Custom Moves: Now I am your Master

The basic mechanic of Dungeon World (currently on Kickstarter) is so simple: roll 2d6, add your attribute modifier; on a 10+ you hit it hard, on a 7-9 you get a partial hit or complications, on a 6- bad stuff happens. As a DM, it makes it very easy for me to come up with custom ruling on the fly by creating moves for the current situation.

In one of our recent sessions, Ysolde the Wizard agreed to become the apprentice of Hi Xaphon, a wizard the party ran afould of a couple of sessions ago. Ysolde's player, Phil, and I chatted for a bit about what being an apprentice means. Then Phil took a bathroom break. As the other players were still planning their upcoming Goblin raid, I quickly jotted down a custom move:

When you exchange blood and power with your new master and bind as their apprentice, roll 2d6 plus your Wisdom modifier:

10+ hold 3 7-9 hold 1

You can spend your hold, 1 for 1 at any time for one of the following:
Privacy your master can't scry you, doesn't know what your up to, or sees your preferred version of events.
Help appeal to your master for aid through your magical bond and they will help you in some way appropriate to the situation and their powers
Turnabout turn your apprenticeship bond against your master in some way


Ysolde rolled a 9 or so, gaining one precious hold on her master.

It's funny how moves snowball, though. Later in the same adventure, Terek, the Paladin, laid hands on Ysolde to heal her numerous wounds. On a 7-9 with Lay on Hands, the Paladin takes the subjects wounds onto himself. I briefly described Ysolde's wounds and asked which one Terek wanted to take. "Oh, I'll take that small cut on the arm, since I'm only healing one HP". Of course that was the cut Ysolde received on the apprenticeship bonding. So now our Paladin has some kind of psychic connection with Ysolde's arcane master...

An Ill-advised Experiment

A brilliant wizard with a fabulous idea for turning the conflux of positive and negative energy into a power source. Of course nothing can go wrong.

An imp summoned from nether fire with a penchant for mischief and an eye for gold.

A servant of the astral gods bound to odious service--an oracle of inscrutable forces.

Magical Research

I have always been fascinated with the idea of magical research, but no D&D campaign I've played in has really done it justice. Some flavors of D&D give rules for crafting magic items, but that doesn't do it for me. I want magic to have mystery, power, and unpredictability.

Here's a magical research move. It's totally stolen from Vincent's Savvyhead rules for Apocalypse World. I don't invent, I steal.

When you go into an arcane library, laboratory, and workspace trying to get to the bottom of something or make something magical, tell the DM what you want. The DM will answer "Sure, no problem, but..."

• It's going to take days/hours/weeks/months of work


• First you have to acqurie _____ (magical reagent)


• You need some information you can get from ____


• You're going to need ______'s help with it


• It's going to cost you a lot of money


• It's going to mean exposing yourself (and maybe others) to significant danger


• You're going to have to take _____ apart to do it

For easy stuff, pick just one.
For medium stuff, pick one AND another OR another.
For seriously hard stuff, it's one AND another AND yet another.

The Bogswan

They call him the Mayor of Bogswan. He lives in the domed triangular building just near the Bogslum gate. He only comes out at night, because of the crowds and stone throwing that haunt him by day. He's a sad creature, a half-medusa minotaur (don't ask him about his parents, you'll wish you hadn't). His body lacks the strength of his minotaur brethren. He does, however, retain the Medusa's intelligence and affinity for spellcasting. They say he's working on something in there-potent magical research. But whether he aims to cure his twisted shape or revenge himself on the city is a matter of speculation.

The Witch of Heartbreak Square

When you present yourself at the tower, asking the Witch to perform a service for you, roll 2d6 plus your charisma bonus.

On a 7-9, choose 1 from the list. On a 10+, choose 3:

The witch performs the service you desire
She doesn't take a dangerous fancy to you
She doesn't look through your eyes into your inmost soul
She doesn't ask you to retrieve Mordante's clockwork heart first

Note that the Rune Tree is also willing to perform similar services, but always demands a sacrifice of some sort before performing it.

Dusty End

When you seek advice from the Ogre, roll 1d4:

1. You are observed by agents of Dreadstone, who start looking into your affairs
2. The Enchantress of Dusty End demands you do her a service before you pass her grounds
3. The players of the Theatre Viande are out hunting for "volunteers" for the macabre performances
4. Someone is besiging Belaq's citadel, and the neighborhood is enveloped in violence and chaos

The Flying Castle

A powerful wizard lords it over the land in his flying castle, yet he can't resolve the problems that lurk in his own basement!

A flying castle arrives in town. A flight of messenger crows deliver a threat and a demand for a bizarre assemblage of reagents. Will the township try to acquire the goods, or send a party to deal with the castle?

The Githyanki wars are long over, which makes it all the more alarming when an apparently abandoned flying castle drops through a portal from the Astral plane and hovers loomingly over the largest city on the continent.

Cupcake Dungeon

This weekend was my daughter's birthday. We had cupcakes from the best cupcake baker in the United States (which just happens to be up the street from our house), Cupcake Royale. I drew this cupcake dungeon there a few weeks ago.

There's this idea for a cooking-themed campaign that I've always wanted to do. The idea goes that any craft, taken to a high enough level, becomes essentially magic. In the Great City State of this campaign world, high-class chefs compete for wealth and acclaim. The PCs are employed by one of these chefs, a job that sends them across the world seeking rare recipes and ingredients, on missions to investigate the plans of rival chefs, and occasionally to fix a magical recipe gone horribly wrong.

Guild Hall of the Illusionist Cult

As featured in Fight On! Issue # 8!

Monsters trained to use powerful illusionist magic have started turning up in local dungeon and wilderness locations. An obscure cult of illusion, mystery, and dream has set up a lair nearby, trading magic for treasure and influence. If someone doesn’t deal with this sect soon, it’s going to become a very serious problem.

A hodge-podge group of adventurers are drafted to hunt down an obscure cult.

A devout cleric begins to suspect his mission is not all it seems.

Guardian monsters seem well-informed on the party's capabilities. Is there a mole in the group?

Seriously, check out Fight On! They've managed to put together eight issues of high-quality old-school adventure goodness with no end in sight!

Infernal Potions

A truce amongst once rival factions threatens the status quo

Fearless of law or retribution, a crime lord flaunts his power

False rumors set a populous on edge

The scion of a wealthy family, eager to collect his inheritance

Infernal potions, brewed with spite and flavored with malice

Bookworm Dungeon

"Explain to me why we're on this mission again?"

The wizard chuckled. Long experience had taught him that abstract thought was beyond the fighting class, but he did not mind indulging them. He flattered himself that an easy condescension was among his virtues.

"Some years ago, the wizard Azxerkak foolishly allowed himself to be encaptured by a certain magical tome prepared as a prison by his rival. That rival, fearing discovery, stashed the book away in a library contained in this very dungeon until he could safely return at a later date."

"So this wizard's caught, like in a cage?"

"Yes."

"And the cage is a book."

"Exactly."

The fighter thought about this for a long moment. "So this wizard's caught in a prison, that's really a book in a library. So how do we know we're not caught in an even bigger book in some bigger wizard's library and he's reading that book right now?"

The wizard shook his head. "Tut, tut, my boy. The very idea is patently ridiculous."

Under the Escataur Mausoleum

Out on the Old Abian Road where the necropolis of the old city sprawls, there's a second city to mock the first. Where the city is a hive of commerce and a capital of politics, the necropolis is a metropolis of decay, filled with prowling thieves and unquiet dead.

But this is not to say that the place is without value. The dead, too, sometimes ply useful trades, or perform useful civic functions. Many a guild wizard has found himself forced to turn to the denizens of the necropolis for knowledge or even aid, though the price is always high. And even the old nobility pay a tithe to the graveyard ghosts for the protection of their family tombs.

The merchants of this, the city's quietest corner have their own rules, their own festivals, and their own humor. After a successful transaction, they always send the customer on their way with a cheery epitaph: "Well be seeing you!"

The Spelltower of Dremetar

As you approach the City State of Dremetar, you can see the Spelltower for miles upon miles. It dominates the view, sparkles in the setting sun. As you draw close to the walls, you may even catch a glimpse of a moving figure behind the great arched windows at the summit. But ask any inhabitant about the Spelltower, and you will rarely receive more than a grunt in reply. Point it out to them, and they will only look at quizzically before glancing away and changing the subject. Is there some enchantment upon the city, that makes its inhabitants ignore its most prominent landmark, or does the tower have some other secret that the people are loathe to dwell upon?

The Mad Sculptor

In the infamous Apocalypse Megadungeon there is a door cast in bronze depicting the fall and incarceration of the goddess Asundra, a master work so fine that more than one scholar has braved the dungeon (with proper escort) just for a look at it. Beyond lays the workshop of the mad sculptor. His genius transcends the boundary twixt art and thaumaturgy, producing effect indistinguishable from magic. Monsters, relics, and unfortunate adventurers have all found themselves unwilling components of his twisted works. What is the mystery behind the mad sculptor?

Snake and Sword

What a sight was Terrance the brave, brandishing his Borealis Blade, vanquishing friend and foe alike. But all good things come to an end, and Terrance the Brave subsided into a cranky retirement and downright surly old age. In his final days he invested his considerable stores of loot in creating an underground vault he considered worthy of his genius. There he set the legendary Borealis Blade, until an adventurer worthy of it should claim it from its resting place.

It's Mad Wizard Week

Why is this crazy dungeon full of deathtraps and ridiculous puzzles here anyway? Because a Mad Wizard put it there of course? I love "mad wizard" dungeons. They provide a rationale for dungeon elements that might seem incongruent in a regular dungeon. White Plume Mountain is one of my favorite examples of this. In high school a buddy of mine also ran a game where the dungeon was a cryp that an arch mage built because he knew he was turning into a Liche and he wanted to keep himself in for the good of the world.

This week I'm posting three variations on the "mad wizard" dungeon theme. Enjoy!