Archive | May 2016

Dungeon World – Session #1

Session #1 : Character Creation

 

Russell of Clan Crow – dwarf, fighter
Borin Ironbottom – dwarf, cleric
Lumpy – halfling, druid
Fedwig the Humble – human, wizard
Brand Artrisfea – human, immolator
Red – human, thief

 

Lumpy is a halfling druid with messy hair and sleepy eyes. He dresses his short and chubby frame in practical leathers and has a youthful look. But his most distinguishing features are a black bandit mask marking on his face and a fluffy raccoon tail!
Lumpy made his home in a town called Kindlewood. He lived in a big tree on the edge of the town. An angry squirrel also lived in the big tree and would throw acorns at Lumpy’s head.
During a large bandit raid on Kindlewood, Lumpy was knocked unconscious and kidnapped. The party rescued him, but unfortunately his treehouse was burned to the ground (along with the rest of the town).
Lumpy now wears an acorn from his old tree around his neck.
At some point before the bandits attacked Lumpy had captured the angry squirrel.
Lumpy has shown Fedwig a secret rite of the land.
The spirits have told Lumpy that Brand has a great danger following him.

 

Fedwig the Humble, self-named for his humble beginnings, is a sharp-eyed human wizard. He drapes his tall, thin frame in worn robes. Being a wizard, he completes his look with a pointed hat.
Fedwig was born into a farming family that lives on the outskirts of Kindlewood. His family is very large, so they were happy to send him off to be apprenticed to a magician when he showed magical talent.
Fedwig’s mentor was Professor Hedrick who lived in a stone tower in Kindlewood. The apprenticeship only lasted about 6 months (during which Fedwig grew resentful of his teacher for only showing him the “basics” of magic) before his teacher threw him out.
Fedwig tried to go home after being kicked out of his apprenticeship, but his family refused to take him back saying they didn’t need another mouth to feed and they already gave away his room.
Kindlewood was Fedwig’s first stop after being denied by his family, and he met Borin and Russell at the bar there.
Fedwig likes hanging out with Borin and Russell because they tolerate him and are the only ones who haven’t tossed him out.
Fedwig believes Borin is destined for great things because of his bearing and confidence.
Fedwig learned to make friends by engaging in studious conversation.
During the battle in Kindlewood, the bandits tried to take Fedwig’s mentor’s tower. They got inside but then the tower exploded from within. Fedwig believes the bandits made off with something valuable from the tower.

 

Russell of Clan Crow is a scarred, battle-hardened dwarven fighter with hard eyes and shorn hair. His ravaged body is armored with scale mail and he carries a shield and a huge, ancient dwarven sword.
Russell is from the Clan of Crow, a nomadic dwarven clan that believes in trial by combat, and seeking honor and glory.
Because of these values, and his love for beer, when Russell and Borin met in a bar they became fast friends.
Russell was once in one-on-one combat with a giant. He won by rocketing himself off a rock into the giant’s groin, then pile-driving him into the rock. This fight left Russell with a scar through his beard – the one scar that urks him slightly, as he carries all his other scars with pride.
Russell has a healthy respect for giants, but wants to fight them all because of this.
Russell also bears a scar from Brand. They dueled in Kindlewood before the bandit attack and Russell was burned by Brand’s flaming whip.
After meeting Fedwig, Russell thinks the wizard is soft and that he needs to toughen him up.

 

Borin Ironbottom is a dwarven cleric with sharp eyes, a flowing black beard and wild locks. He dresses in flowing robes over his flabby frame. He carries a token of his deity, a silver tankard that always seems to be full.
Borin wasn’t always a cleric of Hoptimus the Thirsty, though…
Borin found his wife cheating on him with a member of the Copperchest Clan – Bjorn. He and his wife separated after this (she threw him out of the house) so Borin went from bar to bar on a bit of a bender.
In one such bar, Borin met a dwarf who told him about Hoptimus.
Borin now travels from bar to bar to spread the word of Hoptimus, and he met Russell this way.
Borin also met Fedwig in a bar in Kindlewood and wants to convert the wizard to his religion.
When Borin met Brand however, the immolator insulted Hoptimus, and now Borin finds it hard to trust Brand.

 

Brand Artrisfea is an immolator, skilled in the ways of fire manipulation. With smoldering eyes, perfect skin, barely-hidden rage, and whispering voice, Brand is a lean male of medium height but a smaller build. His passions are what keep his inner fire burning brightly and permits him to endure the harshest of conditions. His appearance is of a handsome, eccentric (but rather effeminate) finely dressed young man with long black hair almost always in a tight pony tail. Sharp features coupled with dark eyes give him an aggressive appearance. Always carrying a sketchbook, constantly searching for new, inspiring things to fuel his artistic passions… so he can burn them!
Brand always wears a red scarf with burnt ends, a memento of his mother (who was also an immolator and very beautiful).
Brand was raised by his uncle in Kindlewood.
When the bandits attacked, Brand sacrificed Lumpy’s treehouse to the fire, using the flames to scare off a group of the bandits.
Also during the battle, a mysterious talking squirrel found Brand and told him of Lumpy’s kidnapping, pointing the party in the right direction to rescue the halfling.
Brand thinks that Fedwig needs to learn the meaning of sacrifice – he relies too much on material things. (Also, he’s jealous of how smart Fedwig is!)

 

Red is a lithe, svelte-built thief with blue eyes and close-cropped red/brown hair. One of his most prominent features is his bright red goatee. He dresses in darker colors, fluctuating between cleanly pressed or rumpled to match the area.
Red was in Kindlewood because he got a tip about a potential score in the form of an opportunistically empty house used by a merchant.
Unfortunately for Red, the bandits had made that empty house their headquarters for their planned attack against Kindlewood.
During the fight, Red was taking advantage of the chaos to kill off bandits and steal their stuff!
Red saw the bandits making off with Lumpy and met the party along the road to rescue him.

 

Places:

  • Kindlewood (now known as Nevermore), a formerly-wealthy town located on a trade route near the Evermoors. Used to boast a lovely tavern and a stone mage tower. Former home of Brand and Lumpy
  • Nevermore, a ruined town that was burnt to the ground during a horrific bandit attack. Has a large burnt and blackened stump of a great tree near the edge of town. Surrounding the ruined town are farmlands
  • The Lonely Maiden, formerly a cozy tavern within Kindlewood, now a burnt ruin. Russell and Borin met Fedwig here
  • Hedrick’s Tower, the stone tower home of the mage Hedrick (also Fedwig’s place of apprenticeship) was blasted apart by unknown forces during the bandit attack in Kindlewood
  • Fedwig’s Family Home, a farm on the outskirts of Kindlewood, situated along a road that runs southwest
  • The Evermoors, a stretch of swampland to the North-Northeast of the ruined Kindlewood

 

Notable NPCs:

  • The talking squirrel, friend of Lumpy
  • Professor Hedrick, Fedwig’s former mentor
  • Clan of Crow, Russell’s nomadic dwarven clan
  • Ironbottom Clan, Borin’s dwarven clan
  • Hoptimus the Thirsty, dwarven deity whose worshipers include Borin Ironbottom
  • Copperchest Clan, a rival to the Ironbottom Clan
  • Bjorn Copperchest, lover to Borin’s former wife
  • Ms. Ironbottom, Borin’s former wife
  • Ms. Artrisfea, Brand’s mother
  • Uncle Artrisfea, Brand’s uncle who raised him
  • Wealthy merchant, used to have a home in Kindlewood

 

Previous Post: Dungeon World – Introduction
Next Post: Session #2 – Kindlewood is Nevermore

 

Dungeon World – Introduction

Recently I have started up an online tabletop group as the Game Master (GM). We are using a system new to me called Dungeon World.
I read about this system in an article online and was so impressed with the flavor of game play that I ordered the book on Amazon. I’ve since read it cover to cover, and kept being more and more impressed by their ideals.

 

The biggest draw for me about Dungeon World is that everything is couched in terms of the shared fiction being woven by both the GM and the players. There is less emphasis put on number crunching and static skills and abilities and more emphasis put into the story.
“Play to find out what happens” is a big motto in Dungeon World, and I love it. I love the idea of exploring the story together and giving the players control over the outcome.
Dungeon World is not a system where you play out a set story line with the players as characters within it. It is a world in motion and the players choose where, when, and how they change the story. Continue reading

What Draws Me to a Video Game? — Final Thoughts

(See my intro here for the first part of this series!)

Final Thoughts

So here we are at the final thoughts section of this multi-part blog adventure.

I examined a bunch of different aspects of video gaming and thought hard about what I wanted to experience within the game.

But what do all these different answers to all these varied, different questions really mean? What’s the big picture? Continue reading