Dungeon World: Underwatch Characters & Setting

So I finally put together a game of Dungeon World.  This was our group's first experience with any of the *World games.  Short version of the story:  It was amazing.  It simultaneously scratched the itch to run a very free form story game while supporting all the Old School D&D troupes.   The way the mechanics helped the events in the story snowball into more and more exciting scenes was great.  Enough gushing over it though.  Check out the PDF for $10.  It's well worth it.

I'm going to do some actual play reports of the game to showcase some of the fun.  Dungeon World assumes and suggests that you fill in a lot of the setting details throughout the first session of play.  The GM comes to the table with a loose idea and asks the players leading questions to fill out the rest.

We decided to form the setting a little bit before making characters since I was interesting in twisting around a few setting assumptions to incorporate a more urban environment.  I stumbled upon this post and fell in love with the idea.  So a big Thank You goes out to henrythewhite for the inspiration.  Hopefully he doesn't mind me taking his idea and running with it.

I really liked how you could do the old school "dungeons everywhere" theme and literally put a sprawling metropolis right on top.  So the adventurers would descend into the trouble levels while backstabbing nobleman made life on the surface just as dangerous.

This is the pitch I sent to my players:

In the largest and the oldest city in The World, adventure lurks around every corner. The city has been leveled and rebuilt countless times due to wars and disasters both magical and natural.. As a result the sewer system and underbelly is home to whole communities of the “lesser” members of society and ancient passages are always being uncovered from the “old times.”

The City Below has always been ignored by the City Watch. Resources are stretched to their limit patrolling the city proper. That is until now. Something has the ruling body angry. They are fed up that the Watch does nothing in the City Below. The rulers and the Captain of the Guard came to an “agreement.” Thus the Underwatch was born. No one was required to transfer to the Underwatch but each District had to find “volunteers” to make the change. The worst miscreants from the Watch have been given positions in the Underwatch. YOU are a member of the Underwatch.

Are you ready to fight your way through the crime and grime in the City Below? Are you prepared to unearth the secrets of the cities of old buried deep below the streets? Sharpen your sword. Study your spells. Your career in the Underwatch starts now.

Lucky for me they all ate it up.

So fast forward to last Saturday when we finally made the setting come to life and make some quick characters (all character creation in Dungeon World is quick.  And like most of the game, Really Awesome).

For those of you that haven't done a collaborative Setting/World building exercise as part of an RPG before, I highly recommend it.  We played a recent game of Dresden Files and had a ton of fun making the city.  Dungeon World takes a more free form approach compared to Dresden's phases.  Normally you would just start in media res in some dungeon or other dangerous situation and build the world through actual play.

I decided to combine the approaches.  I went around and asked people questions regarding THE CITY.  Once we had a solid idea of what the city was like, we jumped into the game right in the middle of the action like normal.


The first question I asked was "What's the City's name?"  The players quickly responded with "Axiom.  New Axiom, ya know, since it has been destroyed over and over.  They always call the current top side city New Axiom."

Our City was born and all the questions and answers spawned more questions and answers.  So how did The City turn out?  Let's take a look.

Welcome to New Axiom

New Axiom is a sprawling metropolis that is situated on the coast.  It is massive in scale and many of it's structures have towers or are otherwise designed to have a large vertical footprint.  The city is divided into Districts.  Each District has a Councilor that is in charge of the goings on within that district.

My players loved the idea of a City Council of sorts that ran the city.  It also opens up the path for political games between Districts.  New Axiom also has a figurehead Chancellor or Regent that is "officially" the ruler but holds no real political power.  The Districts keep their own branch of the Watch that has jurisdiction within that District.  The newest district, The Undercity, has no official Council member and the Underwatch is comprised of all the worst of the Watch from other Districts.

Through the questions and answer session regarding the city and Characters we  were able establish that there are 12 districts.  We haven't defined them all (keeping with the make maps, leave blanks principle of Dungeon World) but came up with a bulk of them.

The Districts that were mentioned:

• Magistrate: Government District.  Home to House Vansteel


• Sky: Home to House Saraphim, who control the City's Magi-Tech Airships.
  


• Garden: Home to House Highgarden, a posh "vacation" spot for nobles.  Also controls the Food production and distribution for New Axiom.


• Arcanum: Home to University Arcana.  The entire district is the campus and home to the magical scholars.  Their branch of the watch is known as the The Black Wands. Their specialty is to police their own regarding crimes of a magical nature. The players determined that Divination is illegal (punishable by death even!) and summoning is highly regulated.  Magic is still very rare and powerful but these are laws held over from an age past.


• Stonekin:  The Dwarven District.


• Northgate:  The main enterance to the city.


• Craftsmen:  Lower class workers.  High Halfling population.


• Westgate:  The entrance for the "low."  It was established that Dwarves and Humans are viewed as equals and Elves and Halflings as "lesser" races.  Elves are prejudiced against for being responsible for the destruction of the city in ages past with their misuse of magic.


• Undercity:  EVERYTHING under ground level.  It's big, dangerous and mysterious.  The first few levels are inhabited by people and after that its all buried secrets, ancient ruins and unearthed tombs.

This leaves us with 3 districts to play with as well as all the supporting details of the ones above.  Without really trying we basically built a fantasy version of Hive Primus from GW's 40K Necromunda setting.  Rival houses, buried relics, dangerous gangs living in the Undercity.  All great stuff.  We mapped out some broad stroke details and got a little more description from character backgrounds.  I feel like the there are still enough "blanks" on the map to make anything else work.

Meet the Underwatch

Lasbador Bentledon - Wizard

Lasbador is a former student of the University Arcana and quickly gained the disapproval of the Archmage.  He was quickly offered a job in the Black Wands simply to be stripped of the title and "volunteered" to the Underwatch.

Bonds:

• Aubrey will play an important role in the events to come.  I have foreseen it!


• Dash is keeping an important secret from me.


• Akajj Farstrider is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can

Dash Seraphim - Bard

The third son in the Sky District's Seraphim family, he decided to skip out on his "mandated" appointment to the church of Pelor.  To make matters worse he further soiled the family name by engaging in a high profile scandal with the daughter of Lucius Vansteel.  Maybe a stint in the Underwatch is exactly what he needs.

Bonds:

• This not my first adventure with Lasbador


• I sang stories of Akajj Farstrider long before I ever met them in person


• Aubrey is often the butt of my jokes


• I am writing a ballad about the adventures of Aubrey


• Lasbador trusted me with a secret


• Akajj does not trust me, and for good reason

Aubrey - Fighter

Aubrey grew up in the streets of the Craftsman district.  Being a Halfling is hard in New Axiom.  Prejudice is everywhere.  Aubrey's spirit was only strengthened through the constant adversity.  She befriended a retired war hero Gregor and became the daughter he never had.  With Gregor's axe in hand she was determined to get a position in the City Watch.  Luckily the City Watch had an opening . . .

Bonds:

• Dash owes their life, whether they admit it or not


• I have sworn to protect Lasbador


• I worry about the ability of Lasbador to survive in the Underwatch


• Akajj Farstrider is soft, but I will make them hard like me

Akajj Farstrider - Druid

Akajj Farstrider is an elf from The East.  Tales of these dark skinned elves paint them as savage and cannibalistic desert nomads.  Half of that is true.  No one is sure yet of which half that is.  Akajj traveled to New Axiom and was recruited to the Underwatch.  Press ganged really.  Either way, it is a means to the check out the rumors of an ancient forest that grows beneath the city.

Bonds:

• Lasbador smells more like prey than hunter


• The spirits spoke to me of a great danger that follows Aubrey


• I have showed Dash a secret rite of the Land