Hi all, name's Plume. I'm a DM.
Dungeon World is a simple system that takes no time at all to learn. There is an online Wiki that has all the information you'll need to get started.
This is a revenge campaign against a party of 5 powerful, well-equipped, high-level adventurers that destroyed your village, stole your loot, killed your guardian beasts, and scattered your tribe to the four winds.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1) Hunt down the adventurers.
2) Kill them slow
3) Take your tribal treasures back
4) Rebuild, and go on a raiding spree with the adventurers' sweet loot
This is a Monstrous Campaign but out of character, as a DM, I will not be allowing PvP or physical backstabbing. Tricks, deceit, and pranks between party members are OK.
When the party is fully formed, the majority race for players will determine what the majority race of the tribe you were part of was, which will also determine your starting environment to a certain degree. I highly encourage a party comprised mostly of the same race or category, but I won't force anyone. Here are your race options:
Bugbear
Gnoll
Hobgoblin
Orc
Lizardman
Troglodyte
Goblin
Kobold
Ratkin
Ettin
Ogre
Troll
Giant
Minotaur
Were-:
bear, boar, fox, snake, spider, panther, tiger, or wolf.
No Drow. They don't play well with others. No Undead characters either. They are just motivated by hunger.
Character creation:
Look over the character classes and choose one that interests you. To start with, everyone chooses a different class; there aren’t two wizards. If two people want the same class, talk it over like adults and compromise.
In Dungeon World, your race grants you a unique Move that is determined by your class. Since the classes on the wiki are all Adventurer Races and not Monstrous Races, we will be using a Dungeon World Supplement called Number Appearing (Link) for racial moves. Ask me if you have any specific questions.
Choose your character’s name from the list.
Your look is your physical appearance. Choose one item from each list. Since this is an online campaign and we have the internet as a resource, I recommend finding an online reference picture. It's not mandatory to do so, however.
Assign these scores to your stats: 16, 15, 13, 12, 9, 8. Start by looking over the basic moves and the starting moves for your class. Pick out the move that interests you the most: something you’ll be doing a lot, or something that you excel at. Put a 16 in the stat for that move. Look over the list again and pick out the next most important move to your character, maybe something that supports your first choice. Put your 15 in the stat for that move. Repeat this process for your remaining scores: 13, 12, 9, 8.
Next you need to figure out the modifiers for your stats. The modifiers are what you use when a move says +DEX or +CHA. If you’re using the standard character sheets the modifiers are already listed with each score.
Score Modifier
1–3 -3
4–5 -2
6–8 -1
9–12 0
13–15 +1
16–17 +2
18 +3
Your maximum HP is equal to your class’s base HP+Constitution score. You start with your maximum HP.
The front side of each character sheet lists the starting moves. Some classes, like the fighter, have choices to make as part of one of their moves. Make these choices now. The wizard will need to choose spells for their spellbook. Both the cleric and the wizard will need to choose which spells they have prepared to start with.
Your alignment is a few words that describe your character’s moral outlook. Each class may only start with certain alignments. Choose your alignment—in play, it’ll give your character certain actions that can earn you additional XP.
Each class has choices to make for starting gear. Keep your load in mind—it limits how much you can easily carry. Make sure to total up your armor and note it on your character sheet.
Now that you know who your character is, it’s time to introduce them to everyone else. Wait until everyone’s finished choosing their name. Then go around the table; when it’s your turn, share your look, class and anything else pertinent about your character. You can share your alignment now or keep it a secret if you prefer.
This is also the time for the GM to ask questions. The GM’s questions should help establish the relationships between characters (“What do you think about that?”) and draw the group into the adventure (“Does that mean you’ve met Grundloch before?”). The GM should listen to everything in the description and ask about anything that stands out. Establish where they’re from, who they are, how they came together, or anything else that seems relevant or interesting.
Once everyone has described their characters you can choose your bonds. You must fill in one bond but it’s in your best interest to fill in more. For each blank fill in the name of one character. You can use the same character for more than one statement.
Take some time to discuss the bonds and let the GM ask questions about them as they come up. You’ll want to go back and forth and make sure everyone is happy and comfortable with how the bonds have come out. Leave space to discover what each one might mean in play, too: don’t pre-determine everything at the start. Once everyone’s filled in their bonds read them out to the group. When a move has you roll+Bond you’ll count the number of bonds you have with the character in question and add that to the roll.
Definitely dotting.
I would like to play. I have played Dungeon World IRL, but have never tried PBP before. What to do ? :)
I would like to play. I have played Dungeon World IRL, but have never tried PBP before. What to do ? :)
Create a forum alias by going to your account settings. Name the forum alias the name you want your character to be, and then create a profile page for it using the website's system. It's all very simple.
Once you've created the profile page, you can fill it in with information that you would normally add to your physical character sheet. Make sure that when you make a post, you select the correct alias to make sure the right one is visible.
Got it! I will do that when we have formed a party and chosen characters.
Thank you!
Sure thing. What race and class were you leaning toward?
Same question to you, Yorick
Hey! I'm interested! I was thinking minotaur barbarian. Keeping it simple and monstrous :)
May have jumped the gun and picked a name and image. Happy to change it though if I need to pick something else!
Nah, you're good, Willam! Nobody had claimed the barbarian yet, so the class is yours. Good to start the party out with some real front-line muscle.
I'm interested. How about a lizardfolk druid? Shifting into various swamp creatures sounds appealing. And slimy.
I've done LOTS of PbP on here, and am GM'ing a ROW game. I haven't played DW yet..just been doing tons of reading and listening to the Discern Realities podcast. :D
I'm also pretty race-agnostic. Would a group of minotaurs be a...herd?
The neat thing about Dungeon World is that it encourages me as the DM to ask a lot of questions to determine worldbuilding.
It would fall to the Minotaur players to determine if they call groups of Minotaurs herds. Maybe they think that associating the Minotaur race with common cattle is offensive. Maybe Minotaurs don't form communities at all. Maybe they form the LARGEST communities of all monstrous races. If you pick a Minotaur, you get a say in Minotaur lore.
The world is a blank canvas, we're all going to be filling it in together.
Lizardfolk druid also sounds sweet. Druids are my personal favorite class, and Lizardfolk are my personal favorite race, so I would never say no to a lizardfolk druid! Haha!
Aye, that's a thing I like about DW as well--homebrewed games on Paizo tend to due due to the complexity of worldbuilding and Pathfinder rules, but DW is suited to keep the story and conversation(s) going.
Minotauers sound great. I think it would be fun to entertain the idea of us being stereotypical fantasy baddies in some way. Maybe We are all employed by this evil Dragon/Cultist/Lich, working his dungeon.
I am thinking of a minotaur character. His name is Stybar Highhorns (called Halfhorns by colleagues as he is born with one horn shorter than the other) He is the son of legendary Maze designer and Dungeon Architect Jarlinson Highhorns, but as his first job was to secure the dungeon/village/tribe against these adventures he failed horribly. So now he is I leaving the comfort of the office to seek redemption. A play-it-by-the-book, kind of guy trying to escape the expectations of being the son of a legend.
I dunno about class. Theif for the sake of traps and so on or maybe a wizard because he is kind of a nerd.
Let me know what you think.
If we go with the dungeon idea. There is definitely room for a kick ass Lizardfolk druid :)
Are we only doing core rulebooks?
because I have two ideas for Grim World classes
An ettin who lost one of his heads in the attack, and gained the ability to talk with the spirit world (a shaman)
and a werespider Skirmished, kinda inspired by Sir Pterry's descriptions of fighting a werewolf (constantly changing shapes, in a confusion-fu style.)
Totally open to Grim World classes. I have the PDF on my Google Drive already, and I've actually played as a necromancer from Grim World before. Both of your character ideas seem really cool!
Grim World stuff is cool. I'm partial to shamans, myself. :)
Perhaps the Minotaurs are of the 'water buffalo' variety, and their mazes are actually rice paddies (and more solid structures) in intricate labyrinths to protect their village at the center. Lizardfolk guard the perimeter in their huts and live symbiotically with the minotaurs and other races. The treasures stolen could have been valued artifacts to protect the villages, and revered dragon eggs and the like.
The Sharman ettin is a great idea!
I confess that I never would have imagined a Minotaur thief could work, but with the trap-making potential and a Minotaur's ability to sniff out different herbs for poison-making, I can actually see it! Looking forward to checking out the rest of the party makeup.
In the meantime, a big part of character development/recruitment in Dungeon World is tied to asking and answering questions.
So far we have :
Willam, Barbarian Minotaur
Stybar, Thief Minotaur
I have a question for each of you.
Willam, barbarians in Dungeon World are always foreigners from distant lands, with strange and alien customs compared to where the campaign starts. Where do you come from?
Stybar, you mentioned that trap-making and mazes are common Minotaur defenses against invaders. Is this a specialized job that some Minotaurs undertake in their community, or is it more of an innate racial understanding of such things that you just happened to expand on?
I agree that a minotaur thief feels strange. I do not imagine him being training as a theif. It is more like he has been studying the abilities of the sunloving adventures for dungeon designing classes. And yes it is definitely a career choice. All minotaur children play maze games, but only some chose this as a profession and take classes.
If you will allow it I feel like trading the ability to pick pockets and the minotaur racial move for the trap making move from 'Numbers' would make sense for this character as he only has half a horn anyway and I do not see a minotaur picking pockets at all :)
If you will allow it I feel like trading the ability to pick pockets and the minotaur racial move for the trap making move from 'Numbers' would make sense for this character as he only has half a horn anyway and I do not see a minotaur picking pockets at all :)
Makes sense. Approved!
looking over the Shaman... I've remembered why I've never played one in the past... shame, I liked the ettin
And, the skirmisher is really spear-based. so nevermind having a shape-shifter one of those.
but the whole "marsh" theme we have going on makes me think. which do you guys think is better? A were-watersnake ranger, or a lizdfolk skirmisher?
My lizardfolk druid is named 'Uek-Soahh, "Wek" for humanoids with more agile lips and fewer infrasonic larynges than lizardfolk. As druids do not need to eat, 'Uek is able to stay awake, patrol, and guard his brethren while they bask, being cold blooded. AMA!
Wek, you're the first confirmed lizardfolk player, so that gives you the first shot at world-building for the lizardfolk race.
Tell us how Lizardfolk and Minotaurs came to work together under one tribal banner. (We haven't established the majority race for the tribe yet, but it's looking like Minotaurs will be an important factor)
Are you and the other Lizardfolk potential players merely wanderers and hangers-on that happened to be at the tribe's encampment when the adventurers attacked, or are you more permanent "citizens"? Maybe the Minotaurs are the wanderers and the Lizardfolk took them in? What's the "political climate" there?
Elsine: If you still wanted to go for the confusion-fu route, shapeshifting during combat to confuse the enemy, I might suggest the Fighter class. Your unarmed strikes can be classified as your Signature Weapon, which would allow you to alter your attacks' range at will. That would be good mechanical support for your limbs elongating and striking your opponents like Dhalsim from Street Fighter.
We aren't fully locked into a marsh theme either, we're still creating the world setting together as a group. Whatever you decide on, let me know and I can ask you some worldbuilding questions.
Can't believe that I didn't think about that.
Ozmus is more an assassin than a fighter. He knows that the village didn't like him much more than the humans did, but at least they let him live there, and operate as a mercenary there.
besides, not many like you once they've seen you turn into a 2-meter long lycosidae. or before, if you're as smug as Ozmus
he carries around a wickedly edged steel dagger, which magages to be only one of his three deadly weapons, fangs and tarsal claws comprising the other two
Yes, they're in Number Appearing, and their racial move is one of the few racial moves that isn't restricted by class. All Minotaur can deal class damage with their horns, and when they charge in headfirst, they take +1 to their next Hack and Slash roll.
Hey, were are you grabbing these racial moves from?
Number Appearing. It's a Dungeon World supplement. You should definitely go check it out, the section on shapeshifters and their Banes is really interesting. Having a Shapeshifter in your party means that on a party member's 7-9 Last Breath roll, you can turn them into a shapeshifter too.
In answer to your question, Plume: Minotaurs come from the far desert, specifically the caves underneath, called the Grand Maze. It gets very hot in there in the day, so when a Minotaur dies, you can't bury the body because it'll stink to hell, and you can't burn it because the smoke will fill the caves, so they eat them. Yep. Cannibal Minotaurs.
Beef. It's what's for dinner.
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Right now I'm thinking minotar immolator, but not strictly the Kill You With Fire kind. I think I want to focus on the CHA immolator. The literal Firebrand that is the soul behind this crusade. The one that preaches as he throws flame at the enemy.
They burned or villages! Killed our sacred Guardians! Looted the Temple of Flame! And now THEY SHALL BURN!
I... aren't cows herbivores?... I mean, isn't that a little messed up?... I mean, I've eaten a couple humans, but never when I was a human.
Ozmus can't drink, inebriation makes him let loose a little too much. and during the full moon, he slips out of town, and a wandering goblin, or lone human, or hapless wildlife goes missing. and cold Iron... horrid stuff, screws with the morphic field, locks him in spider-state.
There are some benefits, though. aside from walking on the ceiling, and terrifying most guards, his venom mimics Serpent's tears pretty well.
Interesting, Ozmus, most interesting. So your humanoid race when not Shifted is human? How is it that you came to be allied with this tribe filled with monstrous races? Humans are normally the ones holding the purging torch, not being burned by it. Were you driven out of human society when your Shapeshifter nature was revealed? If so, how did the Minotaur tribe come to take you in?
Choon: Love the idea. Immolators have good class moves that use CHA, so being the party Face would be very effective for that class.
Every party has a member that speaks in ALL CAPS LOCK BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO INSIDE VOICE. I think we've found this party's example.
This would be Choon's alias should I be accepted into this fine group of monstrous semi-humans. It is re-used from an old game so the current profile is all kinds of wrong for this game at the moment.
You're accepted, don't worry. Dungeon World is a niche system on these boards so I don't expect to get more than 4 or 5 more applicants, total. Shouldn't be any difficulty getting everyone in who is interested.
Well, there's an undeniable family resemblance. Minotaur, faster than they seem. a lot faster. I mean, the horns, the shout, the hooves. That guy even has the whole "white with black spots" pattern roll back and to the left, come up in the point kneel, shift, leap, but not directly. skitter around, find an opening also, Arachnids, not bugs. or therianthrope, if sometimes-arachnid seems a little too on the nose. one nip, just enough to make him woozy, delay pursuit, and then book it over the labyrinth. probably be in the forest before they come looking. go back to eating goblins, head south maybe
He was driven from his village by an inquisition called to root out an independent threat (I never ate anyone from the village. You don't s#+% where you eat.). he lived in the ilderness for a while. mostly spending his time in spider-form, just being human long enough to retain sentience.
The tribe was having an issue with a different adventuring group in the past. he slipped into the meeting hall, and I Imagine it was a little like that scene in Jaws, he offered to deal with their problem, if they paid him a bit of money.
After some assurances that he was not, in fact, human, he dealt with the group, and decided to set up shop in the village. not a bad pace for a merc. orc chieftains contract him to put down rival, rivals to insure a chieftain falls. hobgoblins and bugbears pay for Gnoll rangers to meet tragic ends, and everybody pays or the heads of adventurers.
Shattertooth's shout dies to a breathy, low voice, "And can a cow do this?" The minotar breaks a rock off the wall of the house he was standing near and holds it out. Almost immediately the rock begins to smoke, then to creak and pop. Finally, after only a few seconds, the bottom side of the rock straight up melts and starts dripping on the floor with an angry hiss.
The Minotar's burning red eyes never leave the Therianthrope's.
So you're like an independent hero-killing contractor for the Minotaurs!
This is Ozmus when he gets an assignment from the Minotaur chief.
Wek, you're the first confirmed lizardfolk player, so that gives you the first shot at world-building for the lizardfolk race.
Tell us how Lizardfolk and Minotaurs came to work together under one tribal banner. (We haven't established the majority race for the tribe yet, but it's looking like Minotaurs will be an important factor)
Are you and the other Lizardfolk potential players merely wanderers and hangers-on that happened to be at the tribe's encampment when the adventurers attacked, or are you more permanent "citizens"? Maybe the Minotaurs are the wanderers and the Lizardfolk took them in? What's the "political climate" there?
Elsine: If you still wanted to go for the confusion-fu route, shapeshifting during combat to confuse the enemy, I might suggest the Fighter class. Your unarmed strikes can be classified as your Signature Weapon, which would allow you to alter your attacks' range at will. That would be good mechanical support for your limbs elongating and striking your opponents like Dhalsim from Street Fighter.
We aren't fully locked into a marsh theme either, we're still creating the world setting together as a group. Whatever you decide on, let me know and I can ask you some worldbuilding questions.
Looks like minotaurs are from arid climes, so I'll set up the lizardfolk schema like this:
lizardfolk inhabit swamps and marshes, coastal areas and wetlands of the savannah. 'Uek's particular tribe was indeed from more southerly swamps, servitors of the elder black dragon Kada-Koya, along with boggards and other swamp dwellers. Kada-Koya was defeated by a coalition of warriors and a strange group of ice witches, who froze half the swamp into an unnatural crackling bog of ice. The Ksiih, 'Uek's tribe, fled north and west toward drier lands, keeping to rivers and the coast as they could. The marshes they found abutted on Minotaur land, the dry plains terminating suddenly into estuarine marsh and thick mangrove forests--not their former inviting darkness of their previous home, but then again, not under the wing of a giant black dragon.
For several generations, the Ksiih have assisted in providing irrigation canals and ditches for the minotaurs' crops. They monitor the salinity of the water and keep pests from the fields, and in return, the minotaurs offer the lizardfolk protection, as they are smaller and must rest during the evenings and bask during the day. From their former swamp home, they brought unusual magic items out of Kada-Koya's hoard--taken, of course, when the adventurers pillaged their land and set fire to their fields and huts.
I don't know if you're using some racial qualities for the monstrous races, but I think it's reasonable for lizardfolk to have a bite, some plus to armor, and the ability to hold their breath for a while. And they are sluggish, although I think a druid lizardfolk may get around that with its funky druidic metabolism. Druids probably serve as scouts and guardians for this reason.
And here's an image for 'Uek-Soahh.
"Ksssss. Shattertooth. The blades you've forged, they're working well," says the lizardfolk, testing the heft of his own short spear. He hops down from a nearby termite mound, the images of the marsh rippling eerily upon and beneath his skin--duckweed and other floating plants above, the shadows of fish and other things somehow below, as if in a deep gloom barely seen through his supposedly solid flesh. This is "Wek", as most everyone calls him on land, 'Uek-Soahh, youngest of the druids of the groves and delta, and recently nominated as liaison to the minotaurs.
"We'll be bringing more whitefish in soon. It works well as fertilizer for the fields. No jokesss about cow dung, Ozmusss," he says with a flap of his head crest that indicates humor.
This will be a tough and burly team indeed, with this many bull-men! I like what I'm seeing so far. Critzible, go ahead and put together a character concept for your monk, I'm curious to see the angle you decide to go with on him. Monks are one of those classes that can be interpreted in a million different ways.
Shattertooth nods. Good you hear, on both counts. Now, I'll be in the Temple of anyone needs me.
This is starting to look like a party I can get started with. We can always add more as the recruitment thread people continue to trickle in. I'll create a gameplay and discussion thread tomorrow, link them here, and we can begin asking some important questions of all of you, as well as forming bonds.