Old School Nostalgia for RPG Night: Dungeon World Story Starters

Dungeon World where have you been all by life?

Dungeon World was the game I wish I'd had been given the first time anyone wanted me to GM a game. When you read it, the focus is on how to tell epic adventure stories smoothly and not epic lists of rules that slow down the fun of the game you're trying to play. I firmly believe that reading the DW core rules and running DW games have made me a better GM.

At the heart of the game is a conversation, between players and the GM, about the player characters in the world. This is not a lecture from the GM about the history and geography of some setting and their characters are just as much outsiders to the world as the players themselves. In DW the GM can choose to take a more passive role when deciding the how's, why's, and what's of the world. The player character's have abilities to help them add to the fiction, directing how the game toward a certain part of the fiction that interests the character. This takes a lot of the pressure off the GM who would normally provide every detail of the world the players are interacting with.

This aspect of the game warms all the cockles of my GM heart. This takes RPGs out of the realm of intimidating memorization exercise for nerd and makes it more clearly the collaborative story telling game for anyone RPGs always were. The problem is that for some players, and especially veteran players, the collaborative story telling aspects feels too open. A lot of players expect games that give them clear limitations to their abilities listed on a character sheet. Maybe even expecting a very structured adventure type game with a clear quest written out obviously and thrust into their faces showing them which way to go to get to combat or place they need to make an obvious choice.

I feel the Dungeon World in particular lends itself to a collaborative story telling format and to play it in the classic pre-written adventure type structure is missing what makes DW such a unique RPG experience.

This was a completely new type of gaming for me. And with that new type of gaming, I've struggled with good ways to start new campaigns because of the openness that I love so much and my players are getting used to. I feel like giving them a quest or setting them off on some pre-planned adventure I have come up with is too restricting for a game that welcomes such openness. If the players go into the game thinking that the GM has laid out some intricate plan that they as players are duty bound to follow. However, getting the players to understand the ways in which they can add to the fiction of the game world is the  real difficulty.

Enter Story Starters

I have a habit of watching streams of people playing RPGs. I've gotten guff for this from people, but I usually point out that people watch American Idol all the time and that show is unimaginative garbage. Do they still watch that show? I don't really know, but they did at one point and that's my point.

One such grouping of RPG streams comes from The RPG Academy. I was watching a particular episode where they had a guest GM (Jessa from TheJessaChannel on YouTube; who should get full credit for the Story Starter idea as I couldn't find any Google results for it) who used what she called her story starter. It was a short paragraph with a lot of missing details like MadLibs. She created a generic one that could be applied to most settings and starts the group right in the middle of some action sequence they need to react to. The players offered possible inputs for the various blanks and then they read it completed to begin the adventure.

Jessa's Adventure Starter

You are at the entrance to [INSERT NAMED DUNGEON LOCATION] which is location in/on/by [INSERT A NAMED FANTASTIC (UN)NATURAL SURROUNDINGS] You have journeyed here to [INSERT QUEST] on behalf of [INSERT SKETCHY CHARACTER] Your luck has turned sour though, because [INSERT REASON] and that's a real problem because [INSERT GRUELING CONSEQUENCES] To make matters worse, you have just seen signs of [INSERT APPROACHING THREAT] You can't turn back since [INSERT ANNOYING REASON] so you must push on, you've got a gut feeling things won't turn out well for you if you don't act. What do you do?

I love her idea, not her specific story starter, but the core idea behind it is solid: give the players license to specify the place in the world they want to occupy at the start of the adventure. This gives the players more control over their characters and the options they have at the start of a game and what situation they might be facing.

I tried this out with my players for a new DW pirate themed campaign that I'm running. I wrote up a few that were themed to go along with the world we were going to play in, then I provided the titles only for the story starters.

Our Hero the GM's Story Starters for his pirate themed DW campaign

Captured: You have been captured by the [CHARACTER ALIGNMENT + NAVAL RANK + SURNAME] because [REASON]. You are being transported by [TRANSPORTATION METHOD] to [DANGEROUS LOCATION]; which is bad because [REASON YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO LOCATION] and to make matters worse your party [COMPLICATION], but your captors failed to realize [HIDDEN ADVANTAGE]. It’s not long before you arrive, what do you do?

Quest for: You've arrived at [PORT NAME]. You are here in search of [LEGENDARY OBJECT] which is rumored to be near this port. You've come to claim this treasure because [REASON FOR QUESTING] though [COMPLICATION] and [FURTHER COMPLICATION]; which you weren't expecting so soon has made you SLOW/HURRY. Though after your journey across [FANTASTICAL (UN)NATURAL LANDSCAPE/ENVIRONMENT] by [TRANSPORTATION METHOD] has left you feeling [ADJECTIVES]. You’re low on supplies and the shops won’t open until the morning, what do you do?

A Way Out: You were brought to [PORT NAME] as a [INSERT TIME OF LIFE OR OCCUPATION ETC] and have been looking for a way to leave ever since. When you discovered the map to the legendary treasure of [INSERT DEAD PIRATE NAME HERE] in/on/by [LOCATION OF DISCOVERY] the temptation to leave became a resolve to go, but you [HINDRANCE TO LEAVING] and you have got [ADDITIONAL HINDRANCE]. You still have [ADVANTAGE] and that will help you on your way. To top all of that off [LOCAL THUG] heard a rumor you might have a valuable map, HELPFUL NPC gave you a heads up earlier at the [LOCAL TAVERN/GUILD/INN], you've got a gut feeling that [LOCAL THUG] will make their move tonight and try to get to you in your [PLACE OF RESIDENCE], what do you do?

Sent by… to retrieve…: The [POLITICAL RANK] of [LOCATION] has tasked you with retrieving[ LEGENDARY OBJECT] in order to [REASON]. You have arrived at [LOCATION] the rumored location of the [LEGENDARY OBJECT], but much to your dismay [HINDRANCE] and that’s bad because [GRUELING REASON] and after your party has dealt with [HINDRANCE] they must [QUEST OBJECTIVE] first if they hope to claim their prize of [REWARD YOU BARGAINED FOR]. You can’t turn back because THREAT is approaching and if you don’t complete your quest then [PUNISHMENT FOR FAILURE]. What do you do?

These worked really well in the campaign pirate themed DW campaign. The players got to have a hand in creating the world they wanted their characters to exist in and became more immersed in the fiction of the world. 

Now I fully appreciate the double-edged sword that is giving your players the chance to name various elements of the world, but that's okay. As a GM, just remember that they will be the ones that have to deal with having their asses handed to them by a villain named Sad Sylvester Butthole or Sally Saggy Boobs. You'll get to relish the looks on their faces when they realize that Balls McBallsy is an 8 foot tall half-ogre with a habit swinging his huge ax rather than listen to adventurers giggle and make fun of his name.