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On Skilled Play: D&D as a Game
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<blockquote data-quote="darkbard" data-source="post: 8290889" data-attributes="member: 1282"><p>I don't have a ton of time, but I will examine two of the scenarios from your list and sketch out some relevant details and how they might relate to Skilled Play in Dungeon World. I'll select the first and last items bulletpointed.</p><p></p><p>In the first scenario, Alastor the Paladin had negotiated a raft to speed his journey to the rough and tumble harbor town of Lowcanyon Falls and avoid some of the perils of nearby bandits and hags inhabiting the bordering Hag Frost. For the draft's use, he promised the guide Fennick (an acquaintance of his trusted companion-guide Dirk, a lay member of his religious order) that he would help redeem his reputation, slandered by the lies of Desamine, the greedy and exploitative proprietor or The Long Walk, the guides' guild in Lowcanyon Falls. Alastor's patron is Memna, the goddess of Truth and Emotion, so this set up is the GM testing my commitment to those values in session one.</p><p></p><p>In session three, amid other hijinks in Lowcanyon Falls, Alastor made his way to The Long Walk to confront Desamine. In this scene, I twice deployed the Paladin starting move I Am the Law, first against Desamine's feckless husband who tended the office/outfitter and then against Desamine herself. In short, the move, on a successful check, forces the NPC to do as I say, flee, or attack as is fictionally appropriate. Knowing full well my Paladin's imposing presence (as evidenced by his high CHA, armor bedecked with symbols of his deity, and weaponry), I was confident in my ability to get Desamine to retract her slanders and repair Fennick's tarnished reputation. With a successful roll, I did.</p><p></p><p>This played to your (1) above by flagging my alignment (at the time Lawful, Deny mercy to a criminal or unbeliever). As my first Quest, it played to both (2) and (3) above by propelling play in the scene and across sessions by playing to my character's thematic drives, not suffering an untruth (something anathema to his goddess) to go uncorrected/unpunished. We devised the map together, players and GM, in session one (as per standard DW procedure), creating Lowcanyon Falls as a lawless, "wild west" frontier town as a foil to my character's desire for law as evinced through alignment as part of character build (your 4 above). </p><p></p><p>The second scenario is from our latest session, a near endgame confrontation with one of the two BBEGs that emerged from play early on (in fact, this one before play even began in the bud of an idea by my wife that something was consuming magic in the world and her Wizard would set about to repair it). In the scene, the Wizard's casting of a force spell interacted with a portal to a Feywild elven enclave to catastrophic effect (my wife rolled a 6- on her Cast a Spell move), drawing The Devourer, a Lovecraftian horror that had been consuming the magical tapestry that subtends the mortal world into our plane. Combat ensued, and without going into a blow-by-blow recap, I will highlight that Dirk, the guide from our very first session and companion throughout (a) steeled his nerves to fight this extra dimensional horror and his minions (earlier, my wife's Wizard dedicated several downtime activities to making him comfortable with magic and the like after he fled a scene of combat with spirits earlier in play, exactly to keep him involved as an additional combatant) by tossing a blazing whiskey bottle at a creature, Molotov cocktail-fashion (my wife here deftly manipulating the fiction of his Instinct, a defined game element, to overindulge in the sauce). The combat was brutal, and my Paladin's protege Rose, a young woman whom I suspect may be the promised Thorn of Memna, a figure from religious prophecy I made up between sessions, faced certain death by Devourer maw. But instead, I looked to my newly fashioned Bond with Dirk ("Dirk's newfound zeal for religion will put him in danger and I will leap to his defense") and decided he should make a Defend move of Rose, taking the blow aimed for her. He took it and died. And Rose lived for another move, a heroically successful Hack and Slash that vanquished The Devourer, proving that she is, indeed, the Thorn of Memna!</p><p></p><p>It should be evident how the resolved Bond with Dirk earned me experience end of session, even at the cost of the life of our longest supporting cast member. And played to my Bond with Rose to foster her to this position. Clearly, this has been a highlight not only of the session but the whole game so far, and that was propelled by my wife's skilled play of the fiction by suggesting the obvious outcome of her failed spellcasting roll: drawing The Devourer into combat now, even though we were unprepared for the confrontation (this was, essentially, the BBEG cast as Wandering Monster). And again, the scene played out in a location crafted in session one, at the top of a giant mountain shrouded in magical mists, and, it appears, a manifest zone to another plane beyond, perhaps the home of my wife's Wizard, who was found as an infant on the trails of this very mountain and is suspected of having fey heritage. It is no coincidence we are here; it has been the driving goal of play since session one. I will defer on the question of whether it is just play or Skilled Play that has us here, now, to face the game's greatest challenges. </p><p></p><p>I may have elided some details or emphasized elements of play differently than what you might have chosen to highlight here, but I think this suffices to illustrate your points.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="darkbard, post: 8290889, member: 1282"] I don't have a ton of time, but I will examine two of the scenarios from your list and sketch out some relevant details and how they might relate to Skilled Play in Dungeon World. I'll select the first and last items bulletpointed. In the first scenario, Alastor the Paladin had negotiated a raft to speed his journey to the rough and tumble harbor town of Lowcanyon Falls and avoid some of the perils of nearby bandits and hags inhabiting the bordering Hag Frost. For the draft's use, he promised the guide Fennick (an acquaintance of his trusted companion-guide Dirk, a lay member of his religious order) that he would help redeem his reputation, slandered by the lies of Desamine, the greedy and exploitative proprietor or The Long Walk, the guides' guild in Lowcanyon Falls. Alastor's patron is Memna, the goddess of Truth and Emotion, so this set up is the GM testing my commitment to those values in session one. In session three, amid other hijinks in Lowcanyon Falls, Alastor made his way to The Long Walk to confront Desamine. In this scene, I twice deployed the Paladin starting move I Am the Law, first against Desamine's feckless husband who tended the office/outfitter and then against Desamine herself. In short, the move, on a successful check, forces the NPC to do as I say, flee, or attack as is fictionally appropriate. Knowing full well my Paladin's imposing presence (as evidenced by his high CHA, armor bedecked with symbols of his deity, and weaponry), I was confident in my ability to get Desamine to retract her slanders and repair Fennick's tarnished reputation. With a successful roll, I did. This played to your (1) above by flagging my alignment (at the time Lawful, Deny mercy to a criminal or unbeliever). As my first Quest, it played to both (2) and (3) above by propelling play in the scene and across sessions by playing to my character's thematic drives, not suffering an untruth (something anathema to his goddess) to go uncorrected/unpunished. We devised the map together, players and GM, in session one (as per standard DW procedure), creating Lowcanyon Falls as a lawless, "wild west" frontier town as a foil to my character's desire for law as evinced through alignment as part of character build (your 4 above). The second scenario is from our latest session, a near endgame confrontation with one of the two BBEGs that emerged from play early on (in fact, this one before play even began in the bud of an idea by my wife that something was consuming magic in the world and her Wizard would set about to repair it). In the scene, the Wizard's casting of a force spell interacted with a portal to a Feywild elven enclave to catastrophic effect (my wife rolled a 6- on her Cast a Spell move), drawing The Devourer, a Lovecraftian horror that had been consuming the magical tapestry that subtends the mortal world into our plane. Combat ensued, and without going into a blow-by-blow recap, I will highlight that Dirk, the guide from our very first session and companion throughout (a) steeled his nerves to fight this extra dimensional horror and his minions (earlier, my wife's Wizard dedicated several downtime activities to making him comfortable with magic and the like after he fled a scene of combat with spirits earlier in play, exactly to keep him involved as an additional combatant) by tossing a blazing whiskey bottle at a creature, Molotov cocktail-fashion (my wife here deftly manipulating the fiction of his Instinct, a defined game element, to overindulge in the sauce). The combat was brutal, and my Paladin's protege Rose, a young woman whom I suspect may be the promised Thorn of Memna, a figure from religious prophecy I made up between sessions, faced certain death by Devourer maw. But instead, I looked to my newly fashioned Bond with Dirk ("Dirk's newfound zeal for religion will put him in danger and I will leap to his defense") and decided he should make a Defend move of Rose, taking the blow aimed for her. He took it and died. And Rose lived for another move, a heroically successful Hack and Slash that vanquished The Devourer, proving that she is, indeed, the Thorn of Memna! It should be evident how the resolved Bond with Dirk earned me experience end of session, even at the cost of the life of our longest supporting cast member. And played to my Bond with Rose to foster her to this position. Clearly, this has been a highlight not only of the session but the whole game so far, and that was propelled by my wife's skilled play of the fiction by suggesting the obvious outcome of her failed spellcasting roll: drawing The Devourer into combat now, even though we were unprepared for the confrontation (this was, essentially, the BBEG cast as Wandering Monster). And again, the scene played out in a location crafted in session one, at the top of a giant mountain shrouded in magical mists, and, it appears, a manifest zone to another plane beyond, perhaps the home of my wife's Wizard, who was found as an infant on the trails of this very mountain and is suspected of having fey heritage. It is no coincidence we are here; it has been the driving goal of play since session one. I will defer on the question of whether it is just play or Skilled Play that has us here, now, to face the game's greatest challenges. I may have elided some details or emphasized elements of play differently than what you might have chosen to highlight here, but I think this suffices to illustrate your points. [/QUOTE]
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