Dungeon World Starter: The Final Quest

If you need a last adventure...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cav44145d9eDhGeUNwLWVITm8/view?usp=sharing

The New Yorker said it better than I could

The best show in New York right now may be the Guggenheim’s retrospective of the work of László Moholy-Nagy (pronounced “nadge,” not “nadgy,” a lesson hard learned). Born to a Jewish family in Hungary in 1895, he assimilated all the advances and visual novelties of the early part of the twentieth century, from Russia and Paris alike, and turned them into an adaptable graphic manner that made him one of the indispensable teachers at the Bauhaus, in Dessau, Germany, in the nineteen-twenties, under Walter Gropius. When Hitler came to power, this citizen of cosmopolitanism then emigrated—heading first to Britain, where he made wonderful posters for the London Underground, and eventually and happily to Chicago, where he became one of the key figures in implementing the lessons of modern design that made Chicago a city of such architectural excitement in the mid-century. (Though how much pain and anxiety and sheer disrupted existence are covered over in the words “then emigrated”!)

Two thoughts, not strictly political but social, come to mind as one exits the museum: First, that the Weimar Republic gets a very bad rap for how it ended and insufficient credit for how much creative ferment and intelligent thought it contained. The notion that it was above all, or unusually, decadent was a creation of its enemies, who defined the creative energies of cosmopolitanism in that way. All republics are fragile; the German one, like the Third French Republic it paralleled, did not commit suicide—it was killed, by many murderers, not least by those who thought they could contain an authoritarian thirsting for power. And, second, that the United States has been the ultimate home of so many cosmopolitan citizens rejected by Europe. People expelled by hate from Europe wanted desperately to get to the American Midwest, to cities like Chicago—and, no doubt, to Cleveland, where the Republican Party holds its Convention next week. Cosmopolitanism is not a tribal trait; it is a virtue, as much as courage or honesty or compassion. Almost without exception, the periods of human civilization that we admire as we look back have been cosmopolitan in practice; even those, like the Bronze Age, that we imagine as monolithic and traditional turn out to be shaped by trade and exchange and multiple identity.

We walk out of the beautiful museum and find ourselves back in a uniquely frightening moment in American life. A candidate for President who is the announced enemy of the openness that America has traditionally stood for and that drew persecuted émigrés like Moholy-Nagy to America as to a golden land, a candidate who embraces the mottos and rhetoric of the pro-fascist groups of that same wretched time, has taken over one of our most venerable political parties, and he seems still in the ascendancy. His language remains not merely sloppy or incendiary but openly hostile to the simplest standards of truth and decency that have governed American politics. Most recently, just this week, he has repeated the lie that there has been a call for “a moment of silence” in honor of the murderer of five policemen in Dallas.

This ought to be, as people said quaintly just four or five months ago, “disqualifying.” Nonetheless, his takeover of the Republican Party is complete, and, in various postures of spinelessness, its authorities accede to his authority, or else opportunistically posture for a place in the wake of it. Many of them doubtless assume that he will lose and are hoping for a better position afterward—still, the very small show of backbone that would be required to resist his takeover seems unavailable. Even those who clearly fear and despise him, like the Bush family, seem able to register their opposition only in veiled language and cautiously equivocal formulations; Jeb Bush knows what Trump is, but still feels obliged to say that he would “feel sad” if Trump lost.

What is genuinely alarming is the urge, however human it may be, to normalize the abnormal by turning toward emotions and attitudes that are familiar. To their great credit, the editors of most of the leading conservative publications in America have recognized Trump for what he is, and have opposed his rise to power. Yet the habit of hatred is so ingrained in their psyches that even those who recognize at some level that Trump is a horror, when given the dangling bait of another chance to hate Hillary still leap at it, insisting on her “criminality” at the very moment when it’s officially rejected, and attempting to equate this normal politician with an abnormal threat to political life itself. They do this, in part, to placate their readership. In the so-called mainstream (call it liberal) media, meanwhile, the election is treated with blithe inconsequence, as another occasion for strategy-weighing. The Times, to take one example, ran a front-page analysis criticizing Trump for being insufficiently able to exploit a political opening given by the investigation into Clinton’s e-mail, with the complaint seeming to be that Trump just isn’t clever enough to give us a good fight—to be the fun opponent we want. If only he had some more skill at this! While the habits of hatred get the better of the right, the habits of self-approval through the fiction of being above it all contaminate the center.

A certain number of the disengaged insist that Trump isn’t really as bad as all that. And there may indeed be another universe in which Donald Trump is one more blowhard billionaire with mixed-up politics but a basically benevolent heart, a Ross Perot type, or perhaps more like Arnold Schwarzenegger, preaching some confused combination of populism and self-help and doomed to flounder when he comes to power. This would not be the worst thing imaginable. Unfortunately, that universe is not this one. Trump is unstable, a liar, narcissistic, contemptuous of the basic norms of political life, and deeply embedded among the most paranoid and irrational of conspiracy theorists. There may indeed be a pathos to his followers’ dreams of some populist rescue for their plights. But he did not come to political attention as a “populist”; he came to politics as a racist, a proponent of birtherism.

As I have written before, to call him a fascist of some variety is simply to use a historical label that fits. The arguments about whether he meets every point in some static fascism matrix show a misunderstanding of what that ideology involves. It is the essence of fascism to have no single fixed form—an attenuated form of nationalism in its basic nature, it naturally takes on the colors and practices of each nation it infects. In Italy, it is bombastic and neoclassical in form; in Spain, Catholic and religious; in Germany, violent and romantic. It took forms still crazier and more feverishly sinister, if one can imagine, in Romania, whereas under Oswald Mosley, in England, its manner was predictably paternalistic and aristocratic. It is no surprise that the American face of fascism would take on the forms of celebrity television and the casino greeter’s come-on, since that is as much our symbolic scene as nostalgic re-creations of Roman splendors once were Italy’s.

What all forms of fascism have in common is the glorification of the nation, and the exaggeration of its humiliations, with violence promised to its enemies, at home and abroad; the worship of power wherever it appears and whoever holds it; contempt for the rule of law and for reason; unashamed employment of repeated lies as a rhetorical strategy; and a promise of vengeance for those who feel themselves disempowered by history. It promises to turn back time and take no prisoners. That it can appeal to those who do not understand its consequences is doubtless true. But the first job of those who do understand is to state what those consequences invariably are. Those who think that the underlying institutions of American government are immunized against it fail to understand history. In every historical situation where a leader of Trump’s kind comes to power, normal safeguards collapse. Ours are older and therefore stronger? Watching the rapid collapse of the Republican Party is not an encouraging rehearsal. Donald Trump has a chance to seize power.

Hillary Clinton is an ordinary liberal politician. She has her faults, easily described, often documented—though, for the most part, the worst accusations against her have turned out to be fiction. No reasonable person, no matter how opposed to her politics, can believe for a second that Clinton’s accession to power would be a threat to the Constitution or the continuation of American democracy. No reasonable person can believe that Trump’s accession to power would not be. And, this time, would there be a second America, a new Chicago, waiting to receive the once-cosmopolitan citizens ejected by the triumph of this warped will?

Source:

Adam Gopnik, a staff writer, has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1986.

Dungeon World Monster: Weaver in the Darkness

Weaver in the Darkness	Solitary, Small, Magical, Stealthy, Planar, Amorphous
Consume life (d12 damage)	15 HP	0
Close, Near
Special Qualities: Amorphous, Undead, Harmed only by magic or magic weapons

"A coldly shining, hueless globe, round as a puffball and large as a human head, had risen from the fissure and was hovering above it like a mimic moon. The thing oscillated with a slight but ceaseless vibratory motion. From it, as if caused by this vibration, the heavy humming poured, and the light fell in ever-trembling waves.It seemed that the light and sound were woven upon the senses... like some Lethean spell." -Clark Ashton Smith 

Custom Move: When you first gaze upon the Weaver, ROLL+INT.
On a 10+, you ignore its enthralling enchantment!
On a 7-9,: You take -1 ongoing while distracted by its siren lights and song.
On a 6-, you're transformed into a living immobile statue as long as the Weaver is present.) 

Instinct: Drain Life

• Enthrall Victims
• Charm bystanders
• Weaves illusions
• Consume corpses
• Haunts tombs and crypts
• Based on Clark Ashton Smith's "Weaver in the Vault" (http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/241/the-weaver-in-the-vault)

Assassin of Justice

Assassin of Justice (Dungeon World Compendium Class) 1.0b

If you vow revenge against a powerful evildoer you may take the following move when you next level up:

You are an Assassin of Justice. Once an evildoer has blooded your blade you may choose to track that villain forever. The creature's hateful blood calls out to you in your dreams; and shades of the creatures murdered victims point the way at night. In the day footprints only you can see shadow your vision. You can only have one such target at a given time.

Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up:

Assassin of Evil: You gain the ability to inflict double damage when attacking your “target”.

Immune Mind: You are immune to magic directed at your mind. You will still have problems with illusionary spells cast before your arrival.

Poison Immune: You are immune to ingested poisons. You may choose not to become intoxicated by alcohol.

World-walker: You gain the ability to pursue your “target” with your party to any alternate dimension or plane they may flee and also return from this place to your world of origin.

Orc Slayer (Dungeon World Compendium Class)

Orc Slayer (Dungeon World Compendium Class) 1.0b If you survive an encounter with a lethal band of orcs and vow revenge you may take the following move when you next level up: You are an Orc Slayer. Once an orc has blooded your blade you may track that creature forever.The creature's hateful blood calls out to you in your dreams; and shades of the creatures murdered victims point the way at night. In the day footprints only you can see shadow your vision. You can only have one such target at a given time. Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up: Orc Assassin: You deal double damage to orcs. Foul Disguise: You may disguise yourself as an orc roughly your size. Backstab: You may backstab as if you were a Thief. Cavern Sight: You have Infravision.

The Hanging Tree for Dungeon World

 

The Hanging Tree for Dungeon World

If a player(s) approaches the "hanging tree" at midnight roll +Wisdom;

On a 10+;
The voice of a dead loved one(s) calls down and blesses the character(s). All the adventurer(s) hit points are restored, curses lifted, illnesses cured, etc.

On a roll of 7-9:
The voice of a murdered victim calls out warning the party or player of danger. The player(s) may ask the ghost three questions; which the Keeper must answer.

On a 6 or less:
The ghost of a murderer laughs and tells the player(s) "I'll be seeing you real soon..."

The haunted tree will never speak to a adventurer more than once.

Ghost Killer (Dungeon World Compendium Class) Revised

Ghost Killer (Dungeon World Compendium Class) 1.0c

Special Thanks to Eric Lochstampfor! 

If you survive an encounter with a powerful form of incorporeal undead you may take the following move when you next level up:

You are a Ghost Killer. You may attack incorporeal creatures as if they had a solid form. You also gain the ability to cast all the clerical rotes.

Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up:

Mind Immunity: You are immune to any undead mental “special attacks” or abilities such as paralysis, mind control, vampiric charm or possession.

Scholar of Unlife: You may turn undead as if you were a cleric.

Ghost Slayer: All attacks against incorporeal undead (ghosts,wraiths, etc.) do double damage.

Graveyard Sight: You can detect invisible creatures and have Infravision.

Ghost Killer

Ghost Killer (Dungeon World Compendium Class) 1.0b

If you survive an encounter with a powerful form of incorporeal undead you may take the following move when you next level up: 

You are a Ghost Killer. You may attack incorporeal creatures as if they had a solid form. You also gain the ability to cast all the clerical rotes.

Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up:

Undeath Immunity: You are immune to any “special attacks” or abilities beyond physical simple harm that an undead creature may cause. You can never be changed into or arise after death as such a creature.

Scholar of Unlife: You may turn undead as if you were a cleric.

Ghost Slayer: All attacks against incorporeal undead do double damage.

Graveyard Sight: You can detect invisible creatures and have Infravision.

Dungeon World: Corpse Robber Compendium Class

Corpse Robber 1.0b

If you inducted into the secret and ancient order of the Corpse Robbers' Guild and anointed  with the oil from a burning Hand of Glory: 

You are a Corpse Robber. Your anointed eyes can see spirits of the dead, even when they would otherwise go invisible; when you ask the GM "What spirits of the dead or undead are present here?"  and you'll always get an honest answer

Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up: 

Cloak of Gravedust You may assume the form of a zombie or other low level corporeal undead creature. In this form any "Gravedigger's Mark" is concealed and the undead will not generally attack. You may not use this move in daylight.

Treasure Seeker: You can cause tombs, crypts, graves or other burial sites with valuable treasure to light with St. Elmo's fire.You may not use this move in daylight.

Zombie Servant: You may animate a single Zombie Servant  to help you in your work.You may not use this move in daylight. It will fall to rotting pieces at sunrise.

Zombie Servant  (Construct, Terrifying)

Punch and gnaw (d4 damage) 6 HP

Close

Special Qualities: Undead, Smells of Decay

A common or garden corpse reanimated with basic necromancy. Braindead servitor with little to offer in combat except its refusal to die. 

Instinct: To serve its creator

Gravedigger’s Mark: Intelligent Undead will speak with you respectfully with fear and may offer information or aid in exchange for being left in peace at the GM’s discretion. The “mark” usually takes the form of a glyph or symbol on your forehead visible only to the undead.

New Dungeon World Magic Items

New Dungeon World Magic Items
Revised as per Tavern patrons input 1.1

Icon of Life: ( All classes but Cleric): You may turn undead as if you were a cleric. (1 Weight)

Blessed Salt: (Three Uses, Cleric & Paladin Only): You may create a magical circle inscribed with salt that the undead will be unable to enter.

Astral Oil ;(5 Uses, lasts until party next makes camp)when coated on weapons You may attack incorporeal creatures as if they had a solid form.

Blessed Oil: (5 Uses, lasts until party next makes camp)All attacks against corporeal undead do double damage.

Potion of the Tomb Wariness: When worn you’re never caught by surprise in ruins, dungeons, tombs, crypts or catacombs. When an enemy or trap would get the drop on you, you get to act first. The potion is active until you next make camp.

Potion of True Vision: When drunk you gain the ability to automatically detect secret doors, see invisible creatures and detect shapeshifters and Illusions until you next make camp.

Ring of True Life: You are immune to any “special attacks” or abilities beyond physical simple harm that an undead creature may cause. You can never be changed into or arise after death as such a creature.

Amulet of Hecate: If you take your last breath and either miss or refuse Death’s bargain, you can still come back to life; but may only use this once and after which the amulet vanishes.

The Hanging Tree

The Hanging Tree 1.1 If a hunter (s) approaches the "hanging tree" at midnight roll +Weird; On a 10+; The voice of a dead loved one(s) calls down and blesses the character(s). All the hunter(s) have 1 luck point restored. On a roll of 7-9: The voice of a murdered victim calls out warning the party or hunter of danger. The hunter(s) may ask the ghost three questions; which the Keeper must answer. On a 6 or less: The ghost of a murderer laughs and tells the player(s) "I'll be seeing you real soon..." The haunted tree will never speak to a hunter more than once.

Tomb Raider Compendium Class

Tomb Raider Compendium Class 1.0e

Revised...

If you survive an expedition to raid a tomb of great lethality and historic importance you may take the following move when you next level up:

You are a Tomb Raider. When you spout lore or discern realities about ancient tombs, take +1.

Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up:

Scholar of Unlife: You may turn undead as if you were a cleric.

Tomb Vision: You gain the ability to automatically detect secret doors, see invisible creatures and detect shapeshifters and Illusions in tombs, crypts or catacombs.

Tomb Wary: You’re never caught by surprise in ruins, dungeons, tombs, crypts or catacombs. When an enemy or trap would get the drop on you, you get to act first instead.

Dice with Death: If you take your last breath and either miss or refuse Death’s bargain, you can still come back to life; but may only use this ability once.

Geek Wisdom

Dungeon World Compendium Class: Scholar of Undeath

Scholar of Undeath 1.1 (Open to all classes except clerics)

(Feedback from Chris Stone-Bush appreciated!)

If you somehow “turn” an undead monster without being a cleric you may take the following move when you next level up:

Scholar of Undeath: You may turn undead as if you were a cleric. A holy symbol is not required.

Once you've taken the moves above the following moves count as class moves for you. In addition to your normal list of moves you may choose from this list when you level up:

Circle of Protection: You may create a magical circle inscribed with salt that the undead will be unable to enter.

Weapons of Faith: You may attack incorporeal creatures as if they had a solid form. You also gain the ability to cast all the clerical rotes.

Undead Slayer: All attacks against corporeal undead do double damage.

Mind Immunity: You are immune to any undead mental “special attacks” or abilities such as paralysis, mind control, vampiric charm or possession.

Dungeon World Starter: The Lichway

Welcome to the Lichway...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cav44145d9blpoTnBoOW9jd00/view?usp=sharing

Dungeon World Magical Items

A couple of items adapted from Paul Kemp's Egil and Nix novels:

The Illuminating Eye (1 weight)

A crystal sphere that contains a mystical eye. When commanded to open by its owner the sphere acts like a Light spell the illumination but also reveals secret doors, traps, invisible creatures or objects and illusions.

The Devouring Key (0 weight)

This key will open any lock or door (magic or not) if the key's owner rolls 10+. A 7-9 and the key requires a food ration to open the door. On a fail the key will demand an expensive and rare fruit or vegetable to open the lock. If the owner agrees the key will open the lock but will not function again until it receives the promised gourmet item.