Last week, the DM of my regular D&D (4e) session bowed out due to work. Unwilling to give up my regular night of nerd bro-hood, I volunteered to run a one-shot game with a new game I'd bought: Dungeon World.
For those not familiar with Dungeon World, here's a quick summary:
- Actions are determined by rolling 2d6 instead of d20s, with success coming from 10+, 7-9 being partial successes, and 6 and below being a failure. The twist is that failures are rewarded with XP, and action and story is built off of DM responses to said failures.
- Rolls are only made for actions that have consequences attached to them.
- Building characters, party backstory, and the game world is a collaborative and improvisational exercise between the DM and players.
It also proved perfect for quickly setting up an in-person game on the fly.
We created characters and bonds over dinner; the three PCs decided that one of them, a ranger named Aranador, was the prince of a small kingdom sent through these lands to achieve manhood. With him was a barbarian (named Hagard) from the far lands who owed a life debt to the king, and a druid (Elana) from the Whispering Planes that served as the ranger's tutor.
Using my leading questions I wanted to start the action in a dangerous place; the first suggestion was in a dungeon. No. Actually, it was a nightclub in a metropolitan city known as Dungeon. Mid-fight with the son of a powerful mob boss in the city who the ranger had just insulted.
The son and his henchmen were quickly dispatched, with the ranger gutting the mob princeling and the barbarian taking out three henchmen largely using his fists and the wooden bar. The druid was no slouch, turning into a cheetah to run down one who was going for help.
When they slipped out the back to evade the city guards, a thief from the rival gang meet them and offered to take them to shelter; they accepted and were led down into the sewers. There, the rival boss thanked them for removing a foe, and offering to give them protection in exchange for 200 gold. Clearly not having the funds available, he would gladly allow them to work off the debt using small tasks -- but the party refused.
Their attempts to sneak out of the sewers brought the town night watch down upon them, let by an inhuman wraith. The chase through the sewers led to the eventual defeat of several hounds sent to track them down and a madcap attempt to seal the sewer grate they exited from by throwing a burning hobo barrel at their pursuers.
We ended with a fight in a tower to open one of the main gates. The druid flew through the top as an eagle, shifting into an elephant in mid-flight in an attempt to overpower the watchmen, but failed; pinned to the wall by a thrown spear, he struggled as the barbarian and ranger forced their way up the stairs.
They succeeded, barely, with the barbarian forcing closed the gate just in time. Our party fled into the night badly wounded, most at 1hp, and with the druid clutching an ear so badly ruined that he would be disfigured and take a an ongoing negative to any rolls to hear things.
The Recap:
Much fun was had by all.And I'm surprised to say that all of the action was completely improv. As a DM experienced with D&D 3.5e and 4e, I used to write stories, draw maps, and plan adventures. The flow was far more natural, satisfying, and fun on my end.
For my players used to D&D, the hardest thing was moving from a need to roll for all actions to fully describing all actions. Theatre of the mind is tough, but by the end we were all getting a hang of it.
I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of this game. Maybe the next time I DM ...
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