One of the reasons I like keeping my products strictly as PDFs is that I can revisit them at any time and make adjustments. Strongholds reached Electrum quite some time ago, and I've been meaning to make another update to improve the interior art as a thank you to everyone who bought way back when the art was just minimalistic vector art. I finally got around to it, and this is the result. I think it is quite an improvement and I hope you all enjoy it.
Showing posts with label dungeon world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dungeon world. Show all posts
Strongholds - A Dungeon World Guidebook recently reached best electrum seller. As a thank you, the book has been updated with A new 21 page guidebook with new art, spelling fixes, two more chambers, one more upgrade, and three stronghold examples. If you already purchased this book, you get this update for free.

We've got a mix of excerpts from different sections of the book that work along the rules for Health and Wounds and a section to adapt these rules in a more condensed matter to Dungeon World.

Cast
Jack – Level 2 Changeling Rogue
Lucius – Level 2 Human Mage
Summary (session 2)
After the party briefly mourned Dulin they decided to keep going forward and explore the next room but not before encountering another living spell, this time made out of acid rather than fire. No one attempted to communicate with it–something living spells are able to do (although not very good)– and decided to fight it. Once the party dealt with the threat they moved into the next room where the found four chests. The rogue decided to try and open one of them but failed, a floating metallic gauntlet of large size appeared gesturing it wanted to play rock/paper/scissors, Jack found this hilarious and decided to play along but the laughs stopped when Tibaldo (Jack) lost against me and the gauntlet punched Jack dealing a great deal of damage. Unwilling to give up, jack played a few times until he won and got regarded with a magic item. Then, jack decided to try its luck with another chest but this time he failed his roll and the chest turned out to be a mimic. The encounter did not go very well as Lucius failed an abjuration spell to try and stop the mimic and instead ended up with nailing his own mouth shut, the nails digging in deeper with each failed attempt to remove them. While Lucius struggled, Jack got eaten and failed his last breath. At this point Lucius decided to run outside towards Kolbert’s house and seek help before the nails killed him. He managed to reach Kolbert’s house in time and there he explained what happened. Jack was definitely dead and now Tibaldo was looking at what he would play next.
Conclusion
This session was even shorter than before since we got to play very late that night. Tibaldo asked if he could play Kolbert arguing that seeing another human being die partially due to his fault, it would trigger some emotions about how his wife died and it would move him to take up arms once again. Tibaldo fleshed out Kolbert’s background and decided to try Awful Good Game’s Swordmage.

Cast
Kolbert– Level 4 Human Swordmage
Lucius – Level 3 Human Mage
Summary (session 3)
When he was ready, both Lucius and Kolbert headed to the tower where they found that Dulin’s body was missing, the mimic destroyed, and Jack’s body was no where to be found as well. They climbed the spiral of stairs to a room where some wererats were ready to ambush them, of course the rat’s plans failed as the party to be too powerful for them. One of the wererats pleaded for his life and eventually attacked them out of panic when he say Lucius was not so willing to let them go. Once they cleared the room, they noticed four doors; in one of them they found what remained of Jack who was still wearing the magic item he previously gained. Two other rooms held a wererat each which refused to come out, the last room had Dulin’s body but the party did not bother to check the door since their attention moved towards the pleading wererats. One of the rats managed to escape through a window while the other blamed everything on the rat king and managed to escape the party’s grasp.
The party did not bother to loot the bodies and decided to keep climbing up the stairs until they reached the pinnacle of the tower where the rat king was supposed to be. When they arrived at the top it was already dark, the floor was unusually dark. It took them a moment to realize they were actually standing on grass and that the dark floor was actually countless of rats tightly moving about. The group found the rat king on top of a gargoyle statue and was already waiting for them and surprisingly enough had a deal for them. The rat king told them that it was thanks to him and his kin that there were no goblin raids and no necromancers. When Lucius heard the word necromancer he became curious, he already suspected something about Nil, Minerva’s assistant at the cemetery. The rat king continued explaining that since Farabrout no longer buried their dead and brought them here (to Halkorn), the necromancer would eventually follow. He also mentioned that he did not plan to stay there for long and if left alone and well fed he would keep “protecting the village” and not harm any villagers. It fell upon Kolbert to make the decision and after much debate and a serious of bad rolls to see if the king was lying, Kolbert agreed to the deal and the group left the tower to the rat king as they prepared to travel the next day to Vidreng village and meet with Inuben.
Since they were previously bitten by the wererats several times on the previous sessions, I decided to come up with some mechanics for diseases using D&D 4e’s rules for them, both of them gained the wererat fever disease. This was the result:
Resist Disease
When you make camp while afflicted by a disease and make and try to resist the effects, roll +CON
✴ On a 10+, the disease stage is reduced by 1.
✴On a 7-9+, the disease stage remains the same.
✴On a miss, the disease stage is increased by 1.
A disease normally starts at stage 1. If the disease enters a new stage, the effects of the new stage normally stacks with the effects of the old one.
Wererat Fever [Disease]
Stage 0: You are cured of the disease
Stage 1: Gain the sick debility which is ongoing until the disease is cured.
Stage 2: The fevers kick in and your appearance begings to change to that of a wererat, gain the awkward tag ongoing.
Stage 3: You change into a wererat.
The party reached the village after 3 uneventful days of travel. As they moved around the village Lucius noticed that Vidigern was withering away and it wouldnt take long for the tree to succumb to whatever illness it was affecting it. Inuben greeted them there and suggested to move to the town hall where they could speak in private. There Inuben explained that he was one of youngest druids in Vidigern’s circle and is now the last druid of the village as the rest have taken their final druid sleep. He also explained the history behind Vidigern and how she ended up being a giant oak tree and what was needed to at least restore her health, ff she was cured, she could produce a cure for Runea. Although it was best for him to tell the party that was the only way, he did suggest that Runea has a brother that is now part of a cult known as The Cult of the All-Knowing and that they could choose to try and find him and get him to tell them how to get inside Smitheim where Uguthos is (which is something contemplated by the adventure). The party decided to try and face Mudwart, the troll king who once wounded Vidigern and retrieve her totem in other to heal her since it would save the most amount of lives. Before leaving, Lucius and Kolbert decided to leave offerings to Vidigern and prey for their disease to be cured which was granted with a successful roll.
With the help of Lucius’ arcane familiar the party reached the troll king’s lair and proceeded with caution. After a while, they encountered two giant doors; one appeared to not be guarded while the other was protected by a large frog with a tentacle on its back. This was Krognor, Mudwart’s pet. Lucius secretly casted a divination spell to see which door led to the troll king faster. The roll failed which led him to believe the unguarded door was the best option when in reality it was the sleeping quarters of 3 trolls. Lucius opened the door with confidence leading to the trolls awaking and rapidly attacking them. After a few bad rolls, Lucius got his act finally together and dealt with two of the trolls while Kolbert used his held Magic wisely and was able to deal with Krognor and one of the trolls.
Conclusion
This session I got to see more of the mage being used and the comments by Martin about the class’ flexibility without feeling overpowered was good to hear since that was what I was thriving for. Overall the session went pretty smoothly, the players seem pretty interested about the plot. Particularly it was pleasing to see how they were trying to piece everything together; the drought, the dwarves of smitheim closing the dam, and Runea’s condition.
The chronomancer recently reached Best Copper Seller on DrivethruRPG. As it has become our custom, we are in the process of updating the class' artwork and layout to match our most recent products. This will be the third iteration for the cover art. Take a look at the new one and the ones before it and tell us which one is your favorite.
Newest
Second
Original
Today I am publishing a small list of poisons that can be found throughout our products. Hopefully you will find some use for them in your games:
This poison is particularly good for anyone who wishes to follow a target. Two doses are made, one for the target and one for you, the hunter. The target becomes sweaty and releases a persistent but subtle sweet smell. When you discern realities, you may ask the GM “in what direction is the sweet smell coming from?” The GM will answer truthfully.

Until cured, if the poison was applied the target cannot use magic. If the poison touches the target, magical effects or attacks are diminished or halved, the GM will describe how.

Until the next sunrise, if the target is a wolf or lycanthrope its movement is slowed and creatures attacking it deal +1d4 of damage. If a creature bitten by a lycanthrope drinks this poison it gets a second chance to resist turning into one.

Unless cured, the target falls terribly ill after 3 days and then takes its last breath, its death appearing of natural causes.

The target answers the next question it is asked truthfully.

Onyx Sight dangerous, touch, 35 coins, 0 weight.
Until cured, the target gradually becomes blind over the course of a minute.

Rageroot dangerous, touch, 30 coins, 0 weight.
The target enters a blinding rage, attacking everything on sight for a few crucial seconds.
Satyr’s Titter dangerous, applied, 55 coins, 0 weight. Until cured, whenever the target hears a joke or a funny word, it laughs uncontrollably for a few minutes.
Dungeon World can be a confusing game especially if you come from rule heavy games such as D&D. For example, some of you may understand the use of 2d6 for rolls as it provides a bell curve but do not like them or simply rolling those dice does not feel right and you wish you could roll your trusty d20 instead, perhaps you (as many players and GMs alike) struggle with the free form of handling combat; there are no turns, no rounds, no rolls for initiative to see who goes first, and so on. Below I have compiled the changes I have made to the game in order to make it more enjoyable to my players. Hopefully, some of these hacks may serve your game:
Switching to a d20
Switching to a d0 was one of the first things we did after playing a few sessions. Here is how we did it:We switched the 2d6 for a d20
The target numbers to beat changed from the standard 12+, 10+, and 7–9 to 20+, 16+, and 10–15
Modifiers went from -3 to +5
At character creation, all attributes begin at -3 you then have 32 points to distribute among your attributes.
We removed the ability scores left only the bonuses
Every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) you can increase one of your attributes by +1.
HP changed for the classes:
- Bard: HP 15 +CON, LOAD 9+STR
- Cleric: HP 15 +CON, LOAD 10+STR
- Druid: HP 15 +CON, LOAD 6+STR
- Fighter: HP 22 +CON, LOAD 12+STR
- Paladin: HP 20 +CON, LOAD 12+STR
- Ranger: HP 20 +CON, LOAD 11+STR
- Rogue (thief): HP 15 +CON, LOAD 9+STR
- Wizard: HP 10 +CON, LOAD 7+STR
Structuring Combat
Although there are no rules as to how to handle combat, the book does mention that combat functions just like any other part of the game, there are no rules for turns or rounds but it does say that each player should get a chance to act. With this information, we can provide some structure to combat which can help players and GMs coming from a D&D background.Rounds
We can divide combat into rounds without having to stop the flow of it. This is something for the GM to track and maybe some players with ongoing effects. Since every player and monster in combat gets a chance to act if able, we can call a round that moment when all players and monsters have acted at least once. Once this happens effects such as being on fire, having regeneration, and so forth, could trigger at the end of a round. If you as the GM don’t want to mention when a round starts or ends just keep in mind the effects the players and monsters are under and have them trigger at the end of each round.Damage Types To Weapons
This is not necessary, but, if you wish to add some level of complexity to combat you can definitely add damage types to weapons and spells. of course, you can always go by the fiction to know what type of damage is being dealt but by defining these types you give consistency to your games and provide solid mechanics to player moves, monster moves and special qualities such as adding resistance, immunity, and vulnerability to certain types of damage. If you want to use D&D’s damage types, I found an article that explains each damage type.Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability
I use the following tags from Awfulgood Games mainly for magic items and monsters which draw inspiration from D&D:- x Resistant: The target is exceptionally good at resisting the specified type of attack. When you take damage, roll twice and take the lower result.
- x Vulnerable: The target is exceptionally bad at resisting the specified type of attack. When you take damage, roll twice and take the highest result.
- X Immunity: The target is immune to the specified type of attack. When you take damage, you take no damage instead.
Diseases
Since DW does not have rules or guidelines on how to handle diseases, you can use the rules provided below:Resist Disease
When you make camp while afflicted by a disease and try to resist the effects, roll +CON
✴ On a 10+, the disease stage is reduced by 1.
✴On a 7-9+, the disease stage remains the same.
✴On a miss, the disease stage is increased by 1.
A disease normally starts at stage 1. If the disease enters a new stage, the effects of the new stage normally stacks with the effects of the old one. When a disease reaches stage 3, the effects are permanent unless a cured is found.
Example diseases:
Bloodrot [Disease]Stage 0: You are cured of the disease
Stage 1: You move half as you fast as you normally would and you also gain the sick
debility which is ongoing until the disease is cured.
Stage 2: Your skin becomes saggy and begins to ooze out blood whenever you sweat.
When you take damage, roll twice and choose the highest result.
Stage 3: You turn into a blob of skin and blood and become a bloodrot amniote.
Wererat Fever [Disease]
Stage 0: You are cured of the disease
Stage 1: Gain the sick debility which is ongoing until the disease is cured.
Stage 2: The fevers kick in and your appearance begings to change to that of a wererat, gain the awkward tag ongoing.
Stage 3: You change into a wererat.
One of such horrors is Ugothos, it appeared long ago emerging from a meteorite that fell on the mountain near the area now known as the Grytt Crater. The dwarves managed to seal it then a few days back another meteorite fell which released Uguthos, the dwarves failed to seal him again and fearing the madness and corrupting Uguthos brought would spread through the water, they closed the dams they controlled which gave water to most of the steadings of the region.
Its been now 5 days since the dams were closed and no one knows why. To make things worse, it hasn't rained a single inch either (even when magically induced) and wells are drying out one by one. The adventurers come into the region to investigate what is going on, discover the Uguthos danger, find a way to reseal the creature and save the region (and the world) from succumbing to its corruption.
Update: New layout, corrections, and two PDFs, one in color, the other in black and white to make it easier to print at home. They both contain a 62 page adventure for Dungeon World with:
- One primary danger and two optional ones depending on what the characters do.
- Four fleshed out steadings, each with their own map
- Four dungeons and one optional dungeon. The important dungeons have their own maps
- Character options including a new material for weapons and armor, dungeon gear, magic items related to the adventure, and two new types of hirelings!
Death comes for us all. Whether you want it or not, death comes. It can arrive swiftly like a sudden gust of wind on a hot afternoon or it can gently creep up on you like the caress of a lover. Death does not care if you are a peasant or a king, it will come for you on equal terms.
You are a reaper, the personification of death itself on this material plane. Your job is to pass judgement on mortals and deliver their souls to the Black Gates if you deem their time has come. Liches, necromancers, vampires, and all those who have dared to use Death’s power to command the dead or acquire immortality are your enemies. You must hunt them down at all cost. What better way of doing this than adventuring? You don't do it for fame, glory, or wealth. You do it because adventurers are always in the midst of everything happening in the world. They are, unknowingly, reapers themselves that must go to the Black Gates once their jobs are done.
This product contains two files:
A 12 page playbook containing over 20 moves.
A two page character sheet for you to record your character's stats, gear, and moves.
“What’s eating you? You seem a little blue.”
Most would look around in a busy market square and simply hear the prices of today’s produce being called out by an old farmer or the fervent haggling of a shady dealer in a back alley. They would see a mix of indistinguishable faces amid the crowd, each trying to get to where they’re going as quickly as possible. You, however, see the truth. That old farmer has a tinge of grey in his aura, he is nearing the end of his life and he knows it. The shady dealer is not green with envy or greed but instead purple with compassion: you know they are selling contraband just to get enough money for their wife and kids to scrape by. Each face in the crowd has a color, an emotion, a purpose, and you can sense them all. You, Auramancer, you have the power of the human heart. The ebb and flow of thoughts and feelings, those are your true calling. To help the sick recover both physically and mentally, or perhaps to manipulate those around you to feel how you will them to, that is your vow.
This product contains two files:
- A 16 page playbook containing over 20 moves and some magic items.
- A two page character sheet for you to record your character's stats, gear, and moves.
The Shade reached best copper seller on Drivethru RPG. As a thank you we will be updating some of the artwork and layout to match our recent products. If there is anything you would like revised or fixed, please let us know.
Ambition, desperation, or just a tragic past or the main common reasons why a creature has become a shade. Shades devour darkness by killing their opponents or by simply absorbing it, which they use to fuel their dark powers. A shade can be from any humanoid race and they look like a member of such race but with dark, whispy skin tones and glowing eyes. No matter what their backgrounds are, shades are the masters of shadows.
This product contains three files:
- A new 16 page playbook containing over 25 moves, and 7 magic items.
- An Italian version of the playbook.
- and a new character sheet for you to record your character's stats, gear, and moves.
The world is like folded cloth overflowing with patterns. Patterns hiding other patterns, patterns on top of other patterns, patterns within patterns and they all can be seen if you pay attention. You will see them in the flight of birds, in the lines on someone else’s hands, in the entrails of animals, or in the unique patterns of your very soul. I was born with this gift, but you, you have been chosen by the spirits. With time and their guidance you will learn to see what is and what was, and as your powers grow stronger, you will also see what will be. Pick up the cloth called life and in the patterns below, you will see the spirits that once dwelled there and you’ll be able to call them forth, inhibiting your body to provide answers, you will be able to give courage to young heroes by showing them the outcome of their good deeds or instill fear in your enemies by plaguing their minds with the horrible future that awaits them if they dare oppose you and your companions. Seer, medium, psychic, augur, diviner, channeller, soothsayer, oracle… people will call you by many names and they will love and hate you for your gifts but you must always remember one thing: In order to grow, you must understand everything around you, even those who seek to do you harm. To understand is to divine patterns.
This product contains two files:
- A new 18 page playbook containing over 20 moves, some gear, and magic items.
- The Catari, a new race with custom moves for you to use.
- A new two page character sheet for you to record your character's stats, gear, and moves.
What do you think of when you imagine a stronghold? Typically, a stronghold is a fortified
structure such as a castle or a keep but it can basically be anything you want; a temple or monastery, a tower, a cave complex, a mansion, an island, or even a giant hollowed tree. In Dungeon World terms, a stronghold is not a steading, it does not have its own economy nor
a thriving population (although it could and if you take care of it, it really should. You shouldn’t be surprised if you see that some villagers have built houses around your keep while you were away). A stronghold is your base of operations, your command post, your headquarters, your fortress of solitude, it is where you store your loot and where you go to lick your wounds after a fearsome battle.
Strongholds contains guidelines on how to build and acquire strongholds and what to equip them with.
This product contains two files:
- A 21 page guidebook containing guidelines to build strongholds
- Another 21 page guidebook in black and white for those who wish to save on ink.
- A two page sheet for you to record your stronghold's tags and chambers