Dungeon World Adventures - the Cursed Mountain

[Lmns Crn]

So my wife runs a program for brain injury survivors, and they do all sorts of various activities and are generally pretty awesome. Lately, one of the members has been trying to organize a D&D group at the program, which started out going very poorly. Only this one person had previous experience with D&D or anything similar, staff at the program and other members were trying to learn to run/play D&D, and D&D itself is not super user-friendly for new players.

So, some months back on one of my days off, my wife asked if I'd come by the program and guest-facilitate, basically be a guest GM for a day. And I'm immediately struck with the realization that these complicated rules have got to go. Nobody was using them, nobody understood them (except for the one player with experience, who was a bit frustrated that no one else could keep up), so I did some kind of weird, on-the-fly stripped-down version of D&D that reduced the mechanic to "roll d20 plus one of the following: Str, Con, Dex, ..." which was okay, in that it used the character sheets they'd already made, and it got the action moving a little.

Since then, I've come back to run games again, and I switched systems at the earliest possible opportunity. I've run Lady Blackbird (which was fun and worked generally well, but was maybe a little too gonzo for this particular crowd, ultimately), and yesterday and today, during my spring break, I came in to do a two-day adventure using Dungeon World. Which I have never run before.

RPGs are great with this population because they are a non-threatening way to practice a lot of skills people struggle with: language, memory, imagination, planning, cooperation, reading... the list is long, and largely comprised of things we take for granted. Part of wanting to find a simple system was to get to the basic kernel of "we are telling a story together, using creativity to overcome obstacles" and strip away complex game mechanics that would lead us down interminable rabbit-trails of "how does grappling work again" or whatever.

So.

After a long journey through a dangerous forest, a group of adventurers arrive at the Cursed Mountain, its peak shrouded in a perpetual snowstorm....

[Lmns Crn]

I didn't do any prep for the Cursed Mountain. I barely ran off character sheets. I'm trying a new thing, here.

We open on our intrepid adventurers as they leave the trees at the base of Cursed Mountain. The first thing they do is defend themselves against an ambush! (Because their GM didn't do any prep, and figures the best thing to do is start with the proverbial ninjas.) Out of hidden tunnels at the base of the mountain emerges a hunting party of toad-men, brandishing spears.

[ic=Inflaming Sword, the Paladin]Our group's paladin has come to Cursed Mountain on a mission of mercy, wanting to free any prisoners that may be held in the mountain. You are absolutely not allowed to laugh at his name.

This player didn't know how to choose a character, so I asked him what kinds of things he wanted to do in the game, and he said "to help my friends, and to be tough," so I gave him the paladin. He's only played the other D&D and stuff I've run at the program, and he has difficulty with reading and with short-term memory. (At various points during the game, he has tried to use his wizard spells, his "mermaid gills", and his lobster claws, and has been gently reminded that he is really more of a knight-type character. He wants to run a game at some point, which I think would be awesome.)

He probably also suffered more than anyone else by my lack of prep, because in my scramble to get everyone set up and started, I totally forgot to set up his Holy Quest class ability, and he didn't read it himself. So, whoops. Would have been awesome.[/ic]

Inflaming Sword puts himself between his friends and the toad-warriors as best he can, brandishing his halberd defensively. One of the toad-men tries to wrest the weapon away with its long, prehensile tongue, but fails!

[ooc]Bit of missed opportunity here. I read some advice about Dungeon World, involving starting off with non-standard monsters-- no orcs, kobolds, etc. in the first encounter-- with tactically complicating abilities. The idea is to get players curious enough about monsters they don't already know about to start using stuff like Spout Lore and Discern Realities as moves, and to use whips, nets, prehensile toad tongues, etc. to create messier combat situations than just swinging weapons and chipping hit points away. Didn't really follow up on it like I should have; with more experienced players, or more time to teach the basics, I think we would have gotten more mileage out of Spout Lore. As for the rest, my players just rolled really well during combat.[/ooc]

The brave paladin spars with the toad captain for a while, suffering minor wounds, until some teamwork wins the day. With an assist from a friendly Druid in wolf-form, the toad captain is felled, and his ceremonial necklace of teeth is taken as a prize. The other toad-warriors disperse.

[ic=Druid, the Druid]Our group's druid has come to Cursed Mountain to investigate why there is a perpetual storm around it, and to decide how to fix the balance of nature. He has spent about 80% of his time on this mission in some animal form or another, and all his animal forms have antlers. (Even the bat.)

This player is the D&D player from back in the day, and basically "gets" games like this even though he's never played Dungeon World before specifically. He chose Druid because the group didn't have a healer, and he didn't want to be a cleric. Turns out that's not even how Druids work in Dungeon World, but he's really enjoying his character, and looking ahead to all sorts of overpowered Druid advancement options. He doesn't have struggles that directly relate to gaming; it's good to have a ringer in the group that can sort of set a play example and assist others.[/ic]

What the Druid didn't mention (assuredly because wolves don't talk) is that his first attempt had been to try to escape the ambush, and he only came back to help when he realized the toad-men were trying to herd the group into the tunnels under the mountain, which was the only opening he had. (This was an interesting 7-9 result for Defy Danger: "You can break through the line, but you'd be going the same way they're trying to herd you anyway. Still want to?")

Of course, the group immediately went that way anyway.

[Lmns Crn]

Inside the Cursed Mountain...

I'll cut to the chase. In the tunnels beneath the mountain, there is a dark, subterranean lake, the home of the Cult of the Toad God. After noisily almost-spring a rockslide trap, the group is captured by the Cult and brought before the Toad God's Shaman. Rather than try to fight (which, at the start, is all Inflaming Sword thought he had the option of doing, the group undertakes a quest for the Toad God: to journey within the mountain and kill the Lord of Snakes, the mortal enemy of the Toad Cult, who their magic cannot touch. When the adventurers agree to this, they are mobbed by toad-warriors who push them under the surface of the underground lake, where the current carries them swiftly through pitch-black subterranean tunnels. They wash up on the shore of some vast cavern, dimly lit by an orange glow in the distance.

[ooc]This was the end of yesterday's session, which was about an hour and ten minutes of play, roughly. Other stuff happened! I'm skimming a bit.[/ooc]

Today, the group explores the dim, vast cavern, moving toward the orange glow. Predictably, it turns out to be a crevasse full of magma. They have a choice: cross the magma via a precarious stone footbridge, or take a side-passage toward what looks to be a quarry of gems. The vote is unanimous, except for...

[ic=Humble, the Thief]Our groups thief has come to Cursed Mountain to steal a legendary treasure she knows is hidden there. She won't tell her allies what the treasure is. Sometimes she calls herself "Bumble" (which, frankly, is just adorable).

This player was, I think, equally unfamiliar with all the options and chose the thief basically at random. She has difficulty with imagining things and then describing what she's imagining (which makes this challenging), and with differentiating between what her character can/can't do vs. what she personally can/can't do.[/ic]

Trying to regain some kind of momentum after having almost-triggered a stonefall trap and getting the group caught by the Toad Cult, Humble goes off to the quarry while everyone else crosses the magma footbridge. They don't notice she's not with the group until it's too late!

Druid has crossed the magma in bird-form, while Inflaming Sword and the group's till-now-completely-silent wizard carefully cross on foot. (I have them both make Defy Danger rolls, which they barely succeed at-- which means, consequences or tough choices. In the moment, I decide this means...)

The stone bridge starts to crumble into the lava and melt away! Behind and in front of the group, the path collapses, leaving paladin and wizard stranded on a small stone island in the middle of a lava lake.

[ooc]When I asked the group, "How are you going to get out of this jam? I didn't know the answer. I thought for a moment I'd seriously screwed up, but I decided to sit back and let them talk it out.

At this point, one of the interns at the day program was hanging out, helping our players with some reading issues, which meant she was reading character sheets and getting a sense of the game. She was actually really awesome at "what if you tried this?" kind of brainstorming, and helping players communicate plans to the group, or consider all their options. Later, she made sure to ask me what game this was-- for the program, or for her own entertainment, I have no idea.

It's eventually settled that the wizard will Try Some Magic.[/ooc]

[ic=Wiz, the Wizard]Our group's wizard has come to Cursed Mountain to look for her long-lost daughter.

This character had a player change between yesterday and today. So, Wiz has very recently indeed been experimenting with spellcasting for the first time. Her player from yesterday was very passive and, I think, didn't really enjoy the game very much. Her player from today is working on frustration tolerance and has to be reminded not to talk over people.[/ic]

Wiz rolls up her sleeves and tries to improvise a ritual to cool the lava back into stone, so they can walk across it. So we hash it out with these limitations: it won't stay cool for long (so they'll have to hurry), and it won't affect much of the lava (so she'll have to decide to make a path back the way they came, or forward to continue crossing.)

Wiz cools the lava in front of the little stone island, and she and Inflaming Sword continue crossing. It is at this point that they realize that Humble is now cut off from the group.

Humble notices the quarry she's exploring on her own is a mine full of absolutely extravagant gems, being mined by rock monsters who are ripping out chunks of the wall and crushing the useless stone to gravel, extracting the gems. They're scary, so she tries to sneak through and steal gems from a bin, but is spotted! After a quick scan of her options, she tries to run back to her friends for help, but they're now on the other side of a magma river and she can't get across. Humble is faster than the rock monsters, but they are catching up, and she's trapped.

This is the last challenge of the day: Druid, Wiz, and Inflaming Sword are on one side of the molten death, Humble is on the other, pursued by two angry rock monsters.

Once they figured this out, we shut the game down for the day and everybody leveled up. (About an hour and twenty minutes of play this time. Very short sessions.)

How'd they get out of this jam? Teamwork, of course. I'll tell you in a bit.

[Lmns Crn]

Oh, and attempt 1 was a failed spellcasting roll when Wiz tried to help Humble with an invisibility spell. (Yes, I know that's supposed to be a touch-range spell, but I decided to let it slide because it was an awesome plan.)

The spell is a failed roll, so I ask: "Okay, so the spell doesn't work, and instead it goes haywire. What might be something that could happen with the spell going wrong?"

Intern: "Ooh! What if the spell turned the rock monsters invisible instead?"

Other players: "Whoa, that's awesome, what happens next?"

Wiz's player: "STOP HELPING!"


... So now, on the other side of the lava lake, Humble is trapped, alone, and pursued by two rock monsters, which are also invisible.

[Lmns Crn]

How it all finally went down:
[spoiler]The paladin, who hasn't gotten to do much fighting, decides to insult the rock monsters and see if he can get their attention off of the thief. So he yells: "Yer momma was, uh, asphalt! People drive over her all day!" The invisible rock monsters wade through the magma, emerge on the other side dripping red-hot magma footprints and, still invisible, proceed to kick his ass.

The thief, now free from the threat of being crushed to death by invisible rock monsters, takes time to load up some poison on some arrowheads to make some daredevil shots across a lava lake, to see if she can poison invisible stone targets.

All this is coordinated by the druid, who turns into a bat so he can use echolocation to find where the invisible foes are, and the wizard, who links brains with him with a telepathy spell so she can call out their positions (because bats can't talk.)

So between all this, they manage to grind their foes to dust. Metaphorically speaking. It was a really awesome plan, and I really liked that every single person in it had a role to play that was important.[/spoiler]

The program director has since informed me that everyone at the program had more positive things to say about the gaming than ever before, so I think we'll be sticking with Dungeon World for a while. I might even accidentally figure out what I'm doing.