Dungeon World - The Ranger and his Rat

In the latest session of +Michael Bay's Dungeon World campaign, the group returned to the gritty business of doing dirty jobs for sneaky characters down in the harbor.

I didn't really feel that my Mage character worked out for me, so I took the opportunity to play another class that I hadn't tried before, the Ranger. I'd played alongside that role in the past but wanted to give a different spin on it.

The inspiration really for me came from the Wildlings in "Game of Thrones". Rather than play the classic Ranger,a hunter and survivalist much in the mold of Aragorn, I wanted to do a Ranger that was much more of an urban character.The city in this campaign has an extensive network of tunnels and sewers, so I decided to make a Ranger that was an expert in that environment, a tunneler and sewer scout, the man who literally takes the dirty jobs that no-one else wants to do.

Looking through the list of available animal companions, I chose the rat. It was perfect as a sewer companion and very much the animal representation of what my character was all about. I named my character "Jonah", and in a nod to "Fawlty Towers", the rat was named "Basil".I made a tweak to the character in a step away from the conventional Ranger weapons, typically the bow and short sword. Instead I opted for a set of darts and a dagger, again to reflect the environment in which he operates.

The session itself was tremendous fun and in a group that featured a Fighter, Thief and a Mountebank, we were in all kinds of trouble very quickly! The Ranger was great fun to play, much more than the Mage. I think this was personal preference in that I had a better understanding of my character concept and what he was trying to do. Also, the combat and exploration aspects of the game were much easier with this class.

The rat companion was a great touch, adding some humor to the game, though he was genuinely useful...the final showdown would have seen my character die if it hadn't been for the precious extra points of damage that Basil inflicted on the fearsome beast from below.

All in all it was a nice change of character concept for me, and I look forward to playing the Ranger and his Rat again.