Playing Stonetop (and Other PbtA Games)

Work continues on Stonetop, my "hearth-fantasy" adaptation of Dungeon World set in an iron age that never was, in which you portray the local heroes of a small, isolated village near the edge of the known world. It's going more slowly than I'd like, but we just added the "Playing Stonetop" chapter to the main book, and I'm quite pleased with it. 

This is a chapter that's addressed to the players, including:

• The Conversation
• Your Agenda (as a player)
• The Flow of Play
• Dice and Moves 
• Your Principles (as a player) 
• Other Things to Do (and not do) 

A few of the Stonetop Kickstarter backers commented that the chapter is a good, overall introduction to and solid advice for playing PbtA games in general. Hence me reposting them here. 

I'm not about to claim that this advice is universally applicable to all PbtA games. For example, I don't think that the "Flow of Play" is the same in Stonetop as it is in games like Monsterhearts or Cartel or even Apocalypse World, which feature a lot more PC-PC drama. 

But for PbtA games where the PCs mostly work together against adversity presented by the GM (like, Monster of the Week or the Sprawl or Impulse Drive, to name a few), I do think this stuff is largely relevant. 

If you're a new player in a game like that, or a GM trying to help new players "get it," maybe this will help?  

© 2022 Lucie Arnoux, used with permission (click here for more)

Anyway, here's "Playing Stonetop".

Stonetop Kickstarter: March 1st, 2021

We're finally doing it:

click me for the prelaunch page

Here's the teaser text:

The Stone has always been here, in the center of the village. It’s larger than life, older than anything, etched with runes. When storms roll up from the south, as they often do, the Stone pulls lightning from the sky and the village shakes with thunder. Visitors cower. The locals? They barely even notice.

You are one such local, someone who calls Stonetop home. You’re one of a handful of notables—admired, or respected, or maybe even reviled. When there’s trouble, people look to you for the solution. Or as the cause. Or both.

And right now, as the first wildflowers appear beyond the Old Wall? Trouble is brewing. The world itself is darkening, like the sky before a summer storm. Folks can feel it. They’re afraid.

These are good people, here, in Stonetop. Your kith and kin.

If you don’t step up to protect them, who will?

I've been working on Stonetop since, criminy, 2013? It started as a "playset" for Dungeon World with beefed up rules for managing the steading's prosperity. Then it became a whole slew of custom classes with a unique structure, and a bunch of creepy artifacts. And then I started tweaking basic moves, and eventually acknowledged that this was going to be a standalone game.

I've run over 75 sessions with 5 different groups. I've played in over 30 sessions myself. We've had something like 60 different playtest groups. 

And now, finally, the end is in sight. We'll be launching the Kickstarter on March 1, 2021, closing on March 31. Target fulfillment is October 2021.  

Jason Lutes of Lampblack & Brimstone will be running the Kickstarter and publishing the game. You might know Jason/L&B from The Perilous Wilds, which is where we first collaborated. Jason is also doing layout, editing, and art direction.

Illustrations will be done by Lucie Arnoux, a UK-based artist whose work includes reportage, children's books, set design, and comics. That's her work up above. Here's some more:

(details, including a sample chapter and a more art, after the break)

Преодолеть опасность: Defying Danger, the RPG... in Russian!

Defying Danger the RPG now has the dubious distinction of having been translated more times than I've actually played it!

Alexey Dikevich recently translated the game into Russian. I don't speak Russian or read Cyrillic, so can't speak to the quality of the translation, but the layout seems solid and he's even included an translated example of play (taken from the comments on the original Defying Danger blog post). 

Check it out here:

Click to download the PDF

If you have comments on the translation, or want to send him your thanks, you can reach Alexey at "adikevich" at Gmail.  

You can find the previous translations for Defying Danger here:

• Portuguese
• Italian

If you're interested in doing your own translation, and want the original .PPTX files to work from (yes, yes, I made this in frickin' PowerPoint, don't judge), then let me know in the comments or by emailing me at "jack" underscore "blackfoot" at Yahoo. 

Likewise, if you make your own translation and want me to post it here, let me know!  

Defying Danger, the RPG

Here's a thing I made, as a bit of a distraction from working on Stonetop. It's a light-weight RPG, in the vein of World of Dungeons.

click for current version

 The highlights:

• There's only one "basic" move, Defying Danger. The usual 10+, 7-9, 6- framework. 
• No stats (like, no STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA).  Instead, you choose 2-3 ways of Defying Danger where you roll 3d6 and keep the best 2 dice. Any other time, you roll straight 2d6.  
• Each class has an additional move, that indicates a thing they're generally better at.
• A warrior gets Hack & Slash
• A rogue gets Manipulate
• The wizard can Get Answers 
• Each class has a spendable resource (Mettle, Cunning, or Power) that lets them boost rolls or do cool stuff. Wizards, in particular, use this to cast spells. 
• PCs don't have HP, per se. Harm is closer to Apocalypse World, but the players have a little more control over how, exactly, they get messed up.  
• Gear is very similar to the system in Homebrew World, but even more simplified. 

As of this posting, Defying Danger is a completely un-playtested game. I don't know if any of this actually works!  It's basically an idea that spawned from a conversation on the DW Discord--an idea that got lodged in my brain and now, a week later, here's a game. Enjoy!

If you play this, please let me know how it goes. In the comments below, over in the DW Discord, or at jack underscore blackfoot at yahoo.

EDIT to add: 

• Francesco Catenacci translated this into Italian!
• Frederico Fiori translated it into Brazilian Portuguese!
• Alexey Dikevich translated it into Russian!

More noodling on Stonetop's gear & inventory system

We've now gone through about a dozen sessions with the current version of Stonetop's inventory system, and I'm... dissatisfied.

I'm leaning strongly towards something more like what I'm using in Homebrew World, something like this:

Some background... how'd we get here?

The gear lists (and how PCs acquire gear) have always been an important part of the game. The core conceit of Stonetop is that you're the heroes of a small, isolated, fantasy iron-age village. "Adventures" usually mean going out into the world to do something on the town's behalf. 

As such, I've always had three important goals for Stonetop's gear (and related systems):

Deal Damage is a Crap GM Move

I posted this essay on the G+ back in June of 2017. I still feel this way, and in Stonetop and Homebrew world, have replaced the GM move "Deal damage" with "Hurt them." It's not much of a difference, but I find that it better matches how I play. Fair warning: if you ever play DW (or a variation of it) with me running it, expect to be losing HP very often.

obligatory "wounded man" image

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When I've played DW with less-experienced GMs—and certainly when I started GMing DW myself—I've seen this sort of thing happen a fair deal:

"Okay, you got a 7-9 to Hack & Slash the orc? Deal your damage. 3? Okay, he's still up. But he stabs you back. Take 1d8+1 damage.  You still up?  Okay, what do you do?"

The strawman GM in my example is making the GM move deal damage, but they aren't following the principle of begin and end with the fiction.  As a result, the whole thing is flat. The player reduces their character's HP total. We vaguely know that the PC landed their blow, and the orc landed one back. But we've got no sense of the actual fiction, the details, the momentum. Who hit whom how? When? And Where?  Is the PC's axe still stuck in the orc's shoulder? Does the orc up close and personal, stab-stab-stabbing you with his rusty knife?  What the hell is going on?

Now, you can blame that on the GM (obviously: they aren't following their principles).  But you've got literally a dozen principles always competing for your attention, and it can be tough to keep them all straight.

You can also lay a lot of blame at the feat of the Damage and HP and "down at 0 HP" system that DW inherited from D&D.  But if you start tinkering with any of those things, you end up changing basic moves, and class moves, and how you make monsters, and equipment, and spells, and pretty much the whole mechanical economy of the game.

So what about the GM move itself:  Deal Damage.  I'd like to argue that this move—its name, its description, the fact that it exists at all—is part of the problem. And maybe an easier one to fix.

Of all the GM moves, it's the only one that maps most directly to a purely mechanical outcome. "Take 1d8+1 damage."  The GM must evaluate the fiction a little to determine how much damage you should take, but not much… you can just look at the orc's damage die and say "you're fighting an orc, take 1d8+1 damage."  And because the result of move (the roll, losing HP) is so mechanical and abstract, it's easy to forget to return to the fiction and describe what that damage actually looks like.

(You don't see this issue nearly as much in Apocalypse World, even though it basically has HP and has basically the same move: inflict harm as established. I think there are two reasons. First, the way NPCs suffer harm is much more handwavy than in DW… each level of harm corresponds to a rough description of trauma, and it's GM fiat to determine if the NPC is still standing. Thus, the GM has to decide on the specific trauma, in the fiction, in order determine if the NPC is still a threat. It's pretty brilliant.  Second, against PCs, there's the Suffer Harm move, which can generate all sorts of interesting fiction.)

Compare deal damage to use up their resources. When the GM uses up resources, they must decide which resources to use up. If they decide to "use up" your shield, then the natural thing to say isn't "you lose your shield, reduce your Armor by 1" but rather "it smashes through your shield!" or "you feel the strap on your shield snap and the thing goes flying, what do you do?"  Even if the GM uses up an abstract resource (like adventuring gear or rations), it's pretty easy and natural for everyone to visual your pack getting smashed or torn open or whatever.  HP are such an abstraction that it's easy to just decrement them and move on.

Every now and then, the conversation crops up that you just shouldn't use the Deal Damage move, or that you shouldn't use it very much.  Other GM moves are more interesting, etc. etc.

Another relevant detail:  on page 165, there's this gem that often gets forgotten:

Note that “deal damage” is a move, but other moves may include damage as well. When an ogre flings you against a wall you take damage as surely as if he had smashed you with his fists.

With a sidebar of:

If a move causes damage not related to a monster, like a collapsing tunnel or fall into a pit, use the damage rules on page 21.

So… could we just remove "Deal Damage" from the GM's list of moves?  If it just flat-out wasn't a choice, and instead you always had to make a different GM move (or monster move), one that might also happen to deal damage, would that help GMs begin and end with the fiction?

Or would it just confuse things? Or not make a difference?  After all, you'd still have the GM move Use up their resources, and you HP are really nothing more than a resource.

It's entirely possible that I'm just overthinking this, and the "solution" to this "problem" is just learning to "begin and end with the fiction."

Discuss!

Now, for some selected comments from the post:
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Aaron Griffin:  I like the idea of removing it, but you'd need to have some more coaching about "on the fly"/improv monster moves.

In your orc example, I doubt the orc has "hit with sword" as a move. A novice GM with a strict reading of the rules might not understand that the orc can swing that sword even if it doesn't say it.


Me:  I'm actually thinking you would NOT replace it with "attack" moves for monsters.  But rather, any time the monster attacked, it'd be a different GM move that happened to also inflict damage.

E.g. when the orc "makes an attack against you," if I don't have "deal damage," I'd be forced to pick do something like this instead:

Use a monster move >> the orc's Fight with abandon : "So, you like run it through, but it doesn't seem to notice. It just pushes itself onto your blade, hacking at you and your shield over and over with that vicious meat cleaver thing, scoring a number of blows before it expires. Take d6+2 damage and your blade is stuck right in the thing's gut. What do you do?"

Reveal an unwelcome truth:  "You gut the orc, but he scores a scratch on your arm, not a big deal but holy shit does it burn, take a d6+2 damage. And you're like, uh oh, what's that greenish oil coating this dead orc's blade?"

Use up their resources: "You slash it across the chest, and it reels back, then follows up with just this reign of blow after blow. Take a d6+2 damage and your shield is just in splinters, it hauls back for another chop, what do you do?"

Separate them:  "So, yeah, you run the orc through as it leaps at you but its momentum carries it into you, knocking you down the ravine in a tumble. Take d6+2 damage and you land in a heap, a dead orc on you, the fight up top.  Ovid, you see the Hawke and the orc go tumbling off the cliff and another one comes swinging at you, what do you do?"

Put someone in a spot: "Oh, yeah, you totally slice this orc's throat open and goes down in a gurgle, but the other two rush in on you and hack away, take d6+3 damage (+1 cuz of the extra one, right?). And they keep reigning blows on you, herding you back toward the pit, it's just a few feet away, what do you do?"

Etc. etc.

I.e. there's no replacement for the "Deal Damage" move, no general monster moves like "stab them."  So whenever a foe makes an attack, the GM must make a different GM move, one that makes no sense unless you begin and end with the fiction.

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Greg Soper:  I really like this. I think that there should still be references to damage, but just push it through the general-Damage dice lens (scrapes and bruises = 1d4, etc). So GMs can still be liberal with dealing damage, but just as a result of other moves, and never just as an automatic response to a 7-9 Hack & Slash or a missed Defy Danger.

Me:  oh, I still think there's a lot of value in having distinct Damage values for monsters. It's part of what establishes the "difficulty" of fighting (e.g.) orc bloodwarrior (d6+2) vs. an orc berserker (d10+5!!!).  

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Wright Johnson:  I think the problem with deal damage is actually the name.  As you said, the move itself is the only one written purely in the language of game mechanics.  Inflict harm as established is not a phrase which rolls off the tongue outside the context of Apocalypse World, but it's also consistent with the mannered way the rest of the AW game text is written.  DW is written in natural, conversational English, so the shift into purely mechanical jargon stands out.  If the move was called something like hurt them, I think it might be less jarring.

Asbjørn H Flø:  That was my first instinct too​, with that exact wording. Making hacks and rule changes strikes me as too much work, but rewording it to hurt them opens it up sufficiently to remind you to consider the fiction and your options.

Jason “Hyathin” Shea:  Aside from removing the option entirely (a valid solution, IMO) hurt them is a great option. As I've been reading comments that phrase has been rattling around my head, and it leads me to say, "okay, so how am I going to hurt them?" I don't think that way when I read "deal damage."

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There were also a number of comments around the idea of introducing versions of AW's Suffer Harm player move, discussion of Paul Taliesen's A Descriptive Damage Hack for Dungeon World, and so forth.

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In the end, I've replaced Deal Damage with Hurt Them in my Dungeon World hacks, along with these instructions to the GM: 

When you make a GM move that involves someone getting banged up, knocked around, hurt, or injured, then deal damage as part of that move. If the damage is caused by an established danger, deal damage per its stats. Otherwise, what would it do to a normal person?

• Bruises & scrapes; pain; light burns d4  
• Nasty flesh wounds/bruises/burns d6  
• Broken bones; deep/wide burns d8  
• Death or dismemberment d10

Debilities are ongoing states reflecting the tolls the characters have taken. Inflict them as (or as part of) a GM move. They are:

• Weakened: fatigued, tired, sluggish, shaky (disadvantage to STR and DEX)
• Dazed: out of it, befuddled, not thinking clearly (disadvantage to INT and WIS)
• Miserable: distressed, grumpy, unwell, in pain (disadvantage to CON and CHA)

Debilities might also cause someone to Defy Danger to do things that are otherwise safe.

Yes, those are different debilities than core Dungeon World. That's a post for another time.

Gear Slots and Supplies in Homebrew World

This post is out of date!  I've made significant changes to the inventory system in Homebrew World v1.5. See here for details.  

If you really prefer this older version, here's the last version of HBW that used it. Enjoy! (Also, maybe drop me a line and let me know why you prefer the old one.)

Homebrew World (I really need a better name than that) abstracts gear and supplies even more than Dungeon World does. My goal was for it to be intuitive and self-explanatory, but I've gotten a couple questions about it so I figured I'd write up an explanation.

Plus, this particular mechanic would be easy-ish to port into core DW or related games. So here it is.

Gear Slots

Each class playbook gets 9 "slots" for gear, plus a box for small items. It looks like this:

Gear slots & starting gear for the Fighter

And for the Thief

Most items take up a slot, but:

• Small items can go in your Small Items section (and you can carry as many as you can write in there). 
• Big items (like the Fighter's "Hauberk or brigandine or breastplate") take up two slots
• Clumsy items must go in the last few slots, the ones that make you clumsy. Heavy armor is clumsy for most characters, but some (like the Fighter) ignore it.
• Encumbering items (Armor, Supplies, instruments like a lute or a mandolin) can't occupy either of the first two slots.  (At least, that's my intent. I haven't actually flagged these items as such, and I'm not 100% sure that I ever will. Also, shields should probably go in these slots but whatevs.)

Normally, you'll be encumbered, meaning you have something in slots 3+. This doesn't normally have any game effect; that's the assumed state of the game. You're expected to be adventurers, carrying crap around on an expedition.

If you have nothing but your first two slots filled in, you are unencumbered. This doesn't mean anything by itself, but there are a handful of moves (like the Thief's Catlike) that only work if you're unencumbered.

If anything is in your last few slots, you are clumsy and have disadvantage on all your rolls.  You don't ever want to have something in your clumsy slots, but sometimes it'll be necessary or worth it. "You want to throw Thorin out over your shoulder and carry him out? Okay, but he'll take up two clumsy slots and you'll need to dedicate one hand to keeping him there. You do it?"

Supplies

For the most part, you don't track the specific stuff that you've got on you, except for weapons and some small items that add flavor or utility at the start of the game. Rations, bandages, poultices & herbs, rope, lanterns, torches, etc.—it's all subsumed under Supplies.

Each set of Supplies takes up one inventory slot and, by default, gives you two uses. When you expend the last use, that inventory slot becomes free and you can put something else in there.

(Note: the number of uses is something I'm still a little uncertain about. I think "2" is right for one-shots and short-run games, where you're basically doing one shortish adventure; it's probably too little for games with slower paced, more extensive expeditions.)

You might expend Supplies...

• To produce an item (see Have What You Need)
• To clear someone else's "out of..." condition (see Share Supplies)
• When another move tells you to, or gives you the option (see Volley, Give Succor, and Make Camp, or numerous Background moves).
• Because the GM uses up your resources, and Supplies are it.
• Because the GM reveals an unwelcome truth, the truth being that (some of?) your Supplies are gone, or spoiled, or broken, or worthless, or whatever.
• The GM makes a different move, and it happens to come along with you losing Supplies

When a move says to "expend 1 Supplies" or "expend Supplies," it means tick off one use of Supplies. It doesn't mean "lose the whole inventory slot."

"Out of..."

Each playbook has a section for tracking things you might run out.of. There are standard check boxes for things everyone is likely to care about (food, water, ammo, healing supplies) and room to free-text in more. Some class and background moves introduce new things you can be "out of."

When you're out of __, you don't have any more than what's already explicitly established on your inventory. So, like, if you mark "out of candles" to produce one last candle (see below), you add that one candle to your Small Items list but that's it. No more candles.

Also, if you're out of __, you can't do things that require or assume that you have __. If you're out of ammo, you can't shoot someone with your bow. If you're out of healing supplies, you can't Give Succor.

You might end up marking "out of __" because:

• You Have What You Need, but mark "out of __" instead of expending Supplies
• Another move tells you to, or that you can (see Volley or Make Camp)
• You specifically decide to rid yourself or otherwise be out of __ ("I give the refugees all my food. I can find more!" or "I discard anything made of iron from my person, then head through the faerie door.")
• The GM makes a move, and it results in you being out of __.

At the GM's option, you can also mark "out of __" in lieu of expending 1 use of Supplies. For example, the GM might tell you to expend Supplies as your pack tears open, and you might be like "can I mark 'out of food' instead?" 

Once you are out of __, you're out of it until:

• You Resupply.
• Someone else (who isn't out of the same thing) Shares Supplies with you.
• Fictional circumstances change, so that you wouldn't be out of __ (like, maybe you find a stream and fill your wine skin, so you're no longer 'out of drink.' Or, maybe you scour the battlefield for arrows and find enough to clear 'out of ammo.')

Expending Supplies to Produce Items

This isn't on the moves list yet, but it will be. Here's how it works:

HAVE WHAT YOU NEED  

When you go through your gear and expend 1 use of Supplies, you produce a common, mundane item, something that you could have been carrying around. Add the item to your inventory. 

If the item you produce is small, you can mark "out of __" instead of expending Supplies. If you do, that's the last of that thing that you had.   

What exactly counts as "common & mundane" in your world depends entirely on what you establish in play. A magnetic compass might be common & mundane in an Age of Piracy game, but a magical wonder in a bronze-age Aegean Sea game. 

When you expend Supplies to produce an item, you tick off a use of Supplies and add the item to your inventory. If it's a small item, put in the Small Items section (if it can fit). Otherwise, it takes up a slot (or slots, if big) as normal.

• If that was the last use of that particular set of Supplies, that slot is now free. You can put the item you produced there.   
• If you end up having to put it in a clumsy slot, them's the breaks. I guess it was just really well packed before, and now, not so much.

Many backgrounds give you the ability to produce items other than the common & mundane. A Noble Scion Fighter can produce "fine, expensive items (but nothing unique, magical, or overly specific)." A Tomb Raider Thief can produce "strange, obscure, even minorly magical items, but only if you can tell us where you got them." As with "common & mundane" items, it's up to your group to work these things out at the table, based on established fiction and the spirit of these moves. 

If you mark "out of __" instead of expending Supplies, the GM decides exactly what you're out of. For example, if you mark "out of __" to produce a candle, the GM might tell you that you're out of candles, or that you're out of light sources. Their call.

Expending Supplies to Clear Another's "Out of..."

Again, this hasn't actually made it into the play kit yet, but here's how it works:

SHARE SUPPLIES 

When you share with an ally who's out of something, expend 1 use of Supplies to let them clear one "out of " box—as long as it's something you might reasonably have been carrying. 

Note that if a character ends up "out of __," where __ is one of those special things only they can produce, they can only clear that condition if the fiction would allow it. Like, if the Fae-touched Wizard is out of impossible things, they probably can't clear that check box just because the Fighter gives her 1 Supplies. 

Then again, maybe they can? 

Lilliastre (the Fae-touched Wizard): Hey Fighter, can you give me 1 use of Supplies so I can clear this "out of impossible things" condition?

GM: Ummm... hold on there, sport.

Lilliastre: No, it's cool. I give him a little tartan sack to carry for me, before we left. It was, like, shaking around a little. Like there was something alive in there.  

GM: ...  Rudiger, that cool with you? You're down with playing mule for Lilliastre's craziness?

Rudiger: Oh, sure. I trust Lilli. (Even though I shouldn't.)

GM: Okay, fine. Lilliastre, you can clear "out of impossible things," but Rudiger, you've got mark "out of impossible things" in addition to expending 1 Supplies. You do it?

Other Moves That Interact with Supplies

Lots of moves also interact with Supplies. The big ones are:

VOLLEY
When you launch a ranged attack, roll +DEX: on a 10+, you have a clear shot—deal your damage; on a 7-9, deal your damage but choose 1 from the list below.

• You have to move/hold steady to get the shot, placing you in danger of the GM’s choice
• Take what you can get: roll damage with disadvantage
• Expend 1 Supplies or mark “out of ammo.”

The idea being: you're running low on ammo (expending Supplies) or you're out. Note that if you're out of ammo, you're not going to be using Volley unless you clear that check mark (or you use thrown weapons).

GIVE SUCCOR
When you tend to someone’s ailments, expend 1 Supplies (or mark “out of healing supplies”) and roll +INT: on a 10+, either pick 2 from the list below or pick 1 and you don't need expend supplies after all; on a 7-9, pick 1:

• They heal 5 HP
• They clear a debility 
• Their dangerous wounds are stabilized 

Note that you have expend 1 Supplies or mark "out of healing supplies" before you roll and get any benefit. If you're already out of healing supplies, then you can't make the move.

MAKE CAMP

When you settle in to rest in a dangerous area,  someone must expend Supplies or mark “out of food” or mark "out of drink").

Then, take turns with the following:

• Give an example of how you’ve met your Drive’s requirement; if you can, mark XP
• Describe how your opinion of or relationship with another character has changed; if everyone agrees, mark XP
• Point out something awesome that another character did, that no one else has mentioned yet; if you do, mark XP

When you wake from at least a few hours sleep, choose 1. If you expend 1 use of Supplies, choose another.

• Regain HP equal to 1/2 your maximum
• Clear your debilities
• Gain advantage on your next roll

So: you need someone in the party to expend 1 Supplies or become out of food, or become out drink. 

If everyone in the party is out of food and out of drink, you can't Make Camp: no XP questions, no "when you wake from at least a few hours sleep, choose 1." You might sleep, sure, but you don't get the benefits of Make Camp unless someone spends the resources. Also: you're starting to starve and suffer dehydration. Expect the GM to make things worse and worse for you.

At the end of the move, after you wake from a few hours sleep, you (meaning you personally, you the one specific character) can expend 1 Supplies to get any extra choice. This is 1-use-of-Supplies-per-PC. You can swamp Supplies around to meet the requirement. (As with other uses of Supplies, you can potentially mark "out of __" instead. You'll probably end up out of food, drink, or healing supplies if you do.)

RESUPPLY
When you take the opportunity to resupply, regain any uses of Supplies and clear your “out of...” items. If you’re paying for it, a valuable item (like a pouch of coins) should cover the party.

What constitutes taking "the opportunity to resupply" is going to vary from group to group and game to game. In general, be fairly generous about it. 

If the opportunity is meager, dodgy, rushed, or otherwise less than sufficient, you can still let them Resupply but with a limit. Like, "You can Resupply here, yeah, but unless you want to spend a hour or so picking through the stuff, it'll be limited. You can each clear one 'out of' or one use of Supplies. If you spend the time, like an hour or so, you can clear everything but who knows what'll happen while you're futzing about."

How It (Hopefully) Plays Out

My hope is that the whole thing doesn't require much in the way of explanation up front, but instead becomes pretty self-evident through play.

Example 1: The party is heading into a dungeon and I'm like "It's dark down there, what do you do for light?" and the Fighter goes "do we, like, have a torch?"  And I'm like "sure, if you mark off 1 use of Supplies. Write that torch down in your inventory."

Example 2: Later, there's a deep shaft that they want to go down, and the Fighter is like "Oh, I expend 1 Supplies to have a rope!  We tie it off to this pillar and use it climb down."  No need to add it to inventory, cuz they're leaving it behind. However, the Fighter is now out of Supplies (because they only have 2 uses).  (Let's assume they don't have "More Supplies" in their inventory.)

Example 3: The PCs get in a fight. Afterwards, the Thief (with Supplies, 2 uses) tends to the Fighter's injuries using Give Succor. She expends 1 Supplies, gets a 7-9, chooses to heal the Fighter for 5 HP.  There's no immediate danger and the Fighter's pretty banged up, so she's like "Okay, I'll try again," but instead of expending her last use of Supplies, she decides to mark "out of healing supplies." She gets a 7-9 again, heals another 5 HP on the Fighter.  

Example 4:  There's another fight!  The Thief volleys and gets a 7-9.  Now, she's got a cozy little sniper spot and doesn't want to put herself in danger, and the target she's going after has like 3 HP and 2 armor, so she'd rather not take disadvantage to her damage. She looks at the 3rd choice for Volley: use up her last Supplies or mark "out of ammo."  It's a tough choice!  She even starts rethinking... maybe danger or disadvantage on the damage roll are better...

Example 5: The Thief did choose to run out of ammo, and now the fight's over. "Hey, can anyone loan me some arrows?"  And the Fighter's like "Can I?" to me. "Do you have any Supplies left?" I ask and he doesn't. "Can I mark 'out of ammo' myself..." he asks, and I'm like "are you even carrying any ammo? Like, do you have a bow?"  And the Fighter's all like "No" and mopey, but c'mon. He can't give the Thief ammo he doesn't have. 

Example 6: The Thief, though, is like "Can I try to reclaim some arrows from the battlefield?" and there's really no move for that (I mean, maybe it's Discern Realities, but this isn't "studying a situation," it's "hey GM, will this work?")  To which I can offer an opportunity with or without a cost or maybe have them roll the die of fate. "Maybe? Roll the die of fate.  A 4? Well, if you spend like 5 or 10 minutes poking around, you can probably track down enough arrows to clear your 'out of ammo' mark, but Fighter, that torch is starting to get a little low. Y'all sure you want to waste the time scrounging arrows?" They decide against it. 

Example 7: The party explores a little more, and then retreats back to the surface to rest (just as the torch is running out). The Fighter picks up that rope they left tied to the pillar and takes it with him, putting it in the slot that used have his Supplies.

They find a spot to make camp. Someone has to expend 1 Supplies or mark "out of food" or "out of drink."  The fighter's like "I'll be out of food." I ask them some questions about the grub they're eating, and how they've got a little left between them, and they're thinking about the road home, but there's no other real impact right now.

Example 8:  Next morning, they head back into the dungeon. Remember, the Fighter is out of food and out of Supplies; the Thief is out of ammo and has only 1 Supplies left.

Once again, they need a light. "I have to spend my last 1 Supplies for that?" "If you want a torch, yeah. You could produce something smaller, though, like a candle, but it'd be your last candle."  "How about, like, one of those oil lamps? The ones that look like a closed netti pot with a wick?"  I'm cool with that, but she'll have to mark "out of light sources," not just "out of oil lamps." She agrees, and down they go with a sputtering oil lamp to light the way.

(Notice that I'm not making them expend supplies for a flint and tinder with which to light the lamp or that torch they had earlier. Mostly because I forgot until just now. But that's a small item anyhow, and I'm fine with the Thief and Fighter both having one. If I'm going to be a stickler for it, we could have them mark "out of tinderboxes" and put a tinderbox in their inventory, but I'm not very interested in tracking that.)

Example 9: Not surprisingly, the PCs get into a fight and the Thief drops that oil lamp. It goes out and the oil spills all over, but I don't have the lamp break (for I am a generous GM).  After the fight, they spend some time crawling about the floor looking for the lamp and find it. The Thief gets it relit and I'm like "You've got very little oil left, just a few minutes of what's soaked into the wick already, what do you?" The Thief Has What She Needs again, but this time she's "out of lamp oil."

They've got a tough choice, now!  The Fighter's out of Supplies, so he can't really help with anything. The Thief has 1 Supplies left, and has an oil lamp with plenty of fuel, but is otherwise out of light sources and out of oil (and out of ammo, and healing supplies). If that light goes out, they're kinda screwed.

Example 10: We're getting toward the end of the session and they're feeling kinda nuts, so they press on. They get to an old, ancient door and it's got a weird, recessed pattern in it. They talk about how to get into it, and the Fighter's like "Want me to bash it down?" and the Thief (a Tomb Raider) is like "Wait, do I recognize these markings and whatnot."

Sounds like Spout Lore to me, and she rolls (with advantage, cuz: Tomb Raider + ruins) and gets a 10+. "It's a key hole; you need special metallic cube, where you slide certain parts in certain directions and it makes a unusual shapes, and then it'll fit into the recesses and you can open the lock. How do you know this?"  And the Thief tells us about the last ruins like this she delved in, and how she found one of those cubes and used it to jimmy the door.  And then she's like, "In fact, I still have it!" and she Has What She Needs to produce it (which she can do, because of the Tomb Raider background).

She could expend 1 Supplies, but it's a small thing, so she can also mark "out of __." "If I mark out of..., what will I be out of? Key-cubes?"  And I'm like, "No, you'll be out of strange, obscure things."  Worth it; she produces the cube and fiddles with it and opens the door. 

Example 11: The get in and there's some adventuring and someone gets hurt, and the Thief can't Give Succor to anyone cuz she's out of healing supplies. The Fighter can, though. He marks "out of healing supplies" and rolls +INT, and gets lucky with a 10+. He heals 5 HP for the Thief and chooses to not expend supplies after all. He can Give Succor again, and he does, and this time gets a 7-9. He's out of healing supplies (but the Thief got another 5 HP back).

Example 12: They found a big silver-banded chest filled with something heavy and presumably valuable (the Thief missed a Tricks of the Trade, and I told them the requirements: they want to find out what's inside, they'll need to bring it with them but it's big and clumsy.) The Fighter takes it, filling his last two inventory slots (two because its big and the last two because it's clumsy).  He's still got like 3 open "normal" slots, but this isn't something you can just put in a backpack. He's basically carrying it in both hands like it was moving day and this was a box full of books. His fingers and arms are burning.

They get about half-way out and there's a monster and they flee and it chases them. We resolve it by having the Struggle as One, and the Fighter has a choice: leave the chest behind or roll with disadvantage.  He goes for the roll, and biffs it. They Thief gets a 7-9, so can't help out, and the Fighter's in a spot. I have him trip and the chest smacks into the ground (but doesn't smash open, thankfully). The monster is almost on them, you can leave the chest and run or turn to face it, what do you do?

Example 13: The Fighter turns and faces it and is all like big and scary and tries to scare it back, trigger Parley (with advantage, cuz the Fighter is Intimidating).  He wants to get it to stop chasing them. He rolls, gets a 10+. I tell him that the thing is clearly hungry, and that you could distract it by throwing it some food. 1 Supplies worth ought to do it!

Alas, the Fighter is out of food (and Supplies). The Thief, though, has both. She marks out of food and tosses her food to the monster and they make their getaway.

Example 14:  They make their way outside, only to find that the Fighter's old boss and his thugs are there waiting for them, ready to steal the treasure they've rightfully looted. There's a fight. The Fighter drops the chest (so he's no longer clumsy) and draws a weapon and wades into the fray.

During the fight, the Thief is like "Can I Have What I Need to produce some poison? Or a smoke bomb?" Neither of those are "common & mundane" in my opinion, and the Fighter agrees, so the Thief is outvoted.

Example 15:  They end up fighting free of the thugs, but have to leave the chest behind. The Thief comes up with a clever plan involving rope (with the Fighter has), rocks, trees (readily available) and a fishing net. "You have a fishing net?" I ask and she's like "Yup, been carrying it around the whole time." She marks off her last use of Supplies and sure enough, has a fishing net.

Example 16: The Thief's plan (net, rope, trees, counterweights, decoys) works and we soon find a number of the thugs hanging from a net in the trees.  The Fighter and Thief go find their camp, kill the Fighter's old boss and the couple of goons who remained, and find the chest.

They also loot the camp, which counts as Resupplying. They have to work quickly, though (the guys in the net were already working themselves free when they left), so I ask them to Defy Danger with INT or DEX (their call).  Thief gets a 10+ and so she fully resupplies (back up to 2 uses of Supplies, no longer out of anything).  The Fighter gets a 7-9, so I tell him he can either get 2 uses of Supplies or clear his "out of..." check boxes. He's only out of food and healing supplies (and ammo, I guess; more like he never had any), so he opts to get the 2 Supplies.

They head off, taking turns hauling that chest but otherwise well provisioned!

Design Goals

It's probably worth describing the design goals behind all this, huh?

First and foremost, I wanted something that would make resource management and depletion a meaningful part of the game, particularly for one-shot or short-run games. When everyone starts with 5 uses of rations and you've got like 12 uses of bandages among the party, and the ranger and the thief each have 6 ammo, and and and... well, the PCs have so many resources to start that the scarcity mechanics (and the interesting decisions they drive) rarely come into play in a single, initial session.

Second, I wanted something that consolidated all those different resources. Sure, abstracting ammo and adventuring gear go a long way, but the differences between ammo, gear, bandages, poultice & herbs, halfling pipeweed, etc.—it's all a lot to take in for new players. So, consolidate them all into 1 thing: Supplies.

Third: counting Weight sucks, and almost no one remembers to do it. Especially not in a One-Shot. The PCs basically now all have Load 6 or 7, and items weigh either 0, 1, or 2. But inventory slots are way, way easier for people to process than "count your total Weight and compare it to your Load; you can can carry up to 2 Weight more than your Load but you're at a penalty!"  Make it visual.

Fourth: there should still be the possibility that you've got plenty of stuff left, but you're specifically out of X, and that causes you trouble (or at least limits options).  If you're out of ammo, you can't use your bow (even though you maybe have plenty of food left).  If you try wriggle free from the assassin vine and get a 7-9 I might be like "okay, you get free, but the rope on your pack got snagged on the thorns and you had to leave it behind, mark out of rope." And that's like a Chekhov's gun, a note to self that I should show off the downside of not having rope.  

Fifth: It should all be relatively intuitive.  I found that it was. I didn't have to explain, like, any of the stuff above during my first playtest, and the players all thought the system was really elegant. 

Sixth: I really liked the idea of each Background interacting with the gear system in some way, sometimes subtly and sometimes obviously. Almost all of the Backgrounds do this. And in the first playtest, the Background/gear moves all came into play, in some pretty clutch ways.

Closing Thoughts

I'm overall really pleased with how this has come together, and how it's so-far worked in play. I've still got some concerns, though: 

• I'm really unsure if I've calibrated the uses-per-inventory-slot correctly. We had 3 per slot in the first playtest and it felt like way too much to me; hence, 2.  
• The Give Succor move originally had "don't expend supplies" as one of it's bullet point choices, and it was "pick 2 (on a 10+) or pick 1 (on a 7-9).  That made it too easy to spam.  So now, on a 7-9, you don't have the option of conserving supplies. . 

If you've got opinions or questions, I'd love to hear them (in the comments, on G+, or via Hangouts).  Thanks for reading!

Homebrew World

Homebrew World is the working title for my mini-hack of Dungeon World, optimized for one-shots and short-term campaigns.

Playbooks from my first time running this

You can find the most current print version right here:

Current print version

And here's the version for online play, using Google Sheets:

Current online version

So what's different?

• Most +1/-1 modifiers are replaced with advantage/disadvantage (roll an extra die, discard the lowest/highest).
• Parley is completely different; it’s as much an info-gathering move as it is a “convince them” move. Also: works on PCs.
• Aid and Interfere are rewritten as well. Aid is now “grant advantage but with risk” and Interfere is its own thing.
• Less dramatic rewrites of Hack and Slash, Defend, and Defy Danger. 
• Expendables (rations, bandages, etc.) are condensed into “Supplies.” Adventuring gear is now a combo of undefined "load" and expending Supplies. Ammo is tracked as a "status" on weapons/equipment. Shields give a bonus to Defend.
• Most “Special” moves are gone. Undertake a Perilous Journey is replaced with Venture Forth. I’ve included a couple of my favorite custom moves for speeding up play.
• There are only 3 debilities, and each affects two stats. But they’re easier to clear.
• XP and leveling are different, because this is meant for one-shots or short-term play. You get XP on a miss or when you Make Camp (instead of at end of session). An advance costs only 5 XP. You can burn XP to give yourself a +1 on a roll you just made.
• No more “big number” on stats, just the modifier. Likewise, HP is now a set number per class.
• “Race” is just part of your look. But everyone has a choice of Backgrounds, which replace the “race” moves and that give you a series of bond-like questions to use during intros.
• Drives instead of Alignments; same mechanic but less baggage.
• Many changes (some small, some big) within the classes themselves. 
• There are two versions of the Fighter: one that's all skill and steel and guts, and the other (the Wielder) that's all about their special weapon. 

If I was going to be in charge of DW 2.0, this is a lot of what it would look like. 

Homebrew World was largely inspired by Yochai Gal's One Shot World (which you should totally look at, too; it's free, closer to "core" DW, and the materials he includes for GM support are great.)  It also owes a debt to Peter J, whose Dungeon World Quick Start Pack (no longer available) first got me thinking about this sort of thing.

If you have questions about Homebrew World, let me know in the comments, via Google Hangouts, or by email (jack underscore blackfoot at the yahoo company).  Likewise, if you play Homebrew World, I'd love to hear about it!

Stonetop

Stonetop is my "hearth fantasy" hack of Dungeon World, and my biggest ongoing project.

Image via Jason Lutes

From the introduction chapter:

No one knows how the Stone got there, or what the runes cut into its surface might mean. Few even remember how the village sprang up around it. When storms roll up and the Stone pulls lightning from the sky, outsiders cringe and cower. But us? We barely even notice.

We live here, see. This village, Stonetop—it’s our home. It’s not a glamorous place, far from it. But we look out for each other. We might not always get along, but we’re a community. Everyone contributes. Everyone shares.

And right now, as the first wildflowers bloom in the Flats and the trees bud in the Great Wood, trouble is a-brewing. The world itself is darkening, like the sky before a late-summer storm. Everyone can feel it. Folks are getting scared.

You and me? We’re the ones folk look to when they’re scared. Like it or not, we’re the brave ones. The clever ones. And yeah, sure, the strange ones, too.

These are good people, here in Stonetop. Our kith and our kin.

If we don’t step up to protect them, who will?

The PCs play the local heroes of a small, isolated village in an iron age that never was. The giant ruins of the Makers lie half-buried all around. The Fae dance in the Great Wood. The Things Below plot and dream and, recently, they stir. And all sane folk avoid deep water, for there dwell things, things that slither forth and drag you to your doom. Everyone knows this.

The game's core conceit is that it's centered on the PC's home town. It's still (mostly) a game about going on adventures, but those adventures happen to defend the town or to improve it. The steading itself gets its own playbook, with stats and improvements to be unlocked.

I've been working on this for a long time. It's a playable game.  I'm in the process, now, of turning it into a full-fledged product.  Jason Lutes is doing art direction, editing, and layout and publishing under his imprint, Lampblack & Brimstone. Artwork is by the amazing Lucie Arnoux. 

Here's a taste of the game:

• The Setting Overview, with plenty of blanks for you to fill in during play
• Moves & gear
• Steading Playbook
• The Heavy, this game's version of the fighter
• The Would-be Hero, who's in over their head but might outshine us all
• The Seeker, definitely not a wizard
• Some of the major arcana the Seeker might start with: the Staff of the Lidless Orb, the Azure Hand, and the Twisted Spear. 
• A visual tutorial of the gear and inventory system
• A preview chapter: Running Stonetop 

You can learn more here. If you're interested in playtesting, and have a group that's willing to play at least 3 sessions and give feedback, hit me up on G+, via Hangouts, or below in the comments. We Kickstarted on March 1, 2021. If you missed the Kickstarter, you can pre-order here. 

If you pre-order, you get access to the current PDFs and the Stonetop Discord server. Alas, Backerkit doesn't have a way to automatically send you that info, so we send out emails in batches to new backers every month or so.