Share your Stonetop stories [+]

[Truename]

I just backed Stonetop after hearing good things for the past two months. I'm only on page 82 of the first book, but I'm very impressed! I'd love for you to share your experiences with playing Stonetop. Roll +CHA: on a 10+, pick 2; on a 7-9, pick 1. On a 6-, realize that [+] means "positive experiences" and find a different thread.

• Share a story of a something cool or unique that happened in your game
• Point out something that delighted you as you read the rules
• Tell us how you were surprised by emergent gameplay
• Describe how you've improved upon Stonetop as written
• Explain something that didn't work, at first, and how you made it better
• ...or anything else you think is interesting!

 

[zakael19]

I just backed Stonetop after hearing good things for the past two months. I'm only on page 82 of the first book, but I'm very impressed! I'd love for you to share your experiences with playing Stonetop. Roll +CHA: on a 10+, pick 2; on a 7-9, pick 1. On a 6-, realize that [+] means "positive experiences" and find a different thread.

• Share a story of a something cool or unique that happened in your game
• Point out something that delighted you as you read the rules
• Tell us how you were surprised by emergent gameplay
• Describe how you've improved upon Stonetop as written
• Explain something that didn't work, at first, and how you made it better
• ...or anything else you think is interesting!

For your second bullet: “the first time you take any move marked with an asterisk, cross off ‘would-be’ on the front page [of your playbook].”

Also like, all of book 2. I’ve never read a setting guide that made me want to see what we’d actually make of it in play, thanks to alll the cool ideas but open spaces to still make it Yours.

 

[Truename]

For your second bullet: “the first time you take any move marks with an asterisk, cross off ‘would-be’ on the front page [of your playbook].”

That caught my eye too.

Also like, all of book 2. I’ve never read a setting guide that made me want to see what we’d actually make of it in play, thanks to alll the cool ideas but open spaces to still make it Yours.

I haven't gotten that far yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Good call on backing Stonetop, although I haven't read a word since I'm waiting for the dead tree version.

 

[zakael19]

Good call on backing Stonetop, although I haven't read a word since I'm waiting for the dead tree version.

9th is the last day for pre-orders to get that!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

9th is the last day for pre-orders to get that!

Oh, I backed the Kickstarter - it's my oldest Kickstarter that I still expect to fulfill.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I just backed Stonetop after hearing good things for the past two months. I'm only on page 82 of the first book, but I'm very impressed! I'd love for you to share your experiences with playing Stonetop. Roll +CHA: on a 10+, pick 2; on a 7-9, pick 1. On a 6-, realize that [+] means "positive experiences" and find a different thread.

• Share a story of a something cool or unique that happened in your game
• Point out something that delighted you as you read the rules
• Tell us how you were surprised by emergent gameplay
• Describe how you've improved upon Stonetop as written
• Explain something that didn't work, at first, and how you made it better
• ...or anything else you think is interesting!

I ran a long campaign for my face to face group. It was a great campaign with a lot of surprises and interesting things that happened.

One of the things that most surprised me was how invested in the NPCs my players became. There were several times where NPCs were at great risk and when that happened, the players became hyper focused on helping or saving them. Not all made it, but many did, and these were typically the most meaningful events of the campaign.

In particular, we had one NPC who was the town’s Marshal (no one had taken that playbook, so we had an NPC serve that role). He served as a kind of foil to the PCs. He and his gang of underlings were rivals of the PCs. The Marshal’s mother was also the midwife, and she had bad blood with one of the PCs.

So there were bandits that had attacked some of the townsfolk on a couple of occasions, and the PCs finally tracked them down. The Marshal and his crew insisted on coming and helping… and things did not go well for them. Three of the four crew members were killed and both the fourth crew member and the Marshal himself were nearly killed.

The remaining crew member left the militia as a result, and the Marshal had a total crisis of confidence. Not only had he led these young men to their deaths, but they were also his close friends. I used this emotional struggle as an Impending Doom. Would the PCs recognize the situation and would they be able to do anything about it before his mental state got so bad that something awful happened?

Such a great situation that arose purely out of play. The PCs actually did help him, and the Marshal was able to make it through his trauma… though he was always haunted after that. But the players were so invested in him and so many of the other NPCs, it was really great.

I don’t know if it’s just the fact that the game focuses so much on the town and its people or if it has something to do with the fact that the players are involved with making the NPCs or what. Probably both, I expect… but it made the game very memorable and made Stonetop feel like a real, lived in place.

 

[pemerton]

I've not played Stonetop, but those who have have started some good threads that seem worth linking to here:

Z

Thread 'Stonetop, or, Nice Village You've Got There'

Dec 15, 2025

Figured at this point we should have a central thread to discuss the various Stonetop games folks around this board have run, talk about its iterative design and some campaign challenges we've experienced with its multiple emphasis, answer questions, etc.

Link to backerkit where you can purchase (PDFs are available after purchase and actually genuinely nearly complete and perhaps truly done by end of this year).
EDIT 1/2/26, final editing ongoing and books shipping hopefully in mid feb.

There's a Discord server primarily aimed at supporters or players that I won't give out the...

• zakael19
• Replies: 31
• Forum: *TTRPGs General

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Thread '[Actual Play] Stonetop, or how to make friends and influence people'

Jun 10, 2024

The Stonetop game I'm in with @AbdulAlhazred and @Manbearcat has recently resolved (well, "resolved" so far as we know, I suppose) some threads that have been with us for a while, and I thought it might be interesting to post a write up here. It's a two-man party, with AbdulAlhazred playing Yorath (Fox playbook with Prodigal background) and me playing Vahid (Seeker playbook with Witchhunter background). Yorath is a charming scoundrel with a good heart and the favor of the sun god, and Vahid is loyal and dedicated but arrogant. Vahid carries the Twisted Spear, a major...

• Old Fezziwig
• Replies: 25
• Forum: *TTRPGs General

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M

Thread 'Stonetop RPG - Session post-mortems'

Mar 17, 2022

CHARACTER INTRODUCTION AND SPRING BREAKS FORTH

Stonetop is a significant hack of Dungeon World (PBtA) such that it is clearly its own game written by Jeremy Strandberg (Perilous Wilds supplement for DW which is ported significantly in this game), illustrated by Lucie Arnoux, arranged by Jason Lutes, proofread by Rob Rendell and Matt Wetherbee, published by Lampblack & Brimstone.

Its a mythical Bronze > Iron Age-esque set game about the village of Stonetop, the people in it, and its efforts to survive and thrive in a world filled with threats and opportunities over the course of...

• Manbearcat
• Replies: 69
• Forum: *TTRPGs General

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[zakael19]

I don’t know if it’s just the fact that the game focuses so much on the town and its people or if it has something to do with the fact that the players are involved with making the NPCs or what. Probably both, I expect… but it made the game very memorable and made Stonetop feel like a real, lived in place.

Oh yeah, absolutely. I guess I'll share a little tale now that I'm at my computer.

My Sunday game's characters are, in the classic fantasy trope, all orphans. One is a 20something Heavy named Wiland, a big brute of a guy who was born to a miner in the nearby "town" of Gordon's Delve - which in Stonetop is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. We'd established during session 0 that he left the Delve after his mom died of consumption to try and find something better, and found that in Stonetop.

Now we were back in the Delve, trying to find a skilled engineer to help them design a mill to harness a fire-spirit they'd made friends with previously. During the journey, I'd asked Wil why he was really not looking forward to going back, and he told us about the guy who was like a brother to him (and maybe more) he had to leave behind, Ral.

Wil uses the core move Know Things to try and recall who would be best of the town's bosses to approach about making a deal to trade Stonetop's whiskey, and he rolls a miss, so I say "yeah, you remember who runs the drinking dens in town - it's Smiling Ffrances, why is that real bad news for?" And that's when we learned that Wil worked for him as a bruiser and ducked out without ever making things clear.

So of course when the Blessed goes in to try and make a deal with Ffrances, Ral is there as his main bruiser. Which led to a moment in an alley where Ral follows them down ("you hear heavy footsteps coming up fast behind you all and a voice growl out 'Wil'"), and a whole spate of recriminations that turn into Ral coming at Wil with fists up.

And Wil just lets him punch. And then folds around him in a hug, and we have two big men sobbing out their pain and loss of what could've been. We'd just established these relationships and NPCs, but they felt so real and meaningful.

Then a big part of that expedition turned into "Get Ral and his sister and his sister's prospective husband tf out of the Delve."

 

[Truename]

I just got to the "Threats" section of book 1. (This is about creating and running persistent threats.) This section is so good. I'm really seeing how I can use this to make a world that's alive and interesting. I particularly loved the examples of threats that come from within, like the affliction of "a woman's place," the beast "Grigor Rocksplitter" who wants everyone to know how great he is, and the instituation of the town council that wants to keep the PCs in check. There's so much great roleplaying potential and opportunity for interesting conflict. Also, the inclusion of "Macguffin" as the name of a threat type was hilarious.