Back from Comicpalooza 2019

So this weekend I ran a couple of sessions of TALES OFTHE OBSIDIAN IDOL at Houston’s annual Comicpalooza. I was really happy with how it went, and got a lot of positive feedback. I lucked out and got some really great, proactive players. I also have a lot to think about as I play around with ideas for TALES OF THE OBSIDIAN IDOL: EXPANDED & REVISED…or whatever I’m going to call that.

There’s a lot to unpack and I’m going to be putting my thoughts down intermittently, but one thing the experience definitely made me consider was the sheer number of basic moves. Dungeon World and a lot of its hacks tend to have 15-20 Basic and Special moves, which is great if you’re running a long-running campaign and have a while to learn the system.

Since my hack is specifically about doing short, one-shot sessions, I realized that looking at the 13 basic moves I had might be a bit overwhelming. Moves like SPOT CHECK and TRAVEL MONTAGE are really there as DM advice more than anything the players are going to directly engage in.

Other moves like LEGWORK and REST & RELAXATION just don’t come up enough in one session to be moves. Those can really be handled with DM reactions and just asking questions.

I’m also thinking about messing with how combat works – Monster Level, BE AGGRESSIVE, etc, so that might end up changing or alleviating the need for things like LOOT THE FALLEN.

I’m thinking I might be able to cut things down to one side of one half-sheet insert. That should be a lot less intimidating for new players (there was a lot of flipping and getting confused where to find the moves during play) and simplify the game, while still showing off the PbtA framework to new players, which is one of my primary goals.

As I have more time to think and make decisions, I’ll be posting more of my ideas for improving Obsidian Idol, and maybe looking at some mistakes I made running the sessions this weekend. There’s always room for improvement in that department.

Ta-ta for now.