Rat Queens Dungeon World

Dungeon World was the game of choice at the most recent Monday Night Game Lab, and it was the first time playing it for everyone involved. We'd all played Monster of the Week though, and three of us had played Apocalypse World, so none of us were strangers to the basic mechanics.

The key differences were the types of Basic and Special Moves, the magic system, and the use of hit points. I think we solidly understood everything by the half-way point of the game, except for the concept of Bonds. Normally, you establish Bonds when you create your character: how are they connected, bonded, to the rest of the characters?  In this case we were using pre-generated characters and they had been filled in for us.

On a few occasions we felt the rules were implying an actual modification to the die roll based on Bonds, but we could not find what that would be. Bonds are actually quite important; in addition to helping you decide how you would act in a situation, and how your character would interact with another, there IS a die mechanic involved:  "When a move has you roll+bonds, you’ll count the number of bonds you have with the character in question and add that to the roll."

Dungeon World is a very fun, fast and enjoyable system. If I was going to introduce someone to role-playing games for the first time, this is the system that I would use if we were playing in a fantasy setting.

For more information on Dungeon World:
http://www.dungeon-world.com/

We were Rat Queens in the game we played. Rat Queens is a fantastic comic about a company of adventuring women. They are rowdy, sarcastic, hard-partying and violent. They are sexy and they are hilarious. If you don't know the Rat Queens, you should check them out immediately!
https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/rat-queens

[Major Spoilers if you are playing this at 2014 Nexus Game Fair]
The Rat Queens were in trouble for leading an angry murder of goblins into the city of Palisade while fleeing.  Sawyer Silver of the City Watch offered them a chance to get out of prison by finding and rescuing the missing children of a small farm community. Saying No meant staying in prison, so...

The girls had to leave immediately, or right after they took a bath, because they reeked of goblin and it was making people ill.

Upon arriving to the village one woman remarked, "This is who's going to save our children? They look more like prostitutes than heroes!" That set the tone for their helpfulness.

Dee was able to commune with the dead, getting details on the last time something like this happened from Edna Smith, the dead grandmother of the village headman. The dead are sometimes more useful than the living.

Striking out towards the low hills, Betty got them a little lost and soon they had to make camp. After getting a fire built and eating some rations, Betty broke out her bag of magic mushrooms and indulged. 

Violet and Dee decided that would be fun too and also dipped into Betty's little bag. Soon Hannah was the only one with her wits about her, and keeping watch. Halfway through the night she heard whispers and sensed she was being watched. Getting Betty's attention she told her they had company and to quietly tell the others. Betty thought she was being quiet but had no sense of her own volume, using a loud stage whisper to say "Grab your stuff girls we got company!"

Battle ensued. Hannah cast Light on a rock and threw it over to where she heard the noises, illuminating several humanoid shapes dressed like ninjas. Dee raised a Zombie Servant from the very ground!

Similar dress, but in tatters, filthy, and more flesh hanging on the bones.

Violet went to chase a fleeing assailant but went off-course and ended up throwing her shield, to no avail. Betty stabbed one of them in the back. Hannah clobbered one with her staff. Soon the Rat Queens had a prisoner, whom they began to question.

The assailants were Underelfs, who had been kidnapping children. Eventually they give details about where the kids were being held, and why--the Elf Queen was going to sacrifice them in a hideous magic ritual that would destroy the surface of the world.

The Rat Queens found the entrance and Dee used Dispel Magic to destroy the magic barrier. Walking in they ran into an annoying, smelly little albino goblin. They eventually decided to walk in the direction opposite of "where heroes go" (as the goblin said) and take his chamber pot, making it into a helm for Happy the Zombie Servant, as Dee had named him. Dee cast Light on the chamber pot and embedded Hannah's Light Rock into Happy's chest, a la' Iron Man. The girls sent him forward to light the way and scare the hell out of Underelfs.

They ran into several guards, some with very well-defined pectoral muscles and the open shirts to prove it. They killed or ran them all off.  Happy the Zombie Servant got the chance to eat Elf brains, and moaned for more. A fancy if dirty cape was found, and affixed to Happy the Zombie Servant. With the chamber pot on his head, he looked a lot like Mysterio.

They found a room with an altar, and Violet discovered it was hollow! Opening it revealed a trove of diamonds. Dee left a note on the altar for the Elf Queen: "Thanks for the diamonds." Dee also took the time to draw a happy face on Happy's brightly-illuminating chamber pot.

Hannah cast a spell that allowed her to see a tiny purple pony with wings when she closed her eyes, and that led the way to where the children were. Unfortunately it didn't care about walls, so Violet and Betty spent some quality time knocking through a stone wall to reach the children. Probably there was an easier way.

Kind of like this I guess. Never imagined such an image would be on my blog.

The kids were scared out of their minds by Happy the Zombie Servant but Dee calmed them down and Betty gave them candy. Just regular candy. Everyone trooped out the way they came, but there were a bunch of angry Underelfs waiting for them in the altar room, including the super-creepy necromantic Elf Queen. She demanded the children, Violet told her they peed on the altar, and battle was joined.

Like this, but against Underelves

The kids saw a chance to run out the front and took it. The Rat Queens covered their escape until the Elves were worried more about protecting their Queen, and the girls followed the kids--only to find that the annoying albino goblin was preventing their escape. Betty launched a dagger at him and hits him in the eye! He fell down dead and everyone escaped, with the kids and the diamonds.

The Rat Queens deserved an epic fiesta after that, I'm sure...

Monster of the Week and Conspiracy of Shadows: Apprentice

Haven't gamed much in a while, as I concentrate on Important Things. But I did recently have a chance to play Monster of the Week at my FLGS and Conspiracy of Shadows: Apprentice at Chicago Game Day.

Monster of the Week is a fun, easy game to play based on the Apocalypse World system, but much simplified. I recommend it if you are looking for a low-prep, easy-to-explain, insta-fun game that can be played at home, at a store, or at a bar.

Here's a link to the short campaign we played using MotW a while back:

https://something-wicked-this-way-comes-let-s-kill-it.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log

It also has a fantastic price point:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/108308/Monster-of-the-Week


For Chicago Game Day yesterday, held at the venerable and always-awesome Games Plus in Mount Prospect, Illinois, I had the chance to play something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.  The game is called Conspiracy of Shadows: Apprentice and although heavy on narrative it is not mechanically light. Taking place in a mythical Nordic setting of Viking heroes, gods and magic it uses rune stones instead of dice and pits two teams of players against each other in a series of challenges culminating in a Final Trial.

This is not an easy game to understand quickly. The map, character sheets and rules, although beautiful and evocative, are challenging to read and understand. It took us a couple hours to really get into the swing of things, but we all worked together to decipher locations on the map and understand the rules as written. It was a great group of players, all very much into games and their mechanics, and pretty soon we were both rocking and rolling.

I played an ancient Viking warrior, Minion of a Master who ruled with a just but iron hand, seeking to preserve the ways of our people. There were two other Minions, great Vikings in their own right, and the Master himself. Our chief weakness was a disdain for teamwork, believing in individual rights, glory, and accomplishments.

Against us was the upstart Apprentice, a woman from the distant North who had broken away from the Master and tried to replace him. She had been punished and sent to her death, but had refused to die, instead allying herself with a warband of heroes on their way to defeat the Master. Although younger than the Master and his Minions, they had strength in numbers and worked as a team.  The Minion wanted to destroy the status quo and probably had a motto like, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" or something equally disturbing.

The unique and beautiful character sheet was unique and beautiful, but took a while to figure out.

Both sides started by moving around the beautiful map, exploring different locations and undertaking challenges in an effort to locate magical artifacts to help them in the Final Trial. The Master and his Minions sought the unbreakable Shield of Eternity which shone with the light of eternal fire.  The Apprentice and her warband sought the Dwarven Spear of the Northern Lights which could pierce anything and was generally made of Pure Awesome.

The Challenges that you face are described by the opposing team. You narrate how you plan to defeat this challenge, trying to bring in story elements that allow you to use your strengths and resources, possibly even twisting Destiny itself to generate the most rune stones that you can. The opposing team then narrates your obstacles in detail and generates an opposing number of rune stones. It's a fun process and gives you a mental workout, as well as making you very thirsty for mead and dark beer.

The Final Trial was truly epic and came down to a vicious battle between the Master and his former Apprentice, while we Minions fought the Warband outside the Master's Lair. Now that I've played it, I want to play it again.

Conspiracy of Shadows: Apprentice is available for purchase here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/413729