My recipe for starting adventures

I've got a little process that I use whenever I start a game of Dungeon World or Homebrew World. It's similar to the first session procedure that's described in the book, but different in some key ways. I've found that this approach reliably kicks off a new game quickly and with a lot of energy, in a way that makes it pretty darn easy to run and improvise.  

Here's the recipe:

1. Establish the adventure's premise with the group
     > Premise = a fantastic location + a grabby activity
     > Do this before anyone picks playbooks or makes characters
   
   
2. Players create characters, GM writes/updates hook questions, which should establish:
     > Motive: why are they here, doing this?
     > Stakes: what's on the line, why is this important?
     > Urgency: why shouldn't they dawdle?
     > Dangers: what do they expect to face? what do they know about them?
     > Detail: what specifically are they hunting/seeking/fleeing/fighting/etc.?
     > Complications: what's getting in the way? making it harder? constraining them?
   
   
3. Do introductions (by name, pronouns, class, and look).
     > Do not do bonds (or in Homebrew World, background questions) just yet. 
     > You're just establishing who the characters are.
     > Yes, you can ask questions, but keep it light for now.
   
   
4. Ask a few of your hook questions
     > Usually 1-3
     > Pick questions that elaborate on or clarify the premise
     > Address specific PCs, not the group at large
     > Ask follow-up questions; encourage the players to do so, too!
   
   
5. Do bonds (or in Homebrew World, background questions)
     > Ask follow-up questions; encourage the players to do so, too!
     > Use this to establish how they know each other, why they're working together
   
   
6. Finish asking your hook questions
     > Doing bonds/background questions often rolls naturally into this
     > Ask follow-up questions; encourage the players to do so, too!
     > Ask additional questions as they occur to you
   
   
7. Frame the initial scene, tightly
     > Start in media res or at least right on the verge of action
     > Who, where, when, doing what?
     > Give up to 3 strong impressions, ideally from different senses
     > Make a soft GM move
     > "What do you do?"

That's the recipe!  More about the background, details, and suggested prep after the jump break.

I keep hearing good things about Delicious in Dungeon,
but haven't read it; just seemed appropriate, y'know? Cuz recipes.

42 Minor Magical Items, Thief Edition

I had just downed a coffee stout and a bunch of cookies last night, so I was feeling both wired and unfocused. That's my perfect state for brainstorming, so I challenged the DW Discord to help come up with 40 minor magical items for thieves.  We got 41 in 39 minutes. (#42 came to me while I was compiling this list.)

Here are the fruits of our tipsy labor. Attribution given for each; if there's no attribution, it was mine.

1. A vial of ink. When you write something with the ink, say someone’s name. Only they can see the writing.
2. A worn leather purse. No one ever notices it or pays attention to it unless they see you open it.
3. Sticky gloves. When you touch something smaller and lighter than your palm, wrap your hand around it and cross your fingers - it sticks until you cross your fingers the other way. (Caiphon)
4. A pair of gloves. Whenever you touch something magical while wearing them, the magic thinks you’re whoever you last shook hands with while wearing the gloves.
5. Whisper powder. Spread it around in a circle. Noise made inside the circle is never louder than a whisper to anyone outside the circle.
6. Letter-opener. First, spread it over a piece of writing like you're spreading butter. Then, open a letter - the opened letter becomes a copy of the original piece of writing. (Caiphon)
7. Incongruous Hat. While you wear this hat, any stranger who sees you will remember the hat (and your features) differently.
8. Dagger of Silent Death. This stiletto completely silences anyone's whose flesh it pierces. No more screaming guards! (Marcus)
9. Sculpting putty. Shape this soft putty however you like, then tap a special tuning fork and touch it (still vibrating) to the clay. The clay sets hard in exactly its current shape, as tough as strong ceramic. Another touch from the tuning fork shatters it.
10. Thorn rope. Twist one end of this rope, and the fibers become razor sharp, making it deadly to climb up or slide down. (Caiphon)
11. Second Story Shoes. These comfortable loafers let you jump great vertical distances, perfect for getting to those second story balconies. Warning: they provide no protection from falls, nor do they make it easier to jump down from great heights. (Marcus, w/edits)
12. Affinity box. Anything you place in the box will be considered extremely valuable and desirable by anyone other than you.
13. Chewie Manacles. Normal manacles, but they pop open with a guttural command word.
14. Nightlight. This small lantern glows with a dim purplish light which is only visible to the one holding the lantern. (Marcus)
15. Sleepytime Flute. Playing a soft tune on this instrument for a few minutes will lull everyone nearby into a light slumber. They're easily awoken, and you feature prominently in their dreams. (Marcus, w/edits)
16. Fire moth. A little jar holding a tiny, mostly tame fire elemental. Will flit around you and generally go where you please. Doesn’t usually set very much on fire. Usually.
17. Dominoes Mask. While you wear the mask, you can always ask the GM "How can I get out of here?" and get an honest (though perhaps convoluted) answer. Gain advantage on your next roll (or take +1 forward) to act on the answer, but only if you do so in an audacious or spectacular  manner. (Caiphon, w/edits)
18. Bug shoes - shoes that allow you to stick to the ceiling, if you can get up there... (Mangofeet)
19. Deck of useless items. Shuffle the deck, draw a card. Its face displays some unlikely, generally worthless mundane item. Tear the card in two and the item appears in your hand. A replacement card magically appears in the deck, but it will never show the same item twice.
20. Talk-pick. Place this lock pick in a lock, and spend a minute whispering words of encouragement - it will pick a non-magical lock hands-free. (Caiphon)
21. Taster Demon. A very small demon, like a grumpy slug with teeth. Lives in a vial. A connoisseur of poisons, it knows them all by taste or scent and will happily tell you all about them. Much louder voice than you'd expect.
22. Catching mitt. Throw this glove at anything flying towards you, and it will catch it and fall gently to the ground. (Caiphon)
23. Hand of glory, lesser. A candle made of a hanged criminal’s hand. Carry it while lit, and no one will notice you as long as you move slowly, make little noise, and don't touch anything. (Dialas the Spellbreaker, with edits)
24. Hand of glory, greater. Carry it while lit, and everyone in its light except you is paralyzed.
25. Weighted Dice/Rigged Deck. This normal-looking gaming accessory returns whatever result the owner wills. (Marcus)
26. Trick pockets. Whatever you put in one pocket can be pulled out of the other. Yes, you can remove them and sew them onto different articles of clothing.
27. Signal whistle. A whistle and earring set. Only someone wearing the earring can hear the whistle. (Toasters)
28. Listening wire. A spool of enchanted copper wire. Wrap one piece around your ear, and then around your midsection. When you speak the command word, it records the next few minutes of conversation. Each strand can store only one conversation. (Caiphon)
29. Gem of thought-storing. A semi-precious stone that you can whisper thoughts or memories into. You forget them until you hold the stone and ask for them back.
30. A deck of playing cards. Playing games of chance with them reveals players' secret plans (via interpreting the cards they are dealt). (Caiphon)
31. Stubborn twine. Animated, unbreakable, uncuttable. Smart as a three-year-old. Can talk, has many absurd or backwards opinions.
32. Doorvish Ale. Break this bottle on a door, then drink as much as you can from the spill. You'll cough up a key to the door. (Caiphon)
33. Purple lipstick, made of powdered oblivion moss. Kiss someone while wearing it and they forget something they were just thinking about. You learn it.
34. Ear Worm. You put this worm in your ear and it sings a super catchy tune that you can't help but dance to. The benefit comes from the fact that this dance makes you uncannily good at dodging traps and attacks as you bob and weave to the beat. (Marcus)
35. A pair of corks, each with a different rune. Anything in a bottle sealed by the first cork will seep into the bottle sealed by the other.
36. Dupli-dice. Anything you place as a bet with these dice is duplicated after the roll. Weighting the dice breaks the spell. (Caiphon)
37. Shadow gossamer. A small bundle of fine gauzy black silk. Unfurl it and it becomes an area of extra dark shadows.
38. Ring of 1001 keys. Fits in a pocket, only seems to have like 10ish keys at once, but there are many, many more.
39. Spy shell. Say one magic word and this conch shell starts to record what it hears. Say another, put your eat to it, and it plays it back.
40. Passwall Chalk. Drawing a portal (circle, doorway, etc) on a wall creates an opening that persists just long enough for one person to jump through. (Marcus)
41. Distraction in a box. A little music box. Crank it and leave it somewhere. After awhile, it starts making noises that sound like (roll 1d6): 1. a riot starting; 2. insults; 3. guards calling alarms; 4. a woman shrieking for help. 5. A large animal roaring. 6. GM makes something up. (Dialas the Spellbreaker, with edits)
42. Swindler's Purse. Finely embroidered with silken thread, in patterns that are never the same. Put something in the purse. When you pull it out, it will appear to be something else of similar size and weight, something of considerable value. You have no control over what it will be. The illusion lasts until you tell a lie.
    
    -BONUS late addition-
43. Sleeve Snake. A small magical serpent-construct that hides in your coat or under your shirt. Swallows small objects (coins, gems, etc.) that are slipped up your sleeve. Can spit them back out on command, in reverse order (last item in, first item out).  (Jimmeh, w/edits)

Online Version of Homebrew World

I just finished creating an online character keeper for Homebrew World. Check it out!

Current online version

You'll need to save your own copy in order to use it. Instructions on the first tab (GM Stuff). 

The main action happens on the PCs tab: there are columns for each class playbook, with the intention that you'd collapse the unused classes and have everyone's character sheet visible on one widescreen monitor.  Or, close to everyone's sheets... if you're doing 3 PCs it'll probably work. 4+ and you'll have to do some horizontal scrolling. 

Lots of vertical scrolling will be involved no matter what. I have my doubts about how usable this would be for folks on a mobile device, but for a laptop or desktop with a widescreen monitor available, I think it'll be a pretty solid solution. 

I've tried to preserve most of the "functionality" of the printed playbooks, including pick-lists and the layout of the Gear sections. Aside from collapsing/expanding groups, I'd advise against making any changes that trigger the "You’re trying to edit part of this sheet that shouldn’t be changed accidentally" warning.  Don't insert rows or columns, don't copy/paste anything.  It's fairly brittle, unfortunately. 

If you use these, please drop a line in the comments and let me know how they work for you and your group!

The G+ Archives

Today is April 2, 2019, and those of us who regularly used Google+ are sitting waiting for the end. Google announced that the platform would go down sometime today. As of this moment, it's still there. But the end is soon.

G+ was mostly ignored by the larger world, but it was a hotbed of activity for the RPG scene. The initial integration with Hangouts meant that bloggers and other RPG folks could easily coordinate and play games with each other online. That led to a critical mass of gamers--especially indie RPG and OSR gamers--hanging out and talking on G+, and it became a sort of constant, ongoing salon. Ideas where exchanged, friends and partnerships were established. There was drama, yes, and schisms and bad actors. But overall: it was really something.

In the past few months, I've used Friends+Me's Google+ Exporter to archive about 30 RPG communities and back them up onto WordPress sites. Those archives live here:

https://gplusarchive.online

The archived communities are:

• Blades in the Dark
  
• The Dungeon World Tavern
• Inverse World
• Lampblack & Brimstone
• Planarch Codex: Astral Repository
• Stonetop
• Worlds of Adventure
  
• Powered by the Apocalypse
• Alas for the Awful Sea
• Bluebeard's Bride
• Epyllion
• Legacy: Life Among the Ruins
• Masks: A New Generation
• Monster of the Week Roadhouse
• Monsterhearts
• Nahual
• Night Witches
• Pasión de las Pasiones
• Sagas of the Icelanders
• The City of Judas
• The Sprawl
• The Veil
• The Watch
• Uncharted Worlds
• Urban Shadows
• Veil 2020
• Velvet Glove
• Wheel Tree Press (the Sword, the Crown, and the Unspeakable Power, Time Cellist, Greenlight)
• World Wide Wrestling
• Worlds in Peril
  
• The Gauntlet

Together, there are about 37,000 posts and 282,000 comments saved.  My hope is that people of the future can continue to reference these communities, not just as historical artifacts but as a source of wisdom and insight. There is gold buried in these archives. In the future, I intend to mine some of it for this blog. I hope others do likewise. 

If I didn't archive your community: I'm sorry. It wasn't an intentional thing. I started with the ones that I was active and involved in, then expanded to various communities related to PbtA games.  I feel bad that I didn't get any OSR communities, but I was never directly involved in those and didn't even know where to start.

Cheers.

-Jeremy

42 magic swords

the truth

We did some brainstorming on the DW Discord a little while back. 30 magic swords, no more than two sentences each. We came up with 30 in just under an hour. Then folks kept going. Enjoy.

1. A singing sword, floating in the darkness for ages, guarding this now-empty ruin from intruders yet so, so lonely. Jeremy Strandberg
2. A sword carved from the thigh bone of a Nephilim. Bane to both demons and angels, bleeds in the presence of either. Jeremy Strandberg
3. Shifter's Demon, this scimitar is engraved with the phases of the moon along the blade.  Any shapechanger who views the weapon finds themselves stuck constantly shifting between all their forms in agony. Torin Blood
4. A blade of ice that never melts. Extinguishes nearby fires when drawn. You’re never too warm or too hot in while you wield it, but neither do you feel any urgency or sense of passion (Your Drive for any session in which you wield it becomes “let a problem escalate while you do nothing.") Jeremy Strandberg
5. Marcu's miracle shortsword. A plain merchant guard's sword, passed from hand to hand for generations.  The wielder of the blade will never lose at a dicing game so long as it has been used in defence of a merchant in the last month. Torin Blood
6. Sidhe’s Lament, a scimitar of black starmetal  that hums with the music of the spheres when rapped on metal. The longer you fight with it, the greater its volume and vibration, until glass shatters and stones crack around you. Jeremy Strandberg
7. A sword carved of white wood, handle worn smooth and tiny notches chipped up and down the blade. Not much use against steel, but perfectly capable of beating the crap out of ghosts, wraiths, specters, and the like... won’t destroy them, but sure gives ‘em a lickin’. Jeremy Strandberg
8. The Slithering Steel of Abraxcus. This twisted and serrated sword breaker seems to always be in motion when held.  The blade shifts to always wrap around and trap weapons that attack the wielder. Torin Blood
9. Gefyn, a gladius of exceptional quality. It has endured millennia of constant wars and fighting. When sharpened, it never seems to lose material. Halsver
10. A sword made of leaves woven together with spider silk and magically hardened with the blood of an ancient elf. The memories of the elf come to the wielder as horrific dreams. Torin Blood
11. A leaf-shaped blade of orichalcum, dull red and no cross guard. When you cut or stab a creature infected by the Things Below, it burns like the heat of three forges and sears flesh and bone. Jeremy Strandberg
12. A longsword, stained crimson after being quenched in dragon's blood.  Light reflected from the blade reveals wounds that will be suffered within the next week. Torin Blood
13. The Historian's Lament. A rapier that, when thrust into any book, makes it so the book was never written. The wielder of the blade instantly learns everything that was in the book. Torin Blood
14. A serrated greatsword made of a single crystal. It is said when the sword sings a new age has dawned. Torin Blood
15. No blade, just a hilt with a grip wound in copper wire.  When you brandish it with confidence, a white blade of lightning forms—cuts clean through any metal but also discharges dangerous bolts at random. Jeremy Strandberg
16. Macco, the pacifist's katana. This blade appears to be ethereal and will pass through inanimate objects with no resistance. Deemed useless by hasty warriors, the thoughtful practitioner will recognize a slow pull against a moving object will realize a perfect clean slice. Halsve
17. A grim, notched iron sword, spotted with reddish flakes (rust? blood? both or neither?). When you wound someone with the sword but do not kill them, the wound will never fully heal, nor will it fester or get worse. Jeremy Strandberg
18. Goran's Eternity Severance,  an extremely ornate and gem-encrusted claymore. It passes harmlessly through all living material  but utterly consigns to oblivion the soul of any corpse it touches. Torin Blood
19. Bronze sword that once belonged to a petty warlord who trucked with the Things Below. When you wield the sword, those who follow you know no fear and their morale and commitment never falters (but if you wield the sword during a session, your Drive becomes “prove your superiority over another”) Jeremy Strandberg
20. A pair of earrings like tiny, graceful scimitars. Until you take them off your ears, at which point they become a pair of full-sized, graceful scimitars. Jeremy Strandberg
21. Juliana, blade of vengeance. Forged by a simple farmer with a singular purpose, this crude blade is dull in the hands of the dispassionate. When wielded by those mourning a lost love, it burns with a brilliant blue flame and a haunting child's voice whispers to its foes. Halsver
22. A simple, perfectly crafted blade of dull gray steel. Anyone who sees you draw it sees a perfectly clear, perfectly convincing vision of you cutting them down with it. Jeremy Strandberg
23. Ghostblade, sword of the old god. This blade doesn't cut through metal, flesh and bone, but instead bypasses the mortal shell, and strikes at soul and spirit. Slothman
24. Thornblight, a greatsword of what looks like an impossibly big and perfectly napped shard of obsidian. Cuts through wood, vines, briars, and any other vegetation like it was soft clay. Jeremy Strandberg
25. Purity. This longsword was forged in the blood of a dying angel. When wielded by one of pure heart and purpose, it enhances their power. When welded selfishly or in vengeance, it becomes a mundane blade. Slothman
26. A bronze blade with a hilt of shell and coral, always wet and glistening. Fog and mist billow around it, thicker and deeper the long it’s unsheathed, until eventually... things slither out of the fog. Jeremy Strandberg
27. Kuzzleyuff, a strange parrying dagger which is incredibly heavy and features an intricate mechanism that spins and rotates rapidly on the hilt. The dagger is clumsy to use intentionally, but will perfectly parry any strike that you fail to notice. Halsver
28. A blade of black iron quenched in the blood of a dozen innocent men. Cuts through any magical charms, wards, abjurations, or protections. Jeremy Strandberg
29. Plowshare. A historic gift from one king to another to sue for peace. This completely dull blade is useless in combat, but gives advantage on Parley. If ever used to kill, the magic leaves it and the killer is forever branded a tyrant and murderer to all who see him ChibiYossy
30. The first sword ever crafted, a crude and ugly thing. Every blow struck with it kills, but anyone who kills with it will be struck a killing blow by the next sword they face. Jeremy Strandberg
31. Chissors, a pair of blades that seem immutably attracted to one another. Once separated, they will remain apart until they both strike in tandem, shearing through their target and fixing to one another again. Halsver
32. Rotsman’s sidearm. This obsidian and ceramic blade is immune to all forms of corrosion and acid produced by slimes, jellies, pudding, and fungi. Also has many clever notches and serrations and can function as a pry bar, hatchet, saw, or entrenching tool in a pinch. Breaks easily on any kind of hard target like armor. ChibiYossy
33. Siddew's Way, a short sword with a core of rough hewn stone and ore encased in polished red bronze blade. This blade is invaluable to the adventurer in a hurry, when struck against an obstacle the sword points in a novel direction that is indeed a short-cut. Halsver
34. A bronze shortsword that once stabbed a black dragon through its skull and deep into it brain. Now has a greenish tinge, and constantly seeps a vicious acid when exposed to air (kept in a fitted glass sheath... don’t break it). Jeremy Strandberg
35. Blackbriar. A black blade made of polished living black ironwood. Has green shoots and vines growing out of it. Poisoned, but you have to water it regularly and expose it to sunlight every day, or it withers and dies, useful only as firewood. Not for dungeon delving! ChibiYossy
36. Some things are better in pairs. This set of two daggers glow a dull red when anyone who identifies as law enforcement is near.  The pair only works when together. Torin Blood
37. Captain Cutthroat's Cutlass, this rather large and ornate sword once belonged to a famous pirate. It bears a peculiar enchantment, when held against a person's neck, if that person lies about the whereabouts of their most valuable possession it sizzles like a hot pan. Halsver
38. The North Star is a long, thin, flat blade that has an ornate star map engraved in to its blade. This sword only ever points north, and is constantly parallel to the ground, even when sheathed or fighting. Burch
39. The Deceiver is a slender silver rapier that is actually considerably longer than it looks, having reach despite appearing to onlookers as a regular (if expensive looking) weapon. It fits in a normal sized scabbard without issue. Helicity
40. Heward’s Handy Dirk. This appears to be an ordinary leather belt buckle, but it's enchanted with a magic similar to a bag of holding. Grab the buckle in a certain way and pull, and you'll draw a steel short sword as if from a scabbard. Great for smuggling a weapon somewhere it’s not supposed to be... ChibiYossy
41. Jackal’s Tooth. This scrappy, curved blade does +2 damage to any opponent bigger than the wielder, and -2 damage to any opponent smaller. Pick on someone your own size! ChibiYossy
42. Blade of the Wailing Dead. When unsheathed, this blade causes all corpses in the area to animate. They follow the commands of the the wielder until the weapon is sheathed again.  Should the blade ever come into contact with a living creature, the wielder will immediately die and turn into a skeleton that cannot be destroyed until the creature the blade wounded dies. Torin Blood

30 Minor Magical Items, Ranger Edition

Over on the DW Discord, Yochai Gal asked for a brainstorm of minor magical items that might be relevant to a ranger.  I had just had a few cups of coffee so I spammed him with answers.  Here you go.  (Most of these are mine; attribution given to those by others.)

1. When you state a natural substance, this wristband grows warmer as you near it. (by Tam)
2. Jerky that lasts forever as long as you only eat a single bite of it. (by Tam)
3. A magic map that paints itself as you go. (by Tam)
4. Terracotta birds.  Get one wet and it turns into a real bird, goes where you send it.
5. Folding campfire, put it in your pocket and take it with you
6. Paint/chalk that can only be seen by people also marked by that paint/chalk
7. The classic elven camo cloak, helps you hide in outdoor areas (by Helicity)
8. Adventure-proof satchel.  Stuff inside never gets wet. Burn, cut, puncture, shatter proof.  Only holds 2 weight (or similar). 
9. Tracking arrow... you always know where it is.
10. Carved mask, like stylized animal.  When you wear it, natural creatures and spirits of the wild treat you as if you were that animal.
11. Self-stringing bow. Will regenerate it's own string if cut. Made of cartilage, kinda gross.
12. An everburning torch that can't be seen from more than 20 feet away.
13. A signal whistle/horn that can only be heard by people you want to hear it.
14. Myrlund's Spoon (put it in a bowl, it generates gross-but-nutritious food)
15. An iron pot that, when covered, brings any water inside to a boil.
16. Everfull canteen
17. Pocket tent (comfortable pop-tent for one person, two if they're intimate; folds up to a 1 weight item)
18. Boots of trackless step (you leave no trail to follow)
19. A handful of seeds that sprout into a large patch of nasty plants (brambles, poison ivy etc, your choice) (by Helicity)
20. A bit of Elbis root (3 uses): when you eat some, expend 1 use and clear a debility.
21. Vineseed (3 uses): plant a vineseed in rich soil and it will quickly grow a supple vine, about 50 ft long.
22. Gili cloak:  wrap the cloak around you stay still, and you'll look and smell like a local shrub or plant to all observers.
23. Bag of leaflings:  reach into the bag and pull out a leaf, it animates as a little forest spirit.  Can deliver messages, spy, scout ahead, that sort of thing.
24. Gloves & boots that let you climb and leap like a squirrel or monkey
25. Magical pigments that let you move through underbrush, briars, etc. unimpeded
26. Pouch full of dirt (1 wt); throw a handful of dirt on a fire (up to a bonfire in size) and it's instantly doused
27. Handful of bright blue feathers. Put them in your hand and blow them in a particular direction. The prevailing winds will soon shift to blow in that direction, too.  
28. 2d8 pearls. Drop a pearl in water and it produces a blanket of fog maybe 30 paces across. More pearls equal wider/thicker fog.
29. A vial filled with eagle tears (5 uses). Drip a use into your eyes, you can see with an eagle's vision for the next 10 minutes or so. Good luck looking at anything close up in the meantime.
30. A paste of pale leaf. Smear it under your nose and your sense of smell becomes as keen as a wolf's.

In Defense of Discern Realities

I posted this essay on G+ back in 2016. At the time, there was a lot of talk and swirl on the Dungeon World Tavern about whether Discern Realities was a good move, and when it triggered, and how to use it. This was my response.  I'm re-posting it here to make it easier to find, and as (hopefully) the beginning of a series of posts on using Discern Realities. I've added some formatting and cleaned up a few typos, but it's otherwise unchanged from the original. 


I love the move. It's one of favorite things about DW. It's not perfect, and it occasionally grinds gears. But it consistently moves my games forward in ways that I'd never anticipate otherwise.

When does Discern Realities trigger?

In the previous thread, there was a lot of back and forth about when you should or shouldn't trigger Discern Realities. The trigger in the move (closely study a situation or person) is pretty wide open; I can see where the confusion comes from.

In play, I rarely find there to be any confusion. It triggers when I ask a player what they do, and they describe doing something with the intent of gaining more information.

• "I'll toss the room, looking for valuables."
• "I'm gonna take a closer look at that wall."
• "I'm staying just outside the clearing, looking the hovel up and down."
• "I keep my hand near my sword, but size these guys up."
• "I peer out into the darkness, looking for threats."
• "I try to calm down, take it all in, figure out what's going on."
• "I'll wander about the area, looking for tracks or spoor or other sign of big game."

I can hear the objections: "But XYZ isn't a situation!"

Of course it's a situation. Didn't you just make a GM move?  And ask them what they do?  This is Dungeon World. Think Dangerous and fill their lives with adventure. Something bad is almost always right around the corner.

Now, sometimes you'll ask them what they do, and they won't tell you.  They'll ask you a question instead. That in and of itself is probably not Discern Realities. That's them asking you to do your job (How to GM > Describe the situation, Make moves)

GM:  "You enter the room. There's a rumpled, musty bed in the corner, a dusty old bookshelf, a frayed tapestry on the wall showing, um... like a forest with a castle in the background and like a few dudes on horseback in the foreground.  There's no door but the one you came in. What do you do?"  (Notice I didn't really make a move there.) 

Wizard:  "What's on the bookshelf?" (Not Discern Realities; just asking something that should be apparent.) 

GM: "There's probably a dozen old tomes on the top shelves, and some brickabrack on the bottom shelves. You can't really see them well from the doorway, especially not in torchlight. You get closer?"  (Tell them the requirements & ask) 

Wizard:  "Yeah, sure. I step in and peer at the books, what do I see?" 

GM: "Ooh, yeah, now that you're closer you can see that a few of them are definitely tomes of magic! But as the torchlight flickers, you see a... shifting? shimmering? Like there's some sort of almost unseen field between you and those books.  What do you do?"  (Offer riches at a price) 

Wizard: "Huh. Like a forcefield or something?" 

GM:  "Could be. It's just this vague shimmering in the air. Like a heat shimmer, but not as intense. You barely saw it."  (No GM move. Just clarifying what the player already perceived.) 

Wizard:  "Okay, I'll slowly move the torch around, trying the find the edges of that ripple." 

GM:  "Ah!  Sounds like you're studying the situation closely! Discern Realities!"

But Why Do the Questions Have to Come From the List?

Yeah, it's partly a holdover from Apocalypse World. And it's definitely the most jarring part of the move. For example, in my moving-the-torch-around-to-find-the-edges example, the player might be like "dude, I just want to find the edges... that's not one of the questions!"

But here's the part that's brilliant: the questions force them to ask something meaningful.  Something that will propel the situation forward into action or deeper into context.  If you just answer the question "where is the edge of the shimmering effect," you're just encouraging pixel bashing.  Seriously. What happens next? Nothing about that answer will propel the situation forward.

The Discern Realities questions? They almost always will propel the situation. (Even "What happened here recently?" will likely add information that deepens the overall scene. "Nothing," you might say, "the way the dust has built up, not just on the bookshelf but on the floor and the bed... no one's been here for years." That's way more interesting and meaningful than "6-inches from the top center book.")

Another reason the questions are great: they force the player to prioritize. What are they looking for, really?  Are they more concerned about threats ("What should I be on the lookout for?") or opportunities ("What here is useful or valuable to me?") or deception ("What here isn't what it appears?") or or or.  The move forces them to pick.

(By the way, if it really bugs you or them, try this: let them ask more-or-less any question they want, but answer one the questions from the Discern Realities list--whichever one is the closest match. Can't tell which one is the closest match? Ask them questions about what they're hoping to find, or about how they do it, until you know.)

On a 10+, the questions make them think more broadly. They got what they were most interested in, but now... what else might they glean from the situation? This is where I find the most fun happens.

Wizard: "Um, first question... I guess, what is about to happen? I'm trying to figure out what this field does." 

GM: "Okay, cool. You find the edges of the shimmering field, about 6 inches from the books, yeah.  And as you carefully move the torch closer, the field almost starts to... solidify? No, more like... tense.  You're pretty sure it's about to lash out with some arcane force if you get any closer. Next question?"   

Wizard: "Huh. Okay... um, what is useful or valuable to me?" 

GM:  "Well, the books, obviously. But... well, yeah. You keep moving the torch around carefully, and you notice two things.  First, the field actually seems to be emanating from just one of the books. Out in, like, a sphere from that one.  It covers all the others, but, it's centered on one of them.  Also, you noticed that the field isn't triggered from the flame, just from the physical part of the torch itself.  Looks like energy can pass through it, but matter can't. Last question?" 

Wizard:  "Oh, hmmm... who's really in control here?" 

GM:  <pause>  "Huh, let me think about that for a sec....  Oh! You guys are! This place... the dust, the musty smell, the cobwebs in the corners... no ones been in this room for months, maybe even years.  Yeah, there's some sort of weird protective field around these books, but there's no sign that anyone's gonna be coming back for them anytime soon." 

Finally (and this is important to remember): sometimes the answer is a negative. "Who's in control here?"  "No one. It's a damn free for all."  "What isn't what it seems?"  "Nothing. This lady has been totally honest with you." "What should I be on the look out for?" "Not much. This place looks pretty safe."

Yeah, those answers might be kinda boring, but they are super valuable answers. Players can make informed decisions with those answers. They're great.

But the Move Takes Us Out of the Fiction!

Maybe? But it doesn't take you out of the conversation. You're still talking about what's happening in the game, aren't you?

Obviously, this is a personal taste thing, but: I find "immersion" to be somewhat overrated. I don't want to lose track of the fiction, but I don't mind having a conversation about what the fiction entails.

Nonetheless, I try to couch my answers in terms of what the characters actually perceive, and what they infer from that. That helps keep the move grounded in the fiction, a lot.

(Related: they often get better, more immediately useful answers if they discern realities up close and personal than if they just study a situation from afar.)

Another trick: I try to always answer their last question by either making a GM move and/or by switching focus to another PC. That way, the questions and answers blend nicely back into the normal flow of play.

e.g. "...no one's gonna be coming back here anytime soon. Hey, thief, while the wizard's been waving the torch around, what have you been up to? That chest at the foot of the bed seems to be padlocked shut, though the lock has gotten all rusty. What do you do?" (present a challenge that fits a class's skills).

"Isn't the +1 Forward Hard to Track?"

Yup, sure is.

It's particularly hard to remember because:

1. it doesn't always trigger (someone has to act on the answers)
2. if it does trigger, it might not matter. Any given +1 bonus only matters on 1 in 4 rolls (i.e. results of 6 or 9, after modifiers).

However, the +1 forward does give the GM's answers mechanical weight. If you Discern Realities ask the GM "what here is useful to me?" and get an answer like "um, your sword?" you might have been like "duh."  But you get a +1 to hack and slash (or defend, or whatever) if you can act on that information--and it's a pretty easy thing to act on!

And if you forget about the +1 forward?  The questions from the Discern Realities list will still be propelling the game, so it's no huge loss. That +1 probably (3 in 4 times) wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Editorial note: in my personal games, I've switched over to using Advantage and Disadvantage instead of +/- X modifiers.  'Vantage means roll an extra die and drop the lowest/highest. So for Discern Realities, the rule is "gain advantage on your next move that acts on the answers."  In a face-to-face game, you can represent that by having the player add an extra d6 to their usual "dice pile."  They might not actually get to use it, but they at least have it there as a reminder.  

In Summary

Discern Realities triggers when a PC takes action in order to get more information.

If the player is just asking you questions about what they see/hear/feel/know, and it's stuff that would be obvious, just provide the details. If what they want to know wouldn't be immediately apparent, tell them that and ask them how'd they'd learn it... and that will almost always trigger Discern Realities.

The questions are great because they force the players to ask questions that provide depth, texture, and momentum. They force the player to pick what's actually important to them. The extra questions on a 10+ prompt us (the players and the GM) to think about the situation more deeply than we would have otherwise.

The move can definitely "pull you out of the fiction," but I don't think that's a bad thing. And you can use your answers to put everyone back in the fiction.

Yeah, the +1 forward is easy to lose track of, but think of it as gravy. It's not the main dish, but it adds a little something-something when you put it on top.

Obviously, this is all just my opinions and experiences!  Your experiences might be very different than mine.  But I find Discern Realities to be one of the main drivers of my games.

The Agenda Behind the Agenda

Games that identify themselves as Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) pretty much always have a list of agenda items and principles for the GM. Like, here's Dungeon World's discussion of GM agenda:

Your agenda makes up the things you aim to do at all times while GMing a game of Dungeon World:

• Portray a fantastic world
• Fill the characters’ lives with adventure
• Play to find out what happens

Everything you say and do at the table (and away from the table, too) exists to accomplish these three goals and no others. Things that aren’t on this list aren’t your goals.

And then you get a list of principles (Draw maps, leave blanks and Address the characters, not the players, etc.) that serve as guidelines for running that game.

Each PbtA game has its own list, and while there's a lot of similarity, there's a lot of subtle variation between them. These differences are where the author tries to communicate how to run this game in particular.

Thing is, even the stuff that's similar across all PbtA games—like address the characters, not the players and play to find out what happens—doesn't address a couple elephants in the room:

• There are personal and social motivations that bring your group together to play this game in the first place. 
• There are rules of human interaction that go above and beyond the principles specific to this game.

Like, I could adhere strictly to the principles listed on page 160 of the book, but if I'm like pressuring everyone to play Dungeon World when they'd rather be playing Mario Kart and I'm ignoring the personal boundaries of the people in the room with me, I'm still a shit GM (and probably a shit person).

"I'm just following my principles! Why are you so upset?"

I've been fortunate enough to never personally encounter any serious boundary-violating crap like I'm making fun of in that pic, but I know it happens. And there are all sorts of other, little ways that the GM and players can mess up at levels above and beyond those addressed by a game's text.

So, in the GM chapter for Stonetop, I added this box text:

The agenda and principles listed here are the ones specific and particular to running Stonetop, but there are more general agendas and principles that you hopefully follow whenever you get together with other people to play a game.

Your agenda, of course, includes...

• Have fun
• Enjoy each other’s company
• Play the game you want to play.

...because otherwise, why are you doing this?

Your principles, hopefully, include…

• Treat each other with respect
• Listen to each other and pay attention
• Laugh, joke, don’t take it too seriously
• Communicate wants, needs, and limitations
• Set and respect boundaries
• Talk about what you enjoy and what you don’t
• Make changes as needed
• Put each other above the game
• Don’t be a jerk
• Take breaks as needed
• Talk about real life stuff, too

…because if aren’t going to do those things, it’s hard to see how you’ll have fun, enjoy each other’s company, or play the game you want to play.

I don't know this will end up in the final cut (that chapter is long), and I certainly don't think that having it written down solves the problems. I don't know that I've got them all or even got them right. But I felt like it was worth saving this somewhere and putting it out into the world.

If you ever play a game with me: these are part of my agenda and my principles. I may not always live up to them, but I'm trying. And I expect you to try, too.  

Drowning & Falling

From Shel Kahn's gorgeous Orin and the Dead Man's Sword

"Drowning & Falling" is my collection of custom moves for Dungeon World, covering situations that absolutely don't need custom moves, but that come up enough that you might want them.  I've tried to include design notes, relevant examples of GM moves, and variations as much as possible. You don't need these moves, but maybe you'll find them helpful.

It's sort of a perpetual work in progress. Some of these moves have made their way into my other projects, most notably Stonetop and Homebrew World.  I've got vague plans to polish it up and finish it some day, but I wouldn't hold your breath. (Get it?)

You can find it here:

Click me!

Monster Creation Cheatsheet

This right here is maybe the single most useful thing I've made for Dungeon World:

Monster Creation Cheat Sheet: click for the PDF

The monster creation questionnaire presented in Dungeon World isn't difficult or very complicated, but it does suffer from usability issues. As you read through the questionnaire, you are prompted to update ~7 different things:

• Tags
• Special Qualities
• Instinct
• Moves
• Hit Points
• Armor
• Damage (and tags related to armor)

A single question/answer might very well have you adjust things in 2-3 categories.  For example, if the monster is "Much larger than a cart," you are told to add a general tag (huge), add a damage tag (reach), adjust its HP, and adjust its damage. If it's dangerous because of things other than wounds, you add a general tag (devious), write a move, and modify its damage. It's a very circular approach, and it takes longer than I like.

More importantly, when I'm making up a monster on the fly, I don't care about tags, qualities, or moves. If I can picture the monster in mind, I don't really need them. But I do like to play the numbers (HP, armor, damage) by the book—it helps me play to find out what happens. With the standard monster creation questionnaire, I've got to pour through the questions looking for the ones that affect damage, HP, and armor. Slows things way down.

With this cheat sheet, I can quickly run down the list and calculate those numbers & tags without the other stuff getting in the way. And if I'm prepping a monster in advance, I can just start at the top and work my way through, and the stat block is done. 

This cheat sheet should give you the same basic outcomes as the original questionnaire. I've added a few modifications, but they're marked with an * and I bet you'll approve of them.  

The Hazards column on the far right is my own invention. Basically, it’s meant as a reminder of all the different ways you might present a trap, an environmental hazard, or what have you.

Note: this is actually version 2 of this cheat sheet. You can find the original one here, but I like this new version better because it more thoroughly reflects the individual elements of the stat blocks.