Dungeon World - Then and Now

Started by sixsideddice, 07 August 2013, 08:02:52 PM

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sixsideddice

07 August 2013, 08:02:52 PM Last Edit: 08 August 2013, 03:38:04 PM by sixsideddice
From time to time, most role players and table top gamers alike will go through a `gaming inner re-evaluation` process, whereby we take stock of ourselves within our hobby. This `growth` thing happens usually out of nowhere, and often follows a sort of `gaming blues` when everything looks samey and colourless. The mounds of unpainted lead take on an altogether pallid hue, unread and discarded glossy rules manuals lie dusty on the shelf, unloved and totally unused... that initial excitement we felt at purchasing from the shop is long forgotten, like a forsaken romance or a cast away shoe. Even our treasured painted collections look dull, uninspiring and over familiar, causing us to look for that new `quick fix` in the vain hope that the next (probably ill advised) purchase will solve all our problems and be the missing elixir and the answer to our dreams. But alas the problem lies in ourselves... gamer`s blues... and no quick fix will help us beyond spending cash needlessly, and probably making us more frustrated than ever. More often than not, the re-emergence of enthusiasm and inspiration will be re-discovered in our existing collections and not from a rashly thought out quick fix.


For me this has just happened.


I have been working on three new (each separate) rules systems; two of these have simply been alternative approaches to a commission project I have had to tie down into a workable whole... strangely, you`d think it might be a gamer`s dream to combine work and pleasure, but believe me it isn`t. I never want to see the new rules again in my life let alone carry on writing them to their conclusion. A third rules set (WW2) I have been playing around with for some time, trying to formulate into a readable tome, for my own entertainment. The gaming blues... or perhaps more aptly for me, the writers blues has been washing over me for the last few weeks and I have sat idle, spending far too many hours when I should have been creating, simply painting dozens and dozens and dozens of miniatures instead.


But....


... this has been amazingly therapeutic. Painting always gives me time to think.


Dungeon World is a set of rules I wrote primarily to support the Pendraken range of 10mm figures. I created these long ago now; almost going back into the vintage annuls of history, or so it feels. I have played games and campaigns, have answered question on line concerning the rules to so many people and different gaming groups... for so long that I don`t even need to look at the rules book any more. But just the other day I was tired, my eyes aching from writing and painting, and I pulled the full Dungeon World rules set off the bookshelf and sat down to read them. My own copy is shop bound and contains dozens and dozens of extra pages which I have added to my own `homebrew` campaign ideas over the years, and so the read through was quite a long one.


My video campaign (which WILL soon be available on my website, for anyone with the stamina so sit through 30... 40... and more hours of a living campaign, played out session by session by my gaming group) uses Dungeon World, with many RPG bits added, and has proven to work really well for the group. We did start out using D&D rules, but within three sessions, the players in my group wanted to switch back to Dungeon World, which was fine by me: and ever since then, the campaign has grown and grown. Already it has spread into one and a half novels (which again are bound, but which will never be published, as they were only really written for my players to enjoy, and to keep a personal journal for posterity... we realised early on that we were creating something unique with these videos... maybe just the sheer length of the thing.... and we wanted to see it through to the end if possible).


Anyway, sitting down reading Dungeon World, probably for the first time in over a year, filled me with the enthusiasm I needed, and thrust me in a few new directions as my mind started to careen with ideas and devious dungeon master plots and schemes. But most importantly to me, I realised just how easy it would be for me to write a small add on supplement to turn the game into a full table top mass battle system... which I have started to do.


This idea all came about because I recently ordered a bunch of Game of Thrones miniatures and several expansion sets to go with it.... yes, a stupid quick fix. However, like so many complete `game in a box` products, although I quickly found myself totally in love with the components, I was deeply unhappy with the vastly over complex, badly written and unwieldy rules that came with the thing. I think it probably took me less than a single read through of the manuals to realise instinctively I was never going to play the game using the official rules; but it did not stop me continuing to flesh out my rapidly growing collection of  nice new miniatures;  and as I have always wanted to add some 15mm to my fantasy collection... I was very excited. I knew my dream had come true the second I opened the first box, because I realised just how incredibly compatible 15mm fantasy is when placed alongside Pendraken 10mm monsters, dungeon tiles, and all the dungeon trimmings and furniture. I suddenly found myself in gaming bliss. Inspiration was back.

So, here I am, again: back writing yet another `chapter` for Dungeon World. Its strange, but every time I put this rules engine down and look into playing something different, I inevitably end up being drawn back, by default, to this amazingly simple, diverse little set of rules. I guess there is a message here that I should be learning. For me (at least) I think something`s telling me to stick to DW and to stop casting my eye elsewhere. It`s odd, but when you create of a set of rules yourself, you sometimes fail to see what you`ve got in front of you, and end up being lured and seduced away by nice shiny brand new full colour professionally printed manuals... with a heavy price tag added of course. Yet, these purchased tomes usually end up being a bitter disappointment, and in the end I always seem to turn my shamefully disloyal eye back to my old, tried and tested creations. Okay, lesson finally learned.


... so I sat and read through Dungeon World 2nd edition, and suddenly felt utterly inspired again. My latest 15mm goodies are totally compatible with my existing 10mm stuff (I guess that's the beauty of fantasy, assimilation in scales work fine when combined in ways historical subjects might not). My mind has turning toward a mass battles expansion for DW; my rpg campaign is going well and I am excited at being so close to sharing the videos with everyone online, and suddenly....  the world feels a wonderful place to be a part of.


My walk this afternoon with the dogs was with a spring in my step. And as I looked out over the water and the mountains beyond, I didn`t see Bantry Bay and all its little hamlets along the estuary shore. No... I saw Dwimlin infested hills, mountain fortresses bristling with Dwarves, and galleys full of marauding barbarians, rowing silently up the straight hoping to slip past the hill beacons and thus fall upon the innocent monastery beyond, plundering and pillaging as they went.


Ahhh, the joys of gaming. Gaming blues.... BE GONE!


Six


Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

TinyTerrain

Top post Six.......captures that momment of being re-invigorated perfectly.

Cheers,

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models
http://www.wargames.blog.co.uk
All Periods, All scales

2012 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

nikharwood

Quote from: TinyTerrain on 07 August 2013, 09:18:38 PM
Top post Six.......captures that momment of being re-invigorated perfectly.

Cheers,

Craig
Tiny Terrain Models

Hear, hear.  8)

sixsideddice

Just have to say it........

..... I LOVE MY 10mm 3D Resin Dungeon and all my delicious Pendraken Miniatures 10mm Dungeon Crawl loveliness.


Six    :D

sixsideddice

I`m finally back... yeeeeahhhhhh

After a long sabbatical away from gaming... all entirely due to work, kids, changing the house about, and sheer tiredness from other non gaming things I had to do though out the last six months.

Its good to be back, and I can`t wait to get all my 10mm dungeon and fantasy loveliness out again.


Six   :)

Squirrel

Welcome back Six, missed ya  :D

Seriously, I always enjoy your posts, and thoughts.

Also I'm keen to see where you have taken 'Dungeon World' now .... or is it the other way around  :P

Cheers,

Kev

get2grips

Quote from: sixsideddice on 16 January 2014, 02:51:19 PM
I`m finally back... yeeeeahhhhhh

After a long sabbatical away from gaming... all entirely due to work, kids, changing the house about, and sheer tiredness


Good on yer ;)

I have experienced all of the above, for the same reasons, at one time or another.

Welcome back to the land of the terminally miopic living :-bd

Maenoferren

Glad you are back into the madhouse fold. :D
Sometimes I wonder - why is that frisbee geting bigger - and then it hits me!

sixsideddice


sixsideddice

New material going up in my website within the next few weeks....   starting with a new campaign (combo of 10 & 15mm)  followed shortly after by a solo 10mm Pendraken Miniatures Dungeon Crawl campaign. I`ve FINALLY found time to make a grand start on it. Been planning this one for ages now lol

Also, the first few hours of a brand new D & D (Dungeon World) family homebrew Video Campaign will be up for viewing soon.

http://shiftymushrooms.weebly.com/

http://shiftymushrooms.weebly.com/dd-campaign-on-video.html