The situation around them is rarely “everything’s great, nothing to worry about.” They’re adventurers going on adventures-give them something to react to. The sound of clattering armor and shuffling feet, for instance. You can leverage a lack of information, too. The situation isn’t just an orc charging you, it’s an orc painted in blood swinging a hammer and yelling bloody murder. This is how you start a session, how you get things rolling after a snack break, get back on track after a great joke: tell them what the situation is in concrete terms. What does that entail?įirst and foremost, you describe the immediate situation around the players at all times. The players have it easy-they just say what their characters say, think, and do. When you sit down at the table as a GM you do these things: You should take the same care in altering them or ignoring them that you would with any other rule. The GM’s agenda, principles, and moves are rules just like damage or stats or HP. Your moves keep the fiction consistent and the game’s action moving forward. You’ll make moves when players miss their rolls, when the rules call for it, and whenever the players look to you to see what happens. The GM’s moves are the concrete, moment-to-moment things you do to move the game forward. The principles are the guides that keep you focused on that agenda. The agenda is what you set out to do when you sit down at the table. Running a game of Dungeon World is built on these: the GM’s agenda, principles, and moves. It’s a chapter with procedures and rules for whoever takes on the role of GM. This chapter isn’t about advice for the GM or optional tips and tricks on how best to play Dungeon World. You’ll be refereeing, adjudicating, and describing the world as you go-Dungeon World provides a framework to guide you in doing so. The characters have rules to follow when they roll dice and take actions. The rules in this chapter will help you run a game in that style. Dungeon World is designed for one of those styles in particular-a world of elves, orcs, dragons and magic where dark dangers mix with lighthearted adventure. Next Next post: So, I’m playing around with the idea of running a Swords and Sorcery based DW game.There are many different fantasy genres, each with their own style or advice for GMing. The spell (not the move) has a list of options and you can choose 1d4 of them. In an effort to clarify: The spell Animate Dead does not have a 7-9 result, the Cast A Spell move does. I can clearly see what you are TRYING to do, but it is not worded clearly and will not mesh well with the game mechanics.ĭoes that make sense? I hope I’ve explained the difference well enough so you understand the mistake. When I roll a 10 to cast animate dead I get to choose something form the 7-9 list? List of what? I think you have confused the options of the spell with the choice you get based on the die roll to cast the spell in the 79- range. I love the idea of a Necromancer as prestige class, but since Animate Dead is only available to Clerics in DW (usually) I would like to see another way to get this so other classes could access it.Īs for feedback…please keep in ind I am trying to help,so here goes:Īnimate Dead shows you clearly do not understand that Cast a Spell is the move and Animate Dead is the spell effect. Author Louis Bach Posted on JMaCategories The Dungeon World Tavern: Compendium Classes Tags Louis Bach When you turn undead, on a 10+ you gain ongoing control over mindless undead instead of causing them to flee. However, if you animate a body that has has already significantly decayed, it will always be obviously dead.

The corpses you animate need not be recently dead. When you cast Animate Dead, you may animate a number of bodies up to your level. You ignore the penalties to cast spells from ongoing animated dead. If you are an adept of undeath, these count as class moves for you you can choose from them when you level up: You may choose this option after rolling to determine how many traits the animated dead would normally receive. If you do, you may choose to grant the same number of additional traits to the animated dead (up to the usual maximum of four). When you cast Animate Dead, on a 10+ you have the option of choosing one or more effects from the 7-9 list. When you animate the dead and pay a steep price (e.g., being cast out of your holy order, or forsaking part of your soul to dark forces), the next time you level up you may choose this move:

Others have written several versions of a Necromancer base class this alternate take is a compendium class to reflect a regular spellcaster who has chosen to specialize in Animate Dead, a la D&D 3e.) (New to DW seeking any & all constructive feedback.

Dungeon world vampire compendium class