Showing posts with label Dungeon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dungeon. Show all posts

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Optional Spell Points variant

The default rule of Dungeon World is that Wizards can just cast a certain number of spell levels (Level+1) Clerics can Commune for the same number of spells, and everyone else in Core operates under the assumptions of any spells they chose for Multiclass Moves. It is with that in mind that I give you

Empowered Spellcasting
Replaces Commune or Prepare Spells
Instead of having to pray for spells or prepare spells, now you do that with Spell Points. You are not shoehorned into a restriction of which spells you can cast on any particular day, merely how many spell points you have. There are a few options here depending on what your GM wants to use

Eqivalent Spell Power
You get Level+1 Spell Points that you can spend as desired.

Attribute Based
You get Level+(Casting Attribute), where Casting Attribute for Clerics and Disciple (Class Warfare) based casters is +Wis, Casting Attribute for Wizards and appropriate Magician (Class Warfare) based casters is +Int, and Casting Attribute for Bards and other Magician (Class Warfare) casters is +Cha.

High Power
You get Level*Casting Attribute Spell Points.

Risks
As per normal spellcasting, there are risks associated with the amount of energy you spent to cast the spell. In this system it works differently. A badly cast spell generates a number of risk equal to its level. So a 3rd level miscast spell generates 3 points worth of effects

Variable
  • Forget the Spell: Doesn't happen. You know the spells you know and that's it. You merely lose additional spell points, reducing risk by a point per Risk reduced.
  • Let's Make a Deal: You are contacted by a powerful, potentially corrupting, entity. This removes all Risk Points your last failure or 7-9 generated.
1 point
  • Unwanted Attention: A single Horde tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives. before your next turn.
  • -1 to Cast: This lasts a number of your turns equal to the spell's Level
2 Points
  • Unwanted Attention: A single Group tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives.before your next turn.
  • Valuables are Damaged: When you roll Treasure, reduce the number of rolls you make by -1, or assume the value or amount of goods in a roll with a value or amount is halved.
3 Points
  • Unwanted Attention: A single Solitary tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives before your next turn
  • Environmental Effects: Everyone should Defy Danger for the remainder of Combat before they can make Hack and Slash attempts. If damage is to be had, the amount is either the Caster's Base Damage (possibly with added moves) or the Spell Damage, whichever is better. 
4+
Mix and Match: Choose effects from lower point value entries in combination with each other.

Backwards Compatibility
Some of the Risks are appropriate choices for 7-9 or 6- in games that don't otherwise use the rule.


Thursday, February 22, 2018

Generating a random dungeon in DW with Tarot

This reddit post suggests you can draw tarot cards to make a dungeon, but doesn't provide much in the way of guidelines to finish it off. In Dungeon World, it could be fair to assume the same thing about dungeons that you do about treasure. That they are related to the damage dice of the enemy. Damage dice in dungeon world are very small. I don't recall seeing anything bigger than (b[2d12+9] damage, which I duplicated on the Dungeon World Codex). The average dungeon befitting a boss monster with just such damage would be 6.5+9 or 15.5. Call it 16 since it's the better of two rolls. Another example, the bandit king (b[2d10]), would be probably about a 6 room dungeon. You can toy with it too. Goblins might not have half the damage roll in dungeon rooms, and a Noble who has a Knight probably has twice the Knight's damage roll of rooms in his castle.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Spout Lore: The Steel King


The Steel King was once a mortal gone to the mountain of the gods to become a disciple of the dwarven god of smithing, Navanor Truestone. Around this time, the god's daughter Inebra Truestone was but a godling. The mortal attempted to woo her while under her father's tutelage, and when the father found out, the mortal was cast to the fiery underworld. The citizens of Towmyen think this has something to do with why the Blasted Wasteland is so large.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Material Sciences in Into the Heart of the Dragon

My Into the Heart of the Dragon campaign has a house rule where you can add tags to items that make them worth +50% price per added tag rather than a flat 50 gold. Some items are of a lower quality, and have modifications that make them cheaper rather than more expensive. This reduction is also -50% (usually). If an item’s price would be reduced to zero by modifiers, its price is -80% instead (minimum 1 coin).

As a natural extension of that, I've decided to make a list of qualities and materials using tags. They will vary in price based on the number of good and bad qualities they have. I know this one may not suit everyone, so don't read it if you don't want the extra detail in your campaign

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Mass Combat Revisited: A Whole Damn Army, and subsequent divisions thereof

Because I'd already codified how a large military unit could work with the existing Horde rules and constitute an entire horde rather than giving each soldier statistics here, Curiosity overtook me and I decided to find out what a A Whole Damn Army would look like in the Dungeon World Codex. This led to a posting and a discussion in the Dungeon World Tavern G+ community Some banter expanded the scope of what the Whole Damn Army could do. Once the whole army was ironed out there was further questioning on the line of writing an Army playbook. While I'm not sure I want to do that, the army does deserve something of a closer look. Here goes

Size
A Whole Damn Army should represent at least 1000 soldiers, but reasonably up to 5,000

Morale
A Whole Damn Army is immune to being Terrified by a smaller army (less HP)

Superiority
This article discusses Superiority. Rather than modifying its text, use the rules below
  • For mobility superiority, each "doubling" in the original rule provides armor 1
  • Armor superiority is only available for units with a default armor above 4. Use their new armor as the base.
  • Artillery Superiority has 4 Piercing (or more). The attack doesn't do more damage than normal, just 4 damage blows through armor
  • Engineering superiority or other armies with devious may ambush their foes, dealing +1d6 damage on the first attack.
  • Fortified armies (those that are garrisoned in a settlement) have several advantages. If they are at least Steady they add +2 HP, and another +2 for each of Growing or Booming. If they are at least a Town, they gain +1 armor, while a Keep gains +2 and a City gains +3. Keeps and cities also have Artillery superiority, while any smaller steading has Ranged and all have Transport. A town or better also has Sound the Reinforcements.
Scaling Down
A Whole Damn Army is an abstraction of 2-3 units plus a commanding officer. It is reasonable to divide them into military units. A Whole Damn Platoon only gets 15 HP, and isn't big enough to Shatter Their Morale. They get one other move of the ones listed. A Whole Damn Battalion gets that move, plus Shatter Their Morale and has 22 HP.

Scaling Up
Having more than 30 HP for any Dungeon Worlds monster was decidedly obnoxious, but it's not unreasonable to give armies over 5000 men one extra move per +5 HP. Even I don't recommend giving any more HP out after you've got all the moves.

If you're interested in playing these, or any of my other Dungeon World ideas, you can join my discord, DW Linky Here!


Thursday, April 6, 2017

Into the Heart of the Dragon


So I made a map for a Dungeo World campaign in which the party is swallowed by a dragon big enough to eat a village whole. The idea is that they escape the dragon by killing it from the inside, and it crash lands, This map is where the dragon crash lands.
DW Campaign by steelsmiter
Since the game also takes place in part, inside a dragon, I'll also leave you with the starter for the group inside the dragon:
World Eater was once a normal dragon. For many centuries now, the dragon has been so big it could eat a village. The additional size means the dragon does not have the same physiology as other dragons. Old tales tell of ancient heroes with legendary weapons could once pierce its scales, but nobody has succeeded in doing that as long as anyone can remember. Assuredly, larger holds survive by sheer volume of siege weaponry they can bring to bear. You are from no such land. Some of you may have been here a while, others only a month. This is your story.

First Impressions
Ø  World Eater was once an ordinary black dragon, but now has a variety of gemstones and minerals that have become embedded into the dragon due to its hibernation and feeding cycles.
Ø  The town of Gullet as far as anyone inside can reckon, is a little way past where the Dragon’s esophagus meets its trachea, hence the name. Occasionally the dragon eats, and the whole town shakes like an earthquake. Dirt and rubble from a new town becomes a part of Gullet.
Ø  Gullet is situated deep in a “valley”; deeply enough that when the dragon breathes fire, the citizens are not harmed. They do however feel an intense pressure wave.
Ø  Gastric Fog occasionally comes from “south” of Gullet, leaving those who are stuck outside with mild acid burns for the next several days.
Ø  There is something the villagers are not telling you.
Ø  A constant faint creaking sound accompanies a slight rising and falling, as if the entire area is in a constant tide.

Questions
(in addition to the bonds you make with the other players, answer +Wis of the following)
Ø  Are you on good terms with the citizens of Gullet?
Ø  How did you survive the fall from the Dragon’s maw to the town of Gullet?
Ø  How long have you been in Gullet?
Ø  What rumors have you heard about escaping the dragon?
Ø  Whence did you hail before your home was swallowed?
Ø  Who do you know in Gullet?
Ø  Who would try to stop you from escaping the dragon if you could get out of Gullet?