Things to do in the first session of your Dungeon World

game
a guide to making player choices matter by Tim Franzke

First of, do everything that is said on pages 175-181 in the Dungeon World book.

Second, do what Ezio Melega describes here and create a world together at the table.
If you are not comfortable with that, you might also use a Dungeon Starter or something
alike. That is also okay, that is not what this guide will be about.

This is about how you make sure that the choices the players made for their characters
matter in the game. This should help you to be a fan of the character

Coming from Dungeon World you should ask questions about where they come from
and who they are and where they are going but let’s get a bit more specific, shall we?

● The Bard
● The Cleric
● The Druid
● The Fighter
● The Paladin
● The Ranger
● The Thief
● The Wizard
● The Barbarian

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The Bard

Ask them about their instrument. All of them come with a story hook. If they choose the
freshly repaired mandolin, ask them how it was destroyed and by whom. Write that
name down and use them later! If they choose the pipes that enchanted their first love,
ask them if it was a happy ending or a tragic love story.

They will choose a specific Bardic Lore. Make that matter. If they know about The
Dead and Undead then make them face mummies. If they know about Planar Spheres -
guess where the adventure is going? If you don’t want to be that fantastical at least use
planar creatures, portals or cultists.

When they use Arcane Art, ask for specific descriptions and more importantly, ask the
other characters how it feels to be affected by that. If there is a Wizard, ask them how
they see this Bardic Magic and their opinions on it.

This goes for the Bard, but for every high CHA character: Give them people to talk to.
They want to Parley so let them. Have enemies surrender before a fight and talk it out.
Give them a chance to make friends (and enemies) by using their charisma and play
elements of the dungeon against each other. Be liberal with interpreting “having
leverage”. Leverage shouldn’t be hard to get, this is a basic move after all. Don’t take
away the CHA class's basic move!

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The Cleric

The Cleric will choose a Deity. Write down their name and aspects. Give them a
mission in the session related to that faith or even better, ask them why, in relation to
their faith, they are on that adventure. Ask about the Enemies of their Deity and make
them, or hints of them, show up.
If they are a healy Cleric, give them something to deal outside of the party. Make them
find someone in dire need of healing. If you are a kind GM, make it someone that
follows their faith. If you want to spice it up, make it a heretic that still needs help and
might be a good target for conversion attempts.

When they Cast a Spell ask what divine signs appear. Ask them how it feels to channel
the power of their Deity. Is it alien and bizarre or fulfilling as they become one with holy
energy?

All Clerics can Turn Undead. If you can, have undead appear that can be turned. That
is not as important as the Deity things but it is still a part of the Clerics identity so please
respect that.

When they Cast a Spell on another character, ask them how it feels to be affected by
divine magic. If they are not followers of that deity, ask the Cleric if it is okay to use
divine magic on unbelievers. Does it even work?

When they Commune with their god, ask them how those prayers look. Communing
with a goddess of Battle and Lightning is different than communing with the Wise King
of Flowers.

Give them a clear chance to fulfill the precept of their religion. To best do that, ask
them what kind of acts will count for that. When they do, give them a cool boon to. Make
them feel special and divine, don’t just give them a small, unimportant thing.

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The Druid

Oh the Druid.

In the beginning of the session, ask them about their Land. How it looks like, where it is.
Most importantly, ask them what kind of creatures from this land they usually turn into.
This help you out immensely because, when they give you that info you have a bit of
time to come up with moves for these animal forms and you are not caught of guard
when they do that for the first time.

Give them some Animals to talk to! If you asked about what kind of creatures lived on
their land you should find some of them that also live where your current adventure
takes place.

When they Shapeshift, ask them how they do it. They most probably do not just flicker
and within a millisecond have a different form right? Do they call on animal spirits to get
their form? Do they craft their own flesh into a new form or do they borrow the form from
an animal in some kind of spiritual exchange? If you know that, you can make the
Shapeshifting mean something in the fiction besides getting cool special abilities.

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The Fighter

Give them Bars to Bend and Gates to Lift. Create obstacles that most likely will need
brute force to get through. Be lenient in what can be destroyed so that they get used to
smashing things with that move. Its a powerful tool that can easily be forgotten in my
experience. Of course don’t railroad them into it but offer the possibility.

Ask about their Signature Weapon. Why is it important? What makes it cool? What is
its name?! What important figure wielded it beforehand? What hidden abilities is is said
to have? What giant threats were defeated with it? I repeat. Ask for the name of the
weapon. Named weapon are cool. If it has no name, ask why. Also give them an enemy
that their signature weapon is really good against. Look at its enhancements and decide
from there.

In the same way, ask about their Fighting Style and reward them for it. If they pull out
crazy fighting maneuvers, don’t make them Defy Danger for every step of it. They are
THE Fighter. If anyone can do that, it is them.

Include a meaningful enemy. Someone that will deal with the Fighter specifically. If they
are defendy, give them a party member to defend from overwhelming force. IF they are
highly aggressive, give them a strong enemy that will seek them out specifically as a
challenge or because “the Fighter needs to die right now”. Make them feel powerful by
making the world show that they are powerful.

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The Paladin

Ask the Paladin what their Quest is. Make that the first adventure. Start them at the last
or second to last step of fulfilling that quest.
They will choose some boons. Make sure that at least 1 of these boons has the chance
to pay of. If they have a sure sense of direction to their target, put them in a confusing
maze or big cave system that they won’t care about since they know where the target is.
When they are immune to spears, have hoplites show up. When they can sense lies,
have people lie to them.
In the same sense, give them a moment their vows are important. Don’t give them a
crushing choice between those but a moment for the Paladin to show that they stand by
their vows. Make them show up so we are reminded of them and of the moral nature of
the Paladin.

In the same sense as the cleric, ask about the Deity they worship. Focus maybe a bit
more on their enemies and what this god wants the Paladin to fight for. That will inform
what vows the Paladin will most likely have to uphold. Same as the cleric, make these
elements of the faith show up and mean something in the game.

I am the Law. Let them be the Law. Give them flunkies to commandeer away. I
personally would aim to give at least 2 chances for this move to work and the first time
they do it, give them what they want. Make them feel smart about using that move and
choosing the Paladin. The second time, you can be more freely in what you choose. I
am sure you can think of something. Just be sure to not play cotcha with the Paladin or
they will just stray away from using that move ever again.

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The Ranger

“First” thing you do. Ask about the Animal Companion!

What is its name? How did the two meet? How is their relationship? Write down the
strenghs and weaknesses and trainings of the AC. In the first session you should aim at
showing each of these things once. You might not hit all of them but every time the AC
is involved in the action, look at these tags and try to bring them into action. A 6- of the
Ranger is always a good possibility to bring in one of the AC’s weaknesses. BUT!
Don’t make the AC a hassle that they want to get rid of. Its a cool thing. The main thing
you want to accomplish with showing the strengths and weaknesses is give the AC a
personality. If the Ranger player forgets about his animal you have done it wrong.
In the same way, don’t include elements in your first adventure that would punish them
for having that animal or takes it away from them. If they have a big bad wolf, don’t
make them climb a wall the AC can’t follow. You effectively took the AC away. Never do
that. Not in the first session.

Give them stuff to shoot. An unsuspecting enemy is so easy to include and it gives
them a chance to show of their archery skill with Called Shot. Be liberal with interpreting
“defenseless or surprised”.

Also, make enemies flee. A fleeing enemy is something they can Hunt&Track. I think in
all games I was in I never saw this move used because no opportunity was provided.

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The Thief

It’s all about the Traps baby! (well not all)

Traps. Put lots of them into the dungeon. (you should do that anyway but it goes double
for a Thief). When the Thief doesn’t has any traps to find you have failed your job.
When they handle traps, ask them where they learned to deal with traps. If you include
magical traps, ask them how they deal with that. (whatever they say is okay here)

Give them things to disarm, steal, open, manipulate and whatever else to make Tricks
of the Trade a thing. Traps are a big part of that but also locked chests etc. You should
never have chests that just open normally in your first session if there is a Thief in the
group. Let them do their thing.

Let them do it from behind. This is basically the same advice as for the Ranger. Give
them backs to Backstab. Have them sneak around and take out guards, have them
sneak behind the massive ogre and help out the fighter. All that stuff.

When there is treasure, ask them what it is worth - they probably know. Ask them about
rival thieves and ancient treasures. Everything bling is their domain. So give them a big
score at the end, but make it something they need to use their skills to get. Make it clear
that the party would have a much harder time getting it without a thief.

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The Wizard

Ia Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

That doesn’t help? Okay.

A Wizard stores spells in their mind to unleash the later. Or is it? Ask them what
Preparing Spells means. Make it not just a bookkeeping thing but something that has
meaning in the fiction. When they prepare, ask about their spellbook. How does it look?
Is it theirs or stolen? How do spells written down in it look?

When they Cast a Spell ask them how that looks. How that feels and how it works. What
are they doing? Are they draining the world or drawing on the winds of mana? Are they
channeling the spirit of dead mages or drawing on their own lifeforce to power their
spells?
How does it feel to lose a spell that was caught in their mind and is suddenly gone? Is it
terrible or orgasmic or liberating? When you know these things it will be much easier to
come up with hard moves when they fail to Cast Spells.
If you tie those hard moves back to their spellcasting idiom they will feel accomplished
and know that their contribution to the game matters. That thing happened because
they set up the rules like that.
Later on you can play with those rules, maybe introduce something that breaks one of
these fundamental rules so the Wizard can figure out how they did it. Don’t do this in the
first session though.

Related to those rules of magic are Rituals and Places of Power. Ask the Wizard how
Places of Power look in your world. Are they ancient stone circles pr mana batteries?
Are they star observatories or places of blood sacrifice? Once you know that, ask how
the nature of places of power reflect on the Rituals that are done there. Mana battery
rituals look different then blood arena ones.
When you know this it will be easier to come up with the requirements for the rituals the
player comes up with.

Give them a Place of Power. The first session of a Wizard should include the chance
for a ritual. Make them feel clever about finding and using it. Don’t make the conditions
not-obtainable, in fact; make it something they can do THAT session. Introduce the
Place of Power early. Play into the skills of the other characters. When there is a Cleric
involved they can do divine effect together, same goes for Druid and naturey rituals.
When you make the Ritual a party project everyone will feel involved without the Wizard
losing their special thing.
The Barbarian

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The Barbarian is an Outsider. Bring that out in the game. Besides the racial move
questions, ask them a bunch of extra questions about their land so that everyone at the
table has a good understanding of of what their land is about. Make sure to ask them
questions that bring out how different the Barbarian’s homeland is to where they are
now. Ask them about their opinion of culture and habits of their companions and how
alien they are to the Barbarian.
When it is time to ask them the question for their racial move, never make it a Yes/No
question. If you ask me then the Barbarian gets XP if they accept that you make up
things about their home. Ask them why they do certain things that are just highly alien to
other people. Imagine questions like this:
“So why do your people pay gold tribute every time you enter a forest?”
“What powers do your people hope to get from serving dragons?”
“Why do your people get married at such early age?”
If a player does not like that input into their character they can simply deny to answer
the question and don’t get XP.

When the session starts, write down what Appetites the player has chosen and keep
them in mind. Some of them are easier to trigger then others. If a Barbarian hungers for
destruction and glory they will find opportunities for that. Getting Conquest and Mortal
Pleasures is harder in most DW First Sessions I was in. Make sure you bring in scenes
in which an appetite can come into play. If a player says their Barbarian follows their
appetite in a specific instance, nearly all of the times that will be the case. IT is not your
job to deny them their class mechanic so let them wreak havoc. That is what the
Barbarian should do. When they trigger the extra complication on the d8, don’t punish
them hard for that in the beginning. If doing that feels like a big risk to the player they
might stop engaging with that mechanic and make their Barbarian much less
barbariany. Aim for consequences that are exciting and maybe provide opportunities for
other characters to step in and help out the Barbarian.

In a first session the Upper Hand move will most likely not come up. But what if it does?
Death should accept the offer of the Barbarian in most cases. If they are the first to
meet Death then their kind of bargain can provide a blueprint for the deals Death will
offer to other characters. If they offer to bring Death the body of a strong adversary
instead then Death will be interested in having only the strongest beings in her realm. IF
they offer to sacrifice immense riches to Death then it is more greedy for gems and gold
then for souls and so on. Instead of having to define the character of Death yourself you
can go from what the Barbarian is giving you. Don’t aim to bring up this move though.

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