Monday, July 4, 2016

Servants of the Cinder Queen for Dungeon World - via Belgium

Okay, so I jumped in to back a project by this crazy guy in Belgium called Bastien 'Acritarche' Wauthoz to do an edited and translated version of Servants of the Cinder Queen (La Serviteurs de la Reine des Cendres).  I saw this as an opportunity to 1) get an interesting-sounding adventure to show me a bit more about how Dungeon World is supposed to work, 2) practice my Belgian (which I was pleasantly surprised to find is remarkably similar to French), and 3) support some indie type gaming efforts out there.

My Phat Lootz
The project was funded through Ulule, which is just like Kickstarter.  For 25 Euros I got the adventure and an extra "forward" with some nice little additions and play aids tailored to the adventure.  The project funded quickly and I got my loot in a very reasonable amount of time.  One is always a bit nervous tossing money into one of these projects but Bastien came through for us like a champion.  He provided very good updates as things went along to keep us informed and excited.

The book is 24 pages plus the cover.  The art by Keny Widjaja is great.  It has a cartoony feel which I think goes well with the general vibe of Dungeon World and gives the story a unique feel.  The couple of maps are hand-drawn style which I have come to appreciate and enjoy.

The adventure is the classic "villagers are disappearing, find the bad guys are behind it, explore their lair, save the world" type, but in a very compact, clean package.  There are only a couple maps and a diagram to link the locations together, the rest being Theatre of the Mind.  There are only a few "monsters" so you don't get lost in pages of stats, and the two big baddies are explained in just enough detail.

After reading through this I now have a much better idea of what a Dungeon World adventure should look and feel like.  And, more importantly, I think this style of game works well with my actual DMing style.  I'll see if I can convince some of my players to try it out some time.

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