Dice Depths & Wilds (OOC)

[D. Rex]

Can we choose multiple bonds? And can multiple.peoppe have the same bond?

 

[WlfSamurai]

Can we choose multiple bonds? And can multiple.peoppe have the same bond?

You can, yes. Each bond player has for you on their sheet gives them +1 to their roll to aid or interfere with (max +3) you. You can have as many bonds as you want with them, but they can only benefit to a max of +3.

 

[WlfSamurai]

While we do bonds, we can start our adventure! I’ll get our main thread started soonish and we can get rolling!

Are you okay collaboratively improving our starting situation with some prompts?

D. Rex Random Word Vaneheart Pumpkin Spice Cyanide Bone2pick

 

[Random Word]

Alright, if I'm unilaterally picking one from each category:

Which of you is most likely to get us all killed?
Which of you dismisses me as a primitive?
Which of you is playing with fire?
Which of you is the least faithful in my eyes?

Yup, I think I'm all done and ready to go.

 

[D. Rex]

And I guess, that if I could only limit myself to one each, I would have to choose:

Which of you is likely to get us all killed?
Which of you requires my guidance?
Which of you has the strongest Soul?
Which of younjnderstands magic the least?


Unless I can have more. Than I'd go with my initial list.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Oh gosh guys. I’m doing a REALLY bad job explaining this. I’m so sorry. Let try again when I’m back at the keyboard.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Okay, let’s do this one at a time and a few together. Random Word , pick one of the questions from Vaneheart ‘s sheet. You already did and I think you chose:

• Which of you is most likely to get us all killed?

So, now, Random, tell Vaneheart that it’s Venaar and why. Why is she the most likely to get the group killed? Make up a shared story (like a sentence or two) why Geratius would think that about Venaar.

Vaneheart , take mental note of Random’s answer. You write Venaar’s name next to or below that bond question and now you have a bond for Venaar. When you roll to aid her, you got a +1 for your shared bond with her.

Notice two really important things:

1. When a bonds question is used, it gets the character‘s name written next to it and isn’t used again.
2. Bonds on YOUR sheet are answered by other players and represent the bonus YOU get on YOUR rolls to aid them.

You pick a question on another player’s sheet, answer it making up a story, and that gives THEM a bond with you.

I hope I did better that time…

So, let’s continue one at a time. Let’s stick with Random. Stick with your choices and tell each why they think that about you so that they can write you next to that question and have a bond with you.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Meanwhile, the Main thread is up…

Depths & Wilds (Main)

This is our IC thread for our Dungeon World ”Depths & Wilds” game. Starting situation prompts: We are exploring a legendary battlesite that lies deep in an ancient forest, seeking the crypt of a forgotten hero. We are here to stop the release of an ancient evil guarded by crazed cultists and...

www.rpnation.com

I will be picking at random who will answer prompts and in what order! We’ll answer the prompts in OOC and then I’ll start the situation based on those answers.

So, without further ado!

Pumpkin Spice Cyanide , I rolled and you’re first! Read the sentence and choose 1!

We are exploring…

1. …a remote ruin
2. …an overgrown necropolis
3. …the ruins of an ancient city
4. …a flooded settlement
5. …an abandoned village
6. …a twisting canyon
7. …a lost valley
8. …a long-forgotten road
9. …a legendary battle site
10. …a mysterious cavern

 

[Random Word]

Let's see:

Which of you is most likely to get us all killed?
Everyone who listens to foreign gossip in the Republic has heard the rumours and horror stories about Imperial magi. The factories that eat workers, the shambling horrors in the sewers, the accidents that aren't accidents at all. Especially the ones in black and white, the necromancers. Sure, they call it 'Umbral Aether' and say necromancy is superstitious nonsense, but everyone knows they're channeling death, and their powers can only lead to misfortune and ruin.

Which of you dismisses me as a primitive?
Venaar is a city girl, and as far as she's concerned anyone who doesn't love the sight of surging muscles and iron bones inside a locomotive is a backwards luddite. Suggesting extractive industry be abandoned and a return to hunter-gathering is beyond the pale. Imagine trying to read without aetheric light!

Which of you is playing with fire?
You aren't in tune with it like the source of your own power, but you can feel it when her blood flows from that tube in her wrist into the strange piece of artifice she carries. It's not the bright pure flame that courses through you. Sometimes it's cold and oily crawling beneath your skin, and sometimes a pins and needles rush, an urge to move and to do. Whatever power she's drawing on, she isn't the only one who covets it. Things wake up and take notice when she draws it forth in great quantities, and they hunger.

Which of you is the least faithful in my eyes?
Ostensibly under the advisement of the Council Arcane, after an uprising in the provinces summoned servants of a local deity to bolster their ranks, the Empress outlawed many of the old faiths and confiscated their holdings in a sweeping consolidation of power. Only trained and state licensed officials are permitted to act as intermediaries between Outsiders and the people, to prevent the uninitiated from breaching the veil with pleas for intercession and bringing forth things they cannot control. Venaar is a faithless heretic who believes Outsiders only deceive mortals into believing they hold ethical systems close to ours to conceal their unknowable minds and their thirst for the energies of our world. Mostly because treating with Outsiders is under the purview of IAU Astra, and thus inherently untrustworthy.

 

[Pumpkin Spice Cyanide]

We are exploring!

a legendary battlesite

 

[WlfSamurai]

Let's see:

Which of you is most likely to get us all killed?
Everyone who listens to foreign gossip in the Republic has heard the rumours and horror stories about Imperial magi. The factories that eat workers, the shambling horrors in the sewers, the accidents that aren't accidents at all. Especially the ones in black and white, the necromancers. Sure, they call it 'Umbral Aether' and say necromancy is superstitious nonsense, but everyone knows they're channeling death, and their powers can only lead to misfortune and ruin.

Which of you dismisses me as a primitive?
Venaar is a city girl, and as far as she's concerned anyone who doesn't love the sight of surging muscles and iron bones inside a locomotive is a backwards luddite. Suggesting extractive industry be abandoned and a return to hunter-gathering is beyond the pale. Imagine trying to read without aetheric light!

Which of you is playing with fire?
You aren't in tune with it like the source of your own power, but you can feel it when her blood flows from that tube in her wrist into the strange piece of artifice she carries. It's not the bright pure flame that courses through you. Sometimes it's cold and oily crawling beneath your skin, and sometimes a pins and needles rush, an urge to move and to do. Whatever power she's drawing on, she isn't the only one who covets it. Things wake up and take notice when she draws it forth in great quantities, and they hunger.

Which of you is the least faithful in my eyes?
Ostensibly under the advisement of the Council Arcane, after an uprising in the provinces summoned servants of a local deity to bolster their ranks, the Empress outlawed many of the old faiths and confiscated their holdings in a sweeping consolidation of power. Only trained and state licensed officials are permitted to act as intermediaries between Outsiders and the people, to prevent the uninitiated from breaching the veil with pleas for intercession and bringing forth things they cannot control. Venaar is a faithless heretic who believes Outsiders only deceive mortals into believing they hold ethical systems close to ours to conceal their unknowable minds and their thirst for the energies of our world. Mostly because treating with Outsiders is under the purview of IAU Astra, and thus inherently untrustworthy.

This is amazing and really close. The only missing part is letting the player who you are answering know.

I LOVE the stories you just made from this. I don't like what it's taking to get these done. I think there are two problems. One, It's designed for a table of people to have a conversation based on these questions to come to an agreement on a bond. And two, I don't like that they're questions directed from the player who WANTS the bond to the other players. It's awkward in this format. And really, this is PbP. We effing know how to write stories. We don't need prompts.

So, scratch the current bonds questions. Delete them off your sheets! (Sorry Random Word )


Let's start over. Instead, we'll use these for bonds. They are not questions. Look at the ones labeled for your character/class and write them on your sheet. Then, pick at least one for each other PC and write their name in the blank. Boom, you now have a bond.

Geratius (Fighter) Vaneheart
_______________ owes me their life, whether they admit it or not.
I have sworn to protect _______________.
I worry about the ability of _______________ to survive in the dungeon.
_______________ is soft, but I will make them hard like me.


Le'sath (Cleric) Bone2pick
_______________ has insulted my deity; I do not trust them.
_______________ is a good and faithful person; I trust them implicitly.
_______________ is in constant danger, I will keep them safe.
I am working on converting _______________ to my faith.


Venaar (Wizard) Random Word
_______________ will play an important role in the events to come. I have foreseen it!
_______________ is keeping an important secret from me.
_______________ is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can.


Kersh (Immolator) D. Rex
___________ has felt the hellish touch of fire, now they know my strength.
I will teach ____________ the true meaning of sacrifice.
I cast something into the fire for ___________ and still owe them their due.


Kotezira (Druid) Pumpkin Spice Cyanide
____________________ smells more like prey than a hunter.
The spirits spoke to me of a great danger that follows ______________.
I have showed ________________ a secret rite of the Land.
___________ has tasted my blood and I theirs. We are bound by it.

 

[Vaneheart]

Ok. I'll be able to get to it tomorrow afternoon.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Obviously, most have 4 bonds in the list and some only have 3. I'll post more tomorrow for you to choose from, especially for the 3-people since we have 4 other characters you have to bond with.

Meanwhile! Random Word , continue our adventure building! You have been randomly chosen as next!

So far, after Pumpkin Spice Cyanide 's choice, we have:

We are exploring a legendary battlesite...​

Now, choose 1:

that lies…

• …on an uncharted island
• …along the edge of a great swamp
• …high in the mountains
• …in a desolate wasteland
• …in the freezing tundra
• …deep in an ancient forest
• …in the windswept badlands
• …among the rolling dunes
• …in a tropical jungle
• …in the middle of hostile territory

 

[Random Word]

• …deep in an ancient forest

Also this is a weird one:
_______________ will play an important role in the events to come. I have foreseen it!

It implies all wizards know divination. Venaar doesn't know the first thing about soothsaying, or what the future portends. I'm going to have to really get creative and bend over backwards to figure out how to fill this one out. Someone by chance fits the description of an important person in some famous prophecy in her culture/religion? Not sure.

 

[WlfSamurai]

• …deep in an ancient forest

Also this is a weird one:
_______________ will play an important role in the events to come. I have foreseen it!

It implies all wizards know divination. Venaar doesn't know the first thing about soothsaying, or what the future portends. I'm going to have to really get creative and bend over backwards to figure out how to fill this one out. Someone by chance fits the description of an important person in some famous prophecy in her culture/religion? Not sure.

Let me grab some others you can choose from. But also, there's always rituals! That's let's do almost anything.

 

[Random Word]

Right, right - I forgot about rituals, but I wasn't saying the mechanics forbade Venaar from performing divination, just that I couldn't think of an in-universe reason the manipulation of Umbral or Luminiferous Aether should be able to divine the future. Ask the dead about the past maybe, but there's no special insight into the future to be gleaned from the accumulated energy of life released in death. There's no narrative reason why Venaar should be able to perform divination.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Right, right - I forgot about rituals, but I wasn't saying the mechanics forbade Venaar from performing divination, just that I couldn't think of an in-universe reason the manipulation of Umbral or Luminiferous Aether should be able to divine the future. Ask the dead about the past maybe, but there's no special insight into the future to be gleaned from the accumulated energy of life released in death. There's no narrative reason why Venaar should be able to perform divination.

Yes, makes sense.

Here are some more bonds as options:

Cleric Bone2pick
I have intervened with other priests on __________’s behalf before.
My deity has marked out __________ as someone important. I must help them fulfill their destiny.
__________ has been through hardships that would break me. They can stand against the darkness I see looming over the world.
__________ has worked with servants of my deity before.


Druid Pumpkin Spice Cyanide
Me and __________ are tracking the passage of a terrible monster through this land.
__________ has fought in defence of my lands before and has my respect.
__________ is familiar with the sickness that infects the land, which must be purged.
__________ seems suitably impressed by my powers and I just can’t help showing off in front of them.


Fighter Vaneheart
Me and __________ were both hired by a boss who turned on us.
__________ proved a worthy ally in the last war, even considering that one mistake they made.
__________ saw me kill someone important.
__________ stood up to me and got away with it. That’s how it is, I guess.


Wizard Random Word
__________ and I shared a mystical vision, after drinking the blood of the demon world together.
__________ has supplied me with forbidden tomes.
__________ once brought me safely through the Haunted Forest.


Sadly, D. Rex , I don't have any additional for the Immolator. But, the intent with bonds is that you can eventually write your own. So, you can use the other classes' bonds as inspiration and riff off them. Basically, you want an opinion of the PC and something they did recently with you or around you.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Okay, so for our starting situation, thanks to Random Word , we have:

We are exploring a legendary battlesite, that lies deep in an ancient forest...​

Vaneheart , you're up! Choose the next part of the sentence!

seeking the…

• …temple of a dead deity.
• …crypt of a forgotten hero.
• …vault of the last dwarven king.
• …prison of a bound demon.
• …lair of a legendary beast.
• …hideout of a notorious thief.
• …cathedral of a fallen god.
• …monastery of a mystic order.
• …fortress of a tyrannical warlord.
• …tower of a mad wizard.

(I don't know if this is going to work, but I figured it'd be fun to try.)

 

[Random Word]

Uhhh... let's see... I guess...

I mean, how can I say no to:
Geratius Volus and I shared a mystical vision, after drinking the blood of the demon world together. [What even is the blood of the demon world in this setting? The blood of an Outsider? Are we literally making recreational spirits out of fermented godsblood? Well, we are now. That sounds pricey, so I have no idea why we were sharing the top shelf stuff that makes you hallucinate - celebrating something big? Escaping something awful?]

Kotezira has supplied me with forbidden tomes. [Why does the Orc Druid have books Venaar can read? Why are they forbidden? Who is forbidding them, anyway? Why would she give them to Venaar when they have so little in common? I have no idea, but the obvious 'escorted me safely through a forest' is boring, so we're going with this. Maybe Kotezira found some old library that survived the last apocalypse, and she pays Venaar in old books to do... I don't know what. I'm not sure what Kotezira wants. It is funny imagining Kotezira just occasionally shoving some old book of Emerson poetry or a history of the end of one of the worlds at Venaar and being all, "Here, city-girl. This is why you're wrong about everything."]

Le'sath is keeping an important secret from me. [What is it? I don't know. It's a secret! I've got nuthin']

Kersh is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can. [Stop that. Yes, that. Yes, you're doing it right now. Just stop it. No, not breathing. The other thing you're doing, with the aether, and the hole in the world, and the channeling - just all of it. Stop. Yes you can, just - look - oh for Gersha's sake where do we start? Let me show you.]

The last two are really a toss-up and could easily be swapped.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Uhhh... let's see... I guess...

I mean, how can I say no to:
Geratius Volus and I shared a mystical vision, after drinking the blood of the demon world together. [What even is the blood of the demon world in this setting? The blood of an Outsider? Are we literally making recreational spirits out of fermented godsblood? Well, we are now. That sounds pricey, so I have no idea why we were sharing the top shelf stuff that makes you hallucinate - celebrating something big? Escaping something awful?]

Kotezira has supplied me with forbidden tomes. [Why does the Orc Druid have books Venaar can read? Why are they forbidden? Who is forbidding them, anyway? Why would she give them to Venaar when they have so little in common? I have no idea, but the obvious 'escorted me safely through a forest' is boring, so we're going with this. Maybe Kotezira found some old library that survived the last apocalypse, and she pays Venaar in old books to do... I don't know what. I'm not sure what Kotezira wants. It is funny imagining Kotezira just occasionally shoving some old book of Emerson poetry or a history of the end of one of the worlds at Venaar and being all, "Here, city-girl. This is why you're wrong about everything."]

Le'sath is keeping an important secret from me. [What is it? I don't know. It's a secret! I've got nuthin']

Kersh is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can. [Stop that. Yes, that. Yes, you're doing it right now. Just stop it. No, not breathing. The other thing you're doing, with the aether, and the hole in the world, and the channeling - just all of it. Stop. Yes you can, just - look - oh for Gersha's sake where do we start? Let me show you.]

The last two are really a toss-up and could easily be swapped.

Perfect! Now write those on your sheet and each time you roll to aid them or interfere with them, you get a bonus.

So much better. And I love how much those tip the hat on some would-building. So many questions we can answer here or in play! And the one thing I do love about bonds is that they are asynchronous. What you have as you bond on your sheet isn't reflected in the opposite character's bond in any way. They're just opinions, really.

If you haven't noticed, Dungeon World (and this hack Unlimited Dungeons) can be pretty collaborative in its narrative. I want to build this world together with you. So, if you see something we want to tackle or answer, we can talk about it here or we can put it in play and play to find out!

 

[D. Rex]

Hmm. With three options... yes I think I can work with this!

For the fourth? Thats a no Brainer. Taking inspiration from Random Word i think it would be fun to use the same bond.

"_______________ is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can."

Both of them thinking the other doesn't understand how magic works and both of them trying to teach the other the "correct" way to use magic. I think it could create a very amusing bond between them.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Hmm. With three options... yes I think I can work with this!

For the fourth? Thats a no Brainer. Taking inspiration from Random Word i think it would be fun to use the same bond.

"_______________ is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can."

Both of them thinking the other doesn't understand how magic works and both of them trying to teach the other the "correct" way to use magic. I think it could create a very amusing bond between them.

Yeah go for it!

FYI for everyone, Bone2pick needs to step away from this RP for now. So, he won't be playing.

Random Word Vaneheart Pumpkin Spice Cyanide

 

[Vaneheart]

Seeking the crypt of a forgotten hero. Sounds rad.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Excellent. So, with Vaneheart ’s choice, we have:

We are exploring a legendary battlesite that lies deep in an ancient forest, seeking the crypt of a forgotten hero.

Man, that’s badass. Very evocative.

That completes the first sentence! Second sentence! D. Rex , start us off this time. Choose one below. Remember our theme of “Van Helsing” dark fantasy as you do.

We are here to…

• …find an ancient artifact
• …search for a cure
• …rescue someone in distress
• …use a sacred site
• …bring a villain to justice
• …find the chosen one
• …recover our souls
• …stop the release of an ancient evil
• …seek forbidden knowledge
• …close an unholy portal

 

[D. Rex]

Excellent. So, with Vaneheart ’s choice, we have:

We are exploring a legendary battlesite that lies deep in an ancient forest, seeking the crypt of a forgotten hero.

Man, that’s badass. Very evocative.

That completes the first sentence! Second sentence! D. Rex , start us off this time. Choose one below. Remember our theme of “Van Helsing” dark fantasy as you do.

We are here to…

• …find an ancient artifact
• …search for a cure
• …rescue someone in distress
• …use a sacred site
• …bring a villain to justice
• …find the chosen one
• …recover our souls
• …stop the release of an ancient evil
• …seek forbidden knowledge
• …close an unholy portal

Badass. Evocative. The imagery.

A legendary battlefield inside an ancient forest? Wherein there is a tomb of a long forgotten hero. The juicy implications! Gets the mind whirring.

So what then would be fitting to go along with this theme? Going for the Van Helsing. Going Witcher and Belmont.


This is a hard question.

To find an ancient artifact? That would be fit very well with the location. A legendary battle. A forgotten hero. Potentially pre apocalypse. What we could find could be spectacular. But we are monster hunters, defenders. Not archeologists or treasure hunters... that's just icing on the cake.


To search for a cure? Now here was one that caught my eye. What could be troubling people so that would have us seek for cure in such a place? And as our theme, it would fall in line to for us to give aid.

To find the chosen one! To me it would certainly be a novel idea to become the shepherds of the next great chosen one.


But pushing aside choice paralysis. I think one stands well above in its potential. Something that could tie into multiple characters as druid has been shown visions. Through bond, so too has the fighter and the wizard. More than enough opportunity that might lead us to this. Something up our ally. Something that very well could be much bigger than us.

And what better place for it to happen than a forgotten hero who may have once stopped it before. Who may have died to delay the inevitable. Or even just to spit in the face of a symbol of hope and salvation...


WlfSamurai
We are here to stop the release of an ancient evil!