A Sundered World War: Episode 102

Cast

• Magnus (level 1 kobold warlock)
• Minu (level 1 cambion battlemind)
• Ryker Tideson (level scion 1 shaman)
• Yuurian (level 1 t'pual wizard)

Summary

The dragon deeply inhaled, causing the cracks in its stone body growing longer and wider as it expanded.

Ryker released his spirit. It clamped its jaws around the dragon's neck and thrashed about wildly, causing it's molten breath to miraculously miss everyone but Minu. Luckily she was able to strip her armor off before the molten globs melted through it.

Yuurian and Magnus opened fire with their respective styles of magic. Yuurian switched from blasts of fire to bolts of lightning, but they didn't seem to have any effect at all. Magus's eldritch bolts inflicted some noticeable damage, which was good. It also earned him the dragon's attention, which was bad.

It charged towards him, but he was able to conjure grasping tentacles to hold it in place. It worked, but the dragon's scorching body was quickly burning through them, so Yuurian used her mastery of fire to "cool" the dragon's body. This gave Ryker and Minu an opening to attack: Minu managed to slice off one of its wings, while the shark continued to dart in and tear off another chunk of its body.

Ryker found himself gripped with his spirit's bloodlust and charged. The dragon easily snatched him up in his jaws, but as they clamped down it forced Ryker's spear up through his head. Its jaws slackened, Ryker slid out, burned but still alive, and it crumbled to chunks of rock and ash.

They returned to Yorg, who seemed impressed that they not only defeated the tarchon general, but that all of them had survived. He paid them, including the raise that Ryker and Magnus has previously asked for, and then gave Ryker an additional amount to help cover the cost of repairing his ship.

When they mentioned going to Hell's Precipice to effect repairs, he requested that they try to convince the island's leaders to provide the resistance with much needed fuel and ammunition. Currently they were focusing their efforts at shoring up defenses and installing new weapons: without their aid the resistance would be ill-equipped to hold off a tarchon invasion.

Behind the Scenes

I think the wizard's fatigue gain is perfect: Yuurian was able to stay conscious throughout a prolonged conflict (group of tarchons and the general) without passing out. Mind you he didn't take any damage, but he did use his magic pretty frequently (and Maria did roll maximum fatigue several times). Much better than during our playtest last year, where Shane's wizard kept passing out.

Dropping the battlemind's damage die to a d8 seems like a good move so far. Melissa could still hurt things, and burn focus to hurt them more, and her passive damage bonuses (gained from one of the cambion race moves and an advanced) put her almost on par with a fighter that also took a damage boosting advanced. The upside is that she's tougher than a fighter, which is what we were aiming for.

We did run into a hiccup where Adam wanted Ryker's spirit to just attack. I based the spirit in part on the ranger's Animal Companion, which also lacks rules/moves for when you want it to do stuff independent of yourself. Yet another issue I've encountered with Dungeon World. We kind of hand-waived it by having Ryker roll+CON (as he would with spirit magic).

Gonna have to work up a kind of "war" map that shows the island positions, and various ratings for things like offense and defense. Also have tags for resources and such. That way when an island gets attacked, I'll have an idea as to how well they can defend themselves.

Announcements

We've just unleashed The Rakshasa upon Dungeon World.

Lichfield is available for public consumption. If you want a concise adventure with a Silent Hill feel, be sure to check it out! Primordial Machine is also out, so if you want to catch a glimpse of A Sundered World, now's your chance! Finally, we've updated If These Stones Could Scream.

The Dungeon World GM Screen is currently available in pdf and landscape insert formats. No matter which you choose, you get eight sets of pdfs that let you have access to the screen in both landscape and portrait orientation, in color or black and white, and with or without art.

We're waiting on the portrait inserts. Assuming they look good, they'll be available soon. They're now available.

Next up, mini screen!