Grim World RPG - Dark Fantasy Fun

In what is already a record year for me in terms of trying different games, I ran a one-shot demo of "Grim World" on saturday night.

"Grim World" is a dark fantasy supplement for Dungeon World and Fate Core. It was a successful Kickstarter, though it's now available to purchase as a PDF. It's a truly superb product of high quality, and I was really interested to try it, given that I've recently run Dungeon World and have a long history of running dark games. In this case I ran the Dungeon World version.

Any of the other playbooks can be used, though Grim World comes with seven new ones, two of which are reworked versions of other playbooks, the Shaman and the Templar. The others are the Battlemaster, Skirmisher, Channeller, Slayer and Necromancer. All the new playbooks come with "Death Moves"...a major event that happens if that character dies. Character death really matters and shakes the world. For example, if the Necromancer dies, an army of the dead rises. There are death moves included for all of the other playbooks too, including the supplemental ones. There are also fifteen races included, any of which can be used with any playbook.

The game also comes with a location generator, new guidelines for the setting to help the GM capture the atmosphere, a new organization for player characters to join ("The Hunt") and eight adventure outlines. I ran one of them as the demo for a group that consisted of a Battlemaster (the tactician), a Skirmisher (the opportunist) and a Necromancer (the life and soul of the party....just kidding).

The scenario had the group seeking a reward offered by a small mining town that is on the brink of financial ruin, having fallen victim to a bear the size of a house. Throw in Druids, rival adventurer groups, town secrets and some plot twists, and you have a nice session to introduce the world and the system. This was really good fun and exactly what I hoped it would be...it is Dungeon World tweaked and pointed in a different direction..a darker and messier one.

The players thoroughly enjoyed it and asked me to keep running it on saturday nights, which I'm happy to do. I'm not well versed enough with Fate Core to try that version, but I'd be curious to see how it compares with that system. I can strongly recommend this if you're a fan of Dungeon World and enjoy settings like Ravenloft.

Tuesday Night Gaming - Dungeon World,Numenera and more..

One of the problems that I'm sure I share with many players and GMs is finding time to get through all the games that I've spent a fortune on over the years.

For the last few years I've been running games on a monthly basis,and more recently, two saturdays a month. That's been good in terms of being able to plan campaigns and allows for plenty of preparation time. The drawback is that it can be hard to maintain a flow in a story, and this tends to hit players harder if they miss out on a session. Still, it works well in the current format (two parallel games in six month campaigns) but I wanted to expand. I've been playing in additional saturday evening sessions (more on that in a separate post), but it was time for tuesday night weekly games.

The initial plan was to alternate two games every tuesday and just run them for as long as it makes sense too. It's also a great chance to do demo's and oneshots without having to plan as much or require a commitment from a group. I did have concerns about burnout, but if anything this schedule and frequency has unlocked my creative side and I find it refreshing.

I've done three sessions so far, two of which were "Dungeon World". I've played this several times and wanted to experience it as a GM, given that I'm on an "Apocalypse World" binge right now. It has been really great fun, easy to run, with the story growing from the players decisions.

The other session I ran was "Numenera" which I'd posted about previously. I love the game and the setting, but I just didn't connect with it as a GM when I ran it. Part of it was adapting to a different system, part of it was running a published scenario (something that I'm not good at) and also I think I simply didn't understand the game in the same way the group did. I came away with the feeling that I wasn't really running "Numenera".I think I'd rather be a player in that game.

Going forward, "Dungeon World" will wrap up soon to make way for "Eclipse Phase", in which I'll be a player. I will be starting "Apocalypse World" next week, with "Nephilim", "Nights Black Agents" and others on my roster for the future.

2013 - What Did I Play?

With the end of another year rapidly approaching, I thought I'd take time to look back on the games that I played, as I line up new games for next year. Next time I'll be posting a summary of the games that I ran.

Games that I took part in as a player :

Dungeon World - This was run by +Michael Bay and through the course of various games I played several characters. It was interesting to visit the "Apocalypse World" engine from a different angle, which will help when I run "Monster of the Week" next year.

Apocalypse World - This time out +Tony Reyes was at the helm in a weird, violent (to be expected) mini-campaign. I played a cult leader who steered the group down entirely the wrong path. This game is always interesting but challenging to play, and I never envy the person who has to run it. They seem to be caught between improvised responses and not being allowed to have much influence in the setting.

Shadowrun 5th Edition - A one-shot demo of a game I'd never got round to trying before. Great setting, but far too crunchy for my tastes. I was definitely the only one at the table who wasn't having a blast, so it can't be denied that Shadowrun has a certain "something".

Mage:The Awakening - I finally got to try a "New World of Darkness" game! I thought it was great, much easier than I'd anticipated. The LARP adaptation of the rules and the tendency to stay immersed in character threw me a little, and sadly my schedule got in the way of staying with the game. I'd feel confident running this myself, but there doesn't seem to be an audience.

Savage Worlds - This was a zombie survival game, absolutely not my ideal setting, but I really enjoyed the system. It had enough crunch to make the combat satisfying, something which I feel is missing in the games that I run. Fun, and great for one-shots.

Fate Accelerated Edition - +Scott Acker ran a demo of this and aside from being a fun session, I came away feeling that I actually understood how the game works...always a good sign in a demo! I'm interested in seeing where Fate goes in future settings.

Old School D&D - +john yorio has ran two sessions of this recently and I played in both. It took me back to my childhood and was good old-fashioned fun. Simple rules, deadly opponents and a really great sense of camaraderie at the table.

So there you have it, a decent selection for the year and I didn't realize how much I'd played until I planned this post! I salute all the people who ran these games. All were excellent gamesmasters and I learned something from each of them to take forward into the games that I run.

Playbooks - Making Life Easier

Over the last few years I've been lucky enough to have to played in or ran games from a variety of systems. A personal goal of mine is to have ran a session in every different "Cthulhu" RPG to get a feel for how the rules compare and contrast in a familiar setting.

Now in terms of rules,I'm a lazy GM. I don't want to to wade through hundreds of pages to understand how to run something or have to refer to lots of charts during gameplay. Combat usually frustrates me in this regard. I do,however, like to have some structure..enough to support and add to the game. "Call of Cthulhu" and "My Life With Master" have been great for this.

I also don't like situations where the players need a copy of the rulebook or a long explanation of the rules to be able to play the game. I ran into this when I did a kickoff session for "Unknown Armies" recently. I love UA and the base system. However, for players who didn't have the books it was remarkably difficult to explain the various magical schools, the setting and some parts of character generation. I brought a lot of handouts and cheat sheets to try and make this easier, but I still feel it's an uphill task. Hopefully things will click during actual gameplay. I also had to do a lot of handouts and preparation like this when I was starting up "Trail of Cthulhu" and "Delta Green".

It was then that it struck me, the thing that I really missed. It was the "playbook" approach used in "Apocalypse World" and all of the games based on it. I'd got used to using them in "Apocalypse World" and "Dungeon World", and I'll be seeing them again when I run "Monster of the Week" and "tremulus".

Playbooks are essentially a customized character sheet. For example, in "Dungeon World", there is a "Cleric" playbook. This contains all the instructions that the player needs to create the Cleric, details of the all the things that character can do that are specific to that class, and how to level up. This means no need to look for the rulebook,and each playbook captures the distinct feel of that particular class/role/occupation. The only other thing that's needed is a copy of the general "moves", things that every character can do.

I've used them enough that I miss them in other games. For the "Unknown Armies" session, I realized that I was trying to compensate by making my own cheat sheets...the process would have been so much easier for everyone involved if I could have handed over to each player a single document that had everything they needed to create,start and play.Has anyone else experienced this,and how did you adjust?

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.

Dungeon World - New Beginnings

Yesterday was a new chapter in the Dungeon World campaign being run by Michael Bay, the name of the campaign is "Screams In The Darkness". It was particularly fitting for this episode! Some of the characters had died in the last session so this had something old and something new.

The biggest change was realigning the group to being mercenaries in a wonderfully lawless town named "Gondgul". It has various influences, including Dwarven, Pharazonic (Egyptian) and numerous others. In the absence of government, the city is run by rival mercenary "expeditionary companies", wizards and religious orders.

Three characters returned from previous sessions, the Shaman, Thief and Fighter. The new characters were a Paladin, a Barbarian and my character, a Mage. I've never played a Mage or Wizard in a fantasy game before, I've tended to play front line law and order characters so this was a great chance to try something different.

I chose a magical path known as "The Mask". It's really all about illusions. My character can solve general problems magically which aren't related to his school, but that comes with a penalty. When he uses magic aligned with his path (misleading others,avoiding notice,cunning plans) he gets major bonuses. On the other hand, there are heavy restrictions....he can never use magic for brute force or to break facades. This was great because it forced me to play a style which was non-confrontational.

The game itself was excellent, a security operation to protect a warehouse, leading to the classic trek through underground sewers and ruins. I had a succession of spectacular failures in my attempts at spell casting, one which left us in complete darkness and having to abandon the mission! The dynamic within the group was fun as always,with a real sense of mischief from the various roguish characters. Michael did a nice touch in giving each character their own plot threads here and there.

The session ended with a revelation that there were Dwarven ruins beneath the city,plenty of exploration ahead of us.After levelling up, I added a new magical path for my character, "The Twilight",giving him the ability to manipulate shadows.The penalty? He can never create light or fire, very apt after the failures this time around. It was a great session with a more gritty feel this time around.

Dungeon World - Death of a Cleric

Part three of Michael Bay's "Dungeon World" campaign took place yesterday with a good turnout and some new characters, who proved to be instrumental in the plot twists.

At this point the group consisted of a Cleric (me),Bard,Wizard and Ranger. The Shaman,Druid and Templar players couldn't attend. Lacking heavy firepower, one of the new players chose to be a Fighter,playing the "sword for hire" angle to great effect. Another player returned from the first session, his character,the Artificer had died last time out. He was given the Thief class and played it brilliantly.

The new characters and changed dynamic brought a rogue element to the group. Coupled with the Wizard character being possessed by the villain of the piece, we had a situation where mistrust and bickering ruled. Lots of notes where passed back and forth between some players and the GM, and my character was quietly pursuing his own agenda,one unknown to most of the group.

The story wrapped up with most of us in a cavern featuring a lava lake and a stone ship. The Thief and Fighter, true to form, stole the artifacts that we were sent to find and abandoned the Cleric, Wizard and Bard to their fates. The escapees will reunite with the Ranger, Druid and Shaman next time and it will be very interesting to see what story is given regarding the rest of the group! Really good roleplaying from everyone involved.

So now I have to think about a new character. I've done the lawful enforcing zealot thing a few times now and need to try something different. The Bard would be a very different experience, the Initiate (martial artist)  would be fun....but I'm leaning to the Mage. This is different to the Wizard in that there is no list of spells as such, it's all about understanding a particular style of magic and describing how you're using it to solve a problem, with an emphasis either on black magic or counterspells. I've never played a magic character and on the other hand like characters that are reckless, living on the edge. I might choose to be a Dragon Mage (highly destructive, no subtlety), a Storm Mage (unstable and dramatic) or a Clock Mage (messes with time). Already looking forward to next time!

Dungeon World - New Planes

Yesterday I played in the second part of a "Dungeon World" campaign run by Michael Bay.This was only my second time playing the game itself and I'm more in tune with the rules now, along with the rest of the group.

The storyline picked up roughly where we left off last time, though at the start of the session not all players were present. This actually set things up beautifully and freed the smaller group to pursue another direction.Two of the players did join the session later on with almost spooky timing in terms of the storyline and narrative.

What had started as a standard dungeon crawl last time progressed through woodland ceremonies, abandoned altars, dissolving planes of existence,the "world tree" and finally an old ruined city in the desert.This was all in a single five hour session, and all the settings really added to the story and sense of adventure.

This being the second session, we were all more familiar with the rules, our characters and the relationships between us.This game gives experience rewards for playing true to bonds that you've made with other characters in the creation session,and also your alignment.This is a really nice way to give you a personal character "compass" for how to handle situations. In my case,as a cleric, I made several decisions in the game that put the group,and world,at risk, almost costing my life at the end. This was all part of staying true to the cleric's faith, and my last action was to turn away hordes of undead skeletons...having let the genie out of the bottle I saved the group.

The game finished with a character encounter that was unexpected yet managed to tie everything together with the core story.This was the first game I've played in a long time where we were so engaged in the game that we'd ran over time without realizing it...credit to Michael's storytelling and a great group who managed to really keep the game flowing. I've absolutely no idea what twists and turns the next one will take, but this was a truly excellent gaming session. If you like "Apocalypse World" and classic fantasy, I highly recommend checking this one out.

Dungeon World - Playing The First Session

Yesterday I played in the initial session of a "Dungeon World" campaign run by Michael Bay. It takes the concepts and settings of D&D and applies the "Apocalypse World" rules engine to them. This game had a big turnout of eight players.

The first hour or so was spent choosing our characters.I'd given some thought to this prior to play and had planned to play a "Warlock", essentially a Faustian character who has sold their soul in exchange for eternal youth, immunity to disease and aging etc. They also have a summoned assistant, a supernatural creature that does their work for them.I saw immense potential in this as the "Apocalypse World" engine shines when players manipulate each other.I had a very clear idea of how I'd play with or against the other players,but struggled with how I'd play the actual adventures.

I settled on a more direct concept, a Cleric of Hades.He's a very lawful character with strict boundaries and views the world as a simple split between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead.Hades' domain is the dead, and my mans job is to make sure the undead and other beings don't cross the line into the domain of the living.The catch is that he must make a daily offering to Hades!

The group now consisted of my Cleric,a Templar,a Wizard (+Tony Reyes),a Shaman,a Druid,a Bard,a Ranger and an Artificer.We then went round the table several times and established "bonds"..something you don't see in D&D.This is an opportunity to make a connection with another character and helps you gain experience.For example,I chose the Wizard as the character who I'm seeking to convert to the path of Hades,the Shaman was someone I vowed to protect, the Bard was someone I trusted whereas the Druid was someone I mistrusted, being a person who valued life over death.This simple mechanic adds a whole new dimension to the role-playing dynamic within the group.

Onto the game itself...the classic dungeon crawl in which we were heavily outnumbered on a quest to find magical treasure.This game is lethal,with my Cleric and the Templar both facing an early death.When characters die an event called "last dying breath" takes place.Dice are rolled and it's possible for the characters to escape final death with a price..which we both did.We were both more cautious after that.

The session took several unusual turns,ending with some exploration of portals and other dimensions.Of course,the party had split up at this point..I have no idea how it'll play out next month.It's a great game and a fun spin on the oldest RPG concept of them all.Looking forward to next month at Gigabites.