other two checked the body they had found at the edge of the water. While Wesley was trying to return with some loot he had found he was attacked by a vengeful ghost that once belonged in the body his party mates were looting. Wesley managed to break off the attack and get some air but the ghost was right on him. 

Shank and Hawke spent a little while being fairly ineffective but finally landed a blow getting the ghost off of Wesley. Once Wesley was free he destroyed the ghost with one blow of his mighty mace. 

With the ghost vanquished the party searched the rest of the submerged chambers and found the last missing lantern. With that they returned and lit it a pillar of air lifted them into the trapped hallway where they could clearly tell that the trap was disarmed. And thats where we left it. 

I forgot to do the end of session move but I'll try and do it first thing next game. 

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2012, 11:27:07 PM »
Sounds like a great game ... especially the narrow escape with the wolves.  Having just seen the movie The Grey I have new appreciation for how "mundane" animals can be used as threats.

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2012, 11:38:44 PM »
Did you use the new Monster rules for the wolves? How did you find the process of making them? How did they turn out?

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2012, 10:30:15 AM »
@Archangel I did use the new rules for monster creation and added in random Damage rolls. The monsters they ran into were very tough for them to deal with. After the adventure I had some thoughts on how I can mod them down a bit and still fit with the fiction. I'll be using the moded monsters in the game on Saturday and if they fit better they will be going in the final adventure.

*

noofy

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Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2012, 04:21:36 PM »
Nice AP :) Welcome to the Guild! Sounds like you may have a few converts for next week as an alternative to encounters! I especially like the traps and puzzles! How did you handle that within the 'conversation'. The reason I ask is that I find this PC endeavour (and always have) the most disjointed narrative element to our story games. What sort of questions or moves did you use as you introduced the Traps / Puzzles? Did the player's spout lore or discern realities rolls to figure the trap create any fictional consequences? Did Shank shine as the thief?

Did you use the map that came with the adventure path from Paizo? Was there enough information to go on in the adventure text from Dungeon? Did you just play straight from the module, or have you developed a front and some dangers with an associated impending doom?

With the monsters, did you come up with any cool moves? Or use the ones suggested for Wolves and Ghosts in the rules?

What about xp? Which guideline were you using? Did anyone level up?

Thanks for posting! Can't wait to hear more.

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2012, 05:13:20 PM »
How did you handle that within the 'conversation'. The reason I ask is that I find this PC endeavour (and always have) the most disjointed narrative element to our story games. What sort of questions or moves did you use as you introduced the Traps / Puzzles? Did the player's spout lore or discern realities rolls to figure the trap create any fictional consequences? Did Shank shine as the thief?

There were quite a few Discern Reality rolls and Shank did manage to help out a lot, mostly with his Trap Expert as well as some good Discern Realities. Wesley was on the ball with trying to Spout Lore about important elements but failed dismally every time. I also added some physical feedback as they set the burial chamber to rights to let them know they were on the right track. I'll have to include that as a side note. 

Did you use the map that came with the adventure path from Paizo? 

No I drew up a map on the spot. I used some of the features of the Paizo map, such as the alcoves that told the story of the battle and creation of the rod, but I gave the passageway in a new look. I made it spiral down and in ending in the burial chamber. It looked a lot like an upside down, round pyramid. I simplified the Hall of the Builders by making it three simple rooms and replaced all of the encounters down there with a flooded hall and the vengeful ghost of the Seeker. The Upper Tomb they haven't gotten to yet but I left it mostly the same. 

Was there enough information to go on in the adventure text from Dungeon? Did you just play straight from the module, or have you developed a front and some dangers with an associated impending doom?

I turned the Wind Dukes into their own Front. The Four Winds are guiding people into the Tomb to help raise their master from the dead. The Dead Wind Duke isn't as dead as he appears and is commanding the Four Winds from his phylactery. He senses the rising evil of Kyuss and is determined to stop him. I'm already planning on building from that and making some changes to the path to really make it it's own thing. 

With the monsters, did you come up with any cool moves? Or use the ones suggested for Wolves and Ghosts in the rules?

I didn't even look for Wolves or Ghosts in the rules. The setting they presented was subterainian so I assumed it wouldn't have what I needed. 

What about xp? Which guideline were you using? Did anyone level up?

I'm using the XP rules from the book but I'm looking at making some changes. I'm going to give them XP for bringing up or acting on a Bond. To be completely honest I forgot to do the end of session move so no one got XP. It will be the first thing we do next week. 

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2012, 10:16:11 PM »
Posting here during the play test of Age of Worms.  Interested in further playtests.
Played a Thief and Ranger.

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2012, 11:13:13 AM »
You can count me in for the next playtest as well if there's room -

Brother Bendito Seas, Supplicant of Salvador, human cleric

I'll post some commentary on the game later today.

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2012, 12:28:40 PM »
Last night's game ran a bit smoother than the tuesday game. I think there are two good reasons for that. First, having played the adventure before, I felt more comfortable with it. Second, I knew where the adventure had bogged down last time and I made some changes. All in all I'm pretty happy with how both games went and I only have a few more changes I want to make to the opening dungeon before it is ready to go.

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2012, 09:00:32 AM »
The original idea has grown far beyond what I planned to do and I've decided to go ahead and publish not only these adventures but a whole cycle of adventures for Dungeon World. I talk a bit about it over on my <a href="http://atthetablegames.com/?p=160">blog</a> if you want to know more and I'll be releasing more information about the first book, Within the Devil's Reach, through out the month!

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #11 on: February 29, 2012, 09:23:59 PM »
WOW. Until reading this thread, I didn't realize that you, the guy on S-G who was working on re-making all the AoW adventures for DW, and the Devil's Reach guy were THE SAME GUY. MIND. BLOWN. :) Enjoy your $75.

Re: Age of Worms
« Reply #12 on: February 29, 2012, 09:40:02 PM »
There are going to be a lot of big changes to the middle of the campaign and nothing is a copy in any of the adventures though the start and the end do focus on a lot of the same areas. I think you will enjoy the alterations as much as the homages.