Grim Hunt, a Campaign Setting for Dungeon World. Powered by the Apocalypse Games Often Prioritise, and Make Tools

Welcome to Grim Hunt, a campaign setting for Dungeon World.

Powered by the Apocalypse games often prioritise, and make tools available for, collective story creation shared by the GM and players, balancing the power of “story definition” among everyone involved in the game. Thus pre-game preparation is reduced, because the game strongly reinforces improvised creation based on the guidelines and GM- specific principles it provides.

For this reason, it may seem strange to create reference material, in this case a whole campaign setting, for a game that strongly emphasises emergent story creation in a collaborative form. But reinforcing these concepts was exactly our goal when developing Grim Hunt.

This adventure, which starts your campaign, provides ways to entangle the PCs in questions and fronts for GMs who still have doubts about how to proceed. We came up with a “sandbox” approach, in which there are numerous possibilities for how events may unfold and a timeline in which several events will occur and bring about disastrous consequences if not contained.

The Grim Hunt series will contain four adventures, taking the PCs into dire circumstances in order to confront a dangerous spy, who carries strategic information vital to the royal court. In this first book you’ll find the main Fronts that will develop as adventures and can be used in your campaign on a continuing basis. SampleOnce you have a firm grasp of how the collaborative file creative process works and it excites you (and that’s definitely what we expect to happen), the other adventures will be entirely optional: you'll have all the tools you need to keep on creating with your own gaming group and playing to see what happens.

4 The Adventure In terms of the typical structure of Dungeon World , you may choose to play Grim Hunt as the first adventure for the group or turn it into a “second mission” after the events created in your first session. In the text we will treat it as if this is the first option and break down the explanation of the beginning of the adventure into: character creation, an overview of the Fronts and questions for the characters. After this, we are going to introduce our opening scene suggestion, take a detailed look at the adventure's Fronts (and how to advance them during the game) and give examples of what can be found in the harbour city of Enseada, as well as the descriptions of opponents who will try to stop the characters in their mission. At the end, there are a couple of pages for the GM to print out that will help keep things organised during play. We believe that, the way this adventure was conceived, there's no problem even if the players have previously read its contents, since the majority of the story elements will be built collectively.

Character Creation Make sure everyone knows the key elements of the adventure before character creation. This will help the players to choose a playbook they feel is congruent both with their preferences and expectations of the game to come. First. make clear the central point of the adventure:

“The player characters are a group in the service of the Regent of a vast kingdom in the east, which has a great rival kingdom to the west They are following the trail of an elvenSample spy who stole a set of secret military plans. file The pursuit has led them to Enseada, the town that lies furthest west in their kingdom, a port ruled by a nobleman whose loyalty to the king is questionable. This is the escape route for the elf spy, unless the player characters can stop him and prevent the plans from falling into the hands of the enemy kingdom.”

5 This “setup condition” will guide character creation. Knowing they will be playing agents of the Regent, the players may decide together with the GM on the name of their kingdom and its king, as well as the town and the noble who rules there. In addition, the GM may decide or ask the players to answer: What’s the kingdom's current situation? Has there been any war recently? Is the royal court being pressured into creating a conflict? Or are times peaceful, even if the ghosts of wars past haunt everyone? Why does the Regent rule in place of a king or queen?

Resolve these questions and have them in mind when establishing Bonds and bringing up background questions for the players. They might decide to have strong connections with the kingdom and their powerful liege, but because Enseada is far from the capital of their realm, they will be completely foreign to this part of the world.

Fronts Overview During the characters' stay in Enseada, they will have to deal with three big ongoing factors in the pursuit of their misson.

1 The Fugitive Elf The main focus of the player characters' mission: their quarry. After arriving in town, the Elf Spy quickly realised that escaping withoutSample arousing suspicion was going to be very difficult .file The spy plans to escape nonetheless and will try every method available: at present these include a covert flight by boat from the docks in the dead of night and an unreliable magic teleportation ritual. To stay clear of the player characters' clutches, the Elf Spy will employ all kinds of subterfuge and tactics, including hiring mercenaries to eliminate them. . 6 2 The Narrow Sea Pirates The fleet of Long Claw, a notorious pirate, stealthily nears Harbour with the sole purpose of looting the city and stealing a treasure said in legends to be invaluable. The pirates will disrupt the entire town with their arrival and it’s up to the player characters to determine who they will help or hinder during this attack.

3 The Silent Conspiracy The town’s Master of Coin, Lord Gaius, is an implacable enemy of the lord of the city. He will do everything in his power to destabilise the city government and carry out his conspiratorial plot. If he believes that helping the Elf Spy or even helping the player characters can be advantageous to his plans, he won’t hesitate to do so.

Sample file

7 Questions for the players The following questions will define several details about the adventure and especially about the Fronts. They can be asked to characters early on in the opening scene, during that scene or later, when they enter the town.

The best way to use these questions is asking the player to give the answer to another character through dialogue, not to yourself, the GM. Indirectly, the player will show how and why they have that knowledge. This also helps the players to establish the relationships between their characters. They will have complete control over these answers, and the GM will have to consider and incorporate the players' input in the general context of the adventure. Questions are divided by class, and if not all classes are present in your game, feel free to supply your own answers as additional surprises. Or even let the players define all the answers with minor adjustments to the questions. The questions always change important issues in the Fronts, so write down the main points on the Fronts Sheet provided.

The Barbarian You came to the hunt looking for an opponent up to your standards and heard stories about this elven spy. What weapons and tactics do they usually employ against their enemies?

(Add to Front 2) TheSample Bard file You have been to the court here before and know the Lord of the town personally. Is he a traitor to the Kingdom or a fervent loyalist? Can you trust him during this mission? (Add to Front 3)

8 The Cleric´ What faith do the people of this place follow and how do the religious leaders see the Lord’s authority over Enseada? Are they loyal servants or conspirators? (Add to Front 3)

The Druid

The Elf you are looking for is a “child of the ancients” - someone marked by ancestral blood. There’s a horrible prophecy about their future, and you know it in some detail. What is that prophecy and what is its omen? (Add to Front 1)

The Fighter

The Captain of the Guard fought alongside you in a battle in the past. Who is this man and what scars remain from that occasion?

(Add to Front 1) The Paladin Sample The Elf Spy seems fanatically determined to complete file their mission and escape. Someone so obstinate expects more than merely monetary reward. What other motivations does your order believe the Elf has? (Add to Front 2)

9 The Ranger The fugitive Elf is a ranger like you and belonged to the brotherhood. Who is this person that once was a brother and now is hunted? (Add to Front 1)

The Thief What has real value in this town that could interest dangerous bandits? Is this treasure famous or is it a well-kept secret? (Add to Front 1)

The Wizard There’s a rumour that a wizard from this town knows a ritual capable of opening portals to distant places. Who are they and what creatures are kept captive in their manse? (Add to Front 1)

Opening scene SampleThe first scene is one of the key parts of the adventure, file because it introduces the players to the game and its mechanics. Following the guidelines in the core book, our suggestion is that the game begins immediately with the pursuit of the Elf Spy already in progress.

10 Early in the evening, the characters note recent tracks from the fugitive Elf near a thicket of trees and follow on horseback, hoping to end the chase soon. The trail leads into the woods.

The woods are dark and shadowy. Only two at most can ride side by side in the narrow gaps between trees. Decide with the players the order they ride in when chasing the target. This is a good time to ask some setup questions about the Elf. In the middle of an answer, start the Lizardmen’s ambush.

Ambushing Lizardmen Some Lizardmen ambush the characters, with ropes and harpoons to trip their horses. They knock down the last one or two in line (split the group) likely making them halt their pursuit of the Elf Spy.

The Lizardmen fight until they feel they are at a disadvantage, fleeing then without trace into the woods.

After the encounter, no matter the outcome, it is a good time to ask the other setup questions and use the players' answer to detail the Fronts. When they arrive in town, you’ll start the ongoing Fronts in earnest. Advance them as the players get 6- results and fill their lives with danger to be heroically overcome .

Lizardmen SampleThese Lizardmen are aiming for a quick robbery and fileto get away with some loot. There are 3 Lizardmen for every 2 PCs. If there is a Ranger, they will know the Lizardmen shouldn’t be in that region - and certainly not so close to the town. Instinct: To destroy civilization • Ambush the unsuspecting Spear (d8 damage)Close, Reach • Launch an amphibious assault Armour 2

Group, Stealthy, Intelligent, Organised Qualities: Amphibious Special 6 HP