The Brain Golem - A New Monster for D&D 5th Edition

I've been running many Dungeons and Dragons games over the past year. It started with just one bi-weekly Waterdeep Dragon Heist game. A few months ago, I started running another bi-weekly game using the excellent Skullport Dragon Swindle module by Alex Clippinger; both games occur in the same timeline with the same NPCs, so there should be some fun interactions eventually, especially when both groups are exploring and looting Undermountain. I'm also doing a little bi-weekly home brew game for some new players. My schedule is full of D&D 5e and it's excellent.

I've been getting a little bored with the monsters available, though. I'd like to see some old favorites return, especially anything having to do with illithids, known to the layman as mind flayers. One monster completely absent from 5th edition is the brain golem, a huge burly mass of brains that somehow ends up being muscular and stupid. I first read about these things in the Illithiad, which is an amazing 2nd-edition book entirely about illithids. Here they're described as being spawned by the elder brain to be used as "muscle" and protection for the colony, but this doesn't make sense to me. Illithids are all about dominating other lesser creatures to their will. Wouldn't they use powerful thrall creatures as muscle and protection? What's the point of diverting the elder brains mass and power towards a big muscle brain? And how the hell does a pile of humanoid brains leverage muscle, anyway? Don't we already have enough monsters that are big tough lugs that swing big fists? This is clearly an example of D&D designers seeing a bit of cool artwork and trying to slap stats onto it.

Bad Brains

I have a fresh take on the brain golem, inspired by Volo's Guide to Monsters. There's one part of the illithid colony section that describes how illithids remove living brains from their victims and store them in magical preservation liquids, keeping the brains alive for study. The best (worst?) part is that the brains are still functioning, but seemingly devoid of any way to perceive their surroundings, so they just babble confused, horrified thoughts. It's greatly terrible, but also inspirational, because there's another part of Volo's Guide detailing how illithids often seek to horrify and disturb nearby humanoid settlements to soften them up for attack. This is where the brain golem comes in.

Eventually, an illithid colony will amass a collection of “bad brains” afflicted with some madness or disease that makes the brain unsuitable for eating - unpalatable, if you will. Instead of destroying the brains, some colonies use their magical preservation liquids and ghoulish surgery to give these brains a horrific humanoid form and send them into settlements that they want to terrify, disturb, and undermine. A psionic procedure fuses the many brains into one insane sentient creature with a powerful telepathic ability - every mind in the mad collective is telepathically talking to everyone nearby, ranting and raving in a terrible cacophony. Some amateur arcanists mistake these creations for true golems, but they are actually living aberrations sustained by the mind flayer’s preservation fluids.

One of these monsters wandering into a village would pretty quickly kill and frighten most of the population. I don't think an illithid colony takes much risk (of being discovered or otherwise) in releasing these monsters: It's ability doesn't affect aberrations, it's not recognizable as an illithid, and interrogating one probably wouldn't result in useful information. It can't be stressed enough how insane these brains have become and how difficult it is to communicate with them. Talking to them is usually how people are killed by these monsters, but it would be fun for a strong-willed character to get some useful information or clues during a combat with a brain golem.

Bad Characters for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

Whenever I make a character for a role-playing game, I try to make them good at something. I often try to maximize their effectiveness in one area, to make them excel. When I make a barbarian, I want them to be as effective as possible in dealing melee damage. When I make a wizard, I want them to have many spells, and to be able to utilize them effectively. Additionally, I want my characters to have a few other strengths and talents to make them useful. My characters are meant to survive the adventure, defeat their enemies, and conquer their challenges. 

These are not such characters. They are the opposite of that. They are very bad at a few things and mediocre at everything else. Many of them can't even multiclass effectively, as they don't meet the attribute requirements to try to be anything else. These nerds are stuck being crappy characters until at least level 5. These characters are the opposite of optimized; they’re vandalized. Making these characters was surprisingly refreshing, after years of optimizing and trying to wring every little advantage out of a character. I recommend it to any veteran of character creation as a fun challenge and mental exercise.

These characters are made in such a way that they're bad at what they're supposed to be good at, and only mediocre at anything else. The barbarian is weak in melee combat. The wizard is bad at casting spells (and can't cast many). The would-be bard is actually a sorcerer, and is repugnant and bad at music. The monk is bad at fighting and isn't all that wise. I’ve taken advantage (disadvantage?) of custom backgrounds, the variant human race option, and monstrous races from other 5th edition books to make these characters as bad as possible. 

They each have a backstory that shows how they got to this state, and it's often a tale of woe. Some of these characters are complete assholes and deserve to suck at their profession. Others are unfortunate victims of circumstance.

Most of these characters have a high constitution. I'm not trying to say that constitution is a useless attribute - higher constitution scores are good - but it's not essential to any class, it isn't a prerequisite for multiclassing, and usually only gives you a few more hit points and a better chance on some saving throws. After all, a battle is won when your opponents are dead or defeated, and if you can't effectively overpower them, a few extra hit points aren't going to help.

These characters have all been made by the official WotC Adventurer's League standards (legal custom backgrounds, only one book besides the PHB), so you could play these poor bastards in an AL game if you wanted.

Now meet Bethyl, Dinki, Jeggory, Prizella, Shump, and Weynard.




Bethyl
Bethyl Character Sheet PDF
Bethyl is a very old hermit woman. She spends her time in small hut in the Neverwinter wood. She is obsessed with health and purity, and as a result is very healthy, but also very skinny. She has her own peculiar system of living, with a very restricted diet and a constant regimen of strange exercises and self-defense techniques; none of this serves to make her stronger, but it has contributed to overall great health. She knows druidic secrets she claims was taught to her by the trees; she uses these powers to purify her daily meal. She claims the fish and the rabbits taught her how to fight. When she is challenged on any of these beliefs, a terrible argument ensues. For fun, she sneaks around the forest trying to find people and animals, so she can lure them into conversation with a few magic tricks, then segue into preaching her way of life and selling her herbal poultices.



Dinki
Dinki Character Sheet PDF
Dinki is tiny, even for a kobold. Smarter than most kobolds, she had the misfortune of being fully aware of how poor her situation was, being a tiny weakling even amongst weaklings; this cursed her with a terrible and bitter rage. Dinki was part of a travelling kobold gang that would attempt to distract travelers along the Blackford Road with tricks and performances while the others picked pockets and looted saddlebags. One such occasion she was caught stealing from an old lady, who severed her leg with a meat cleaver. The other kobolds ran in terror, leaving her behind to fend for herself. After making herself a peg leg, Dinki has vowed to get revenge on old ladies, kobolds, and anyone that could be perceived as better off than she.



Jeggory 
Jeggory Character Sheet PDF
Jeggory was a big strong street thug from the city of Luskan. One ale-soaked drunken night, Jeggory wandered out into the wilderness, stumbled into a ring of mushrooms, and interrupted a fae dance contest. Jeggory attempted to impress the faeries with some lewd thrusting, and demanded they teach him magic. They agreed to teach him some of their magic, but it was a trick. They sold Jeggory to a green hag, who took him to the faewild. The hag agreed to teach him magic, but nothing else; to get food and water, he had to sell his eye, his ear, and years of servitude to the hag; he also had to agree to a pact to never wear metal again, as a true druid would. After decades of cooking, cleaning, picking herbs, and fixing the hag's stuff, the debt was paid and he was free to return to the mortal world, having been taught a hard lesson about making deals with the fae. 




Prizella 
Prizella Character Sheet PDF
An ambitious entertainer with delusions of grandeur and a terrible personality, Prizella is a healthy and attractive young woman, but completely undisciplined and untrained. She inherited a lute and magical talent from her ancestors but is only moderately proficient in both. Prizella is otherwise reprehensible and cruel. Without exception she resorts to violence and backstabbing when faced with criticism, rejection, or anything short of worship. People quickly learn to do what it takes to get her to leave, or at least get her drunk until the town watch can deal with her. 




Shump 
Shump Character Sheet PDF
A cabin boy on a fishing ship, Shump enjoyed a peaceful and simple life, until the ship was taken by vicious pirates in a bloody slaughter, who then enslaved the surviving crew. He lived as a slave, spending the daylight hours doing the most menial of tasks, and spending the night hours locked in a closet full of books - he had nothing to do but read the tomes that filled his closet space, including a spellbook. Shump eventually became more knowledgeable in various scholarly subjects, including wizardry. It took years, but Shump taught himself all the spells in the old wizard’s tome, and though he wouldn't know it, the spells were varied and random, not particularly useful for an adventurer. One of these spells did allow him to charm a guard and escape. He has vowed to never do anything strenuous again, and if possible, get servants of his own. His plan is to use his meager magical talents to trick people into giving him what he wants.

Back to Blogging

It's been a long time since the last post about creating random maps for a savage worlds campaign, but I've been working on role playing game stuff ever since, practically without stop. I think it's time to start sharing my stuff with the internet again. So it's back to blogging. Next up will be a post about ridiculous 5th edition D&D characters, which I hesitate to call bad characters, because good and bad are such subjective terms when it comes to rpg characters, but these characters are about as disadvantaged as a 5e PC can be.

Mapping to See What Happens - A Savage Worlds Sandbox Hexcrawl

Greetings! It’s been a while since I endeavored to try out Ben Wray's Dungeon World hexcrawl idea, but I did say I would report on my findings, so here it is.

For those of you who are into the whole brevity thing, here’s the summary: Use the Dungeon World steading system to create a deck of steading cards and deal them randomly onto a grid map. It’s a fun and easy way to make a living world with a crapload of adventure ideas. Give it a try.

Ben's original idea

As promised, I gave Ben’s idea a whirl, with a few twists. Since I would be making this map during the second gaming session, there were a few steadings (steadings are what Dungeon World calls any civilized place where you're relatively safe from monsters) already established and would be non-random. Also, rather than create a map for a Dungeon World game, I used this system to create a map for a Savage Worlds game of a most unusual nature. I think you’ll find, as I did, that the steading system is game-agnostic enough for this purpose.

                                                     
        

First I made a spreadsheet with 24 steadings - six villages, six towns, six keeps, and six cities. Then I randomly assigned each steading an advantage and a problem, then statted them out according to the rules. I removed one town, one keep, and one city (the ones I thought were least interesting). I did this because there seems to be a resource flow schema to the steading system. Villages have resources; towns buy those resources and sell them to villages, other towns, and cities. I discarded one of each steading that wasn't a village to keep the amount of resources on the map high and the size of the steadings low. This made a setting like the Wild West, with lots of opportunities to grow and exploit resources, but also great wilderness and low population.

Overview of all the steadings I generated - this alone is very helpful

Once I had a list of steadings I made a list of steading names, some taken from the Dungeon World book, some made up. Some of the best ones I got by browsing through the Google maps of the United States and looking for unusual town names  -  I've always loved the sound of Texarkana. Then I tried to get a feel for each steading and match the name to the feel. I've got a village on a major trade route? Let's call it Wetherford, for the river it crosses over. A town at a major crossroad with a bustling market got the name Junction, for where the roads meet. The large and wealthy city that traded with every steading nearby was named Central, not to indicate its position on the map, but rather it's self-perception as the hub and focus of all commerce.


After every steading had its stats, tags, and an evocative name, it started to look really exciting. Just the list alone started to inspire ideas, NPCs, events, etc. The final components needed were the six cursed places, which were renamed to fit the post-apocalyptic/trans-dimensional setting. I cut some index cards in half, wrote the name of each steading and cursed place on a card, added eight blank cards to complete the 32 card set for a 6x6 grid, and thus armed, went to the second gaming session to create the map with my players. 

Since this was the second gaming session, and we had described one village called Tallpines and a city called Dodge, I picked a village and a city that looked like they could be Tallpines (plagued by monsters? Why yes, that sounds like it’s next to a cursed, misty city ruin) and Dodge (militarized and overcrowded? definitely). I thew down these right in the center of the board. I chose the center because I believe the PCs should usually start in the center of the map - what's the point of building a map if they can travel a few hours and walk off the edge of it? I shuffled the index cards and dealt them out onto the cardboard, from left to right, and from top to bottom and here's what I got:

At first it was a little daunting, as things didn’t match up the way I imagined they would, but that’s the point of randomizing, isn’t it? To see what happens, to not know, to have to deal with the unexpected. I entered the results into a Google Sheet for safekeeping, and I have been studying it ever since, enjoying the questions it creates. Why is this steading like this? How can it be that way, despite its position on the map? The answers to these questions are always fun.

Each square is approximately 24 miles, or one days travel on foot, requiring one ration.

I love having this map out on the table while we play. It lets the players see where the steadings are and read their evocative names, inspiring their vision of the setting, but it also conceals all the cool secrets that I know about those steadings. It’s inspirational to the GM and the players, and helps to build both a living world that everyone is helping to create, but also a mysterious world with some interesting and dangerous secrets for the players to discover.


The whole experience is very reminiscent of my days playing Fallout 2, travelling the vast grid between Vault City and the NCR, and seeing what happens on the way. Needless to say, this creates tremendous feels of a positive nature. Next time, I'll talk more about why that's a great thing, and why I'd like to see more Fallout 2 style games on both the table and the screen.

As we play, the players discover all the shit that I’ve planned, and I discover how they react to that shit. They spit out ideas and I jot them down. I save them like precious metal ingots to be later forged into adventurous ideas. It’s glorious.

Next I’m gonna get into the wonderful weird world of planning and playing a game about rifts that’s nothing like the game Rifts.


Here's a link to the Google Sheet with all the mentioned documents.


Cheers! Thanks for reading. What do you think? Add your voice, friend!

Wreck Age Review

Wreck Age is an interesting game.  It combines two things that have filled up a lot of my hobby time over the past decade.  Tabletop RPGs and Tabletop Wargames.  It offers a way to play one, the other or some combination of both styles at once.  This idea isn't one that is seen much in today's market but makes perfect sense given the hobby's history. Chainmail and D&D.  The new Iron Kingdoms RPG from Privateer Press is essentially Warmachine with a different focus. Examples are out there and there is a space for this kind of all in one package and Wreck Age does a good job fitting right in.

I found myself reading most of the book through the eyes of a Tabletop Wargame so if a bias comes across I apologize.  I see the merits of the blended system but I really LOVE Skirmish Wargames that allow for advancement and story opportunities.  For that reason Wreck Age kept my mind thinking on the wargame side of the coin.

Let's dive in to Wreck Age from Hyacinth Games.

Setting

Wreck Age is a post-apocalyptic game.  Sometime in the 23rd century there was complete and total collapse of the world as we know it.  Everything from climate shifts to nuclear disasters and pollution attribute to the economic meltdown.  The Earth's elite formulate a solution: The Exodus.  

The Exodus was supposed to be a staggered evacuation of the entire planet.  Escaping to the stars and starting a new life on some distant, better world.  Here is where things get good.  The whole thing is a lie meant to keep people from panic.  The first wave lifts off, comprising of the most intelligent, wealthy and powerful families.  They leave with arks, ships, science vessels, the works.  And . . . that's it.  No second wave.  No third wave.  No more Exodus.  The rest of the residents of our fine planet are left to rot.

What follows is a slew of natural disasters and chain reactions of species extinction.  Wreck Age tells the story of the remaining humans surviving by new rules in a ruined world generations after the Exodus.

The first chapter gives a timeline of important events leading up the Exodus and leaving off with 200 years A.E. (After Exodus).  It's all well done and paints the setting in a very fun and "game friendly" light.  There is a chapter all about the known locations of the setting as well.  This is great fodder for the RPG portion of the game of course but I think wargamers will get some mileage from this as well.  Some of the locations have very different aesthetics and could inspire some varied custom terrain boards.

Community

The idea of Community is a large part of the Wreck Age game.  It informs a large part of the character (or warband) creation.  You get to come up with a post apocalyptic community (I think of the small enclave in Road Warrior every time) and will be using the Community's characters to advance the Community itself. This is done through the tracking of "Resource Units."  Think of RU's as the abstract money of the game.  It really represents everything from the ability to scavenge, social currency, barter and all kinds of other "post collapse" economic goodness.

Here is the first place we see the natural blend of RPG and Tabletop Wargame.  If you are playing the RPG, you create the Community together with your group.  The main characters will all be from the same Community and working toward it's advancement and survival.  If you are playing the Tabletop Wargame, you can create a Community on your own.  Each player will have a Community and his "warband" will be all the characters from that Community.  Each game mode allows you to play as the movers and shakers of a community.  

I really like the way it slides from Cooperative and Competitive with the two modes of play.    

Factions of Wreck Age

The basic Faction types offer an easy entry point for deciding what your Community might be like.  Again, I was mostly reading the book in hopes to play the skirmish game, so having a Faction to play appealed to me.

Stakers

The defensive, isolationist Stakers are the game's faction that is most focused on sustainability. They maintain an utilitarian approach to most aspects of life.  Everyone has a job and when everyone does their part, the Community can thrive.

Drifters

Drifters are the nomadic barbarians of the game.  The group up in roaming clans and attack the more stable communities.  They are always after a challenge in combat and live by a strict Drifter code.  It's all about Freedom in this brutal warrior/raider society.

Stitchers

The Stitchers are great.  They are the boogey-men of the setting.  These terrible, selfish predators.  They are group of organ harvesters that extend their lifespans with experiments and surgery.  Best part?  They trace their lineage back to a medical vessel that crashed during the exodus. A bunch of the best medical personnel that got pissed that they were stuck on this rock with the rest of the ignorant masses.

Reclaimers

The Reclaimers are the Tech-focused scavenger cult.  Wreck Age offers up a cool take on what has become a post apocalyptic staple. They are secretive and revere technology over all else, however they also trade energy and other supplies to other communities.

The book has one page write-ups on some other factions too.  I don't want to spill all the beans on the setting but here is a quick run down:

• The ARHK - Stands for Autonomous Region of Hong Kong.  A brutal corporation that is here in Merkia to scavenge ancient technology. 
• The Church of Fun - Live fast, die young.  This group revels in excess and hedonism, believing it to be the best course of action in such dark times.
• Unicephalon - Shadowy corporate monks that seek to influence the events of the world.
• The Vale - A true Death Cult.  They believe that humanity has run its course and they are the bringers of the End Times.
• Caravaneers - Traveling between communities, these men and women form the new trade routes of the world.
• The Fringes - Any other group that might be banding together for some common cause.  They could be hired guns, outlaws, scavengers, you name it.

All in all, I really enjoy the picture of the world that these Faction entries create.  I see influences from everything from Mad Max to Fallout.  But those are good influences to have if you ask me.  Wreck Age does well to shape each of these Factions to be at once recognizable in the tropes of what has become Post-Apocalyptic fiction while at the same time adding new details to make it all work.

The Rules

The rules of Wreck Age do well to fit the genre.  The combat can be brutal and deadly.  The equipment is mostly shoddy quality and jury-rigged together (yea malfunction rolls!).  It uses D6's, a tape measure in inches and is typically played on a 3'x3' surface.  Pretty standard tabletop wargame stuff.  The additions that make it shine for me are the campaign rules and the encounter/scenario rules and alternating activation.  I love a game that includes campaign advancement and has some degree of hidden objectives for each side. Most of the rules are written through an eye for conflict/combat.  This works fine for me, it is typically the meat and potatoes of any tactical RPG and of course is the most important part to any wargame. Simply put, it all works out quite well.

You will create a group of characters, each with their own level of training, equipment and skills.  Once you go through and create your community, select it's faction and then make the characters (one of which you will designate as a leader of sorts, your Player Character), you are ready to set out and wage war / make alliances with the communities around you.

That brings me to a cool part of how Wreck Age comes together.  Nothing states that every encounter has to start with combat.  You could really play your wargame campaign with "encounters" that are about negotiating trade and such.  Maybe things go bad, maybe another party ambushes the both of you.  The RPG elements give some cool avenues to pursue for using a wargame to tell a story.  This is something my group and I did back in our Necromunda days.  It's a welcome sight to see its possible to do with Wreck Age.

The book has a huge section of salvage and equipment for your characters to fight over and with.  There is a section on scenario special rules as well.

Conclusion

Wreck Age is a game I would certainly play.  I like the setting details and the way they are presented.  The Factions all seem like great fun (Drifters FTW!).  It has enough meat to be a really deep skirmish game and the campaign/advancement/community management aspect is something I wished more games were designed around.  I can always get behind a set of rules that doesn't require a miniature line to go along with it.  You can play Wreck Age with whatever miniatures you would like.  That isn't to say that Hyacinth aren't producing a great line of mini's to go along with their factions though.  It's a best of both worlds kind of thing.

If you are a fan of detailed skirmish rulesets and look back fondly at having long campaign in various other games (Necromunda, Mordheim, etc.) the Wreck Age is definitely worth a look and a buy.  I look forward to getting it on the table for a campaign.  

Wreck Age is available from Hyacinth Games directly and at DriveThruRPG here

The Fighter's Dying Breath

This weekend saw our first death in our Underwatch campaign.  The group made it to the lair of the Lantern Goblin horde that has taken up residence in the city's ancient sewer network.  What they faced was a small horde worshiping a giant glowing crystal suspended in the air (The Source of the Goblin's Light!?!).  Lasbador the Wizard quickly launched a fireball into the crowd and maximized the damage.  That is a whole lot of Goblin death.  Funny thing about Latern Goblins is that when they die their "light" travels to another one of their horde to make them stronger.  This resulted in a huge amount of Lights flowing around the room and empowering the remaining dozen goblins.  One of these goblins was special.

He stood head and shoulders above the rest and had a powerful build.  In his filthy hands was a huge double bladed axe ablaze with green flames.  He let loose a terrible war cry and charged the party with his retinue of vile companions.

Our Fighter, Aubrey, charged right back.  She was determined to smash into the enemy line and give the other heroes time to destroy the crystal.  Dash the bard was right next to her side but that is beside the point.  The story today is all about Aubrey.

The two sides met in the middle of the chamber.  Aubrey and Dash being surround by the Goblins while our Druid and Wizard were going around to break/dismantle/disenchant the big glowy crystal in the center of the room.

Aubrey charged through the crowd to meet the Goblin Warlord (this title sounds appropriately bad ass doesn't it?) in combat.  She described how she would slide along the ground (not hard since she is a Halfling) and swing for the legs with Sally, her Messy, Forceful, Piercing Signature Weapon.

I can hear the epic film score chugging along in my head.  I'm ready for the slow-motion sequence of Aubrey cutting the legs right off the Goblin Warlord.  I'm ready for it! ROLL Hack & Slash!

::shooka shooka go the dice:: Aubrey gets a 6.  A Miss.

That big Axe with the green flames?  The one the Goblin Warlord has? It has Messy too.  The Goblin leaps in the air right over Aubrey's leg sweep.  He comes crashing down and the axe chops right through Aubrey's arm, taking it off at the elbow.  Aubrey is on the ground and wracked with pain. The Goblin screams triumphantly and raises his axe to finish her off.

Dash tries desperately to reach Aubrey and parry the blow.  Sounded like a Defend to me.  He rolls a 5.  Miss.  The other goblins swarm him and hold him back.

At this point I thought to myself, "Is that it?  Is Aubrey dead?  Did that arm come off and now the Goblin finishes the job?  Or did the shock of the wound really have time to set in yet?  Is there time for the bravest Halfling that every graced the City Watch to get in one last swing?  She is THE Fighter.  She's got time for one last swing of her axe.  Aubrey is THE Fighter.  I'm a fan of the characters after all.  Fighter's go down swinging.

I look to Aubrey's player and describe the Goblin's axe coming down on her.  "What do you do?" I ask.  She described how she is going to drag her axe along the groung and bring it up in a brilliant upward arc toward the Goblins face. Awesome.  Roll Hack & Slash.

She rolls.  She gets a 9.  They are both taking Damage.  What results is a simultaneous double-kill right out of a movie.  Both of the weapons strike true and do enough damage to end the life of the other in the most gruesome manner possible.  The Goblin's axe bites into Aubrey at the waist. Aubrey's blow cuts straight through the Warlords arm and buries itself in the foul creature's face.

During this chaos, the big crystal is pushed over and takes a tumble down the pit (why do the bad guys always place their McGuffins in such precarious places?).  Druid's in Bear form make short work of pushing stuff over.

Aubrey rolls Last Breath.  She gets an 8.  Death offers her a deal.  She stands before the Black Gates and talks to Death.  Death tells her that she still has much to do in the world.  He can send her back.  She just has to murder Lasbador (the party's Wizard) without hesitation when Death calls her to do so.

Without hesitation, Aubrey tells Death "NO."

This is how THE Fighter dies.  With Glory and with Honor.

Rest in Peace Aubrey.  The Underwatch will miss you.

Dungeon World: Underwatch Episode 1

Episode 1: The Kidnapping

Cast:

Aubrey, Halfling Fighter

Lasbador, Human Wizard

Akajj Farstrider, Elven Druid of the Eastern Desert

Dash Seraphim, Human Bard

You stand at the end of a long hallway in an ancient building deep within the Undercity of New Axiom. You hear an anguished scream from the other side of the wooden door.  You need the man on the other side of that door alive.  You can still see the look on the Captain of the Guard's face as he told you the importance of the task.  Time is running out.  What do you do?

This was my opening description to the first session of my group's newly formed game of Dungeon World.  I tried to follow the book's suggestion to start the game in the thick of things.  I came armed with only the most basic of frameworks of what the session was going to be about:  all the stuff we outlined in the world creation step about 30 minutes before we started playing and a kidnapping/rescue scenario.

What follows is going to be a highlight of the events of the session.  I plan on going through some of the awesome events that took place and discuss what was going through my head and some of the judgement calls I made.  I'm no stranger to running games but Dungeon World is a different beast.  You really have to think about the consequences of player actions and know exactly what is at stake each time the dice are rolled.  Because of this you will find plenty of threads in internet land about "understanding" Dungeon World enough to run the game.  I figure if I running through reports like this might help me find ways to improve my game as well as giving some insight for others.

So what did our Underwatch do?

Aubrey charged at the door and busted it down!

I liked it.  Iconic Fighter type stuff.  A quick Bend Bars / Lift Gates roll later the door was smashed off the hinges and the group charged into the room.

The Watch found themselves standing in front of five men.  Four of which were obvious members of the Bower Street Boys and the fifth was some poor chap tied to an old chair with the visible signs that spend most of his free time as of late being someone else's punching bag.

The shocked thugs were speechless and most started to fidget nervously while the Watch filled the room.

I admit that I didn't much know where to go at first.  I liked the idea of starting the game with the group busting in on a crime in progress.  I rolled with it and made the thugs scared and nervous and waiting for the Watch to make the first move.  I get the idea that my players expected these guys to charge at them and for combat to break out after busting down the door.  I thought maybe that's what I should have done.  But it turned out better this way.  They got to do try out some "police procedure."

The Watch declared who they were and their intentions to bring these men to justice.  The Undercity isn't home to anything remotely close to the "suspect's rights," so the interrogation began right at the scene of crime.

It was learned that the poor chap in the chair was Dillard, a young member of the Stonemason Guild. The Stonemasons are responsible for the upkeep and construction of New Axiom.  They also have the reputation of having access to blue-prints, schematics and maps of most of the city old and new.  In other words, young Dillard is a fount of the kind of information that a band of thugs could have some real fun with.  Dillard was also the very man the Watch had been sent to find.

It was around this time the scrawniest of the Bower Street Boys became extremely agitated.  He was vigorously fiddling with an object behind his back, desperately hoping that the watch wouldn't catch on.

They caught on.

All at once they demanded to see what Scrawny was up to.  But it was too late.  As he showed the wondrous items his hands concealed they heard the calls and screams of more thugs outside.

What were these items?  A pair of enchanted bottle caps that were glowing with a soft blue nimbus.  A rushed interrogation had the scrawny thug reveal that those were gifts from The Stoutman.  It was here that we established that The Stoutman was some kind of criminal Kingpin in the Undercity.  Some kind of back alley boogey-man that no one had ever seen.  The bottle caps?  When rubbed together they allowed communication between the gangs remotely.  Bad news for the Underwatch.

After it was clear these "suspects" were not going to come in quietly, our group quickly attacked them.  Aubrey cleaved one in twain, Dash pinned one to the wall with his rapier, Lasbador fired magic missiles and Akajj was fighting tooth and claw (and spear).  Just when the characters seems their most Bad Ass, I had the front door the building smashed down and a flood of Thugs started to poor down the hallway.  The magic bottle caps work.

Soon the party was running for their lives with a couple of hostages suspects in tow.  They started to smash their way through the dilapidated wall into the building next door. One of the suspects took his chance to try and escape and was run through by Dash. They proceeded into the building to find an old stone door.  Akajj took a position to hold off the stampede of gangers while the rest of the party examined the door.  It was sealed shut by ancient dwarven mechanisms.  Akajj quickly shifted into Bear form and starting to fight the thugs 2-3 at a time.  Aubrey did a Bend Bars / Lift Gates and got the old door open before returning to Akajj's side.

Meanwhile, Dash and Lasbador were debating how safe it would be to descend the pitch-black staircase that was behind the door.  Lasbador quickly tried to cast his Light spell and got a Miss (6-).  The clean glow of the magical energy swirled around and was quickly siphoned down the staircase.  Oops.  Not one to waste a good scouting resource, Lasbador shoved the remaining suspect down the stairs.  The poor guy's anguished screams and loud thud of impact as he met the bottom was all the scouting the young Wizard needed.  Dash and Lasbador nodded at each other and followed down the stairs, calling to Aubrey and Akajj to follow.

Once the pair could push the gangers back they charged after their companions and met them at the bottom of the steps.  The only light in the tunnel at the bottom was the swirling energy from Lasbador's previous Light spell.  A large group of gangers were now at the top of the steps.  It was either take their chances with the darkened hallway or fight the mob coming down the steps after them.  They decided to run headlong into the darkness.

So you might be saying "Hey Guy, didn't the Wizard miss with that Light spell?"  Why yes he did.  The move I choose to do was Turn their move back at them.  I described the desperate chase down the hall.  The countless enemies to their rear and nothing but the ghostly whisp in the darkness to lead their way.  Suddenly, the light picked up speed and was consumed by something at the end of the hall.  The soft glow turned an angry red as the magic from the rogue spell brought an ancient construct to life.  Standing around 10 feet tall and made of smooth rock segments connected by ancient dwarven mechanics the towering war golem stood up.  It's eyes glowed with such intensity that it bathed the hallway in a dim red light.  It started to run toward our Underwatch.

It was right around this time that I really fell in love with Dungeon World as a game.  I hadn't even really considering what might be beyond that door when I put it in their way.  The miss on the Light spell immediately gave me the idea that the magic was "drawn" to the old magi-tek that was in these ruins.  And what would it turn on?  Huge Dwarven War Golems that's what!

The look on the players' faces was priceless.

The group immediately turned and started running back toward the mob of gangers.  They figured it was the best of the two options.  The Wizard Spouted some Lore about what this thing was as they ran full tilt the way they came.  The result was 10+ so I spilled the beans.  "The intense RED glow of this golem's eyes sends a shiver down your spine.  The only golems that were said to have eyes like that were the ones crafted by Garven MadAxe, a twisted rune-tek that was said to have found a way to power his creations with Hellfire.  As a result they have a special hatred for all living beings.  Oh, and they are said to be indestructible."

 'RUN!" Lasbador screamed in response.  On one end of the hall we had an ever increasing amount of Bower Street Boys flooding down the path and on the other we had a twisted dwarven warmachine bearing down on them like a locomotive.  The Underwatch needed to think fast.  Luckily someone was able to spot a hallway on the right side of the tunnel.  They ran right past it in the dark.  Thanks to the Hellfire glow emanating from the 2 tons of death behind them, it was somewhat easier to see this time around.

The group did a quickly timed turn and the Golem smashed into the oncoming Bower Street Boys.  Screams of agony mixed with the sounds of pistons and gears as the mechanical monster tore through the poor Boys.

The rest of the adventure was a short affair.  They hurried their way through the tunnels and were able to find the secret passage out.  It was at this point we learned about Lasbador's "other gift."  He's a Human Wizard so he get's a Cleric Spell to start.  He decided to take Guidance, but instead of always seeing his deity for the answers, he has a vision/hallucination that is appropriate to the task at hand.  He rolled well and saw the "ghost" of Garven Madaxe himself.  After a short conversation with the vision (giving the rest of the group the heebie jeebies) Lasbador found the way out.  Just in time too, the sounds of more of the Hellfire Golems waking up echoed through the chambers.

So the first mission of the Underwatch was a success.  They made it back with Dillard the Stonemason.  They made enemies of the street gangs below.  They unleashed a group of life-hating automatons.  Oops. That last part isn't so good. But fear not!  The Underwatch always cleans up their mess.  I hope.

Plot Hooks

• Who is the Stoutman and how does he have access to create such wondrous items?


• What were the Bower Street Boys trying to beat out of the Stonemason, Dillard.


• How in the nine hells is the group going to explain / deal with the Hellfire golems they have unleashed?