I've also started using Roll20. Ran my first online session of Dungeon World on Saturday, and I have to say, the character sheets for it are kind of bad. All the moves are collapsed by default, and the text is in tiny text boxes that you have to scroll through if it's a complicated move. I wanted to use
these form-fillable PDFs character sheets instead since they work so much better (more readable and you can just click to select moves), but some players didn't want to use it because you can't really add in custom moves with it.
After using it for a while, it's not quite as bad as it seemed originally. The moves on the character sheet are often completely unusable (I guess if you're a fighter or something, you'll have to cut out all the text that doesn't apply to your signature weapon), but the compendium made it easy to look up moves and such, so that really wasn't such an issue. Also, it was nice to be able to draw a map that the players could all look at during the session.
The session itself was good. It was a little touch-and-go at first because I run Dungeon World by improvising a world and a starting scenario by improvising using whatever players give me, but once I got an idea of the sort of world we were in and the things players were interested in, it really took off.
So we started out with the players entering a city, because the human wizard had heard that the key to reversing his parent's transformation (which he was responsible for) was in here. The halfling bard was a little uneasy about entering the city, since he's technically wanted here, though he doesn't know that because of memory problems, so it just manifests into a sense of unease. And the orc cleric was along because her god gave her a vision telling her to go here.
The wizard goes into a magic shop owned by some halfling dude, because his leads pointed him out as someone who likely knew some way of reversing transformation. He doesn't want to just give away information, so he asks the party to go get some money from a guy who owes him for a potion.
The party goes to the guy's house, and it's a dilapidated hut, and, after a bit of talking, they learn that the potion he owes him for is a luck potion that didn't work when he went to go gambling. The party doesn't feel great about shaking down some poor dude who was taken in by a scam, so they return to the halfling magic merchant empty-handed.
He doesn't like the fact that they didn't do as he asked and accused him of things, so he ejects them from his shop. They then go to the wizard's second lead, which is a weaponsmith's shop. She tells them that, though she doesn't have anything that would do the job, she has heard talk of a shrine in the woods to the south that is said to be able to reverse transformations.
So they head off out of town, and the bard manages to roll quite well to still stay hidden from anyone seeking him here, and they decide to traverse the mountain the way of their path, rather than going around it, and everyone does quite well in their jobs during the journey, except for the wizard, who was navigating, so it takes them quite a bit more time from all the backtracking and whatnot they have to do trying to cross this mountain. But eventually they make it into the woods.
When they get there, the wizard tries to cast Detect Magic to locate the shrine. But it doesn't work, because, as soon as he tries to cast the spell, it fizzles, and everyone hears chanting as hooded robed figures slowing emerge through the trees.
A fight breaks out, the wizard downs a couple with Magic Missile, the others party members get a little beat up standing near the front of the fray, and the bard tries to heal them but ends up also buffing the cultists at the same time, and also a few of the cultists gather up their power to shoot off an energy ball at the wizard. Then the bard tries to distract a few with a cartwheel so the cleric can get some easy hits in, but, instead, she takes a moment to reflect on what's going on here, and realizes both that the rituals these cultists are doing are stolen and twisted versions of those used by her faith, and that the cultists seem mostly like they're just trying to keep the party busy.
After at least another energy ball barrage by the cultist, and things looking kind of grim, suddenly, the cleric's friend, the dwarven artificer appears (another player who showed up late). He actives a device that makes a hole to escape down into, and drops down it. The cleric follows after, and the bard is about to drop down, but casts a musical spell (I think it was healing or something) on the wizard and is grabbed by one of the cultists, and is about to be taken away. Fortunately, the wizard is able to drop the cultist with a Magic Missile, and the bard makes it down the hole.
So it's just the wizard left up top at this point, and there's a couple of cultists between him and the hole. He then reveals to the audience what he's been keeping secret from the party: the accident that transformed his parents also made him part dragon. He has wings, and, though they can't really fly, they're enough to get a good jump over these cultists, and so he bounds over, and falls into the hole just before it collapses.
So now the whole party is down in the hole, which it turns out leads to the artificer's underground bunker. The cleric casts a spell to contact a local spirit, which is a great oak beast, and it tells her the way to the shrine will be marked by the moss of the trees. And the party realizes that, whatever the cultists were trying to keep them away from, they'll likely need to do something about it very soon.
And that's were we left off.
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Topic: Re: Dungeons & Dragons / PNP games thread: COBRA!!! (Read 832602 times)