TAG - Dungeon World (RP)

You know what? Instead of doing an Actual Play thing, I'm going to call it a Remembered Play because I'll be damned if I'm going to record and then type out what everyone is saying and/or doing.

What happened? We played Dungeon World at a local Meetup for the Toronto Area Gamers and had a good time doing it damn it.

The Party:
Human Thief named Sparrow
Human Cleric of the Divine Healer named Constantine
Human Ranger named Emery with Owl companion named Chirpy
Halfling Fighter named Olive with a Spear of Death and Destruction

Highlights:
* Bonds and having two people independently think that Emery was incapable of doing anything right then both of those same characters saying that they were there to protect Sparrow whose response was "Ha, suckers."

* Olive knocking Sparrow out of the way of an incoming Wraith, and letting the Wraith inhabit her body turning her into a Paladin of the Necromancers. With a special move to deal with whose memory was currently on top (Spoiler: Not Olive pretty much the rest of the game)

* Sparrow trying to keep the gate shut so that nothing bad comes down, and then a large zombie-like wolf comes down and licks her hands with a hot breath smelling of rotting flesh, blood aged for years in the darkness.

* Olive manages to get the Wolf to calm down enough to report on what's going on, but Sparrow is having none of that nonsense and sneak attacked the wolf while it was busy about to say something.

* Emery has been 6- every single Ranger like roll in the game. Then brings out the bow and arrow and 10+ the next four rolls and kills all the things.

* Constantine turning undead all the time, and catching Olive the new Paladin of the Necromancer and stunning her too.

* Finding a chalice that the goddess said would heal Olive, and finding a potion that they figured they might as well try since they knew that it was a colour favoured by the necromancers, they tried to give it to Olive who finally figured out that the other three were intruding on the domain. After one massive punch to Sparrow who had the chalice the potion sprayed everyone but Sparrow who threw the chalice up in the air and high tailed it out of there while the others fought over the chalice.

Previously Generated - NHL RPG - Kiss of the Ice Duck

There was a conversation on Twitter between RPG Writer, Editor and Generally all around Awesome Guy Clark Valentine, and amazing, talented, author Jocelyn Koehler about hockey. Well, it was kind of tangentially related to hockey. He had mentioned Leaf-Bruins and she said it sounded like a D&D creature.

Of course, knowing of my love of thing geeky and hockey colliding so I'm going to bring you some things you'll find in the NHL RPG: Kiss of the Ice Duck (title suggested by Jocelyn Koehler). I'm going to use Dungeon World for stats, mainly because that's the latest Fantasy Game I've played, and one that more people do play. If someone wants to do it for another fantasy game, please feel free and we'll post and or link it here.

Leaf Bruin

Group, Large, Animal, Aggressive
Armor 2 (Front)
Armor 3 (Rear)
D8 Damage
12 HP

The Leaf Bruin is a large bear creature with blue and black fur that is prone to violent outbursts when provoked, usually by poking at it with sharp objects. It tends to be overly aggressive at times, which has caused it to charge over things necessarily, but thankfully it has even greater armor on it's back end which prevents all kinds of damage.  They tend to fight in groups, but do better when they're outnumbered or when there is an equal number on both sides. As soon as there is any sort of advantage, the Leaf Bruin starts to get too fancy and is easily defeated.

They are found in the Eastern Lands, and are a rarer combination. The Leaf Bruin hasn't been seen by most people for almost a decade. Not enough to have people forget them, but long enough that people were used to not seeing them around.

Instinct: 

• To control their territory
• To run over enemies

Moves:

• I will run you down

Blues Kings

Solitary, Medium, Intelligent, Magical
Armor 5
D6 Damage
10 HP

The Blues Kings are a ruling class of musicians that run the city of Missornia in the West, a place filled with intrigue, magic and mystery. Each Blues King has their own style, and their own plots in the city though they are frequently not seen without their massive armor that they wear to prevent them from the many assassination plots that occur. Despite their individual agendas, they do have a leader named The Backes who has a particular vendetta against the Frigid North. He frequently leads his forces against them, and is willing to take on anyone who has any ties to them including other Blues Kings.

Instinct (Which Blues King has that Instinct):

• To be the one true Blues King (All)
• To punch all the foes of the north (The Backes)
• To destroy The Dry Island (Richards Carter)
• To reclaim the clone Doty (Doughty)

Moves:

• There is magic in the music
• The one true authority

Red Wing Duck

Horde, Small, Magical
D6 Damage
6 HP

The Blues Kings have their own flying force, made up of a magical mash of a wide variety of creatures until the Red Wing Duck was born. They fly in large numbers, and dive to attack their foes using their super heated wings to sear people, and burn down structures. They have pin point accuracy, and when a group of them attack it can be over in a wingbeat before they go off to their next target as demanded by the Blues King.

They're a big reason why Missournia hasn't been attached in recent memory. The Red Wing Ducks destroy any siege engines that get remotely close to the city. Any that manage to get past the Red Wing Ducks end up crushed against the Kron Wall.

Instincts:

• To burn the target
• To obey the Blues King

Moves:

• Searing wing beats

Penguin Islanders

Horde, Medium, Intelligent
D6 Damage
6 HP

To the east, there is a small group of islands that are home to a group of enterprising penguins. While sometimes they've been dropped by their neighbouring flyers, these free flying animals have been known to come off the island and defend the East from any threats from the West. The Penguin Islanders are larger, flightless birds who have grown opposable thumbs, and stand around six feet in height. They are excellent swimmers, and are recognized as premier divers among the Eastern Lands. They are incredible fisher folk who have rising to prominence because of the shrewd manoeuvring of their leader The Shero.

The Shero has been successful because he's been able to get people, and transform them into effective and efficient Penguins. Every year he manages to take outsiders and integrate them successfully into his forces. Recently he took an Oil Flame and integrated him into one of the best teams he has. If there is one flaw of the Penguin Islanders is that they have a weakness for flowers. If there are too many flowers, then the Penguin Islanders get distracted they tend to miss a lot of events.

Instincts:

• To dive in the water

Moves:

• Well co-ordinated attack

 

RPG Review Recess - Dungeon World (Proofs Copy)

I admit it. I will sometimes bow to peer pressure. That's why I backed Dungeon World when I had money, good times that. I backed it because a lot of people I know and respect backed it. I backed it because a lot of those people were touting this as an amazing thing that did amazing stuff. I figured, if they liked it there's a good chance I'll like it.

Now, I want to say right now that I don't dislike this game. I think it looks like a lot of fun. I just ... don't get it. I don't get why it's the AMAZINGLYAWESOMEELEVENTY! that people have said it was.

For those of you not running in the same peer circles as I am, let me explain, no that will take too long ... let me sum up. Apocalypse World is a game that takes a post-apocalyptic future. I haven't played it, or read it, but from what people say it's pretty awesome in that things rarely happen without consequence and there's a lot of character drama in a post apocalyptic game. It's not a pretty game, but the harshness is a feature and not a bug (and I agree with that). The basic mechanic is that you roll dice (I'm pretty sure that it's 2d6, but that's because I'm reading Dungeon World ... again this information is reverse engineered since I haven't read AW) and 10+ means you succeed, 7-9 means you succeed but with a cost, and 6- means you done fucked up good.

That's awesome. I love any mechanic with built in dramatic tension when it fits, and AW totally fits that mold.

Then, there is sex in the game. It's a part of the whole thing, but I'm not going to talk about that for AW. I'm going to talk about sex moves with Monsterhearts because I have read that game. Monsterhearts is that teen drama movie/show/book you've read and always wanted to play. The drama is high, people are fighting each other all the time, and sex is rampant in the game. My friend Mikael, who runs Hammercon (a great local con if you're in the Greater Toronto Area), complains that, "I can't get my characters to stop fucking each other." It works too, there's all these consequences when people have sex with each other in Monsterhearts including turning into their darker selves because of it. It's just fucking brilliant in the way it handles those kinds of relationships. Amazing.

This leads me to my kind of ambivalence about Dungeon World. I walked into it with that kind of set up, primed from Monsterhearts and with all this amazing commentary going on in the background. Then I read it and went, "I don't get it."

It's a fantasy game that uses the AW mechanic, which is fine. It's interesting that combat is such that if you get the 7-9 you'll face a counter attack. It's good at giving you a part with complex bonds between them as they go forth. It's got a fun old school feel at times? I mean it works, and it's all very neat and together but I don't really get a sense of why this game over any other fantasy game. The moves here don't really feel as necessary as they do in Monsterhearts, if that makes sense. In Monsterhearts you're dealing with a lot of hormones and a lot of bad things so codefying that makes sense. In Dungeon World it just kind feels a little like it's just there.

Again, I want to point out that I like this product so far. I'm just not particularly blown away by it. Maybe it's because my expectations are higher? People talking it up and I'm expecting more than I should? It talks about epic fantasy but I don't quite feel that the game supports that. To me it feels that it supports a more gritty fantasy game.

Would someone like to explain to me why this game is amazing? I really do want to understand.