Hello everyone! In a couple of weeks I will be GMing my first DW game. I have seen a lot of Dungeon Starters on the Internet. They really seem in the philosophy of the first session of DW. But, being a GM more used to prepare sessions in advance, I am not pretty sure of how do you use them. They are composed by questions, impressions, things and people and monsters. But, how do you manage all this information to create a session. For instance, regarding the questions, how are they answered? Do you ask them to the players? Do you ask all? Do you use all impressions? Do you draw maps in advance? Thanks a lot
Hello everyone!
Hello everyone!
I would refrain from doing anything in advance, besides maybe a starting in medias res scene. It’s your first session – you’ll be busy making characters and building the world, so you don’t need to know too much beforehand.
You ask the questions to the players, yes. This should organically build onto the questions you’ll ask about the world (about elves if someone plays one, about religion if there is a cleric or paladin, about the wilderness if there’s a nature oriented PC, etc.).
You don’t need answers to everything, but that really depends on the dungeon starter you’re using. Start as soon as you have enough to run that first scene. You can always ask more questions later. Actually, whenever you’re not sure about an aspect of the world, it’s okay to ask a player.
Use the impressions as you go, whenever you need inspiration for a description or a scene. Remember you don’t have to do anything besides following the characters and giving them stuff to do. If for some reason the character creation suggests different threats that the ones in the dungeon starter, go for it!
Say you’re planning to run a dungeon crawl in a lost temple, but it turns out that the thief is wanted by their guild and the fighter is also running from their evil duke. Make the first session about evading the pursuers on the way to the temple. Maybe they’ve even joined forces? You can always dungeon crawl next time, and you’ll have interesting villains to drop onto the party when you need a hard move!
I would refrain from doing anything in advance, besides maybe a starting in medias res scene. It’s your first session – you’ll be busy making characters and building the world, so you don’t need to know too much beforehand.
You ask the questions to the players, yes. This should organically build onto the questions you’ll ask about the world (about elves if someone plays one, about religion if there is a cleric or paladin, about the wilderness if there’s a nature oriented PC, etc.).
You don’t need answers to everything, but that really depends on the dungeon starter you’re using. Start as soon as you have enough to run that first scene. You can always ask more questions later. Actually, whenever you’re not sure about an aspect of the world, it’s okay to ask a player.
Use the impressions as you go, whenever you need inspiration for a description or a scene. Remember you don’t have to do anything besides following the characters and giving them stuff to do. If for some reason the character creation suggests different threats that the ones in the dungeon starter, go for it!
Say you’re planning to run a dungeon crawl in a lost temple, but it turns out that the thief is wanted by their guild and the fighter is also running from their evil duke. Make the first session about evading the pursuers on the way to the temple. Maybe they’ve even joined forces? You can always dungeon crawl next time, and you’ll have interesting villains to drop onto the party when you need a hard move!
I think the answer probably depends on how many sessions you plan on running. If your game is going to be an ongoing affair, I think Eric Nieudan’s advice is very good. If it’s a fairly short campaign (a one-shot or a small handful of sessions), it’s ok to plan things out a bit more in order to get the action going and to ensure you land on a satisfying conclusion to the story. But even then, you should keep things fairly loose and be willing to use the questions in the starter to give the players a chance to personalize the adventure a little bit. So, for example, in my Asylum City starter that just came out in Codex (shameless plug) we know there is a group of weird entities called the Knights Panoptic who are watching over the city, but we don’t really know what their motivations are. The questions in the starter give the players a chance to create some rumors around the Knights Panoptic, and as the GM, you can push on the players a little bit to see if those rumors are why the players have traveled to the city in the first place.
When I want to put a heavier frame on things (and I often do, considering how The Gauntlet organizes games into short bursts of sessions with rotating players) I usually tell the party an ostensible reason why they are traveling to X dungeon or why they are on Y quest. But I use my questions (either from a starter or some of my own) to drill down on why each character is personally invested in that quest.
I think the answer probably depends on how many sessions you plan on running. If your game is going to be an ongoing affair, I think Eric Nieudan’s advice is very good. If it’s a fairly short campaign (a one-shot or a small handful of sessions), it’s ok to plan things out a bit more in order to get the action going and to ensure you land on a satisfying conclusion to the story. But even then, you should keep things fairly loose and be willing to use the questions in the starter to give the players a chance to personalize the adventure a little bit. So, for example, in my Asylum City starter that just came out in Codex (shameless plug) we know there is a group of weird entities called the Knights Panoptic who are watching over the city, but we don’t really know what their motivations are. The questions in the starter give the players a chance to create some rumors around the Knights Panoptic, and as the GM, you can push on the players a little bit to see if those rumors are why the players have traveled to the city in the first place.
When I want to put a heavier frame on things (and I often do, considering how The Gauntlet organizes games into short bursts of sessions with rotating players) I usually tell the party an ostensible reason why they are traveling to X dungeon or why they are on Y quest. But I use my questions (either from a starter or some of my own) to drill down on why each character is personally invested in that quest.
Agreed. The most useful prep for this type of game is to thoroughly know the rules so that you can answer questions on the fly. You might also think about how you will introduce the game to the players and how you will orient them to the mechanics. In a first session, I also like to do a “fiction first” discussion to talk about fictional positioning and other game concepts that are very important for indie games.
I have done games where I impose a few general concepts about the world (e.g., there are non-human races, a continent wide war has laid waste to most of civilization, elves hate other races, gods can manifest in the world), and I have run games where I don’t impose any concepts and just allow the world to evolve organically from the conversation. Both work well depending on how your players take to world-building.
Agreed. The most useful prep for this type of game is to thoroughly know the rules so that you can answer questions on the fly. You might also think about how you will introduce the game to the players and how you will orient them to the mechanics. In a first session, I also like to do a “fiction first” discussion to talk about fictional positioning and other game concepts that are very important for indie games.
I have done games where I impose a few general concepts about the world (e.g., there are non-human races, a continent wide war has laid waste to most of civilization, elves hate other races, gods can manifest in the world), and I have run games where I don’t impose any concepts and just allow the world to evolve organically from the conversation. Both work well depending on how your players take to world-building.
I do not always get to them, but i like to have a couple questions for each player (it helps to know who they are ahead of time). Sometimes these are personal flavor questions like “what does your magic look like?” or “tell me about your musical instrument” but also they can be about the setting and come from those starters like “what rumors have you heard about the cult of kar-suet?”
It helps to be familiar with the impressions whenever the players turn to you to see whats happening or describe the scene. They should include a lot of senses “touch, taste, smell…” so that a player can pick up on a detail and ask about it.
I do not always get to them, but i like to have a couple questions for each player (it helps to know who they are ahead of time). Sometimes these are personal flavor questions like “what does your magic look like?” or “tell me about your musical instrument” but also they can be about the setting and come from those starters like “what rumors have you heard about the cult of kar-suet?”
It helps to be familiar with the impressions whenever the players turn to you to see whats happening or describe the scene. They should include a lot of senses “touch, taste, smell…” so that a player can pick up on a detail and ask about it.
Thanks a lot for your responses. The thing is that I think maybe I am not grasping the whole idea of the starting session. Besides, character creation and a little of world building I wanted to put them into some dungeon crawling. I have read several Dungeon Starters and in all the cases I have the impression that they are usually not focused on dungeon crawling or even they create a situation before the dungeon crawling begins. My idea would be, not a one-shot but a relatively short campaign with a limited scale.
Thanks a lot for your responses. The thing is that I think maybe I am not grasping the whole idea of the starting session. Besides, character creation and a little of world building I wanted to put them into some dungeon crawling. I have read several Dungeon Starters and in all the cases I have the impression that they are usually not focused on dungeon crawling or even they create a situation before the dungeon crawling begins. My idea would be, not a one-shot but a relatively short campaign with a limited scale.
I think you should always start the adventure, if not each session in the middle of a fight/conflict, often in a dungeon. there might be clues there or this might be a brief escapade before the party returns to the world to discover that the plot is already happening around them. Its perfectly fine to ask a player about the larger world even when their character is making camp down in a cave or fighting pirates on a ship in the ocean.
I think you should always start the adventure, if not each session in the middle of a fight/conflict, often in a dungeon. there might be clues there or this might be a brief escapade before the party returns to the world to discover that the plot is already happening around them. Its perfectly fine to ask a player about the larger world even when their character is making camp down in a cave or fighting pirates on a ship in the ocean.
from those “bigger world” questions you may discover why they or in that cave or why they need to hurry back to the city.
from those “bigger world” questions you may discover why they or in that cave or why they need to hurry back to the city.
I see… I confess I feel a little terrified. I am afraid of not having enough ideas to move the story forward during the session or creating an incoherent story. I do not like the feeling of random dungeons and I prefer to have a theme and some story behind what is happening. Perhaps the best way to learn is to try. But at the same time, the whole spirit of Dungeon World is so wonderful…
I see… I confess I feel a little terrified. I am afraid of not having enough ideas to move the story forward during the session or creating an incoherent story. I do not like the feeling of random dungeons and I prefer to have a theme and some story behind what is happening. Perhaps the best way to learn is to try. But at the same time, the whole spirit of Dungeon World is so wonderful…
ive done it a few times and its still scary. go ahead and draw a map, just leave most of it blank. also read more then one starter so you can mix a match ideas as they seem to fit. ask the players what they think should happen and watch one of the conan movies every week (pro tip)
ive done it a few times and its still scary. go ahead and draw a map, just leave most of it blank. also read more then one starter so you can mix a match ideas as they seem to fit. ask the players what they think should happen and watch one of the conan movies every week (pro tip)
Alberto Martin del Campo Sola The game does not break if you want to plan things in a more traditional manner. Dungeon World can handle that kind of play, too. Hell, I run OSR modules in Dungeon World all the time.
Alberto Martin del Campo Sola The game does not break if you want to plan things in a more traditional manner. Dungeon World can handle that kind of play, too. Hell, I run OSR modules in Dungeon World all the time.
Thanks all. Well I think I will finally design my own Dungeon Starter. I know it will be a hybrid between clasic prep and real Dungeon Starters, but I think it will be ok for my first time.
Thanks all. Well I think I will finally design my own Dungeon Starter. I know it will be a hybrid between clasic prep and real Dungeon Starters, but I think it will be ok for my first time.
“Do it yourself” is part of the game =) Let us know how it goes!
“Do it yourself” is part of the game =) Let us know how it goes!