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Post by guitarspider on Dec 14, 2013 12:11:35 GMT -8
A few weeks ago I started running a Dungeon World campaign for a new group. Three players, only one has played DW before, one is completely new to roleplaying, all in all we're two men and two women, which I rather enjoy. And maybe someone enjoys reading this as well, even though it's mostly to help my memory and a little bit to promote the Planarch Codex, which is pure awesome. I've always wanted to run something Planescape-like, because there is such variety and so much possibility for strange, creative stuff in there. So I took this opportunity and am using the Planarch Codex by Jonathan Walton. It's great and I'd recommend it to everyone who is even remotely interested. There's a free guide on running first sessions, which is excellent, and a free adventure module „Calvino Cycle, or if on a wintry plane a freebooter“, which is hands down the most inspiring adventure module I've ever read. The PlC twist on Sigil is Dis, a city devouring other planes with everlasting hunger and mercilessness. It is ruled by the Sultana, the mother of Dis, who tries to ease the suffering her child causes by offering the planar refugees a new home in Dis. PlC also introduces Heritage Moves. You invoke your right of blood or tradition, roll for 1-3 hold and spend those hold during the game to trigger your Heritage Move, which just happens, no roll. Because the players are mostly new to DW as a whole, we're using race moves plus one heritage move instead of 2-3 Heritage Moves replacing race moves. To maintain strangeness, I'm randomly generating planes/plane ideas with the Stars Without Number planet generation rules, somewhat adapted, and I'm using the Oracles of Vincent Baker's In A Wicked Age for additional NPC ideas. The PCsLirke. A female human Druid from the great forests, able to grow holding vines from the ground. Nkosi the Bonebreaker. A female human Barbarian, sporting tatoos with oracle magic, able to guide her in doubt. Bartleby of Dunalban, son of Baldwin. A male halfling and former prince, able to use his natural authority to make people do his bidding. His family used to rule with a wollen but iron foot over lots of humans, so he's used to ordering them around... except now he's a nobody in a slum with lots of them. All three characters come from the same plane, which was completely swallowed up by Dis. They're now freebooters trying to make a living and have taken up residence in the Ditchwater Slums of Dis.
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Post by guitarspider on Dec 14, 2013 12:37:20 GMT -8
First Session (after chargen)
The players rolled for the last job they did and how they did. Turns out they messed up. The were tasked by a monk to exchange money for a holy statue of Kinnareth, plundered by a planar pirate Captain Firebeard. They did get the statue, but decided they had dropped it, and the statue had broken apart, revealing papers written in code. The rendevous with the monk still two days off, they try to replace the statue, by finding another one where the first came from. While talking about this, they frequent the Slum Slug, a local tavern infamous for its reptilian barman and its stock of drugs, mostly for its greenslugs. Don't ask which plane those came from. It's better that way.
They find Firebeard, drinking with his officers in a tavern near the docks. Firebeard offers to tell them where he got the statue in exchange for a job. He wants them to hunt down a traitor officer and bring back one of his rings. He obviously can't do it himself, because he's very, very busy right now („cheers guys!“). The group doesn't have enough money to pay for the passage across the Sea of Embers, but convinces a ferry captain to take them by sending a rat plague to the ship of a competitor after an attempt to root his ship to the ground with vines fails to the fire of the Sea of Embers.
edit: also, the papers written in code are cracked and it turns out someone is apparently trying to take over some parishes of Dis... which would explain why the monk is so eager to have his statue back. And is possibly a great opportunity for our adventurers to curry some favor with the elites of the city.
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Post by guitarspider on Dec 14, 2013 13:17:14 GMT -8
Second Session
The Druid player had to sit this one out. The ferry ride ends on a small island in the middle of the Sea of Embers, where the gate to Melania is situated. Dunstan, Firebeard's former officer, is said to hide there. As they step out of the portal, apparently the door of a run-down former tavern, they are accosted by guards and lead to the city's lord, squire Adil. As they approach his tower, they see several bodies haging from the parapets. They are then made to wait for a few hours in a small ante-chamber, which makes Nkosi pace around the room impatiently and Bartleby very cross indeed. While they are in the room, Nkosi looks out of the window and inspects the bodies above her more closely, noticing that they are wearing the livery of a merchant guild of Dis. Bartleby's mood does not improve when Nkosi tells him to come and have a look, when he clearly can't even reach the freaking windowsill.
Finally they are led into Adils chamber. They are commanded to bow, which they refuse. Adil, miffed, leaves the talking to his three advisors, one of which the group recognize as Dunstan. Turns out Dis has swallowed the slums of Melania whole just a few days ago and Adil and his men have their hands full trying to keep people in the city under their thumb. They use dogs to hunt down and kill anyone trying to flee. Inhabitants of Dis take the blame.
Bartleby makes clear he's got ample experience with the suppression of pesky humans, and the group is allowed stay alive under the condition, that they advise on how Adil keep control. The next day, they travel with Dunstan to a monastic site a few hours outside Melania, where a new city is supposed to be built. The advise thing becomes an irrelevant side quest as they half blackmail half talk Dunstan into a deal.
Turns out Firebeard doesn't actually do any of the pirate work himself, he sends people into a planar transporter in form of a bottle ship. He keeps up his rule by cruelly murdering anyone who even thinks of mutiny. Dunstan used to command that ship, but didn't want to play that game any more. The ring he stole isn't very valuable, but it allows Firebeard to make his beard burn with magical fire, so it has great sentimental value. Dunstan also gives them the coordinates of the statue robbery and tells them where they find the ship. In exchange, the group will pretend they actually killed him.
The group returns to Dis, but isn't clear on how to proceed yet. They clearly need the ship to quickly go where they need to. Should they convince the crew to mutiny, steal the ship or just kill Firebeard and take it?
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Post by guitarspider on Jan 24, 2014 13:22:34 GMT -8
Third SessionThird session seems like a good point to talk a bit more about how the game plays compared to standard Dungeon World. Particularly the heritage moves. As the group approaches the base of Firebeard, the Rusty Anchor, Bartleby decides he's going to go in alone and scout a bit. He manages to locate the secret pirate base in the cellar, guarded by an iron door adorned with runes, without handle or other apparent way to open it. He tries to push and is sucked into the door, where he finds himself in a room with solid stone walls everywhere and the following monster in the corner: The other two also sneaked into the cellar, but did not touch the rune-door. They figured out how to get past it with the help of Nkosi's oracle heritage move. She smears blood onto her arm, her oracles show blood-red coins, they find the coins behind a removeable brick in the wall and (still being weary of touching the door) start throwing them against certain runes on the door, opening the passage bit by bit. The heritage move added a lot to the scene. In general, the heritage moves ensured that the characters were more unique compared to standard DW right from the start, even though it's just one additional move. It feels like the players have more ownership of the characters right away. Even the one non-standard move also goes a long way in "fixing" the cooky-cutter nature of the standard DW characters (standard in Planarch Codex are 2-3). DW characters are supposed to be cooky-cutter fantasy tropes, so that's not a problem as such, but Planarch Codex/Planescape needs more individuality and heritage moves are perfect for that. In the future I will also consider using heritage moves in standard DW, it's a really cool way to have the players tell me what they really want to do in the game. While Bartleby feels desperately lonely and figures out that the poet was thrown into the door by Firebeard and will let him out if he lauds his poetry enough and promises to avenge the poet, the pirate crew has realized something is going on and enters the cellar. There's a bit of headsmacking, but Lirke and Nkosi can escape into the pirate base, which the crew can't enter without their coins. On the other side they meet Bartleby, with some particularly cool roleplaying as Bartleby is insanely happy to not be alone anymore but tries to restrain himself from falling into their arms and sobbing. They ambush Firebeard, manage to beat him unconscious, throw him into the door, steal the bottle-ship and promise the crew freedom from tyranny if they are going to play taxi for a bit and carry them to the origing of the statue. The Rusty Anchor as a whole was drawn up as a "Dungeon as Monster", a Planarch Codex idea that has the GM jot down threats (as abstract as "knives in the dark" or as concrete as "pissed off pirates") and roll for their distribution as the group moves along the dungeon. I really like how that works, it enables the GM to turn everything into a dungeon and it keeps the players (as well as the GM ) on edge. It may seem odd, as dungeon construction is in some ways THE thing in D&D-style games, but the fact that nobody at the table really knows what the next room is actually going to be like (although as a GM I obviously have ideas swirling around in my head before I roll) created a very cool sense of excitement for me. I felt like I was discovering the dungeon along with the players in a way, so I felt it was easier for me to pick things the players would be excited about. Maybe that is a weird way to describe it, but that's the best I can do. What can I say, it's cool!
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